This analysis of Bram Stoker's Dracula focuses on the novel's opening chapters, particularly Jonathan Harker's journal, to explore the theme of crossing boundaries, both geographical and cultural, from the civilized West to the superstitious East, and the unsettling supernatural elements encountered along the way.
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hello and welcome to project dracunalysis that's quite a grand name but this
is an intended series where i'm going to go through dracula chapter by chapter and
pick out some interesting bits and focus particularly on the theme of crossing
boundaries and there might be some other things that you're interested in as well so hopefully
this will work out so this is a bit of a pilot we'll see how it goes if people like this
I'll make more of them okay so this is an addition I found online so it's a really gripping cover
you've got to admit there isn't so the American publication some variations in spelling but I
could have um one that wasn't an America online there you go that's my exciting story for the day
anyway going through it we'll get the pointer ready here and
we'll have a look so first line i want to talk about here which is particularly good for crossing
boundaries this is all Jonathan Harker's journal of course and it's part of the epistolary format
of the whole novel which is a collection of letters and journals and other articles
which adds to the realism particularly when you're talking about something that's supernatural and
fantastical and unlikely it helps to sell it a bit more and in my mind i see it as very similar to
the found footage horror genre in modern times if you think stoke has picked it
for this reason to lend it some credibility and create a sense of suspense as well i think
even though you could argue well everything's happened so you know someone's collected all
these documents together but i think it still adds to that suspense anyway we'll focus on
the first bit i want to talk about here and this is good for crossing boundaries because we have
this line which is the impression i had was that we were leaving the west and entering the east
the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube which is here of noble width and depth
took us among the traditions of Turkish rule i think the bit that's particular interest
for crossing boundaries is of course leaving the west and entering the east and that's one
of the themes of the novel the contrast between western Europe and eastern europe and particularly
what at the time of writing would be the ultra civilized ultra modern most powerful
country of all which would be victorian england and jonathan harker there's a bit of a culture
shock as he's going further east there's a sense that he's going back in time almost to a more
medieval era effectively and tellingly down here you can see there's also a bit of criticism of
here there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own ordnance survey maps so
he's obviously very proud of there there's a bit of patriotism coming through already
and moving on we have we have this metaphor here where we have
every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the carpathians
as if it were the center of some sort of imaginative whirlpool
if so my stay may be very interesting so a bit of dramatic irony there
and foreshadowing and actually litotes because it turns out to be litotes at this stage
turns out to be an understatement it certainly is very interesting
more than interesting then we have the next bit here where I did not sleep well though my bed
was comfortable enough for I had all sorts of queer dreams there was a dog howling all night
under my window which may have had something to do with it possible inference of it could be
Dracula himself in his wolf form it could be one of the brides of Dracula
but whatever it is stoker is establishing that something very strange is happening
and at the bottom i'd highlighted about harker's judgments about the local women the women look
pretty except when you got near them but they were very clumsy about the waist and that says a
bit of context about victorian attitudes to female appearance and of course is heavily corseted maybe
was the with the fashions like heavily i don't think i would very tightly corseted women is what
he's thinking of so again highlighting cultural differences and i think again there's a medieval
feel and i haven't highlighted it but in the description of the dress of this Slovaks there
is as is referred to a very medieval feel so the description of the of the women and also of the
men as well there's a medieval feel to it so this reinforces the sense of he's going back in time
to a land of superstition then we have again i've highlighted here golden chrome hotel counter
actually directed me to go to the Golden Krone hotel golden kroner hotel of course coincidentally
or not probably coincidentally a crone c-r-o-n-e is another name for or a synonym for
a witch and it can be a coin so there's polysemic meaning there for that so that actually adds to
the suspense as well that something disturbing is going to happen and then on to the next page we've
got about the superstitions here so the fourth of may uh i found that my landlord got a letter from
the account direct him to secure the best place on the coach for me but on making inquiries as
the details he seemed somewhat reticent and pretended that he could understand my German
this could not be true because up to then he had understood it perfectly at least he answered my
questions exactly as if he did so again stoker establishes mystery here early on something that
to hacker defies logical explanation of why he doesn't understand him but of course
as readers we can tell it's to do with suspicion about
