Victorian Gothic Literature: Scientific Thought versus Medieval ThoughtCreatures of the night have always held fascination and horror for people of all cultures. The English fascination with sensational and Gothic literature reached its peak, after easing slightly after the Romantic period, in the late Victorian period with works such as Dracula, The Curious Adventures of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray. . The literate population eagerly devoured this type of literature. While most publishers were content to mass-produce serial horror stories, such as Varney the Vampire, many serious writers used the genre as a way to force their audiences to think about their beliefs. Serious Victorian Gothic literature plays on the fears and emotions of the time, a time that was particularly frightening since their beliefs had been torn away, largely by pitting modern science against medieval superstitions and beliefs. The Victorian era was similar to ours. in the sense that it was a time when people weren't really sure what was true or what they believed. As this prayer, said to originate from the Victorians, shows, "'O God - if there be a God - save my soul - if I have a soul'" (Houghton 22). New theories about the age of the earth demonstrated that something was wrong with the Bible, since the earth appeared to be older than the biblical account led us to believe. Darwin went further and showed that man had not been created but had evolved by natural selection. A generation was growing up in a culture whose beliefs had been ripped out from under their feet. The main difference between the Victorian feeling of doubt and our post-modern doubt is "the faith in the existence of you... middle of paper... completely destroyed by his experiments in alchemical science." Victorian Gothic literature plays on Victorian doubt about one's beliefs, particularly regarding science and what is widely considered medieval superstition. By playing on these fears, authors are able to create horrifying stories on many levels. the action that takes place in the book is enough to give readers goosebumps. However, authors go further and use their audience's natural fears and doubts to create a sensational story on every level. Works Cited Davenport-Hines, Richard Gothic. : Four hundred years of excess, horror, evil and ruin. North Point Press: New York, 1998. Houghton, Walter E. The Victorian Mind: New Haven, Conn, 1957. Stoker, Bram. Penguin Group: New York, 1992.