key quotes dracula
Created by 15387-tookyluv
'I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the border of three states'
Harker (Chapter 1)
- sets up East v West conflict and suggests I has little identity and is hard to pin point - part of his irrational mind
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
'I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the border of three states' | Harker (Chapter 1)
- sets up East v West conflict and suggests I has little identity and is hard to pin point - part of his irrational mind |
'...one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe' | Harker (Chapter 1)
- East vs West |
Superstition 'the centre of some sot of imaginative whirlpool' | Harker (Chapter 1)
- metaphor shows how out of control superstition is in the East and its danger to Victorian modernity |
'...the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains' | Harker (Chapter 1)
- East seen as uncivilised and unmodern |
'the light of the lamps...projected against...the figures of my late companions crossing themselves' | Harker (Chapter 1)
- 'lamp' symbolises rational society shining on superstitious east. |
'I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident' | Harker (Chapter 1)
- uncertainty conveyed in 'I think' questions epigraphs belief that memory is always fact. Harker knows little of his irrational other |
'The whole room behind me was displayed; but there was no sign of a man in it, except myself' | Harker (Chapter 2)
- mirror a symbol of Victorian rationality
- supernatural occurrence suggests doppelganger of Harker; he is also Dracula |
'The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice' | Harker (Chapter 2)
- setting used to show Victorian fear of falling back into feudal past at 'peak of modernity' |
'...doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted' | Harker (Chapter 2)
- repetition shows frustration at social constraints to evade uncovering own irrationality
- setting also symbolises societies fears of its repressed desires |
'I might let the servants know I had finished - but I could not find one.' | Harker (Chapter 2)
- no servants and rich suggests Dracula is not a real man.
- He is a symbol of capitalism and alludes to how Marx described capitalism as a vampiric force, sucking the blood from the working classes |
'though it seemed to be locked, gave a little under pressure' | Harker (Chapter 3)
- his repressed desires are untouched but he willingly transgresses |
'The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.' | Harker (Chapter 3)
- Harker uses his diary entries as a way of rationalising the irrational. |
'I felt in my heart a wicked desire' | Harker (Chapter 3)
- antithesis of 'wicked' and 'desire' shows how Harker knows his 'eve of wedding' desires cannot be shown (social repression) but knows he's transgressed. |
'I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes' | Harker (Chapter 3)
- 'lashes' - feminine symbol shows how Harker is emasculated by the vampire women |
'both thrilling and repulsive' | Harker (Chapter 3)
- ANTITHESIS |
"Yes, I too can love:...' | Dracula (Chapter 3)
- potential homoerotic desire of the Count highlights Victorian fear of subversive sexuality |
'I shall try to do what I see lady journalists do...' | Mina (Chapter 5)
- embraces liberated role of New Woman here. Stoker alludes to how women's professions were broadened. |
'Oh, Mina, dear, I can't help crying.' | Lucy (Chapter 5)
- Stoker highlights fears of liberating women because they are too emotional |
'Why can't a girl marry three men, or as many as she wants to?' | Lucy (Chapter 5)
- Lucy is liberated and transgresses from social norms. Victorian fear of New Woman leaving loyal domestic role is revealed. |
'What was it, whether man or beast, I could not tell' | Mina (Chapter 8)
- Acknowledges duplicity and blurring of boundaries Dracula represents |
'...I could see Lucy half-reclining with her head lying over the back of the seat' | Mina (Chapter 8)
- 'half' suggests ambiguity as it is a medial state between being victimise and transgression |
'I toiled up the endless steps' | Mina (Chapter 8)
- agency shown against supernatural force |
'the God created from human vanity sees no difference between an eagle and a sparrow' | Seward (Chapter 8)
- suggests Renfield is insane because he refuses to acknowledge a hierarchy.
- makes us question Seward's professional judgement |
'I must be careful not to let it grow into a habit' | Seward (Chapter 8)
- allusion to drug taking ironically makes us believe his judgement is clouded. |
"A brave man's blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in trouble" | Van Helsing (Chapter 12)
- exaggerative to reinforce own masculinity
- blood transfusion represents modern attempt to subdue supernatural and sex - Van Helsing suggests sex is what reinforces masculinity |
'...has had put into her veins the blood of four strong men' | Van Helsing (Chapter 12)
- sexual transgression on behalf of Lucy
- shows appetite of New Woman but she remains passive |
'Arthur was simply choking with emotion' | Seward (Chapter 12)
- 'choking' implies being overcome; Arthur is overcome by emotion, an ironically feminine characteristic |
'he laughed again, and laughed and cried together, just as a woman does' | Seward (Chapter 13)
- hysterics typically a condition treated for women as it means 'from the womb'
- suggests blurring of gender roles through Van Helsing's laughter - transgressive |
"yet even at such moment King Laugh come to me and shout and bellow in my ear..." | Van Helsing (Chapter 13)
- personifies psychological transgression - shows he is out of control of psyche |
'...and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe' | Seward (Chapter 16)
- New Woman seen as corrupting purity of Victorian ideology |
'Lucy's eyes unclean and full of hell-fire' | Seward (Chapter 16)
- positions Lucy as Medusa figure - she emasculates men - resembling fear of New Woman to social and religious authority |
"Come, my husband, come!" | Lucy (Chapter 16)
- Lucy shown to be conventional compared to men - she conforms to monogamy |
"And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water" | Van Helsing (Chapter 16)
- image alludes to Harker's earlier image in Chapter 4.
