Formal institutions like church do not hold as much power as they did 10 years ago.   Even though some formal things are fun we just don't do them anymore.  I try to go to church as much as I can but there is some days that I just can't go.  The formal things in life used to be a higher priority but now the little things can come before them.  If I have football practice and church on the same nigh then most the time I got to practice.

Yes a person can be to determined.  A person can want something so bad the they would give too much to have it or do it.   If you are willing to die for something odds are you are too determined.

Gothic stories have to scare people.  The people who read gothic stories are looking for a thrill.  So the objective of the author into scare his audience. To me the only thing that scares me is things that pop out.  A book has a hard time of being able to scare me because the author really has to paint a picture in my head to make the things pop out.

Darkness in a person is described as bad or bad traits. There are dark people and regular people.  We are good or bad because of how we were raised and how we were brought up.  The things that make up our lives are what determines if we have darkness in us.  So yes there is a possibility for darkness in all of us.  Everyone can be a bad person some are just luckier than others or that's how I see it.

We'll if you make a story see dream like it can make the audience feel as if they are in a dream.  You would want to make the audience feel that way so you could make them feel the same things or think they are in a dream so they can believe what is happening is really happening  to them. You want to make the reader get into the story and really stick to it so they will read it.  The dreamlike settings is just one of the tools a author can use.