1. Time Period: Romantic Period
1.1. Author: John William Polidori
1.1.1. Work: The Vampyre
1.1.1.1. Synopsis: John Polidori's The Vampyre is a story that reveals Gothic fascination with horror and a romantic interest in exotic landscapes, intense emotions, and supernatural tales. The story describes two new arrivals to London, Aubrey and Ruthven, who meet and decide to travel together throughout Europe.
1.1.1.1.1. How It connects: This story relates to the quote through the distortion of reality and its plot. This brief piece of work includes the vampire, a blood sucking supernatural creature that rules over the night and women. Vampires are said to be lustful and seductive, but also lonely and fearful when it comes to love and living without a significant other. The story depicts a woman who falls madly in love with a vampire and believes that he is 'the one'. The story is mainly targeted to women who wish to escape from their everyday lives into something more exciting and lustful.
1.1.1.1.2. Includes a depth of emotion and gives readers a sense of taking chances and adventure. In turn the short story provides some heartbreak and new love blossoming.
2. Time Period: Victorian Period
2.1. Author: Robert Louise Stevenson
2.1.1. Work: The Body Snatcher
2.1.1.1. Synopsis: Four men sit drinking in a British tavern. There is a sick man in the house and a famous London doctor has been summoned to treat him. When one of the men, Fettes, hears the doctor’s name, Wolfe Macfarlane, he wakes suddenly from his drunken stupor and rushes to see the doctor’s face. He recognizes and threatens the doctor, who flees. Doctor Macfarlane and his accoster, Fettes, had studied medicine together under a famous--but unorthodox--anatomist. They were in charge of obtaining bodies for dissection. Fette regularly received and paid for corpses late at night from the men who robbed graves for them. One night, the body of a woman he knew was brought to his door. He was certain that she had been murdered but he said nothing. One day he met Macfarlane at a tavern. He was being strangely heckled by a man named Gray. The next night, Macfarlane showed up with Gray’s body and demanded payment for it. He had evidently murdered the man. Fettes was shaken but acquiesced. Soon the body was dissected, so the evidence of murder was gone. Later, Fettes and Macfarlane were sent to a country church yard to exhume a recently buried woman. They sat the package between them as they traveled back. Suddenly, they perceived a change in the body. Unnerved, they got out a light and uncovered the face of the corpse. It was Gray.
2.1.1.1.1. How it connects: This short story was written during the Victorian Period, when Queen Victoria was in power. The brief piece of work includes mystery and thrill which can captivate the reader. Seeing that it was based off of the notorious Burke and Hare murders, it gave readers a sense of reality and excitement when knowing that it is based off of true events.
2.1.1.1.2. The Burke and Hare murders are a series of killings done by William Hare and William Burke during the early 1800's. They murdered victims and sold their corpses to anatomists for scientific dissection in turn for profit. Jenkins, John Philip. "William Burke and William Hare". Encyclopedia Britannica, 27 Jul. 2011, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Burke-and-William-Hare . Accessed 7 February 2022.