This chapter really hits home how Gothic this novel has the potential to be. Just when i was relaxing into a tale of two men in a castle trying to work out life's little foibles one of the men turn into the scariest being i have ever seen written on paper. and to make things worse he is holding John in the castle as prisoner with wolves on the outside and three vampire women on the inside. At this moment in time i cant help but feel utter despair at the fact that John simply cant get a break. At last for the first time i feel completely and utterly stuck into the novel by the neck (what a pun!)
I feel i am so interested because the secrets of Dracula seem to be coming out of the seems with passages of him crawling out of his window in a lizard fasion and seeing the true insanity and fear striking look of him as he throws the woman across the room. Along with this there are two other intimidating figures along with Dracula that seem to be closing in on poor John. The three women seem to grasp the Gothic feeling of dream-like erryness and lust that intertwines into a fantastically thrilling passage. i like the three women in a strange way because unlike Dracula they have an obvious lust for blood which is shown when they will go so far as to actually eat a baby. the wolves seem to just be on guard as if they are makign a symbollic statement to keep John away from any chance of escape. this intimidates me and they haven't even really done anything yet.
right now i'm loving the book and will be reading on as soon as i have finished this blog. hopefully the action and underlying tension rise and rise and rise until i can't contain my excitment about the novel.
Tuesday 29 September 2009
chapter 2
From the start i felt the meeting of Jonathan and Dracula was a bit of an anti-climax which may have been on purpose by Stoker. he spent a whole first chapter in detail talking of the views and linking in Gothic styles of writing to inject shallow fear into the reader of what is about to come and then when the meeting did come i found myself reading it twice to look for some sort of depth or double meaning to it but as yet there was none. he is referred to as "an old man" completely taking away his intimidating reputation the reader has made in his head and replacing it with an image of my grandad handing me a worthers original. there is no explanation to his face at the first meeting and regarding speech Jonathan gets a hearty welcome from Dracula. this perhaps makes the reader relax a little which makes me feel even more that this was on purpose of stoker because obviously it is meant to be a dark novel. i feel at this stage there is much more to Dracula and that he will rebuild his reputation quickly into something that is worse than it was originally
the full description of Dracula is very impressive i personally like the line "his face was a strong-a very strong-aquiline." this makes the features scary but Dracula's overall speaking and ways seem to be that of a gentleman which makes me as the reader trust him which again i feel was done on purpose.
i have read on and see that Dracula is not as nice as i had hoped. quite frankly he likes blood so much so he can't control himself when Jonathan cut his chin through shaving. it was a exciting passage because so far it had been all pleasant and polite then suddenly this side of Dracula just jumps out on Jonathan and the reader making me feel stupid for trusting him in the first place. luckily the woman gave Jonathan the cross otherwise things would have been worse.
the chapter ends with examining the beauty of the place around him. i feel that this is an unnecessary place to be explaining beauty when Dracula has just tried to bite John's neck off but once again i feel this is done on purpose.
so far my problems with the novel are that the description seems too precise not leaving much to the imagination and the actual action in the novel seems too far and few in between. Saying this i feel the description is very good and intrigues me and when the action does happen it makes me more excited than if it were happening constantly.
the full description of Dracula is very impressive i personally like the line "his face was a strong-a very strong-aquiline." this makes the features scary but Dracula's overall speaking and ways seem to be that of a gentleman which makes me as the reader trust him which again i feel was done on purpose.
i have read on and see that Dracula is not as nice as i had hoped. quite frankly he likes blood so much so he can't control himself when Jonathan cut his chin through shaving. it was a exciting passage because so far it had been all pleasant and polite then suddenly this side of Dracula just jumps out on Jonathan and the reader making me feel stupid for trusting him in the first place. luckily the woman gave Jonathan the cross otherwise things would have been worse.
the chapter ends with examining the beauty of the place around him. i feel that this is an unnecessary place to be explaining beauty when Dracula has just tried to bite John's neck off but once again i feel this is done on purpose.
so far my problems with the novel are that the description seems too precise not leaving much to the imagination and the actual action in the novel seems too far and few in between. Saying this i feel the description is very good and intrigues me and when the action does happen it makes me more excited than if it were happening constantly.
Thursday 24 September 2009
dracula first chapter
to be honest at present i am not terribly happy with the way in which i am learning about Gothic writing. using the computer to write about my opinion of a book seems a very long winded approach to learning, where not so long ago i would put pen to paper and write notes on a book and talk to my teacher about any problems. unfortunately this is had i have been given so here is how I'm feeling about the novel right now.
At first confusion set in to my feelings about the man present in the diary entries, not quite knowing his motive or position in life added to my confusion. All his opinions or adventures seem to revolve around "The Count" or "Mina", The Count being a mysterious figure and Mina being equally as mysterious but not as intimidating as a name such as The Count.
I found the descriptive writing to be detailed and astonishingly interesting. Throughout the stories i have read, everyone seems to skip ahead to a bit where someone says something but during this part of the novel i found myself reading the descriptive writing very intently with great interest. only two things confused me about the novel so far and that is:
1) what does it mean when people cross themselves? is it some sort of religious thing done to prevent supernatural attacks?
2) who got rid of the wolves near the end of the chapter? was it The Count or the man driving the carriage?
except all this i did in fact find the chapter to be very descriptive if not overly descriptive but interesting all the same. The chapter left me thinking about what will happen next and if the man will ever reach his destination because he seems to be switching carriages, hanging around with peasants or have strange and slightly intimidating drivers all the time. Right now I'm hooked and am looking forward to digging deeper into the Gothic nature of the book which has already been hinted at with witching hours, wolves howling and of course the main Gothic feeling of darkness.
i feel that once The Count has been introduced and the man comes to the castle then Gothic description will be emphasised more and in greater detail. i feel that darkness will play a huge key in this novel along with superstitious inputs to hint at problems that are about to happen. My prediction is that he will enter the castle and meet The Count to which his fears will become a huge reality with a slow build up of tension to create a massive interest in the book to the reader leaving them fully hooked on Dracula until the end of the book.
At first confusion set in to my feelings about the man present in the diary entries, not quite knowing his motive or position in life added to my confusion. All his opinions or adventures seem to revolve around "The Count" or "Mina", The Count being a mysterious figure and Mina being equally as mysterious but not as intimidating as a name such as The Count.
I found the descriptive writing to be detailed and astonishingly interesting. Throughout the stories i have read, everyone seems to skip ahead to a bit where someone says something but during this part of the novel i found myself reading the descriptive writing very intently with great interest. only two things confused me about the novel so far and that is:
1) what does it mean when people cross themselves? is it some sort of religious thing done to prevent supernatural attacks?
2) who got rid of the wolves near the end of the chapter? was it The Count or the man driving the carriage?
except all this i did in fact find the chapter to be very descriptive if not overly descriptive but interesting all the same. The chapter left me thinking about what will happen next and if the man will ever reach his destination because he seems to be switching carriages, hanging around with peasants or have strange and slightly intimidating drivers all the time. Right now I'm hooked and am looking forward to digging deeper into the Gothic nature of the book which has already been hinted at with witching hours, wolves howling and of course the main Gothic feeling of darkness.
i feel that once The Count has been introduced and the man comes to the castle then Gothic description will be emphasised more and in greater detail. i feel that darkness will play a huge key in this novel along with superstitious inputs to hint at problems that are about to happen. My prediction is that he will enter the castle and meet The Count to which his fears will become a huge reality with a slow build up of tension to create a massive interest in the book to the reader leaving them fully hooked on Dracula until the end of the book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)