Chapter 8 of Project Dracul Analysis delves into Mina Murray's journal entries, highlighting themes of foreshadowing, the "New Woman" concept, and the escalating supernatural influence of Dracula on Lucy Westenra, while also revealing Jonathan Harker's recovery and Renfield's increasing subservience to the Count.
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Welcome to chapter eight of project
Dracul Analysis.
Let's for this one continue our journey.
So chapter 8 opens with Mina Murray's journal.
journal.
Same day 11:00 p.m.
as it says there. I am tired. If I not
that I had made my diary a duty, I
should not open it tonight. Again,
another one of these self-referential
for Mina's character from Bram Stoker
there where it explains why she's
keeping these records so meticulously
when it might seem a little bit
far-fetched otherwise.
Then I thought this is quite fun here.
We had a lovely walk. Lucy after a while
was engaged spirits owing I think to
some dear cows who came nosing towards
us in a field close to the lighthouse
and frighten the wits out of us. Well,
it's obviously hyperbolic, but also
ironically foreshadows the real fear
Interestingly, there's a contextual
reference here for the new woman or to
the new woman, which is a late 19th
century, early 20th century cultural
shift where more women are doing more
jobs that were kind of previously
male only domains, women with more uh
kind of more progressive social
attitudes pushing ing boundaries that
earlier eras would have found shocking.
So really you've got
a lot of the DNA of the suffragette m
movement in the future as well in this
kind of idea. So it's very kind of very
much kind of connected at least in its
kind of early stage what we've got here.
So some of the new women writers will
someday start an idea that men and women
should be allowed to see each other
asleep before proposing or accepting.
But I suppose the new women won't
condescend in future to accept. She will
do the proposing herself. And a nice job
she will make of it too. So you can see
some like proto feminist ideas here
coming through at least for the
character of Mina. You can have a bit of
a debate thinking about think about it
yourself really. Is Stoker expecting us to
to
see Mina and Lucy as new women? Is he
expecting us to see Mina as a new woman
and Lucy is not as a new woman? Mina
herself doesn't think she's a new woman
as a character.
Are we not meant to see either of them
as new women? And that what does that
bring actually to the novel as well?
But it is interestingly like progressive
concept here. And ironically, yeah, it
foreshadows the future, but Stoker
wouldn't necessarily have realized that.
It's just that he's made a particular
prediction, hasn't he? There.
Then we have more references to Lucy sleepwalking,
sleepwalking,
which is
been a recurring theme so far. And we
said about liinal spaces and
sleepwalking between awake and being asleep.
asleep.
Then we have, thank God I said to
myself, she cannot be far as she is only
in her night dress. I do wonder if some
of these references to the women
undressing and what they're wearing in
bed is meant to be a kind of fruity
sizing exciting reference for Victorian
readers. It's another example of the
what would have been seen as the edgy
nature of the novel in the time as it
would have been more challenging established
established Victorian
Victorian
propriety morality a lot of the time
because of the the horrific nature of it
but also there is this sexual element to
the novel as well and the way it's
written here isn't necessarily
sexualized but I think it could be
interpreted in that way and maybe Stoke
was thinking
thinking of that
then we have
the reference to the favorite seat,
which we've already seen in previous
chapters, seems to be near where
Dracula's got his temporary
tomb. Well, it's not really a tomb as
such, but his temporary resting place in
the daytime so he can recharge his
vampire batteries.
The coming of the cloud, which is where
she finds, sorry, this is where she
finds Lucy. The coming of the clan was
too quick for me to see much, for shadow
shut down on light almost immediately.
But it seemed to me as though something
dark stood behind the where the white
figure shone. So Lucy is there and she's
actually mean doesn't realize it
obviously at this stage, but she's
For I was now close enough to
distinguish it even through the spells
of shadow. There was undoubtedly
something long and black bending over
the half reclining white figure. They
called in fright, "Lucy, Lucy." And
something raised her head. And for I
was, I could see a white face and red
gleaming eyes. So, there's alexis of
uncertainty here. It's not clear exactly
what she's seeing, but you can see
we know dramatic irony that it's
actually Dracula.
When I bent over, I could see that she
was still asleep. Her lips were parted
as she was breathing not softly as usual
with her, but in long heavy gas as
though striving to get her lungs full at
every breath.
So I think with that there are some
deliberate sexual connotations there as
well. So Lucy's heavy breathing is meant
to suggest I won't spell it out for you
for YouTube purposes. You can you can
fill in the gaps again if that's uh yeah
if I can say that. So you can work that
out yourselves, but it does seem to have
definitely there's some sexual
connotations here with Dracula's
encounter having just passed.
Okay, so we have
uh fortune favored us. We got home
without meeting a soul. So yeah, this is
where Mina has to get Lucy home in her
night dress and there's some concerns about
about
again Victorian propriety. She's going
to be seen out and about in a night
dress. So Victorian culture would think
maybe something saucy has been going on.
Once we saw a man who seemed not quite
sober. So there's a little bit of
looties there is an understatement. So
there's a drunken man doesn't see them and
and
So, she gets back home completely
without being spotted. There's only this
drunk man who didn't notice.
There's again dramatic irony. I was
sorry to notice that my clumsiness with
a safety pin hurt her. Indeed, it might
have been serious with the skin of her
throat was pierced and I have pinched up
a piece of loose skin and have
transfixed it for her. Two little red
points like pin pricks
and on the band of her nightress was a
drop of blood. Hm. What could that be?
So dramatic irony, but again Stoke has
got this theme of uh when when we
encounter things we don't understand or
things on the edge of known science and experience,
