Indie Henderson, chapters 1-4, setting

★ Pg8, “not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the castle Dracula”.
Dracula is isolated from society and so doesn’t have a place on the map. This
emphasises the sense of obscurity as we wonder why this place doesn’t exist on the
map; thus developing the fear of the unknown. Dracula’s castle is isolated from society,
Stoker uses the gothic concept isolation to provoke fear for the reader.

★ Pg9, “barbarian”. The people in the east don’t belong to civilisation; this links to the
gothic concept of the uncanny as they’re foreign to society.

“dark side of twilight”. Stoker develops obscurity through twilight. Twilight is the liminal
boundary between light and dark, Jonathan is in the dark side which could symbolise evil
and act as a warning foreshadowing the entrapment and isolation he’s about to
encounter. Light symbolises hope, so Jonathan being in the ‘dark side’ could imply a
sense of hopelessness.

“stormy”. Pathetic fallacy, storms are prevalent in gothic as they add suspense and allow
evil to hide, and the protagonist to miss things which would otherwise be seen. This
develops the concept of the unknown since storms obscure the setting and help develop
a sinister mood.

“fires”, “famine”, “disease”, semantic field of evil/suffering, suggests a place where evil
thrives and God isn’t present.

★ Pg14, “white gleam” this brief and faint light could symbolise Harker’s desperation to
hang onto any concept of hope.

“snow covered peak of a mountain”, the setting has now become cold, pathetic fallacy,
sense of death- dead bodies are cold, could hint at Dracula being in the liminal of life
and death.

“sun sank”, “shadows of the evening”, gothic concept of light vs dark, good vs evil, good
is abandoning the setting and evil is being awakened. The shadows “creep round us”,
this use of personification could symbolise evil attaching itself on harker and lurking
around him. Dracula could be present in the shadows?

“crossed himself” ”woman kneeling before a shrine” “many crosses”, semantic field of
religion emphasises the desperation of God to be present as evil is expected to come.
This is because its tbe eve of st georges day where evil gains power and all spells
against evil become broken.
 “growing twilight”, “dark mistiness of the gloom”, “grim”, God’s light has faded, evil and
death is awakened, Harker is in a place which has been abandoned by God.

“darkness to be closing down upon us”, Jonathan is being smothered into the darkness,
sense of entrapment and abandonment of hope. Darkness and gloom is creeping up to
him, creates suspense and terror.

★ Pg33, “a stone would fall a thousand feet without touching anything”, emphasises his
isolation in this sublime castle which Is 1000ft high. Sense of inferiority of Harker in
comparison to the setting.

“doors doors doors everywhere and all locked and bolted”, repetition of doors
exemplifies the huge size of the castle and Harker’s vulnerableness to the castle, the
fact they’re bolted symbolises forbidden knowledge. Doors are a realm to the unknown,
when you go through doors you symbolically transgress from the known to the unknown.

“I am a prisoner”, sense of entrapment as Harker’s tone changes and he realises what

he’s gotten himself into.

★ Pg40, “gloom and mystery which seemed closing round me”, sense of claustrophobia
and entrapment

★ Pg41, “shadows”, “blackness”, recurring motif of darkness.

“feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me”, Emphasises Harker’s inferiority
to the setting and the sense of the sublime. The reader experiences the fear of the
unknown alongside Harker as we feel terror for him.

★ Pg46, “Demons”, “flames” “fury”, “hell fire”, “deathly pale”, semantic field of hell, links to
evil thriving on the eve of st georges day, links to Dracula being a product of the devil.
This is further emphasised by the “hard soulless laughter” which “rang through the
room”, implying that Jonathan is already experiencing the after life or is trapped in hell.

★ Pg56, “dark tunnel like passages”, subterraneous passageways followed by a “deathly

sickly odour”. Scents could be used as a guidance towards bad events- usually people
would be rational and avoid bad scents but Harker is being lured in with it, encapsulating
his curiosity to know this forbidden knowledge and demolish this fear of the unknown.
“graveyard”, gothic feature, Jonathan finding himself in a graveyard could be symbolic of
the distinction of life vs death, good vs evil. These oppositions could also be symbolic in
Dracula’s character as he’s abhuman, he’s living but also dead.

“where dim light struggled”, this is symbolic of Harker’s hope corrupting and withering
away