Quotations and analysis Flashcards
“The Count’s mysterious warning frightened me at the time; it frightens me more now when I think of it, for in the future he has a fearful hold upon me. I shall fear to doubt what he may say!”
“mysterious” - adjective - unusual, adds tension.
- Johnathan is an unreliable narrator.
- We see the power dynamic between Dracula and Johnathan:
- semantic field of “fear”
- Harker is afraid of Dracula and he tries to predict the dire consequences of his actions.
“The Count’s warning came into my mind, but I took a pleasure in disobeying it.”
Johnathan ignorance.
Bram Stoker creates tension and disequilibrium in this scene.
“disobeying” - verb - connotates authority figure and instruction. Dracula has a high status and controls Johnathon.
“The soft moonlight soothed”
Use of sibilance to create a dream, hypnotic atmosphere. Part of the gothic: atmosphere.
Pathetic fallacy - “moonlight soothed” - personification
The moonlight feels comforting and relaxing.
Connotates how Johnathan is falling into a dream state - “I felt sleepy”, “The sense of sleep was upon me”
Connotates to Sigmund Freud - Harker is more vulnerable in a sleepy state; primal desires and loss of control over himself.
“The wide expanse without gave a sense of freedom which refreshed me”
“the presence of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the scene”
GOTHIC - Romantic (Gothic is a mix of Romanticism and the Victorian period).
Harker feels SOLITARY in the “wide expanse” - links to when Frankenstein felt “sublime ecstasy” which made him “forget the passing cares of life”.
The gothic conventions of nature, specifically in this statement it impresses on the reader the healing properties of nature.
The relative clause “which refreshed me” highlights how Johnathon is simply realising a nice element of this “wide expanse” - personification of the nature healing him.
“gloom-haunted”
Compound adjective
Gothic - supernatural
- hyphenated adjective: two different words, with separate meanings
“gloom” - noun: partial or total darkness, or a state of depression or despondency.
“I suppose I must have fallen asleep; I hope so, but I fear, for all that followed was startlingly real” - “I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep”
the verb “suppose” suggests that Johnathon doesn’t want the event be true and thinks it’s more likely to be true that he fell asleep - however, this highlights his rational thinking - this fault in his mindset prevents a clear comprehension of events - this makes his an unreliable narrator.
repetition of “moonlight” four times and premodifiers such as “pale yellow”, “brilliant” and “soft” and the verb “soothed” in the “soft moonlight soothed”
use of pathetic fallacy because of the gothic conventions of romanticism, which include values such as nature, isolation, art and emotion.
the verb “soothed” is personification of the moonlight - it has healing properties.
