Chapters 14 - 16

Nosferatu.

Also there are more references to traditional vampire things like driving a stake through the heart and filling the head with garlic, to kill the vampire.

The main points of these chapters are that Mina decides to transcribe the journal which Jonathan kept at Dracula's castle so that Van Helsing can look at them to find clues about Lucy's death. Jonathan is writing in his diary again and he is getting afraid that Dracula is in London. There are more and more cases of people with neck wounds that are pretty much identical to the ones on Lucy's neck. Then the main part of these chapters is the graveyard bit with the Westenra tomb in which it starts off with VanHelsing trying to prove that Lucy is a vampire then there is this whole incident where Lucy is confronted and its gets ugly as Arthur has a feeling of disgust towards her then the next night they carry out the act to kill her. Then they make a pact to set out to kill Dracula.

Its weird how the love which Arthur, Quincey, and Seward had for Lucy has been basely turned into hate at the sight of Lucy.

The tomb part is very Gothic as i can just imagine all this mist covering the outskirts with these people lifting the tops off coffins. This could be made into a very spooky, scary scene if it was in a film. You could almost expect more wolves to appear.

Chapter 13

This starts with Arthur returning, and trying to explain his despair to Seward. He has lost his fiancee, his father, and, now, his fiance's mother, all in a few days. He looks at Lucy's corpse and doubts that she is really dead. Van Helsing then gets her papers to determine her death. This is very Gothic as Gothic relates to the supernatural and being dead but not is supernatural.

Mina says that she and Jonathan are on the train to Exeter. They arrive soon in London and then take a bus to Hyde Park. Mina is then alarmed when Jonathan suddenly has another "nervous fit." She follows Jonathan's look to discover Jonathan is staring at a "tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and black moustache and pointed beard." Jonathan exclaims "It is the man himself!" Jonathan is convinced that it is Count Dracula. That night, Mina receives a telegram from Van Helsing, who informs her that Mrs. Westenra and Lucy have died.

In this chapter there is a part where Jonathan has a nervous fit which could be seen as him being possessed. As we don't know what happened to him for him to get back home without being killed by Dracula. There is a lot of people having stuff happening to them without their own control in this book so far.

Rest of Chapter 11 and all of 12

There are increasing amounts of strange one liners occurring in this book like "They shan't rob me! I'll fight for my Lord and Master!" In this case this was said by Renfield, who was taking part in some experiments.

Also a lot of people seem to be dying. Lucy's mother dies from a heart attack that came from the shock of the wolf incident. This was also because she was in a fragile state anyway. Also Mr Hawkins, who was staying with Mina and the returned Jonathan, then died suddenly. Finally, Lucy has been seen to have slightly different characteristics like having long sharper teeth which is what we now know to be a major characteristic of a typical vampire. Also the way she dies is very unlike Lucy and shocking. She asks to kiss Van Helsing, which we know would be a bad thing as she would probably want to suck his blood, but he then refuses and she has a crazy anger fit that is very shocking and then she dies which is very unexpected.

There are certain typical references to Gothic ways of describing things like the abandoned house. This fits because an abandoned house will be lonely and have no one home and be dark and mysterious which ticks pretty much all the boxes.

The effective part of the last chapter is that when Van Helsing says that "It is only the beginning" it makes the reader want to read on.

Very exciting!

Chapter 10 and part of 11

This chapter focuses on Lucy and how Van Helsing is assisting helping Lucy get better. It starts off with Lucy being examined through sleeping and resting. She is given blood on 3 occasions. The first sees her get slightly better but defiantly weak. So this left the Dr and Helsing feeling like they have helped her well. They see her cheeks fill up with rosiness but only for a second. After this they examined the two puncture wounds on her neck and are suspicious of the fact that the wound looks so well and there not being lots of blood. Because of her being very well the Dr leaves her one night, by request of Lucy, to spend the night alone.

