Dracula – Ch6-7 - Notes

Previously on Days of Our Dracula Jonathan Harker, solicitor from England, went to Transylvania to discuss real estate purchases with Count Dracula. As it turns out, Dracula is an evil vampire set on relocating to England, where no one knows of his true nature. While Jonathan tries desperately to escape the Castle Dracula and the three vampiric “Brides of Dracula” with his life, Mina and Lucy gossip about Lucy’s suitors: a doctor / psychologist named John Seward, an American cowboy named Quincey Morris, and a nobleman named Arthur Holmwood.

Chapter 6 – Page 63-66 - Mina We continue with the writings of Mina, Jonathan’s fiancé. “Between [Whitby Abbey] and the town there is another church, the parish one round which is a big graveyard, all full of tombstones. This is to my mind the nicest spot in Whitby.” – Pg 63 Ah yes, chilling at the graveyard. How lovely. I’m sure all the young girls just love to spend their time this way. Totally normal. Scenic views aside, Mina and Lucy chill with a nice old man who also hangs out at the cemetery from time to time. While the old man puts no stock in legends – “It be all fool-talk” – he seems to have an odd theory regarding the graves. What does he say of them? – Pg 65 How does this odd vignette relate to the overall theme of death and undeath? “Edward Spencelagh, master mariner, murdered by pirates off the coast of Andres, April 1854, aet 30.” – Pg 66

Dr. Seward’s Diary – Pgs 68 - 70 Flies… Spiders… Sparrows… Dr. Seward studies his patient Renfield and his rather…odd diet. What is the “method” to Renfield’s madness? What is he doing, and what does he believe he will gain by it? How is he similar, yet different, from the vampires? Zoophagus – life eating.

Mina’s Journal – Pgs 70 - 73 “I am unhappy about Lucy and about Jonathan.” Why is Mina worried about Jonathan? Why is she worried about Lucy? Notice the repetition with each letter. “No news.” “Another week gone, and no news.” “Another three days, and no news.” Why tell us this, if not the author building our suspense? Did Jonathan make it? Did he not? The cliffhanger at the end of his chapter left us wanting answers. Why does the old man make light of death? How does this relate to one of the over-arching themes of this book (and many other Gothic works)?

Myth / Culture Note - Sleepwalking Various myths and folk beliefs exist regarding sleepwalking. “A person who talks when sleep walking will disclose secrets, if you lay a wet cloth on his head.” “Prevent sleepwalking by placing a pan of water under the sleepwalker’s bed.” “To awaken a sleepwalker will kill him.” For anything mysterious and unexplainable in life, the imagination weaves answers and folktales carry them on through the ages, even after real answers are found. To this day, stories include sleepwalking as a side effect of magical beings or influences.

Meanwhile… “Maybe it’s in that wind out over the sea that’s brin’ with it loss and wreck, and sore distress, and sad hearts. Look! Look!...There’s something in that wind and in the hoast beyont that sounds, and looks, and tastes, and smells like death.” – Pg 73 All this time, while people go about their normal daily lives, writing letters, getting engaged, going to work, going for walks, little do they know that something is coming for them.

Chapter 7 – Page 75 “One of the greatest and suddenest storms on record has just been experienced here, with results both strange and unique.” Is this the magical influence of so evil a thing coming to England, or just an old cliché? Recall the colder weather surrounding Dracula’s castle.

Myth / Culture Note - Storms Pathetic Fallacy – “A type of often accidental or awkward personification in which a writer ascribes the human feelings of his or her characters to inanimate objects or non-human phenomena surrounding them in the natural world.” In other words, this is when the natural world does things in response to human feelings and affairs, as if the sun shines because you’re happy, or it rains because you’re sad. As if nature cares. Many stories are guilty of opening with a “dark and stormy night,” or describing a coming evil or dark event later in the story as “there’s a storm coming.” Such works as the Stand, Storm of the Century, and American Gods use literal storms to represent or mirror a great evil or conflict in the story, usually in the climax of the narrative.

A Ship “As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” – Pg 76 This is a description of the ship coming in during the storm, though it is also a quote from / allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. A comparison to that ship does not bode well, as that was another Gothic story – one of ghosts and death and undeath aboard a shipride. All but one of the crew survived.

The Demeter What’s odd about the ship coming in during the storm? When it lands, what do investigators find on deck? (See page 78). Knowing what we know, what likely happened to the crew? Who is responsible? How did they not know he was aboard? And furthermore, how did he leave the ship in front of everyone?

Captain’s Log Note how the epistolary form – narrative through various written accounts – makes certain stories more possible. The dead sailors tell their tale from the grave. Newspaper clippings add needed information between chapters. The variety of authors and points of view even adds the illusion of things having actually happened. How did the crew die? How did the man at the wheel come to be there?

Mina – Page 84-85 “Lucy was very restless all night.” What a coincidence that Lucy’s sleep walking starts as Dracula approaches, accelerates as he arrives. Make predictions as to what will happen, as to what the significance of this might be.

Myth / Culture Note – The Demeter Demeter is not only the name of a ship, but a name from mythology, as well In Greek mythology, Demeter was a goddess of the earth, of harvest and agriculture, of sacred law, and of the cycle of life and death. How does this relate to the ship and its contents?