Jonathan Harker's shorthand journal serves an epitolary and private function -- it is intended for Mina, after all -- but it is objective and becomes public finally. In fact, it is frantically objective (so that paranoia is heightened). Much of the novel emerges from contemplation on the action that takes place in gaps.
In Dark Shadows, no one cares what time it is, but here we're obsessed with pinpointing the time, with the superior British maps, with punctuality. No one Harker meets is credited with intelligence nor worthy of respect until Dracula -- presumably because Dracula is courtly and hospitable (however insincerely) and deals with a British barrister. Harker tests his own consciousness (15) and always winds his watch before bed (40). All this stands in his way of comprehending his situation! And thus it belies his name, Harker, someone who should "hark."
Some potential doppelganger hints may emerge when Harker sees only his own face in the mirror (25-26). Calling it a "foul bauble of man's vanity" (26) provides a nice Victorian moral excuse for smashing it, but typically this refers to female vanity. On the next page, we catch a weirdly charming glimpse of Dracula obviously being the one to do the housework.
The vampiresses provide an interesting moment. Two are like the Count and so recede, while the worst one is the standard of beauty: blond, blue-eyed. So the perversion of culturally-defined beauty is the more horrific. "Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses ... and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red.... The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great, wavy masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires.... All three had brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips.... I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips" (37).
Jonathan Harker's shorthand journal serves an epitolary and private function -- it is intended for Mina, after all -- but it is objective and becomes public finally. In fact, it is frantically objective (so that paranoia is heightened). Much of the novel emerges from contemplation on the action that takes place in gaps.
In Dark Shadows, no one cares what time it is, but here we're obsessed with pinpointing the time, with the superior British maps, with punctuality. No one Harker meets is credited with intelligence nor worthy of respect until Dracula -- presumably because Dracula is courtly and hospitable (however insincerely) and deals with a British barrister. Harker tests his own consciousness (15) and always winds his watch before bed (40). All this stands in his way of comprehending his situation! And thus it belies his name, Harker, someone who should "hark."
Some potential doppelganger hints may emerge when Harker sees only his own face in the mirror (25-26). Calling it a "foul bauble of man's vanity" (26) provides a nice Victorian moral excuse for smashing it, but typically this refers to female vanity. On the next page, we catch a weirdly charming glimpse of Dracula obviously being the one to do the housework.
The vampiresses provide an interesting moment. Two are like the Count and so recede, while the worst one is the standard of beauty: blond, blue-eyed. So the perversion of culturally-defined beauty is the more horrific. "Two were dark, and had high aquiline noses ... and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red.... The other was fair, as fair as can be, with great, wavy masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires.... All three had brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips.... I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips" (37).
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