This then turns out very bad as she gets as bad as ever which leaves the two feeling very ashamed. Lucy then being very weak gets more blood to help with this. After sending a telegram for garlic Van Helsing seems to be getting ideas about these strange wounds and asks Lucy to sleep in the comfort of the garlic which does make her feel better. But then due to Mrs Wesenra taking the garlic away Lucy then seems to have gotten worse. I have read up to the bit where Van Helsing is giving his blood to Lucy.

Up until end of Chapter 9

I like the ping pong effect that is created with the small letters going to and fro between characters.



We learn more about Mina and Lucy. We can obviously see the very strong bond between these two and the stronger bond between Mina and Jonathan because they get married.



One thing that i can highlight from all these matters in these passages is that peoples' personalities are changing. Jonathan, maybe because of his sickness, is getting a more secluded and secretive. This is sort of showed in the notebook part as he is telling Mina to do certain things with the notebook.

Dr Seward is writing more on Renfield and about how he is getting violent during the day also with other strange querky reactions.

We meet a new character, Van Helsing, who is brought in to help Lucy but seems like a strange character. The end of Chapter 9 is good as it is an urgent, important telegram to Van Helsing to come quickly as Lucy has got worse.

First Part of Chapter 8

Only First bit of Mina's journal.

Bite marks on the throat?
Bats?
Blood?

This reminds me of something....... Vampires, that was it.

This passage is very effective on the readers imagination, there are lots of spooky parts that releases the mind into a warped world of Gothic literature. The sleep walking business is especially a spooky thing which i mentioned in another one of my posts and it being like a soul-less body.

I love the little hints we get towards there being a vampire around like Lucy's face being paler by the day with no logical explanation apart from the marks on her throat. 'His red eyes again' This i think is a powerful sentence as it can relate to Gothic literature really well.

1. People don't usually have red eyes
2. Red eyes could maybe relate to the devil
3. Red is among the colours that typically feature in Gothic art
4. Red is the colour of blood
5. Red eyes may suggest swollen with blood, maybe a vampire
6. Again, suggests that it just keeps happening.

So the sleep walking with Lucy and the pale faced man and the church and the bats all make this part a very important part as we are learning more about these vampire like creatures.

I like the part with the church as i think they are a very Gothic structure and all in one of my pieces of writing i wrote about a church so it is maybe something i can relate to.

Dracula Book till the end of Chapter 7

I like chapter 7 very much.

I like the different perspectives of the events. But i love the journal that is written whilst on the ship as it is a condensed version of a horror story. Almost a story in its own. I just love the way that it starts and then progresses with the initial incident of a person missing. Then there is a use of pathetic fallacy 'fog' to create the eerie mood. The parts that i do like mostly are the mentions of the vampire like figure which the reader can only assume that it is Dracula.

The break away from the Jonathan Harker business has turnt out to be surprisingly good which i like very much as it still has lots to do with Dracula and has been written about in a journal by a person very close to Jonathan, which is Mina.

In Mina's journal in Chapter 7, the last journal, there is a chilling bit about the Lucy girl sleep walking which is a strange thing that adds to the mood of the story. For someone to sleep walk is a slightly un natural thing. It makes me think that it is sort of a body that's doesn't really have control of itself, or like the soul is possessed.

In Chapter 6 on page 65, i think, there is a few references to nature playing like chilling natural music and acting as one to be in a negative manner which reminded me of one of my pieces of writing. Just thought i would mention that link.

Dracula Book Chapter 5 and 6 (ish)

I mean the the first section of Chapter 6

My thoughts on Chapter 5 were that i was impressed. I liked the way that it sort of has a diversion from the happenings to Jonathan Harker. I guess it is relating to the facts that these were all just papers put into the correct order. It has worked well.

