Castle Dracula is a ‘remarkable place’ (Page 14), with its courtyard of dark arches and massive carved stone entrance. Jonathan finds himself abandoned at the entrance to a forbidding, ancient and time-weathered building, which already starts to suggest Gothicism. The castle is a closed hostile fortress; visitors are neither expected nor accommodated: there is no way for him to attract attention. The imposing architecture of this part is very effective, and it clearly has an intimidating impact on Jonathan.
The above quote is taken from the second chapter and begins with Jonathan awaiting admittance at the entrance of Castle Dracula. The monumental scale of the vast ruin gives the impression of a once colossal power and evokes resonances of supernatural fears. This again takes a great impact on the reader and makes the novel more effective. We are then told that the castle is isolated, inaccessible and inhospitable, with ‘frowning walls and dark window openings,’ suggesting a secluded place of danger. It is a thing of a mysterious past and not part of the modern world that Harker so innocently represents.
Apart from these few words from the opening chapters, a portion taken from page 18, caught my attention, as being very successful in describing setting, and contributing to the effectiveness of the gothic novel in general:
‘There are certainly odd deficiencies in the house, considering the extraordinary evidences of wealth which are round me. The table service is of gold, and so beautifully wrought that it must be of immense value. The curtains and upholstery of the chairs and sofas and the hangings of my bed are of the costliest and most beautiful fabrics, and must have been of fabulous value when they were made, for they are centuries old, though in excellent order. I saw something like them in Hampton Court, but they were worn and frayed and moth-eaten. But still in none of the rooms is there a mirror. There is not even a toilet glass on my table, and I had to get the little shaving glass from my bag before I could either shave or brush my hair. I have not yet seen a servant anywhere, or heard a sound near the castle except the howling of wolves. Some time after I had finished my meal, I do not know whether to call it breakfast or dinner, for it was between five and six o’clock when I had it, I looked about for something to read, for I did not like to go about the castle until I had asked the Count’s permission. There was absolutely nothing in the room, book, newspaper, or even writing materials, so I opened another door in the room and found a sort of library.’
This extract, taken from Jonathan’s diary, shows Jonathan’s curiosity of Dracula’s Castle. He begins by saying there are numerous odd absences of objects that he expected to find in Dracula’s house. He notices Dracula’s vast wealth, due to the ‘gold, and so beautifully wrought’ table service. He also notices that the upholstery and curtains are in excellent order, and he makes the absence of mirrors known to the reader. Apart from including vivid and lucid descriptions of the things that Jonathan notices, Bram Stoker has involved a lot of irony within this section.
At this point in the novel, one already senses something very anomalous about Dracula’s behaviour. We have already seen that Dracula does not eat with his host, and although hospitable, Jonathan says on page 17
‘The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years.’
The reader certainly knows there is something strange about the Count. A critic may rationally say that this is not irony, because any reader who had only read the first chapter would not know of the main characteristics of Dracula.
However it is perceptible that Jonathan notices that the fabrics are centuries old, and it is quite ironic that Jonathan says this, because we know that the time limit Jonathan is thinking of is far from the one we know. We know that Dracula has everlasting life until he is killed in certain unconventional ways. Therefore we know that the curtains have been there for a very extensive period of time.
Another thing to notice is the absence of mirrors. We know that Dracula, in his ‘Nosferatu’ state, does not form reflections, so it would be pointless to have mirrors in his house. This short account sets the tone for the entire book, because the reader slowly understands the absences of the certain objects, and the setting and architecture in this section are very effective in contributing to the story and concerns of the novel.
Dracula is undoubtedly one of the most descriptive novels in the area of setting and architecture. On Page 208, the four men have embarked on a journey to Carfax, Dracula’s house in London, in search for the fifty mysterious boxes of earth that belong to Dracula. It says on page 208
‘The light from the tiny lamps fell in all sorts of odd forms, as the rays crossed each other, or the opacity of our bodies threw great shadows. I could not for my life get away from the feeling that there was someone else amongst us. I suppose it was the recollection, so powerfully brought home to me by the grim surroundings, of that terrible experience in Transylvania. I think the feeling was common to us all, for I noticed that the others kept looking over their shoulders at every sound and every new shadow, just as I felt myself doing. The whole place was thick with dust. The floor was seemingly inches deep, except where there were recent footsteps, in which on holding down my lamp I could see marks of hobnails where the dust was cracked.’
The word ‘diabolic’ springs to mind whilst reading this description of the scene at Carfax, a word that also appears numerous times in ‘The Castle of Otranto,’ another famous gothic novel. Nissim Ezekiel, a poet who has been influenced by atheist views, wrote a poem called ‘Night of the Scorpion,’ about when he was a child and he recounts a story about his mother being stung by a scorpion. The line ‘flash of diabolic tail in the dark room,’ is comparable to this scene in Dracula, where the diabolic sense is seen as symbolic of the devil. In Dracula, we encounter a few references to the fact that Dracula went to the ‘Scholomance,’(Page 200) a school where the devil taught.
‘Great shadows’ are two very common words usually linked together in gothic texts. These two words are effective in this situation, because they suggest darkness, which provoke images of horror in a readers mind, and also the fact that the shadows are great compared to Jonathan himself, shows that he is dwarfed by the shadows, which suggest isolation and darkness.
We are told immediately after these two words, that Jonathan was struggling to keep the thought that there was someone else amongst them, out of his head. This is full of irony, because he is not fully aware that Dracula can be anyway according to his will, due to the fact that Dracula can transform into mist, dust and animals whenever he desires. We are then made aware that the same paranoia Jonathan is suffering from is the same paranoia they are all suffering from.
I then noticed a phrase that is ambiguous;
‘The whole place was thick with dust.’
This phrase is very effective in conveying to the reader the antiqueness and filth of Carfax. It is very gothic mentioning that the whole place was covered in dust, but I think this is ambiguous, because since Dracula can transform himself into dust, and the men keep feeling another presence of themselves, I think the dust on the floor could be Dracula himself.
The gothic sensibility in literature is seen by some as an attempt to deal with the fears and unknown consequences of social change. The characters going beyond the boundaries of acceptable behaviour provide sensational thrills. The challenge to the normal conduct of society an individual often ends unhappily for the protagonist. This novel is renowned worldwide for its wide use of literary devices, which contribute so much to the gothic effect, and without doubt the setting and architecture have contributed so much to the overall effectiveness.