When Jonathan is helped down from the carriage into the courtyard he is in awe because the drivers “prodigious strength”. Jonathan did not expect that sort of strength from a coach driver. Jonathan thinks nothing of it and seems to forget it as quickly as it happened, but is then pushed into suspicion when his “trap” along with the coach driver and horses all “disappear” down one of the arches. Jonathan is now feeling uneasy because he was shocked by the strength of the coach driver and now the coach and everything all seem to disappear into the darkness of one of the arches.
When Jonathan looks up to the castle door the gothic genre is shown by a “great door, studded with large iron nails”. A horrific scene for someone who has turned up into another country and meeting someone who is deemed as evil by others, he is now feeling very vulnerable and uncomfortable as he questions, “What sort of place had I come to and among what kind of people”. Jonathan is presuming that there are people, or at least servants for such a place like the one he has turned up to. The eeriness of the door and the wondering of what kind of people were around, also the wondering of what supernatural happenings may occur show through gothic genre.
Once Jonathan gets inside the castle and to bed he cannot sleep, after the happenings and the first impressions of the castle it’s not surprising. “ I was indeed awake” shows a feeling of insomnia, a feeling that’s all over him, there’s something around, or is something coming. Jonathan has a bad night and hardly gets any sleep because he feels as though he was in a “horrible nightmare” this is showing that Jonathan doesn’t want to be in this situation anymore. In the morning the gothic genre is arisen by “the sound of rattling chains and the clanking of massive bolts” things are getting worse for Jonathan who feels like he is in a nightmare. The clanking bolts and rattling chains are used to scare “victims” in horror films, but to also make them aware that someone or something is coming and they shouldn’t be ignored.
The person coming was indeed Dracula. He opened with the great doors with what seemed to be little energy. Dracula is described as a gentle man, stately “ clean shaven, long white moustache, black from head to foot and without a single speck of colour”. Dracula doesn’t seem to fit this description because Dracula is thought of as a monster, evil and the enemy; but gothic genre shows that not all evil is easily seen, Dracula is well covered up and is not seen as dangerous.
When Jonathan shakes the hand of Count Dracula he notices the similarity between his and the coach driver, he begins to wonder if it was the count himself that brought him to the castle. “The strength of the handshake was so much akin to the coach driver”. After this Jonathan realises the hand of the Count was “as cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead man” the coldness of Dracula proves that Dracula is actually un dead showing the gothic genre of the dead coming to life.
Jonathan later realises that he is in actual fact a prisoner in Dracula’s castle. Jonathan appears to be going mad when he questions his own judgement as to whether his fears are deceiving himself “I am, I know, either being deceived, like a baby, by my own fears”. Harker now appears to be really scared, but is still wondering what is going on behind closed doors. This is typical gothic genre because the “victim to be” always looks that little bit further. Jonathan is the victim to be and he still explores trying to find ways out of the castle “I rushed up and down the stairs, trying every door and peering out of every window I could find”.
My main points have shown that the setting has added to fear for Jonathan because the castle is set in the middle of nowhere and everything happens at night, just like all gothic genre horror films do. I think that events have reflected the gothic genre because before Jonathan actually meets Dracula there are a lot of scary happenings like the bolts clanking, this all builds up tension before the first meeting and then Dracula does not appear to how you would think he would appear. He is dressed smartly and harmless, but then he is seen as unnatural when his hand is the same as a dead mans. I think this is all building up suspicion and tension to when Jonathan realises he is a prisoner and he starts going mad and panicking. The gothic genre describes that Jonathan start panicking in order to create the suspense mood to question what is going to happen next.
