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.