In Chapter 5 there is the 'ping-pong' effect on the letters which is effective as it gives the reader a good sense of what is going on between the two women. We find Mina Murray talking to Lucy Westenra about Lucy getiing marriage proposals. This creates a hold on the Dracula buisness and creates a massive amount of suspense for people wanting to know what happens next with them. It makes the reader have to read these parts in order to get back to what is happening to Jonathan Harker. There is a part in one of the letters that Mina has written which i woud like to highlight, this is the part which mentions Jonathan being ok in Transylvania. Its good as you get boths sides of what is going on. i.e. From Jonathan's point of view he is clearly in alot of distress and trouble. Whereas in Mina's eyes he is doing just fine.

Chapter 6 ( first part )
The first part of this i didnt really seem to understand. I knew it was the two girls finally meeting up and catching up on life. But i didn't get the part where it sort of went all off track.

I will read it tommorow again, with the rest, and who knows i might understand it.

Dracula Book Chapter 3 & 4

My first thoughts on chapter 3 were disappointing ones. It just seemed to drag the story along, mentioning all these different things happening but not really making anything of them. It just felt like a timeline. I know its in a diary form so the character is not trying to make a story out of it but just merely telling what happened but as stories go it just wasn't that good. The only thing like about this chapter, which overlaps with the next one, is the fact that it does go into the inner thoughts of the character very well. I like the parts where he is questioning himself and asking himself whether he is going mad. Which i suppose is a sign of madness in its own right.

In the next chapter (Chapter 4) i think it is better done as he is then coming to terms with everything going on and finding out all the inner truths that lurk in Dracula's place. Also the reader gets to learn more about the place which Dracula lives.

In the story, Jonathan finds out about Dracula and Dracula knows that he knows whats going on. I find it quite funny that Dracula seems to act mostly normal when in contact with Jonathan almost as if nothing it going on.

My favourite part of these two chapters is the point when the main character sees the three specs in the moonlight which, at first seems very innocent but then it slowly starts to change and then turns into these phantom style things which then makes Jonathan run away in great fear.

Dracula Book 2nd Chapter

In this second chapter we meet Count Dracula and we do learn a lot about him. But first i will write about the first feelings of this chapter.

There are some more references to the stereotypical Gothic styles, moods and certain visuals. I.e. 'Several dark ways led from it under great round arches.' Then we also see it more when a simple description of a door occurs. 'Great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set......doorway of massive stone.'

The main thing about this chapter that stays in my mind is Dracula's certain antics and quirks. The way Dracula talks to Johnathan Harker is in a way where its very insistent but polite at the same time. He is obviously trying to make a very good and strong impression upon his visitor. 'Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!' This is followed by the description of how he greeted them which, if you look at it in detail, could then give hints on how he is later on in the story. It mentions him standing like a statue which could relate to the fact that he has not much life in him, like stone.

Later on, when they dine and Dracula is never seen eating, we get even more hints of what he is like. Questions get raised to the reader such as, Why is he never seen eating? Why is he out during the day? Why is he not seen in a mirrors reflection? What are behind the locked doors? Why does he have such a strong reaction to blood? and Why does he react the way he does to the necklace holding the crucifix?

In my opinion this Chapter has been very important to the reader as it gives a very large insight to what Dracula is like. Its leaves the reader thinking about the various possibilities of what could happen. But we all really know what Dracula is.

Dracula Book 1st Chapter

1st Chapter

The first pre section of the chapter makes this book and story look like an actual event which adds an extra chill to the whole experiance. The author writing that he had just collected these papers and meerly just put them in order makes it an almost real experiance.

The main thing that stands out in this first chapter is that the character Jonathan Harker seems to be just a normal person and that when he arrives in Transylvania there begins to be alot of hints as to what the rest of the story holds. A main example of this is the old mans wife who begins to get upset on the fact that Jonathan is going to meet Count Dracula and start travel on the eve of St Georges Day. "Do you not know that tonight when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?" She is scared for this stranger's saftey, maybe as the myths would suggest that it would not be wise to do this as something could happen.

My first thoughts of this book is that it is chilling and does make you want to read more, partially because of the story line