Dracula - close analysis/quotes C1-4

Question 1

What does the epigraph of the novel aim to do?

Answer 1

Heightens the verisimilitude

Question 2

Give an example (with a quote) of how Harker begins the story as the epitome of the Victorian, rational man

Answer 2

His diary is regulated and punctual - ‘left Munich at 8:35 PM’

Question 3

Although there are many signs of impending doom as Harker approaches castle Dracula, he seems blind to them - why might this be?

Answer 3

Stoker could be commenting on the blindness of the Victorian, rational man due to his contempt for alternative ways of thinking (including superstition)?

Question 4

Harker is Protestant, but is given and wears what during his stay at castle Dracula

Answer 4

A crucifix

Question 5

In the first chapter, there is a strong emphasis on what human need (and give an quoted example)

Answer 5

Food - ‘paprika hendl’ (which is also a wry foreshadowing)

Question 6

During Harker’s stay at castle Dracula, he becomes increasingly ___ (gender)

Answer 6

Feminised

Question 7

As Harker is approaching castle Dracula, the idea of the liminality between reality and dream states is introduced - give a quote to support this

Answer 7

The driver keeps stopping to mark places where blue flames are rising with stones ‘i must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident’

Question 8

What phrase is used to describe Dracula’s appearance which links to a key piece of context

Answer 8

‘A very marked physiognomy’

Question 9

Stoker copes which writer’s portrait of the criminal man in his description of Dracula, and give two aspects of the description (quotes)

Answer 9

Cesare Lombroso
Dracula has a ‘thin’ nose with a ‘high bridge’ while Lombroso says a criminal has a nose ‘like the beak of a bird of prey’ (thus he is predatory)
Dracula has ears that are ‘extremely pointed’ while Lombroso notes the criminal’s ears being ‘a relic of the pointed ear’ (thus like the devil)

Question 10

What quote implies Dracula’s virility and hence masculinity

Answer 10

‘Astonishing vitality’
- note this also links to his transcendence of age (old and young

Question 11

Give one way Dracula has strong autonomy and dominance

Answer 11

He owns castle Dracula and is aristocratic (this aristocratic nature also means he is free from the nakedness of capitalist competition)

Question 12

How does Dracula make Harker instinctively feel? (Quote)

Answer 12

Nausea

Question 13

On his first night at castle Dracula, how does Harker describe his situation?

Answer 13

‘I am all in sea of wonders. I doubt. I fear. I think strange things, which i dare not confess to my own soul’

Question 14

How does Dracula disrupt Harker’s natural rhythms?

Answer 14

He keeps Harker up all night, making him nocturnal

Question 15

Dracula cannot be seen in what

Answer 15

A mirror

Question 16

After the scene with the vampire women, what does Dracula do to Harker (quote)

Answer 16

‘Carried me here[to bed] and undressed me’
Shows Harker’s increasing femininity

Question 17

When Harker finds the count gorged on blood in chapter 4, how does he describe Dracula?

Answer 17

‘Filthy leech, exhausted with his reflection’/‘swollen flesh’

Question 18

When describing the vampire women who are getting ready to suck his blood again at the end of chapter 4 (after Dracula has left and just before Harker escapes) he says what about the vampire women versus Mina? (Quote)

Answer 18

‘Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common’

Question 19

Give 4 key symbols from C1-4

Answer 19

Wolves
The crucifix
The castle
The train

Question 20

The crucifix is an ambiguous symbol - why?

Answer 20

It changes from a symbol of superstition to one of defence/the extent to which it is pure superstition is in doubt

Question 21

The castle could be seen to represent what character

Answer 21

Dracula

Question 22

The trains symbolise the modern world/civilisation at the start - the increasing lack of good trains symbolises what? (Give a quote)

Answer 22

The further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains
Barbarism

Question 23

What are the Carpathian Mountains described as in the first chapter

Answer 23

An ‘imaginative whirlpool’

Question 24

What does Harker say about ancient times in chapter 3

Answer 24

‘The old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot kill’

Question 25

What is the word for repetition with no breaks in between?

Answer 25

Epizeuxis

Question 26

Give a quote about physical entrapment Harker feels in castle Dracula and make a comment about it

Answer 26

‘Doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted…I am a prisoner!’
- disorientating
- in present tense = panic
- engulfed
- lack of control/exclamation

Question 27

How does Harker describe himself with hindsight after he realises he is a prisoner (quote)

Answer 27

‘Rat in a trap’

Question 28

Give one way Harker is trapped metaphorically

Answer 28

Trapped in conventional masculinity/oppressive social systems/victorian thinking

Question 29

Give 2 similarities between the opening of the bloody chamber and Dracula

Answer 29

They start with a journey into the unknown
They start with a transition (east-west/girlhood-womanhood)

Question 30

Chapter 3:
Give a quote which demonstrates the zoomorphism of the vampire women

Answer 30

‘She actually licked her lips like an animal’

Question 31

The vampire women ___allot in the chapter 3 scene which is teasing/flirtatious

Answer 31

Laugh

Question 32

Give a word which is suggestive of the sexual elements of the female vampires in chapter 3

Answer 32

‘Deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive’ (the word deliberate also shows how women are meant to be accidentally sexy, as this is the only way they can be moral and innocent - this links to the waif ideal in carter’s critical work The sadeian woman

Question 33

In the chapter 3 scene, Harker is extremely ___and this is a sign of his effeminacy - give a quote to further support this

Answer 33

Passive
‘Looking out from under my eyelashes’

Question 34

Give a quote to support the idea that the vampire women scene is an expression of his repressed subconscious desire

Answer 34

‘Dreamy fear’

Question 35

Give a quote to support the Madonna whore antithesis being exemplified in the vampire women scene chapter 3

Answer 35

‘Wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me’

Question 36

What does Dracula say about Harker at the end of the vampire women scene in chapter 3?

Answer 36

‘This man belongs to me!’

Question 37

The gothic explores the position of the self in relation to passionate desire - why is the position of the self ambiguous when overcome by passion?

Answer 37

The question which aspect of you is the self: the desire or reason? Is begged

Question 38

After Dracula saves Harker from the vampire women, what do the vampire women do?

Answer 38

They eat a baby in the ultimate subversion of motherhood

Question 39

There is a great deal of ___imagery in the vampire women scene chapter 3 which links to the idea that the women are a temptation. Give a quote example

Answer 39

Precious
‘Golden’/‘sapphire’/‘pearl’/‘ruby’

Question 40

What colour hair does one of the vampire women have (quote)?

Answer 40

She is described as: Fair, as fair can be, with great masses of golden hair

Question 41

What are the vampire women’s lips described as

Answer 41

‘Ruby of their voluptuous lips’

Question 42

What is the laugh of the vampire women described as

Answer 42

‘Intolerable, tingling sweetness of waterglasses when played on by a cunning hand’

Question 43

The ‘___-sweet’ breath of the vampire women is undercut by what?

Answer 43

‘Honey’
‘A bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood’

Question 44

The vampire women have a ___voluptuousness

Answer 44

Deliberate

Question 45

Give a quote to show Harker enjoying the sexual fantasy of the vampire women, and his passivity

Answer 45

‘I closed my eyes in languorous ecstasy and waited, waited with beating heart’