Setting Flashcards
Dracula
Stoker uses a circular structure for his novel, beginning and ending in Transylvania, with the rest taking place in London or Whitby
The stark contrast between the settings of the East and the West reinforces the fear of reverse colonisation
There was the fear of the wild and Catholic, supernatural believing world affecting the modernity and punctuality of the Western world
However, Britain is unable to cope with the weather that Dracula brings, and the modernity of the British world cannot destroy Dracula, but it also highlights the stark contrast between the two worlds as Dracula does infect Britain, but in a very modern and legal way, thus suggesting the fear of modernity and how it could be corrupted
The setting in the first few chapters of the wild mountains and Dracula’s castle also creates much suspense and terror for the reader as the first-person narrative immerses the reader in Harker’s situation
The labyrinth of the castle could also reflect Harker’s internal labyrinth of being entrapped in his own internal desires, or a type of madness
Stoker also uses typical gothic settings, such as castles and ruined abbeys, but contrasts this with the highly modern London world, thus contemporising the fear of Dracula and making it much closer to home for the readers
And depicting how unstoppable forces can be, even in the modern world
TBC
The Bloody Chamber takes places in an archetypal Gothic castle, but it is liminal, surrounded by the ‘amniotic salinity’ of the sea
Perhaps suggesting the womb-like element of the castle where the narrator will be re-born as a liberated woman who is not just seen as an object, the chamber itself is suggestive of a womb, however it is corrupted as it is male created
Which is perhaps liberating as it refuses to see women as just being for reproduction
Many of the other settings of the stories take place in liminal settings, such as the forest in The Earl King and the castle in The Lady of the House of Love
These woods are not threatening, they enable women to see their own power and allow women to be reborn as liberated women
This is particularly seen in ‘Wolf-Alice’ in which the story takes place in a graveyard, perhaps suggesting the rebirth of female identity away from a passive role to a more active and radical woman who can save men, just as she can be saved by a man
The settings also become freer as the collection goes on, reflecting the liberation of women and the freedom from the chains of the patriarchy
