Unmasking Penny Dreadful: Gothic Literature Comes to Life

Premiering in 2014 and created by John Logan, Penny Dreadful is a psychological horror TV series that aired for three seasons. The title comes from 19th century British cheap fiction known as penny dreadfuls, melodramatic serial stories with vampires, werewolves and all sorts of monstrous and supernatural beings. The series is a blend of horror, fantasy, and historical fiction in an eerie atmosphere with Victorian stylistic visuals. Deep character development and the use of multiple legends from gothic literature and mythology makes the audience immerse into a dark Victorian London.

Vanessa Ives: The Tormented Heroine

The protagonist of the story, Vanessa Ives, is a magnet that attracts all sorts of monsters. She is referred to as the incarnation of the goddess Amunet, the Mother of Evil. Her days and nights are haunted by vampires and witches trying to use her to unleash dark forces that will eternally rule the world. Throughout the series, her character is shown from her childhood to her enigmatic sickness that was caused by the devil’s possession. 

Vanessa Ives resembles various characters such as the tormented heroine, the damsel in distress, the femme fatale, and the medium caught between worlds. She is a combination of Lucy Westenra from Dracula (1897), the protagonist of Jane Eyre (1847), and Cathy Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights (1847). Although she is mainly inspired by literary characters, the scenes when she is possessed by the devil mirrors the movie "The Exorcist" (1973). In the last season, she is also haunted by the Nightcomers who resemble the three witches from William Shakespeare’s "Macbeth"(1623). Most of the scenes with witches have references to mythology, especially to Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft. 

The story structured around Vanessa Ives reflects Victorian anxieties about sexuality, mental illness, the rise of the New Woman, and the contrast between science and superstition. By blending literature, myth and cinema, the show creates a rich power dynamic where characters struggle with curses and internal dark forces.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The influence of vampire lore is at the core of Penny Dreadful. Until the last season when Count Dracula himself appears, the protagonist is haunted by Dracula’s various monstrous shapes. Vanessa Ives and Mina Harker, two inseparable best friends, are loosely connected through the vampire subplot. Dr. John “Jack” Seward as Dr. Florence Seward, Renfield as the patient from asylum, and Abraham Van Helsing are some of the other characters from the novel. Dracula explores the themes of sexuality, fear, anxiety, and the battle between modern science and ancient evil, all of which are adapted to the series.  

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley is the most faithful adaptation to the series. Victor Frankenstein as an intelligent yet troubled scientist and the Creature (later called John Clare) as a poetic and sensitive man mirrors Mary Shelley’s original novel. Shelley’s novel evokes important ethical questions about scientific ambition and the definition of being human. This dialogue continues through the dilemmas between Victor and his two creations. 

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray is an immortal, pleasure seeking character from Oscar Wilde’s novel. He is reimagined as a mysterious and seductive man, forever living adjacent to his portrait. The portrait absorbs his sins allowing him to remain eternally young and beautiful. He later becomes involved with Lily, one of Dr. Frankenstein’s creations, and Justine, a tortured young woman inspired by the Marquis de Sade’s Justine. Wilde’s work implies subjects such as moral decay, vanity and the obsession in aestheticism. 

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The brilliant yet extremist scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll appears in season 3, who is drawn from Stevenson’s 1886 novella. Dr. Jekyll’s transformation into Mr. Hyde is never fully shown, but the show presents a Jekyll struggling with his inner rage and an obsession of altering human behavior through science. 

Penny Dreadful is on the fine line between the scientific and the supernatural, Victorian polite society and decadence, monsters and humans. Drawing on Gothic novels, mythology, and classic theatre, the show invites viewers to observe how the human psyche can also be haunted by fear and anxiety. It is a reminder that the stories we tell, whether from the 19th century to the 21st, continue to resonate with our internal questioning about morality and identity.   

Recommended Reading to Pair with the Show:

• Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
• Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde
• Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë
• Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë
• Justine (1791), Marquis de Sade
• “Macbeth” (1623) by William Shakespeare