YOUR MUSE’S LOVE TROPES -- GOTHIC LITERATURE.

CARMILLA.          giant featherbeds.   tightening a corset.   moonlit walks.  killing for love.  cruelty for the sake of love.  love is always selfish.  romantic tragedy.   love to the brink of destruction.  nighttime rendezvous.  bloody kisses on soft skin.  death was the maiden.   a very strange agony. claimed by the supernatural. dreaming about your lover. sympathy for the devil. loving me to death.  candlesticks lighting up the palm of your hand.  a passion that wearies you.  killing the one you love.

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.        a single red rose laid out to be found.   sensual voices singing them to sleep.   a familiar shadow attending every recital. love waits on the rooftop in the night. two soulmates holding hands.   walking down long corridors.   retrieving something lost.  devoting one’s craft to them.   making them your muse.  the horror was for love.   painted faces on parade.   gentle touches in the dark.  revealing your darkest secrets. beauty and the beast.   writing messages on the mirror.  kindness conquers all.   letting your lover go.  love never dies.

JANE EYRE.        loving the escape.  an impassioned affair.   being consumed by love.   meeting your soulmate.   lace and silk.   thirsting for the perfect romance.   marrying for passion.   losing yourself in the face of your lover.  wedding veils and bouquets of pink roses.   maddened by love.  finding warmth in the cold.   calling out for your love.  starting at the bottom.  the fire cleanses all.  hiding your passion.  your love will destroy me / my love will destroy you.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.          painting a portrait or sketching the face of someone you love. meeting in secret. visions of your lover dying. clutching a lover’s clothes to your chest.  love so consuming you kill them. protecting their innocence at all costs.  betrayal. polyamory.  devotion.  flowers for the one you love.   remembering the name of your first love. jealousy when you see them with someone else.   love so consuming you die for it.   visiting the place where you saw them the first time.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.        letters to your lover. marrying for love. these bars can’t keep me from you.  motivated by love.   an avenging angel.  scorching jealousy.   love reborn. devoted to memory.  it was all for you.  going your separate ways.   commit murder for me.   an unstoppable hunger.   death comes for us all.   the strongest love eventually grows apart.

DRACULA.         the holiest love.   girls love wolves.   the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.  violence is passion.  red lips, sharp teeth. love letters in a diary. unrelenting support.   getting lost in the woods.  coming home to you.   walking backwards into hell.  vengeance for my love.  even death won’t stop me.   we can live forever.  love is an open wound.  too much love to give.   bestowing your favor.  a never-ending thirst.  beauty even in death.  ravenous desire.  if only death had a heart to give.  a mercy killing.   these violent delights have violent ends.

FRANKENSTEIN.          childhood friends to lovers.  they were something out of a dream.  arranged marriages.  learning to love.  was it all really worth it?  our guilt can know no bounds.   vengeance, my love.   dismembered body parts.   my beating heart in your open palm.   your death destroys me.  adam and eve.   crossing the mountains.   an antagonist in mourning.  paradise lost.  the loss of innocence.  abandoning your dream.   the tempest on the horizon.   humans are the real monsters.  my love is wiser than my hate.