Vathek is a greatly powerful King, a "Caliph", who receives some sceptres with magical descriptions, which are translated by a mysterious stranger, the Giaour. Vathek realises that he posesses supernatural powers and worships him, by fulfilling his requests to receive a prize, the treasures of Soliman and the pre-adamite sultans. However, he ultimately ends up in Hell with a heart tormented by flames for eternity.
Lonsdale argues that Vathek is not a gothic text.
"Potential melodrama and horror are almost invariably undermined and deflated by Beckford's detached, urbane and often comic tone. When Nouronihar pursues a strange light up a mountain and hears mysterious voices promising her infinite riches, if she will desert Gulchenrouz for Vathek, we may seem to be close to the 'Gothic'; but even here Beckford is less concerned to exploit the 'terrific' possibilities of the scene than to expound the choice facing Nouronihar. When Carathis and her companions visit a cemetary and its ghouls, the result is ludicrously grotesque comedy. The final scenes of the tale are serious enough, but the sudden sombre power and sustained intensity of this vision of damnation transcend anything achieved by the Gothicists."
I personally disagree with many of his comments, as the book has many of the typically Gothic traits andI do not feel that the tone is at all 'comic'.
- wild landscapes
To find the Giaour and his treasures Vathek traversed deserts and mountains, commanded not to enter any abode.
- ruined or grotesque buildings
The buildings are grand and opulent, such as the subterranean cavern, Carathis' tower and the five palaces of the senses "five wings, or rather palaces, which he destined for the particular gratification of each of the senses"p1.
- religious settings/concepts
There are many allusions to Alla and the Koran, which are praised by the "dwarfs" and some servants. Vathek is entranced into worship of the strange Giaour. The cavern of the Giaour and Soliman is implicitly Hell as a punishment for his evils, a moralistic and religious tone concludes (with great links to Shelley's message) -
"Such was, and such should be, the punishment of unrestrained passions and atrocious deeds! Such shall be, the chastisement of that blind curiosity , which would transgress those bounds the wisdom of the Creator has prescribed to human knowledge; and such the dreadful disappointment of that restless ambition, which, aiming at discoveries reserved for beings of a supernatural order, perceives not, through its infatuated pride, that the condition of man upon earth is to be - humble and ignorant."p120
- sensibility
The every whim of Vathek is catered for, to the extent of purpose-built palaces. The descriptions are senual and opulent, with lady witch Carathis having a very stormy and temperament!
- excess and extremity
Like in Frankenstein the emotions are extreme, everything in Vathek is the rarest, the grandest, numbered in thousands, scented with jasmine, sprinkled with gold dust.. It creates intense opulence, which would have been very exciting in 1904, but it is sustained throughout the novel and becomes a bit heady.
"From thence, she resorted to a gallery; where, under the guard of fifty female negroes mute and blind of the right eye, were preserved the oil of the most venomous serpents; rhinoceros' horns; and woods of a subtile and penetrating odour"p31.
- the supernatural and the ghostly
Carathis wakes the dead to find the whereabouts of Gulchenrouz and the Giaour is certainly supernatural. Vathek becomes obsessive with the magical treasure of Soliman, wanting to acqire their power.
- darkness, shadow, decay
The subterraneous cavern is described as a huge, dingy expanse. We have this section as an extract.
- the exotic, the oriental
The novel is based in a typically exotic, far-eastern setting and the names, such as Bababalouk, opulence and spices are certainly exotic and exciting to the 1904 reader especially.
- horror and terror
The Giaour's requests are disturbing,
"I require the blood of fifty children. Take them from among the most beautiful sons of thy vizirs and great men; or, neither can my thirst nor thy curiosity be satisfied"
And so is Vathek's willingness to fulfil them. The subsequent descent into Hell with the dancing dead make use of the fear of the suprnatural.
- isolation and loneliness
The Caliph is constantly surrounded by hundreds of slaves and beautiful wives, but when his love Nouronihar flees for Gulchenrouz, her teenage love, he has heartache.
- sanity/insanity
The reader may judge how moral Carathis and Vathek's actions and reasoning are
- sex/sexuality
Vathek was "much addicted to women"p1 and had many wives, which were kept in "cages" and disallowed to walk. There are many eunuchs in the story, showing demasculinisation and how it affects power. Imagery of towers and caverns.
- multiple narrators
there is a single omniscient narrator
- crime, lawlessness, abuse
Vathek murders innocent children and Carathis uses witchcraft.
- absolute power
Vathek abuses his power, for example making people give up their children and leading hundreds into the desert to perish. Yet still he wishes for supernatural powers.
- stock characters
Carathis is a cleopatra type seductress, who uses witchcraft.
- the devilish, the arcane
Vathek's lineage creates the first lines in the novel, showing its importance, and he seeks historical artifacts. He comes across demons in the subterraneous cavern.
- the historical past
the lineage of Vathek, his will to own treasures from before history (the pre-adamite sultans) showing excess and extremity.
- the outsider
the Giaour is a strange outsider
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