I wrote this for my Honors English 9 class in November 2006. I got an A, I thought I'd share...
Jonathan Harker stated in his diary “As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round us (p. 8).” In this diary entry, Harker stated how the night approaching made the atmosphere feel dark and mysterious on his trip to Dracula’s Castle. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stoker combines many Gothic elements to add to the setting of the novel such as dramatic irony, suspense, and dark vs. light.
Dracula contains much dramatic irony in Jonathan Harker’s journey to Dracula’s Castle such as when Harker states “I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians…if so my stay may be very interesting (p. 2).” In this quote, Harker is oblivious to the danger that awaits him at Dracula’s Castle. Harker has not heard of the specific dangers that are waiting to happen. Stoker uses dramatic irony to inform the reader about what could happen to Harker in the future. This dramatic irony is used to create a suspenseful setting for the reader. The reader realizes that the town Harker is journeying to is full of superstitious things that go on there. Another place where dramatic irony is used in Dracula is in Harker’s diary. Harker says “When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula…both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all…refused to speak further (p. 4).” By the local people not telling Harker about the man he is supposed to meet, Harker feels insecure in his atmosphere and creates an eerie feel to where Harker is located.
Suspense is another widely used Gothic element in Dracula. Suspense is used when Harker writes in his diary, “The road was rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste. I could not understand then what the haste meant, but the driver was evidently bent on losing no time in reaching Borgo Prund (p. 7).” This quote describes how the driver moved the coach and how Harker did not know why the driver was going so fast. By not knowing what is going to happen next, the novel becomes less predictable and mysterious. The setting also plays into this scene when Harker describes the scene, “As the evening fell it began to get very cold, and the growing twilight seemed to merge into one dark mistiness the gloom of the trees, oak, beech, and pine (p. 8).” This description of the journey makes the reader feel that this place is a scary one. The fact that Dracula’s castle is placed in a mountainous area adds to the total effect on the reader. Castles located on mountain tops are very common in Gothic literature.
he last common Gothic element in Dracula is dark vs. light. On Harker’s ride up to the Borgo Prund, Harker says “I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of the scene as we drove along (p. 7).” Here, Harker describes his fears of the scenery and what he sees along the way. Some of the features are seen as “ghostly” and mysterious. The scenery being seen this way adds to how the setting goes from described as beautiful and colorful, to dark and doleful. The setting is also described as dark when Harker describes the sky on his way to Dracula’s Castle, “When the falling sunset threw into strange relief the ghost-like clouds which amongst the Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleys (p. 9).” The falling sunset is used to describe the daylight disappearing and the dark taking over. Dark is symbolized as scary, or mysterious. Dark taking over the setting means that something mysterious might happen soon or that Dracula could be up to something because his powers are the strongest then.
These three Gothic elements, dramatic irony, suspense, and dark vs. light, all combine in the novel Dracula to add to the setting by creating a chilling atmosphere for the reader. By Stoker adding these elements to the novel, the modern-day reader also gets to experience the 19th-century Gothic elements as they would be at the time. The elements are also displayed throughout the entire novel.
