Bloodborne - The Gothic Horror Influence

Minor Spoiler Warning: I'll be talking a little bit about some of the events of Bloodborne even though I won't be addressing most of the story or 'twists' directly.

     Bloodborne is a horror game. To clarify, I do not claim it is a 'survival horror' in the classic sense of a horror game – but it draws upon the very core of what horror is[1]. Now, the fact that Bloodborne is heavily involved with Lovecraftian style lore is something that is particularly commonly known and discussed at this stage. So, I would like, here, to have a closer look at some of the other horror influences of Bloodborne – the 'Gothic fiction'.

The Popularity of Victorian Horror

     Victorian Gothic horror is something that has had repeated surges of popularity ever since they first arrived with tales such as Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' (1764); continuing with stories such as Frankenstien (1818), by Mary Shelly; The Tell-Tale Heart (1843), by Edgar Allen Poe; and Dracula (1897), by Bram Stoker. The main part of the popularity of this kind of fiction appeared during the Victorian era, and thus the Gothic and Victorian styles became synonymous.[2]

     As a testament to the popularity of this style of story in Victorian London, it wasn't just the wealthier folk who were able to enjoy the high literature of Gothic horror. The 'Penny Dreadful' serials (1830 – 1890) were cheap and often unimpressive stories that could be bought in instalments as quick as they were churned out. Some Penny Dreadfuls proved significantly more popular than others, introducing us to stories such as 'Sweeney Todd' (Originally 'String of Pearls') – but the style remained and many of them were copied stories of previous Gothic horror tales, or a stylised retelling of old folklore stories such as Witches, Highwaymen, Werewolves, and Hunters. This Victorian approach to Gothic horror is the core aesthetic of Bloodborne's characters and the setting of Yarnham, as is the basis for which it was inspired. From top-hats and cloaks to canes that become serrated whips to a medieval fear of witches – Penny Dreadfuls and Gothic fiction has them all.

     Let us have a look at some particular examples of Gothic fiction in Bloodborne.[3][4]

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

     Experimentation, for education purposes or otherwise, plays a common role in Bloodborne owing largely to diseases that need to be cured and some folk's beliefs that they can become improved beings by infusing some part of themselves with other beings. These 'experiments' often incur some kind of transmogrification, often into some kind of beastly or violent form. A popular tale this rings true to is that of 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. In this story there is a Doctor who wished to hide some of his darker indulgences so found a way to transform himself in a way that would hide his identity when doing so. However, the alter-ego was dangerous and uncaring and eventually could not be controlled, causing murder and destruction in his wake.

Frankenstein

     Similarly: quite a heavy fear for people during the Victorian era was the weirdness of medical practices and that, with speedy advances in medicine, they may have gone 'too far'. Bloodborne also uses similar themes such as the main character getting a blood-transfusions from the man in Yharnam as a way of opening the story. Specifically, getting a blood transfusion extends the player's lifespan until they can find an actual cure to their disease, as well as many of the other medical experiments being toward the goal of things such as immortality and thereby 'playing with life and death'. Frankenstien by Mary Shelley has themes of worries about scientific advances at the time, such as 'galvanisation', which was a feared practice within the Victorian era that people thought could re-vitalise the dead thereby 'playing with life and death'.

     Another link to Frankenstein is that the game starts with a man muttering that what you will experience will seem like a “bad dream” to frame the entire story. The main hub in the game that we return to often is 'The Hunter's Dream' and, at many parts throughout the game, the character dips in and out of other people's dreams. Each dream frames its own little parts of the story, making the whole narrative both unreliable, uncertain to have actually happened, and somewhat confusing. In Frankenstein, the tale happens as a series of letters as a prelude to someone telling the story which is a frame of a story which at some point is further framed by another layer of story – leaving the whole narrative just as unreliable, uncertain and confusing.

Dracula

     Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, used a series of letters and second-hand accounts to make up the story of the people surrounding the vampire in his castle. This adds to the speculative aspect of the story in having to figure out a lot of what is happening otherwise than what is seen, as one does in Bloodborne. Dracula, being written and set heavily into the Victorian period suggests a lot of the imagery for the characters, also. While clothes are not specifically mentioned much in the book, it is not beyond reason to suggest, owing to the time period, there would have been, depending on character social status: canes, top hats, suits with long tailcoats, capes and cloaks, and other such garbs that can be seen in Bloodborne.

     The main link between Bloodborne and Dracula, however, is the social factor. Toward the start of the game the player is contracted to participate in a night of the hunt, where people go out and kill any monsters or diseased folk. One thing to note about this situation is the status of the people involved. Most of the hunters outside are poor to middle classed men, and we sometimes have the option to talk to the people secure inside their houses. Of which, those are the safe folks who have the social status to not participate and not only that, they have the gall to mock you rather than offer shelter. Meanwhile we later find the higher-ups and important folk, such as leaders of the healing church, are not only safe and remote from the hunt but are also corrupt in their own ways. This kind of thing is a running theme throughout Dracula, where much of the power of Dracula is in his social status and stands as commentary on the social power people have.

     The 'good guys', then, are not anyone of status. They are simply workers who desire not to die by the hand of the corrupt. Whether this is a direct link or something that happens to be a common suggestion or theme owing to the style and setting of both Bloodborne and Dracula is to be seen – though it is certainly something to consider and gives a bit of an understanding as to why people consider the first half of the game to be something 'straight out of a Bram Stoker novel'.

To Be Continued...

     As the risk of repeating myself, I would like to clarify further that I do not think these links are strong or directly influential to the game. My goal is to merely give insight to the kinds of themes that are prevalent in the Victorian and Gothic horror setting which Bloodborne in some kind of way either falls prey to or pays homage to; I personally think that is something to be respected. Bloodborne does not simply copy these styles of story – it adds to them. It is part of the fiction of Gothic horror genre which is something people pay attention to less than the more obvious connection with Bloodborne... Lovecraft.
     The links with Lovecraft in Bloodborne are not subtle and the works of Lovecraft came a decade or so after and were slightly inspired by the kind of horror works that popped up in the Victorian period. With this in mind, as a huge fan of Lovecraftian horror, I will chip in with my thoughts and links next time...

     Until then - thanks for reading.

1. Horror only need to play upon things that people are not okay with, it can be scary and based on our fears, but it can also just be unsettling, disturbing, suspenseful, nightmarish or plainly weird.
2. It is a common theme amongst this genre to be told as if it were true, through letters or second hand stories suggesting the possibility of this strange thing that happened rather than addressing it as a narrated fiction. This is one reason a 'Souls' series game owes itself greatly to this genre, as most of the lore is found out through stories or second-hand writings.
3. Less specific, though still a link: Werewolves have been popular in folklore since ancient Greece, though Lycanthropy in horror fiction was very much popularised by the Gothic horror in the early 19^th century with stories such as 'The Man-Wolf' in 1831 and 'Hughes, Wer-Wolf' in 1838. Popular themes involved similar tales to the Scourge Beasts in Bloodborne with it being some kind of disease or curse that transforms them, often permanently, into a murderous wolf-beast.
4. While some of these links may be tenuous as oppose to direct influence, it they will still ring true as tropes of the stories with Bloodborne being reminiscent of them due to being part of the genre as a whole.