Briana Estrada
While reading the beginning of Bram Stoker’s Dracula; we come past a very common style of writing like in the past gothic works we’ve read in class such as Frankenstein and Castle of Otranto. I think that this is done in purpose so we can have this background knowledge to assume what our main characters and protagonists are earning for,what are their strengths, their weaknesses, or are they a narcissistic type of character like we’ve seen in Frankenstein.
The setting and mood in Dracula essentially transitions when Stoker describes Jonathan Harker’s outings throughout the countryside in Eastern Europe. I think this was clever of the author to include this because it sets a tone, as everything is normal and bright in the beginning, so being that we know this is a gothic literature and Dracula at that we can already assume that there is going to be darkness soon to come. Stoker shows us the gothic when Jonathan Harker is going up to Dracula’s dark castle, it’s described as “strange and uncanny” to Harker. When the count warns Harker that it is the day of St. George when “all evil happens” and gives him a crucifix;this ultimately makes the fear set in within Harker and he now is aware that something might or will happen.
I think that Dracula and Harker will essentially have a relationship like Victor and the creature in Frankenstein; and it’s reoccurring in a way how in gothic literature we see these two proganists who always need or have conflict with eachother.
