In scene four to put horror across to the reader, the dramatist adds Mr Swales into the play to help add a bit more fear and superstition. Mr Swales can see into the future: " Maybe its just that I can feel my own death approaching." Mr Swales, for some reason, thought he was going to die. The description at the end of act one is a good link into act two. The end sentence in act one,
"So evil came into this land, and cast its shadow upon it,
and took possesion."
ties in with the beginning of act two because there is a violent storm. The "evil" is Dracula and the "shadow" is the storm. "Took possesion" is where Mr Swales dies as Dracula has taken over his soul, the "evil", (Dracula) that came into the land "took possesion" of Mr Swales. This adds more fear to the play as Mr Swales prediction comes true.
In act two, the author conveys horror well by adding a storm to the play. The author also adds mystery, because during the storm a ship appears and, the ship makes it to the harbour, even though its rough seas. The coastguard went onto the ship and found a corpse tied to the steering wheel. The coastguard also finds "several boxes about five or six feet in length." This made me think about who was on the ship. I think that there were only two people on the ship; Dracula and the corpse on the wheel. I think Dracula bit the other man's neck. He is now a slave of Dracula and that is why he seemed to be steering the ship. At the end of this scene a large grey dog is seen jumping of the ship. I think that Dracula turned himself into this dog to avoid being seen by the crowed that had now gathered at the harbour. He also has the power to change the weather, so, I think he changed the weather so it would be dark when he arrived in Britain. (so that he wouldn't die from being in the daylight.) It is a good way to introduce Dracula into Britain, an effective way of describing his arrival.
In act two, scene two, the dramatist adds a new character, Renfield, and to convey horror he has been put in and asylum and he collects flies and spiders. He feeds the flies to the spiders and waits until the spiders are fat enough and he eats them! I think Dracula has been in contact with Renfield either when Renfield was his victim, or through Renfields' dreams, and Dracula wants Renfield to serve him and try and help him find someone to share all he has with, like a wife, and this somone is Mina, Jonathan Harkers' fiancee. I think Renfield was like Jonathan. He worked abroad to help Dracula move house and country. To convey horror the dramatist makes Renfield frightening by making the dialouge strange, such as "Life is blood and blood is life." I think that this means Renfield is a vampire, also as vampires can only live from blood.
In scene three, the dramatist shows an example of successful horror were Lucy Westenra, Mina's friend, meets Dracula. One night, Mina had awoken and found that Lucy was gone, and the window was open. Mina finds Lucy on the bench where Mr Swales used to sit, "as if she was......waiting for something......or someone." The description where Lucy meets Dracula is written well. Descriptions such as "Out of the shadows a figure approached her," and "I saw it's face. And it was the face of a beast." This gives the reader a scared feeling. If there was a strange figure of a person moving towards your best friend and when you finally found out the figure is a beast, you are bound to be scared! You would have a mixture of feelings. You would be really scared and shocked. Lucy also keeps seeing the figure of a man with red eyes. "The same face, the same red eyes!" The figure of the man she is seeing is Dracula.
In scene four, Professor Van Helsing is introduced. This helps as he discovers from the wound on Lucys' neck, that she is the victim of a vampire. "(Realizing the truth) A wound in her neck!" He knows of vampires and knows how to deal with them. He tells Holmwood, Morris and Seward that "her room was to be hung with flowers of wild Garlic - the doors and windows especially - and that these on no account should be moved." This was to prevent vampires (or Dracula) getting in. The description that the dramatist gives as the sky is becoming darker is excellent. "The sky grows red, the earth grows dark." The effect of describing the sky as becoming red is that to stay alive vampires need blood and they feed at night, in the dark. Also he repeats the word "grows" to emphasise just how dark the earth is becoming. He also describes Dracula as "a mist creeping along the earth." This is good use of metaphorical language. Describing him as quiet, slow and having the power to make things dark and "mist" has all of these factors. At the very end before Lucy dies she describes how popular she is to have "three guardians" - Morris, Holmwood and Seward. Also how she describes her death as "a knot of blackness forming, hardening, tightning." "Hardening," is used to describe the feeling she is having as her life begins to drain away. Her heart would be begining to slow down. "Tightning" is the feeling she would have as she stops breathing. She would be gasping for air as her lungs stopped working. The dramatist describes Dracula as being on "a ship with ragged, tattered sails, riding the waves of darkness. And a figure on the prow," the figure being Dracula. This imagery adds horror as it is like Dracula is sailing a ship and is setting out to get Lucy. Darkness is used to describe many things in this scene. Darkness symbolises all things evil. Also red is used which symbolises blood and the devil.
In scene six a reporter is introduced to show the fact that young children are going missing and turning up a few days later looking drained, as Lucy did. The horror is conveyed here as we find out Lucy is a vampire and is feeding from these children. Van Helsing decides to tell Holmwood, Seward and Morris that he has discovered Lucy is a vampire. They decide to hunt Lucy. The description of Lucy as she lies in her coffin before she is killed again is very effective. The dramatist describes her as if she were an animal, using phrases such as "The beast howled in rage and pain." The description as Holmwood approaches Lucy in her coffin is excellent. You think that she is asleep. Then suddenly they "saw her eyes open, saw the savage light that flashed in them, the ferocious and pitiless hunger." Using the word "savage" also empasises the fact that she has been possesed by some beast. This is a good plot twist as Holmwood has to swallow all his love for Lucy to stop all of the killings and save other children from being harmed.
In scene six to emphasise horror Dracula begins the process of seducing Mina so he can share his world with her, like a wife. Mina has had her room prepared for when Dracula arrives. I like the way the dramatist has described the cross as standing "bravely, on the table." It gives the impression that this small object is going to protect her from Dracula, and also how he describes Dracula's presence as "a congealing mist", hiding something terrible. The way Dracula's world is described as a "world of bottomless depths and endless horizons" is very accurate as it never ends as you never die and there is nowhere you can't go and nothing you can't be.
The description when Mina becomes a vampire is very effective as it gives you an impression that she is entering a new world or a new life. Some examples of the things she says are:
"And where the earth ended, the mountain rose, and there was yet more beyond the mountains, and I was running, and the horizons rolled beneath my feet, and there was no end to them."
This gives you an impression of freedom or new beginnings. This idea is introduced because Mina has become a vampire and it is like she is beginning her life again. She can go anywhere in the world which is why "horizons rolled beneath my feet," was used.
At the end, Mina decides she has to kill Dracula herself to stop the evil. The description where Dracula dies is excellent. Mina lures Dracula out of his lare into the sunlight. Dracula can't survive in sunlight. "The sky burst into flame, and he gave a cry, a long howl of anguish and pain and rage and despair" the repitition of "and" emphasises hoe much pain Dracula is going through at the end. All that was left of Dracula was dust.
The ending is a repetition of when Mina was describing how she first became a vampire which emphaises the fact that Draculas' presence still lives on even though she has killed him and freed her soul from his grasp.
The strengths of this play are the vivid descriptions and metephorical language such as that used by the hags at the beginning of the play and the description Lucy gives as her death approaches. The length is a weakness as you could get bored reading the play through as it is quite long but the introduction of characters who have a small part in the play could help the turn out of the whole play. The fact there is a lot of symbolism used in the description of some of the parts like when Lucy dies and Dracula is coming in on the "ship with ragged, tattered sails." This gives you a vivid picture in your mind.
I thought that this was quite a good play as it had alot of interesting things happening in it and alot of vivid descriptions that help you understand the complex idea of a person being able to live forever.
