Dracula as a Gothic Novel

[JakeE]

Hola. For my English Class I'm required to write a literary analysis on a novel. I chose Dracula and now I'm having trouble finding quotes throughout the book that help support Dracula as a Gothic Novel. So, if you'd be so kind, please help me locate quotes from within the novel to help support Dracula as a Gothic Novel.


Thanks in advance.

[Liv]

Hola. For my English Class I'm required to write a literary analysis on a novel. I chose Dracula and now I'm having trouble finding quotes throughout the book that help support Dracula as a Gothic Novel. So, if you'd be so kind, please help me locate quotes from within the novel to help support Dracula as a Gothic Novel.


Thanks in advance.

"pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of greyness"
"there were dark, rolling clouds overhead, and in the air the heavy, oppresive sense of thunder"
" All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had some peculiar effect on them"
"the driver was in the act of pullin up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlight sky.
" frowning walls and dark window openings"
hope thats what you need.
read some william blake poetry, as i think that is considered to be gothic style writing, making external links will help support your piece.

[phantompfreak]

hey,jake!!you choose a great book,one of my favorites!!!!its not all always the quotes that make a book,its the background;other people in the story.what makes dracula gothic is the time,this story is based on vald the impaler,from the 1400's.he was a really bad guy.the story starts there and moves on to the late 1800's.gothic is all about being dark and romance and the architectural style.so as you read,think about large castles and mountians.you should rent "bram strokes dracula",its very close too the book;only difference is all the journal's.a truly beautiful and heartbreaking love story.you like it and good luck!!!

[ellzooo]

hey,jake!!you choose a great book,one of my favorites!!!!its not all always the quotes that make a book,its the background;other people in the story.what makes dracula gothic is the time,this story is based on vald the impaler,from the 1400's.he was a really bad guy.the story starts there and moves on to the late 1800's.gothic is all about being dark and romance and the architectural style.so as you read,think about large castles and mountians.you should rent "bram strokes dracula",its very close too the book;only difference is all the journal's.a truly beautiful and heartbreaking love story.you like it and good luck!!!

Not all to true. The book doesn't begin in the 1400s its set completely in the 1800s I think. That beginning was only in the film.

Personally I didn't enjoy either one. Eventhough I enjoyed the idea of Dracula it fell short of my expectations entirely; I thought the book was poorly written and the film poorly produced.

Harker's first impression of the count's delapatated castle is particularly gothic & the last two lines of chapter 1 sum that up very nicely. It's a setting that is very important to the Gothic tradition... very atmospheric.

Another area which you could talk about is 'Romanticism' which was a very popular style of writing with gothic authors of the 1800s. A great example of this is where Harker is travelling to the count's castle in chapter 1 and he talks a lot about nature.

One of my favourite sections in the book though which is filled with gothic imagery is chapter with the three sinister women (fittingly enough this appeared as a question in my AS exam :) ) especially where Harker talks about the moonlight and how he has disturbed something in th room.

I can't remember the book all to well anymore eventhough I have only jst finished my AS exam but nature is very important to the gothic tradition. Things such as shadows (Dracula and the women do not form shadows and in chapter one Harker explains how he feels "the shadows of the evening began to creep around" him effectively making them threatning through personification) and sounds like screaming are also very typical of the genre.

One thing which you could do as was said by someone else was to refer to is further gothic writing. I'm using a book called "The Gothic Tradition (Cambridge Contexts in Literature)" by David Stevens as my A2 bible (again I'm covering the gothic tradition as a whole). It's very good in outlining typically gothic features of novels such as Dracula.

Hope that's some help to you. Good luck :)

[Dark_Twinkle]

One of the gothic effect is the feelings of gloom, mystery and suspense, all of which are presented as Harker describes that many of the doors were 'all locked', and this creates an aura of mystery and represents hidden secrets. Doors can symbolise memories as they remember things and they also remember how to close. They symbolise portals to another path.

Claustrophobic feelings are evoked as we read, 'stone stairs to the hall', Harker roaming down the corridors matches another gothic element. Dungeons, underground passsages, crypts and catacombs were common features indicating the gothic genre. Similarly, the first mention of the word, 'castle' instantly tells us that gothic is going to be present in the novel. It is in fact a key role that is played in many gothic literature. This is most likely to do with the fact that castles hold a lot of history, thus allowing the author to build up a haunting and ghostly atmosphere. We see more historical elements when we read, 'wealth of dust' and 'dusty with age'. (All quotes above are from page 31)

Extremem lanscapes such as 'great jagged mountain' and 'sheer rock studed with mountain' is another gothic conventionas it takes normality out of the sequence in a way, it creates an unknown vast scene which in itself causes emptiness and intimidation. A sense of isolation and co;ldness, 'dread loneliness' and 'chilled my heart' builds up tension and fear - cold makes us freeze and the idea of being paralysed with fear can be adopted in this sense.

The repetition of 'rising' creates a vast distance, once again emphasising on isolation, imprisonment and a sense of social separation from the oustide world.

Gothic cliches include the mentioning of 'moonlight', and having a small source of light such as 'a lamp'. These elements interlink with the gothic genre because it crosses boundaries, it is the usual symbolism of representing light versus the dark side - they are both in constant battle.

A sense of decaying also adds to the gothic convention where in this context, when we read, 'hinges had fallen somehwat' is close to indicating that the place is old, rusty and rather run-down. This arouses a feeling of melancholy and dampens the mood considerably and once again creates a haunting atmosphere as it relates to the historical element.