The setting in any piece of literature is essential. It provides a sense of security; context to the story and impacts the characterisation. This element is vital in Gothic fiction –it is where danger begins – isolates the protagonists. And as a genre which relies heavily on tropes, throughout literary history, one of the most frequent settings is the bedroom.

The bedroom is supposed to an area of safety and privacy; however, for years writers have completely violated this representation of dependability – making it a place which characters and readers both fear. Here are a few of the most famous examples of the gothic bedroom:

1. Lucy Westenra – Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1897)

In Dracula, Lucy’s vulnerability is accentuated when she is asleep. Count Dracula breaks in through the window, showing a violation of her property’s security and privacy. As well, the associations of sleep, also show how Dracula preys upon those who are weak and unconscious – in contrast to his supernatural and alert abilities at nightfall. The male protagonists of the book attempt to watch over her at night, and she becomes confined to her bedroom – triggering a conscious and unconscious entrapment. This is the place where she ends up withering away, rather than rejuvenating like people often do with sleep.

2. ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ – By Edgar Allan Poe (1843)

‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe, is another example of intrusion, generating fear for the audience. The narrator repeatedly enters his target’s house – calculating subsequent moves, the room plan and the best way to murder his victim. I think the multiple occasions he violates his victim’s security, shows the wicked and almost psychopathic nature of the narrator and it’s very uncomfortable for a reader. He describes standing over the bed, whilst his victim was asleep. This high-adrenaline danger heavily contrasts with the unconscious and helpless state of the man. Importantly, as this short story begins to conclude, the whole violation and cutting up of the victim’s body happens in the bedroom and he hides the mutilated body under the floorboards. The narrator has turned a place of tranquility and rest into a slaughter ground of concealment and death.

3. Elizabeth Lavenza – Frankenstein (1818)

Finally, despite also being a part of the science-fiction genre, Frankenstein is well known for using Gothic tropes. Mary Shelley repeats the setting of the bedroom: firstly, when Victor Frankenstein retires to his bed after making his creature, and secondly, the death of Elizabeth Lavenza on her and Victor’s wedding night.

Elizabeth is targeted for her innocence and inexperience, and for a room where there is supposed to be a celebration of sexual liberation on the night of their wedding – it ends the marriage before it has really begun. Elizabeth is also left alone (despite the monster’s warning to Victor) and the image of women, in particular, in an isolated and mysterious room is seen constantly throughout Gothic fiction.

All of these bedrooms are emphasised by the surrounding nature and darkness. The darkness provokes fear and caution for the reader, and the lack of an industrialised lighting system, during the eras the novels are set add to obscurity to these stories. Nature also mirrors the wild and erratic actions which could happen in these bedrooms. This setting is perfect for uncertainty, matching to the horrific actions that take place in Gothic fiction.