Under a spell
"her eyes blazed with unholy light"
In this chapter, the way Lucy was portrayed was very interesting. She is displayed like a beautiful but scary creature. The ruthless act alongside with her talking to Holmwood repel each other. The fact that she is manipulating Holmwood into believing that she is still herself is shown by the way she uses her sexuality. its like she is trying to hypnotizes him by using her voice and her movements.
"She drew back with an angry snarl, such as a cat "
There is a drastic change in tone and character
'Come to me, Arthur. Leave those others" commanding in a 'diabolically sweet' voice.
Arthur appears to be under a spell, his movements paralyzed and controlled by the voice of Lucy. I like the idea that a woman is finally more dominant in this book. Its also interesting to see how she has gone from being this weak lady into this demon that can tear you apart. In the later chapters Bram Stoker shows how woman are weak by saying this is a job of a man"no part for a woman" ... when actually it is Mina that is helping them figure out the whereabouts of Count Dracula.
Hypnotising beauty |
The death of the Un-Dead
The description of Lucy's death is very strong and has a lot of grotesque imagery
"The body shook and quivered"
"Twisted in wild contortions"
"Mouth was smeared with a crimson foam"
Making this descriptive, Bram stoker fully displayed the horror and gothic.
It is kind of like the sublime. This process is too powerful and too big for its capacity. Her body is out of control. The readers can fully imagine this traumatizing death, in everyone's own individual mind the scale of terror is different.
Chapter 17-18-19
Holmwood is stil shake up by Lucy's real death. Jonathan Harker appears to have fully recovered from his traumatising experience from Transylvania.
What are the odds?
Dr. Seward finally realises that Dracula may be his next door neighbour...
"Here he is... [...]" Stoker uses short exclamatory sentences to fasten the pace
The strong will of Mina Harker is continuously shown. Her self control is stronger than those of the men in the book. As shown in chapter 17 Lord Godalming literally sobs and receives comfort from Mina. She writes how woman have this motherly instincts how the feelings to protect and reassure in any matter.
Van Helsing gather the company and tell them the legend about the "Un-Dead"
The description given about them (strengths and weakness) are very common
cannot enter house unless welcomed
cannot survive with out blood
killed by driving a steak through the heart and so on
In these chapters the men set out to find the missing boxes of earth. This is building up the plot for the finale. Twelve of the remaining boxes of earth were deposited in two houses in London
"I'm so glad that she consented to hold back and let us men do the work" Jonathan Harker has come back to his sense as he also recovered from his trip to Count's castle.
Mina appears to be the Counts next target.
"Thin streak of white" Bram uses obscurity to make it mysterious, the idea of the mist hiding the appearance of the body
"I remember hearing the sudden barking of the dogs "
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