Jonathan Harker - chapter 2

Question 1

‘what sort of place had I come to and among what sort of people?’

‘what sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked?’

Answer 1

• collapse of Harker’s rational thinking (interrogatives)
• ignorance towards warning signs - immersed himself in Dracula’s traps
• anaphora (what sort) - may emphasise Harker’s remorse for ignoring warning signs
• crossing of geographical and psychological boundaries

Question 2

‘Solicitor’s clerk! Mina would not like that. Solicitor, - for just before leaving London I got word that my examination was successful; and I am now a full-blown solicitor!’

Answer 2

• Harker acts to reassure himself of his role in order to portray his capabilities and masculinity
• Mina’s pride towards Harker is established connoting the stereotype of a supportive wife / fianceé
• exclamatives suggest a heightened emotional state,, whilst reassuring himself suggests exposure of emotions

Question 3

‘I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things which I dare not confess to my own soul’

Answer 3

• metaphor suggests how Harker is overwhelmed, adrift and immersed in unfamiliarity - mental consequences. Suggests both awe and disorientation but also curiosity and unease - gothic
• visible emotional fragmentation - Harker’s internal unravelling - breaking of rational mind under pressure of inexplicable events, heightens emotion (masculinity subverted)
• Victorian conflicts between reason, science and supernatural.

Question 4

‘The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!’

Answer 4

• veritable - genuine, real
• entrapment of Harker, alludes to consequences of ignoring warning signs - gothic setting
• exclamative - heightened emotional state
• declarative ‘I am a prisoner’ conveys Harker giving up autonomy and control - transformation from an educated Englishman to a victim (loss of masculinity)
• emotional, ethical boundaries
• possible symbol of insanity