DRACULA
I liked several parts of the book, but one
caught my attention even more. The moment when Jonathan Harker arrived at Count
Dracula’s castle and described him was one of my favorite parts of the book.
When Harker arrived at the castle in a carriage, Harker stood in silence close
to a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting
doorway of massive stone. There, Harker began to rub his eyes and pinch himself
to see if he was awake. Everything seemed like a horrible nightmare, but this
showed him that he was completely awake. In this part, I liked the atmosphere
of eeriness the book builds, which is an essential gothic element. Then, Harker
heard a heavy step approaching behind the great door, and he saw the great door
swung back. There, he saw a tall old man who was clean-shaven, had a long white
mustache, and was dressed in black from head to foot. This first description of
Count Dracula surprised me since I had a different mental image of the
character, and I really liked this part because I was reading about Dracula’s real
aspect. Later, Harker provided us with a more detailed description of Dracula.
For example, he mentioned that Dracula’s face was very strong, aquiline, with a
high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils. Also, he mentioned
that Dracula had massive eyebrows and a rather cruel-looking mouth with sharp white
teeth. Additionally, he states that Dracula had an extraordinary pallor.
