Literacy Analysis: The Judge's House

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Literacy Analysis: The Judge’s House The author of Judge’s House, Bram Stoker, has many horror stories along with this one. Dracula being one of them, this story is known by many and contains elements that feed into many of our fears that make us want to use a night light. What happened in his life could be a reason as to why he writes these horror stories. Being bedridden up until he was seven, kept Stoker from being able to enjoy most of his childhood. Stoker’s mother used to tell him stories about many gruesome events such as the cholera outbreak. Many think this is what molded his mind to horror. This essay will bring together all the elements of this horror story; setting, suspense, mood, and uncanny. Bram Stoker sets the setting of horror when he brings Malcolm Malcolmson into this town of Ben Church seeking out peace and quiet. Malcolm decides to stay in this abandoned old house that no one has lived in for years. He then goes to …show more content…

In The Judge’s House, there are lots of examples of the uncanny. Uncanniness is when something happens that readers would not expect to happen in the real world. Towards the end of the story, Malcomson notices that the portrait of the Judge has the giant rat’s eyes. This is uncanny because portraits display how a person looks, but this seems to relate the Judge to be an animal of sorts, or at least relate the judge and the rat to be a similar character. Right after this, the judge came out of the painting as well. This seems almost impossible because an inanimate object becomes life-like. To conclude, the elements of horror in the story the Judge’s House are very well written and relatively easy to point out in the text. The four elements focused in the text are setting, suspense, mood, and uncanniness. These draw the story together and bring out the true horror that feed on our fears. Bram Stoker masterfully pulls out the elements in the story and give us a good suspenseful

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