- Death as both physical and spiritual decay. Orlok’s arrival brings plague, rats, and coffins, imagery of corruption that infects the town and embodies Gothic fascination with death and contagion.

- Orlock’s foreign, inhuman form conveys him as the threatening outsider, a Gothic symbol of xenophobia and fear of the unknown, the ‘Other.’

- Ellen’s purity and self-sacrifice contrast with Orlok’s lust. Desire and death intertwine, Ellen becomes both victim and saviour, the Gothic heroine whose virtue is tested by monstrous masculine power, her death restoring moral order.

- Contrasts the natural and supernatural through light and darkness, life and death. Orlok: perversion of nature as an undead figure existing outside natural order. His destruction by sunlight restores harmony, symbolising renewal overcoming corruption. Imagery of shadows, especially with Orlok’s creeping silhouette, reflects the Gothic theme of distortion and repression, where the boundaries between reality and nightmare blur.

-Isolation: Remote Transylvanian castle, the deserted ship, and the plague-stricken streets all reflect loneliness, decay and destruction of order. Typical Gothic settings that externalise inner fears and Victorian anxieties, with each one evoking ruin, separation, and the inescapable nature of death.

The purity of the natural world is contrasted with Victor’s violation of it. His act of creation mirrors humanity’s desire to “play God” and try to seize control in situations they shouldn’t. The sublime landscapes of the Alps and Artic embody moral order, while Victor’s lavatory symbolises corruption and misuse of power, as well as the crossing of natural boundaries.

Victor’s obsession with creating life separates him from morality and his family, where as the Creature’s isolation turns him violent. Both their lonelinesses mirror the Gothic idea that separation from humanity leads to ruin.

The Creature represents the rejected and misunderstood outsider, he is intelligent yet monstrous. Shelley shifts the theme of Gothic monstrosity into a critique of society, exposing prejudice, alienation of others, and moral, and societal failure. Shelley also highlights the dangers of crossing boundaries of natural law such as life and death.

- Women as aesthetic objects to be viewed under the male gaze: The Duchess only exists through a ‘painting’ to be framed and owned, and enjoyed. She is only allowed to be seen when the curtain is ‘drawn’ for her, reinforcing the idea of being seen and not heard. It mirrors how the narrator in TBC is surrounded with mirrors- The Marquis curates her appearance like a sexual display perfected to the Marquis’ monocle.

- Silencing female agency: The Duchess never talks and her ‘fault’ is her emotional openness. Her identity itself exists only through the Duke’s Voice where he states, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall.”