Thank you! And remember, supernatural horror is only one of the modes of the Gothic. It can also be dark romance, crime drama, science fiction, medieval fantasy, and outright comedy. Many of the early Gothic novels include comedic situations and characters, for example. Some have poems interspersed in the text – essentially the literary equivalent of including song and dance numbers! So, inspirations for Gothic characters can come from anywhere.

Very well said!

Hm. Mixing our combined perspectives perhaps means that Mina is a good example for avoiding some of the usual stereotypes that attend different character types – not that stereotypes are out of keeping, but we don’t want them *all* the time. 🙂

As a Demon Hunter, she shows that Demon Hunters don’t have to be hardened. Her insistence that they should approach hunting Dracula in the same spirit as hunting Lucy, as essentially a rescue mission for his trapped soul. The way she inspires Renfield to turn against Dracula with her compassion.

As a True Innocent, she puts the lie to the idea that Gothic-style victimisation and weakness/passivity must go hand-in-hand.

As an Everywoman, she offers a model for how modernity and the Gothic can play into each other.

I think it all depends on what aspect of her you want to emphasize. Depicting her as a True Innocent emphasizes her connection to other victimized Gothic heroines. Everywoman emphasizes her education and status as a working woman. And it seems reasonable to me that she might become a Demon Hunter (perhaps working with Jonathan). After all, the ending does mention the Harkers going back to Transylvania!

I take your point too.

I can see your point. I agree that if someone wanted to actually play Mina Harker as their character (perhaps in a Saga set after the events of Dracula) she could be Classed as an Everywoman (perhaps multi-classing into Demon Hunter to take her revenge). On the other hand, a Player can definitely use Mina as a Character Inspiration for their True Innocent PC. After all, Mina does show herself to be an “Inspiration of the Virtuous”, and to suffer from “The Misfortunes of Virtue”!

“Dracula” is in many ways a kind of “greatest hits” of the Gothic. Its got pretty much every trope from the hundred years of Gothic stories that precede it. It’s even written in the epistolary format popular in the 18th century. But of course, Gothic stories are famous for referencing each other. For example, in “Frankenstein” Mary Shelly alludes both to de Sade’s “Justine” and her father William Godwin’s “Caleb Williams”.

I’ve definitely noticed that what I read influences what I write. After reading a lot of 18th century writing, I have to consciously avoid writing in long run-on sentences with seemingly random capitalization and odd punctuation!

Though having said that, should anyone be so foolhardy as to disregard your rule prohibiting True Innocents from multiclassing, then I grant Mrs Harker may prove an instructive model.

(Maybe I should comment here *before* catching up on Victoria Silverwolf’s AP).