Christopher Marlowe.

Christopher Marlowe was a poet and playwright born in Canterbury in 1564 and died on the 30th of May 1593. He went to The Kings School in Canterbury, and then went on to Corpus Christi College in  Cambridge to do a BA degree in 1584 and later MA. It is said that while at Corpus Christi he may have been influenced religiously by the beliefs of Francis Kett, who was burned in 1589 after being accused of heresy.

While doing his Masters degree Marlowe would frequently not attend, and was absent so much that it went against the rules of the university which put his degree in jeopardy. Marlowe got his degree thanks to the Privy Council (Queen's council) who allowed him his degree because of 'good service' to the Queen which then fuelled speculation that Marlowe was a spy for Sir Francis Walsingham (part of a spy service for the Queen). According to www.marlowe-society.org/ Marlowe was recruited by Walsingham as a 'part-time secret service agent'.
    Marlowe was arrested in 1592 for the counterfeiting of coins, but was not charged, even after being sent to the Lord Treasurer, which fits with the spy idea in the sense that at that time you were likely to be executed for that sort of crime, but he was let off.

Marlowe was arrested on 20th of May 1593 on a charge of atheism, and therefore heresy. He was granted bail despite the seriousness of the crime, and had to report daily to an officer of the court. On the 30th May Marlowe was spending the day in Deptford with Robert Poley (an experienced government agent), Ingram Frizer (the personal servant and business agent of Thomas Walsingham, the cousin of Sir Francis Walsingham), and Nicholas Skeres (often assisted Poley, and was often associated with Walsingham). Marlowe, Skeres, Poley and Frizer are all linked by Sir Francis Walsingham, a spy.
 It is said that after the four spending the day together, there was an argument between Frizer and Marlowe over a bill, which led to Marlowe wounding Frizer with Frizer's dagger, and the fight culminating in Frizer stabbing Marlowe just above the right eye, killing him. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Nicholas Deptford.

There are claims that Marlowe's death was faked and that he is in fact William Shakespeare, who was born around two months after Marlowe. A.D Wraight analysed Shakespeare's sonnets and found links between him and Marlowe. More about this can be found on http://www.marlowe-society.org/marlowe/life/exile1.html.

The Creation of Gothic Atmosphere in Nosferatu

I think that being alone is a key part to the creation of Gothic atmosphere in Nosferatu, because through being alone the characters are vulnerable which therefore makes them more likely prey for Nosferatu. Also, the reason for it being a key part in Nosferatu is because there seems to be a lot of it; Nina is without Jonathon, and therefore alone because there is no-one to protect her (waawaa); Jonathon is alone when he has to go and stay with the Count; the ship is the only ship you see on the sea, therefore alone; the Captain of the ship is left alone with Nosferatu when the first mate jumps off the side of the boat, etc etc. This loneliness puts the audience on edge, because of the vulnerability of the character, and also because, especially when the captain of the ship is left 'alone', they are not alone. There is always some sort of threat, in the case of this film Nosferatu is the threat, and being alone makes you an easy target because it is harder to defend yourself. 

There are elements of the supernatural, just like the Gothic pictures we looked at; Nosferatu can turn himself invisible. This adds to the Gothic atmosphere because if he can turn himself invisible, you never know where he is going to be, or when he is going to pop up, which builds up tension.
  Something that would also be seen as supernatural is the psychic connections between people in the film. Nina and Jonathon appear to have a psychic connection, 'He is coming, I must go to meet him', and Renfield and the Count also appear to have a psychic connection, 'Master is dead.'

Rats help to add to the Gothic atmosphere because they are considered vermin and make people uncomfortable, and from the Gothic pictures we looked at I get the impression that they like to pick out what people fear, e.g. dark, ghosts, and so rats would have most likely caused fear because they carry disease and people just generally fear them as they aren't usually seen to be a good thing.

What makes a setting Gothic?

I think that darkness and shadow plays a key part in making a setting Gothic, because it adds a sense of the unknown. To use an example, your own room; in the daytime it's lovely and it's your room and there's nothing sinister about it, but then you turn the lights off, add in it taking more time than usual to fall asleep and it suddenly becomes a Gothic setting, where the sound of your own breathing becomes something that makes you jump a mile and start thinking about how you really should stop putting clothes on top of things because it looks spookily like a ghostly figure sitting in the chair. Then you turn the light back on and everything seems totally fine.

Another thing that makes a Gothic setting is the vulnerability of the people that are in the setting. For example, someone with a broken leg, dragging themselves to the nearest escape while the walls are slowly caving in would be seen as more vulnerable than someone fully capable of running through and being totally fine at the other end, and therefore more Gothic because there is an element that makes the reader uncomfortable; there is less chance of the guy with the broken leg getting out and so reading about his struggle to escape puts the reader more on edge and therefore makes the Gothic setting successful.

Adding children, or innocence. For example, in Insidious it is the child who is trying to be possessed by the demons etc not the father, even though the father has the same abilities as the child (I'm not taking the end into account because it was at the end and not the bulk of the film) which then plays on the feelings of the audience because children are seen as innocent, and what is trying to possess the child is the complete opposite, and so it has the attempted corruption of innocence, paired with the grey setting and dark-ish house which makes it Gothic.