superstition not suspicion of count Dracula and the danger that he poses and Harker dismisses all
of these superstitions doesn't he as well both he and his wife cross themselves and there's also um
the superstitions about saint George's day do you not know that tonight when the clock
strikes midnight all the evil things in the world would have full sway do
you know where you were going and what you were going to do and of course this is a
horror trope that we've become very familiar with is of the outsider going to somewhere
dangerous and the locals warn that outsider so it's a very much a literary trope but it's
also a trope of horror films to this day isn't it when you think about it
finally she went down on her knees and implored me not to go at least to wait a day or two before
starting it was all very ridiculous but i did not feel comfortable so again the intensity
of emotion the intensity of the warning that harker is receiving but of course he ignores
it because he is a rationally minded English solicitor so he's not going to succumb to these
peasant superstitions and fears he or the minute and also he's got no reason to really suspect that
anything strange is happening because we all know that Dracula is a vampire we've all heard of him
but of course the characters within the novel and stoker has written it in obviously it's the first
it's the first it's not the first vampire story but it's obviously the first most significant
literary vampire story and they don't realize they're a part of that world they don't realize
the things we know so it looks a bit obvious to us but to obviously to Harker it's not so much
then again cultural differences this is good for crossing boundaries as well
she dried her eyes and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me i did not know what to do
for as an English churchman i have been taught to regard such things in some measure
idolatrous and it seems so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well in such a state of mind
so again he's he's a Victorian English rational Anglican church background he regards these
little um well you guys are the minute in a critical way these tokens of prayer
and he sees them as yeah idolatrous so like false idols effectively
so but again the locals actually know what he needs and of course his rational English
solicitor mind thinks that i'm gonna treat this with suspicion but of course it's actually what he
needs really to survive and later these objects to help him later on then he talks about his
journey and I've highlighted this bit here they're evidently talking of me for every now and then
they looked at me and some of the people who were sitting on the bench outside the door which they
call by name meaning word bearer came and listened and then looked at me most of them pityingly
i could hear a lot of words often repeated queer words for the many nationalities in the crowd
so i quietly got my polyglot dictionary for my bag and looked them out i must say they were not
cheering to be for amongst them were ordog satan pokol hell strigoica which vrollock and vlog
which which both of which mean the same thing one being slovak and the other serbian for suspicions
against stoker is building suspense he's building a sense of fear and you've got
lexis it's it's foreign lexis in this case but we get translations of
all of these words which have all got connotations of the occult supernatural of hell and
and it's all dangerous and threatening isn't it that is either werewolf or vampire and an ironic
memo member random to himself i must ask the count about and yeah werewolf a vampire that's
important on that page and then there's a metaphor there forest lair green sloping land full of
forests and woods with here in their steep hills crowned with clumps of trees or with farm houses
so i just don't know why I'd highlighted that as a little just liked the nice
sense of beauty of the landscape before Harker is exposed to danger there's a
reference to god's seat as well look it's didn't sec god's seat and he crossed himself reverently
so Harker doesn't follow the local superstitions he doesn't believe in the local superstitions
but the locals know of the danger that Harker is reaching himself or reaching towards i should say
then the even the cart here sounds slightly sinister its description snake like vertebra
calculated to suit the equalities of the road to the peasants card even that has
in some ways sinister connotations because of being snake as an adjective and we also have
so the danger continues on the journey the um the fear and worry of the passengers
the excitement of the passengers grew greater
and suede like a boat tossed on a stormy sea there there's the uh simile there for you
the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye so again a reference to local
superstitions that the locals from Dracula and actually is one of the reasons why Dracula wants
to get away from the area is because the locals are quite wise to him and can block his vampiric
shenanigans that's a nice way of describing it and then obviously Harker will transfer
from one coach to another one and this is what happens here isn't it so whilst you're speaking
the horses began to name snort and plunge wildly so that the driver had to hold them up
then amongst the course of screams of the peasants at a universal crossing of themselves a caleche
with four horses drove up behind us overtook us and drew up beside the coach I could see from the
flash of our lamps as the rays fell on them but the horses were cold black and splendid animals
so these even these horses this is dracula's coach even the horses are spooky but yeah cold black
so they look kind of sinister and unusual they were driven by a tall man with a
long brown beard and a great black cat which seemed to hide his face from us
