H/W 13th October 2017
Select and comment on two episodes showing Stoker’s use of nature and natural
description. Refer to: contrasts, effects of beauty and harshness (the sublime), symbolism,
and the relation of the two episodes to the whole novel
‘Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over the roadway till
we passed as through a tunnel. And again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on
either side.’
This episode suggests feelings of entrapment within the trees and on the road, which also
foreshadows the time Harker spent in the castle where he spent much of his time in his room, and
then inside the castle walls. The metaphor ‘hemmed in’ is used in this context to mean they are
squashed in from all sides, and being squashed in by trees suggests that nature is a frightening place
that can either protect or attack you – this is also seen by how the personified rocks were ‘frowning’
but ‘guarded [them] boldly’, as if they were unhappy, but were willing to protect. The personification
of nature allows Stoker to project human emotions through it, enforcing the ideas that nature is in
effect working with the harshness of the darkness, particularly shown in this extract by the simile
‘passed as through a tunnel,’ implying how dark this passage was. This could symbolise Dracula: how
he is the epitome of darkness, but he still protects Harker against the female vampires whilst in the
castle – despite nature being cold and destructive at times, it does protect Harker during the journey
towards the castle.
‘I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however, was not in
the least disturbed. He kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything
through the darkness.’
The reader can infer from this episode feelings of fear, which help to set the tone and theme for the
majority of the rest of the novel. With the horses ‘sharing’ Harker’s fear, it gives evidence into how
frightening the situation and darkness Stoker portrayed it as, because they are sharing a human
characters fear, and not an animals fear’; this is in contrast to the driver’s reaction towards what the
horses and Harker feared, by showing that he ‘was not in the least disturbed’. This contrast is
emphasised by the superlative ‘least disturbed’, which suggests a calm nature and aura about him,
contrasting also to nature as well as Harker. This contrast is also seen in the word ‘but’ and how
Harker ‘could not see anything through the darkness’ unlike the driver who ‘kept turning his head.’
This could symbolise Harker’s ignorance to the driver actually being Dracula, and how Dracula is
actually a vampire, particularly how Harker says he couldn’t see ‘anything.’
Select and comment on two episodes showing Stoker’s use of nature and natural
description. Refer to: contrasts, effects of beauty and harshness (the sublime), symbolism,
and the relation of the two episodes to the whole novel
‘Soon we were hemmed in with trees, which in places arched right over the roadway till
we passed as through a tunnel. And again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on
either side.’
This episode suggests feelings of entrapment within the trees and on the road, which also
foreshadows the time Harker spent in the castle where he spent much of his time in his room, and
then inside the castle walls. The metaphor ‘hemmed in’ is used in this context to mean they are
squashed in from all sides, and being squashed in by trees suggests that nature is a frightening place
that can either protect or attack you – this is also seen by how the personified rocks were ‘frowning’
but ‘guarded [them] boldly’, as if they were unhappy, but were willing to protect. The personification
of nature allows Stoker to project human emotions through it, enforcing the ideas that nature is in
effect working with the harshness of the darkness, particularly shown in this extract by the simile
‘passed as through a tunnel,’ implying how dark this passage was. This could symbolise Dracula: how
he is the epitome of darkness, but he still protects Harker against the female vampires whilst in the
castle – despite nature being cold and destructive at times, it does protect Harker during the journey
towards the castle.
‘I grew dreadfully afraid, and the horses shared my fear. The driver, however, was not in
the least disturbed. He kept turning his head to left and right, but I could not see anything
through the darkness.’
The reader can infer from this episode feelings of fear, which help to set the tone and theme for the
majority of the rest of the novel. With the horses ‘sharing’ Harker’s fear, it gives evidence into how
frightening the situation and darkness Stoker portrayed it as, because they are sharing a human
characters fear, and not an animals fear’; this is in contrast to the driver’s reaction towards what the
horses and Harker feared, by showing that he ‘was not in the least disturbed’. This contrast is
emphasised by the superlative ‘least disturbed’, which suggests a calm nature and aura about him,
contrasting also to nature as well as Harker. This contrast is also seen in the word ‘but’ and how
Harker ‘could not see anything through the darkness’ unlike the driver who ‘kept turning his head.’
This could symbolise Harker’s ignorance to the driver actually being Dracula, and how Dracula is
actually a vampire, particularly how Harker says he couldn’t see ‘anything.’
