It's hard to come up with a good example without going back to The Fall of the House of Usher , since the house develops a large crack in its foundation, symbolizing the collapse of the Ushers. In the end, the house crumbles and disappears into the Earth, ridding the world of the last remnant of the Usher line. The connection between owner and house fascinates me because we live in a day now where it's common to move around the globe or country and live in different houses. Gone are the days when the literate members of society are only the people who are of the upper class and who live in houses passed from descendent to descendent. More about the family comes into play in gothic literature.
Blood is the life and blood carries the family genes.
Vampires suck the blood, robbing men of the patriarchal life they need to survive. Ever since the earliest days of the genre, the gothic has embraced topics taboo to other styles like the similar romantic movement. With the strong loyalty to the family comes an isolation from the rest of the world. Parricide and incest are wholly acceptable in a gothic work. Not the acts themselves, of course, but the perversity which Poe explains in depth in his writings.