Compare the ways in which a sense of terror is created in Chapter 2 of Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

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Compare the ways in which a sense of terror

is created in Chapter 2 of Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, are classic examples of Gothic literature. Gothic literature is a genre that combines elements of both horror and romance. It is identified by its use of terror and horror to shock the reader, and this is usually created by setting the novel in huge, austere castles, with mysterious protagonists and horrific imagery.

In the opening of Chapter 2 of Dracula, we are being described the imposing castle of the protagonist Count Dracula, in the eyes of a Solicitor’s clerk’s journal, called Jonathan Harker. This first person narrative, which also appears in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the form of the Mr Utterson, creates a lot of terror as the fact that they are describing it, really makes the reader come to terms that this actually happened. However, we do not know whether what they are saying is true or false, as we only have the word of the respective characters, given the piece a sense of mystery and suspense.
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As these two passages are based on description (describing the house and Mr Hyde in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and describing Count Dracula’s house in Dracula), adjectives are key in creating tension and terror. In Dracula, the adjectives reflect that in the dark, all your senses are heightened, so everything seems bigger, “I stood next to a great door, old and studded with large iron nails, and set in a projecting doorway of massive stone”. This piece is also given an aural dimension by adding noise. In the phrase, “the sound of rattling ...

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