- highlights fear of the 'other' being released into everyday spaces uncontrollably |
'The Thing' | Seward (Chapter 16)
- objectifies Lucy to make it easier to commit violent act of killing her |
'The body show and quivered and twisted in wild contortions' | Seward (Chapter 16)
- actions show pain but also sexual arousal on Lucy's part |
'He looked like a figure of Thor' | Seward (Chapter 16)
- Arthur positioned as god-like in reclaiming masculinity by staking Lucy |
'He reeled and would have fallen had we not caught him' | Seward (Chapter 16)
- Arthur immediately shown to be effeminate, making us question Seward's grandiose description of him as a 'figure of Thor' |
'All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions' | Van Helsing
- blurring of boundaries between archaic and modern. Modern seen as something which can't ironically destroy the past |
'He was never so resolute, never so strong, never so full of volcanic energy' | Mina
- Mina reinforces masculinity of Jonathan despite the fact we know he has had a breakdown.
- Proves lack of self-insight in fighters of Dracula |
'She has a man's brain...and woman's heart' | Van Helsing
- reinforces idea that Mina is androgynous in terms of gender. |
'but it is no part for a woman' | Van Helsing
- forced subordination of Mina |
'...talking elemental philosophy, and with the manner of a polished gentleman' | Seward
- we doubt Seward's judgement due to suddenly suggesting Renfield is sane. Makes us question notion of sanity |
'but some lethargy seemed to chain my limbs and even my will' | Mina (Chapter 19)
- encounter with Dracula positioned as passive and victimised |
'I must be careful of such dreams' | Mina (Chapter 19)
- dismisses encounter with Dracula as irrational nonsense |
'...his face flushed, and breathing heavily as though in a stupor' | Seward (Chapter 21)
- Harker emasculated and positioned as victim |
'Her white nightdress was smeared with blood' | Seward (Chapter 21)
- symbolic of forced sexual encounter with Dracula. Seward positions it as assault |
'a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink' | Seward (Chapter 21)
- simile strangely and contradictorily suggests Mina's encounter with Dracula is both assaulting and nourishing |
'champed together like those of a wild beast' | Seward (Chapter 21)
- simile reveals animalistic 'otherness' of the Count |
"Unclean! Unclean!" | Seward (Chapter 21)
- Mina's exclamation shows how she believes she has corrupted the purity of marriage
- intertextual reference to Leviticus |
"All the manuscript had been burned...the cylinders of your phonograph too were thrown on the fire' | Arthur (Chapter 21)
- Dracula positioned as clear threat to modernity |
"tell us exactly what happened" | Van Helsing (Chapter 21)
- ironic to ask this to Mina when Crew of Light saw Dracula's attack
- blurs boundaries of truth and lies |
"I did not want to hinder him" | Mina (Chapter 21)
- Mina accepts sexual encounter with Count |
'I was in a half swoon" | Mina (Chapter 21)
- repetition of 'half' alludes to Lucy's liminal state earlier in novel |
"And so you, like the others, would play your brains against me" | Dracula (Chapter 21)
- Dracula seems to accuse Mina of betraying him for having liberated her |
"...so that I must either suffocate or swallow some of the - " | Mina (Chapter 21)
- Mina's omission suggests sexual encounter with Dracula
- positions herself as forced into transgression |
'had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal' | Harker (Chapter 22)
- simile about wafer suggests Mina has transgressed and destroyed Christian purity |
'in my trance I heard the cows low and water swirling...' | Mina (Chapter 26)
- Mina relies on map to deduce Dracula's position but also reliant on telepathic link - irrational |
'I shudder as though I have come to do murder' | Van Helsing (Chapter 27)
- 'shudder' highlights the terror of understanding one's own barbarism
- Van Helsing has lack of self-insight, suggesting killing vampire women is not murder |
'...the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss - and man is weak' | Van Helsing (Chapter 27_
- Van Helsing positions female sexuality as threat to men |
'it was butcher work' | Van Helsing (Chapter 27)
- embraces own barbarism |
'The Professor and I...held out weapons ready' | Mina (Chapter 27)
- weaponry usually a masculine utensil but Mina has it, so is on equal footing with men |
'instinctively they cowered aside and let him pass' | Mina (Chapter 27)
- unrealistic masculine view of Jonathan's strength and masculinity |
'It was like a miracle' | Mina (Chapter 27)
- simile reveals how Crew of Light he killing Dracula not as brutality but as defending religion |
'The castle stood as before...' | Harker (Note)
- symbolis for remaining threat of Dracula
- return to Transylvania shows how characters still continue to embrace irrational |
'there is hardly one authentic document...' | Harker (Note)
- narrative unreliability |
"What a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care" | Van Helsing (Note)
- Mina positioned as combination of masculine and feminine qualities which must be preserved. Stoker shows Mina as the perfect New Woman - link to Sos Elis |
'he might satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever widening circle of semi-demons...' | Harker (Chapter 4)
- highlights Victorian fear of foreigners infiltrating British purity. |
'A terrible desire came over me to rid the world of this monster' | Harker (Chapter 4)
- highlights violence of Victorian society beneath moderate surface |
'I cannot think freely when my body is confined' | Renfield (Chapter 20)
- Seward shown to be cruel as a Victorian symbol of modernity |