Gothic Fiction depicted in The Black Cat (1934)

I have read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein many, many times at this point. I first read the novel when I was in the 7th grade in my advanced literacy class, where I was most impressed by the word "paroxysm" (I continue to use the word to this day). I then read it again in my senior year of high school in my AP English class, where I thought to myself "I wonder if I'll read this book again." Lo and behold, I did read it again! Although this time was probably my favorite reading of it, because I instead explored the structure of the book as a piece of Gothic Fiction, and elements from it that I thought were really reflective of the genre.

For this entry, I decided to take my understanding of a few key points in gothic fiction from my readings and relate it to another classic gothic piece, the 1934 film "The Black Cat" starring Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, as well as contrast those elements to Frankenstein. The film, produced by Universal pictures and one of the biggest box office hits of that year, was part of the boom in horror film "talkie" pictures following the release of "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" in 1931.

1. The Sublime Setting
1. One major theme in gothic fiction is the idea of relevance in the context of the world, or the sublime setting. In Frankenstein, there are many grotesque horror elements combined with scientific findings that combine the emerging technology in the world with these 
2. This can also be seen in "The Black Cat", where Karloff's character Hjalmar Poelzig's very modern home is built on the ruins of the fort he commanded during the war, and surrounded by very old traditionally gothic elements.
2. Mortality/Death
1. There is a fascination in gothic literature about the preservation of mortality and the death that follows it, which is often displayed in grotesque ways.
2. Frankenstein examines this idea with Victor trying to keep his professor's mind immortalized by bringing his creature to life, hoping to find a way to take parts of people who were once deceased and bring them back for longer preservation. The results take a turn of the hideous, but the idea is nonetheless successful.
3. This ideal of preserving the beauty of things that were once living can also be seen in Poelzig's hidden dungeon: After being revealed as an antagonist through the film, we see Lugosi's character Dr. Vitus Werdegast finding his deceased wife as one of the beautiful women on display in the glass cases Poelzig has.
3. Descent into Madness
1.