The graveyard comes alive at night and much of Bod's life is spent in the darkness or moonlight. In ancient Egypt, a prophet foretold of a child who would 'walk the borderland between the living and the dead.if this child grew to adulthood it would mean the end of and all stand for.' The Jacks of all Trades set out to kill Bod and his family due to a prophecy. The Graveyard Book contains all sorts of supernatural beings, including ghosts, ghouls, the Jacks of all trades, and the unique members of the Honor Guard. The existence of the mysterious Jack and his mission to kill Bod keep the reader in suspense throughout the book.

A shadowy, ghost-filled cemetery is the quintessential Gothic setting.įor much of the book, the identity behind the Dorians' killer remains unknown. The action takes place in and around an old castle, sometimes seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied. The inhabitants of the graveyard walk around in the decaying clothing they were buried in and make use of artifacts left in their tombs. The first work to call itself Gothic was Horace Walpole 's 1764 novel The Castle of.

The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels. It doesn't get much gloomier than a graveyard! Bod grows up among gravestones, coffins, and old bones. Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The Graveyard Book Gothic Elements Gloomy, Decaying Setting In an extended sense, many novels that do not have a medievalized setting, but which share a comparably sinister, grotesque, or claustrophobic atmosphere, have been classed as Gothic: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) is a well-known example and there are several important American tales and novels with strong Gothic elements in this sense.

Subterranean passages, hidden rooms, or trapdoors.

Beneath each depiction, students should provide a brief description of the element’s connection to the novel. The atmosphere of a Gothic novel was expected to be dark. Students can make reference to the list below to choose and depict 3-5 Gothic characteristics present in the novel. Gothic (the spelling Gothick better conveys the contemporary flavour) was a designation derived from architecture, and it carriedin opposition to the Italianate style of neoclassical building more appropriate to the Augustan Ageconnotations of rough and primitive grandeur. Have students use storyboards to identify the Gothic elements in the book. The Graveyard Book’s setting, characters, and tone borrow from the conventions of Gothic literature.

Gothic literature characteristics