i could only see the gleam of pet of a pair of very bright eyes which seemed red
in the lamp light this is dracula in disguise dracula believes in kind of micro manager
he's very much a micro manager no one will work for him really will they that's the thing so he's
also the coach driver here but obviously we don't we don't know this obviously but you can deduce
that there's something unusual about him and he fits the descriptions later on about the red eyes
in the night
then uh you are early tonight my friend the man stamberton replied the english hair was in a
hurry to which the strange replied this is why i suppose you wished him to go on to boca vina
you cannot deceive me my friend i know too much and my horses are swift so supernatural knowledge
there isn't as there's a bit of how did he know it's because of it's dracula and he's
got some idea he maybe he was smiling in bat form or wall form or maybe he just heard it in the air
through the creatures of the night who knows but it doesn't matter it just adds to the mystery
and the suspense one of my companions whispered to another the line from burgers or burgers
for the dead trust and that is literally true because dracula is a coach driver
does drive fast he does travel first then the driver helping me with a hand which caught my arm
in a grip of steel his strength must have been prodigious and that's another clue that we're
talking about dracula here that he's got super strength and there's something unnatural about him
then we have a then a dog began to house somewhere in a five house far down the road
a long agonized wailing as if from fear the sound was taken up by another dog and then another and
another until born on the wind which now slides softly through the past and wild howling began
which seemed to come from all over the country that's incremental isn't it there's a build-up
there to the idea of this atmosphere of fear and danger and the dogs howling
then then far from the distance from the mountains and each side of us began a louder
and sharp howling that of wolves which affected both the horses and myself in the same way
before i wanted to jump through the caliche and run again more sense of supernatural more
fear more of danger more of predators you know the connotations of predators the wolf
so harker is endangered stoker is emphasizing that danger there's the mystery
of the flames i saw a faint flickering blue flame i did not know what to do the less as
the howling of the wolves grew closer but while i wanted the driver suddenly appeared again
without a word took his seat and we resumed our journey so there's mysterites appearing which is
very much of the gothic horror genre which i've not mentioned so far but i'm sure you're aware
dracula is a gothic novel of course it may be one of the most famous gothic novels
then uh he went rapidly to where the blue flame arose it must have been very faint for he did not
seem to illumine the place around it at all and gathering a few stones formed into some device
once there appeared a strange optical effect when he stood between me and the flame he did
not obstruct it for i could see his ghostly flicker all the same this started me but the
effect was only momentary i took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness so some
kind of supernatural ritual of some kind by the looks of it maybe so he can pass
through dracula can pass through there he is i saw around us a ring of walls
with white teeth and lolling red tongues with long sinewy limbs and shaggy hair
so we talked about the connotations of predators and there's color for gothic genre and in in
this novel there's lots of repetition of the color of white and the color of red
because they are colors you associate with gothic horror don't you and then how he came there i know
not but i heard his voice raising the tone of imperious commander looking towards the sound
saw him stand in the roadway so so he's again his dracula supernatural ability
he can it almost looks like he's teleporting somehow he doesn't know how he's got there
as he swept his long arms as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle the wolf fell
back and back further still and it's another one of dracula's powers to communicate with
only spooky animals he's like an evil doctor do little i don't know i don't think you talk
to all animals but spooky ones yes i think he's absolutely fine then we have uh the last part
we kept on ascending with occasional periods of quick descent but in the main always ascending
suddenly i became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in
the courtyard of a vast ruined castle from whose whose tall black windows came no ray of light
and whose broken battle which showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky so gothic genre
ruined castle very much part of that as well that medieval kind of lexus of courtyard
castle ruined as well and battlements so again that contributes to the idea again of
harker has now reached the end of his journey and he's gone back he's like he hasn't actually
but it's like he's gone back in time to this medieval dangerous world and there's been
uh inexplicable events which just don't make sense to his er english solicitor rational mind
and the advice and superstitions of the locals are behind him and he's on his own now
and he's in danger and again it's night as well tallback windows came no ray of light as well so
deliberately created a very sinister feel so i'm gonna stop there with this and
if this proves popular enough i will make some more and i will try and make more than one a week
if i can because it'll take ages otherwise but yeah like and subscribe and let me know if you
want to hear more of these and i'll keep doing them so thank you for listening and stay safe
oh oh
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