Jonathan Harker

Question 1

“I had all sorts of queer dreams […] a dog howling […] may have been the paprika”

Answer 1

Chapter 1
- declarative noun; paprika
- places rational thought as the main focus

Question 2

“It was all very ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable”

Answer 2

Chapter 1
- ridiculous logical thinking
- Victorian rationalism

Question 3

“What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people?”

Answer 3

Chapter 2
- beginning to doubt and question
- his view of the world is shaken

Question 4

“I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear”

Answer 4

Chapter 2
- metaphor
- scared to sleep in Dracula’s castle
- European attitudes blinded him to superstition of the East
- oblivious to the supernatural element

Question 5

“When I found that I was a prisoner, a sort of wild feeling came over me”

Answer 5

Chapter 3
- attitudes to madness
- lost his sense of rationality and composure
- panic has set in, the reality of the situation has become clear
-

Question 6

Some traits to describe Harker

Answer 6

• intelligent: “uncommonly clever”
• rational; “let me begin with the facts”
• quiet, balances out the strangeness of other characters
• least experienced at fighting
• relies on fact and reason : nearly leads to his death

Question 7

Boundaries Crossed by Harker

Answer 7

• reality vs imagination
• rationality vs irrationality
• supernatural (escaping castle)
• gender (vampire brides)
• geographical
• west vs east (page 1)

Question 8

Relationship with Dracula

Answer 8

• predator/prey
• possessive
• sensual
• “this man belongs to me”

Question 9

Relationship with Mina

Answer 9

• very caring and protective
• wants to kill Dracula to save her

Question 10

Why is the fact that Harker writes in shorthand significant?

Answer 10

• a raw way of writing
• shows he’s skilful and intelligent
• trustworthy and a reliable narrator

Question 11

“It seems to me that the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains”

Answer 11

Chapter 1
- uncertainty
- beginning of all the troubles to comf

Question 12

“What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people? What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked?”

Answer 12

Chapter 2
- repetition of rhetorical questions
- beginning to doubt and question: his view of the world has shaken and will continue to

Question 13

“I only slept a few hours”

Answer 13

Chapter 2
- has changed a lot from the beginning
- used to be put together, becoming nocturnal

Question 14

“It is very annoying, for I do not see how I am to shave, unless in my watch case or the bottom of the shaving pot”

Answer 14

Chapter 2
- resourceful
- strange reaction: he is more concerned with the lost mirror than the fact that Dracula doesn’t appear in the mirror
- still relying on rationality as an explanation but it is beginning tj fail
- won’t admit to his dears

Question 15

“Bless that good, good woman who hung the crucifix round my neck!”

Answer 15

Chapter 3
- Dracula hates anything that opposes the darkness of his soul
- beginning to wonder whether the peasant superstition were real occult knowledge

Question 16

“the unnatural, horrible net of gloom and mystery which seemed closing round me”

Answer 16

Chapter 3
- metaphor
- idea of being prisoner
- Harker feels small, like a small bug in a net

Question 17

“I am beginning to feel this nocturnal existence tell on me”

Answer 17

Chapter 3
- becoming like Dracula
- sleep deprived
- going mad
- his mind is poisoned

Question 18

“Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious”

Answer 18

Chapter 3
- trope often used for a female Gothic protagonist
- since Harker is make, the use of this trope indicates Dracula’s extreme power

Question 19

“If it be that I had not dreamt, the Count must have carried me here”

Answer 19

Chapter 4
- cannot tell if the previous events were a dream or reality
- Dracula is paternal, treats Harker like a child

Question 20

“They looked up at me stupidly and pointed”

Answer 20

Chapter 4
- Slovaks are desensitised to such events
- laughing at a hopeless man
- readers sympathise with Harker, he is truly stuck

Question 21

“All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes”

Answer 21

Chapter 9
- pre modifier
- rational worldviews have been broken down.
- he is shamed by his experiences in Transylvania
- fundamentally changed

Question 22

“Today he is a drawn, haggard old man, whose white hair matches well with the hollow burning eyes and grief-written lines of his face”

Answer 22

Chapter 23
- Mina’s attack has changed him
- He failed his primary task to keep his wife safe and it has affected him physically

Question 23

“On the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife”

Answer 23

Chapter 27
- slashes Dracula
- anti climatic: perhaps Stoker wants to focus on the final moment when Morris dies?

Question 24

“The castle is a veritable prison and I am a prisoner!”

Answer 24

Chapter 2
- semantic field of imprisonment
- exclamatory shows heightened emotion
- suffering , feels trapped
- connotes his view of himself as powerless and vulnerable
- viewing himself as a criminal
- feels guilty as he only wanted to climb socially
- betrayed Christian religion; ignored everyone who warned him
- metaphor, causing distress

Question 25

“I think I must have been mad at the time, for I behaved as much as a rat does in a trap”

Answer 25

Chapter 3
- crossing boundary of sanity vs insanity
- would rather call himself mad than accept that he has messed up
- secretly documenting his suffering
- self deprecating metaphor
- feels dirty because of metaphorical guilt
- traps are to lure/deceive