Jonathan Harker - chapter 3

Question 1

‘I rushed up and down the stairs, trying every door and peering out go every window I could find’

‘I behaved much as a rat does in a trap’

Answer 1

• sense of frantic urgency - signs of insanity as a result of entrapment
• repetition of every signifies urgency to escape
• dehumanising animal imagery - simplified to psychology of a rat, suggesting Harker’s treatment at the castle and questions sanity
• attitudes towards mental health - difficult to admit (journal is intimate and private)

Question 2

‘I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me; I am in fear - in awful fear - and there is no escape for me; I am encompassed about with terrors I dare not to think of …’

Answer 2

• lexical field of existential panic - Harker’s emotions are spirally beyond his control
• connotations of gothic themes of entrapment, supernatural
• ellipsis creates tension / suspense - gothic