Setting and Atmosphere
The chapter starts-off with Jonathan Harker giving a detailed description of his journey through Romania on his way to Transylvania and, eventually, to Castle Dracula. The extract beings; 'Soon we were hemmed in with trees...'
The language used by Harker throughout the chapter is factual and scientific this style is used to justify the supernaturalism of the chapter.
The opening paragraph personifies the woods around Harker this brings a typical Gothic setting to life. The opening sentence '...hemmed in with trees...' presents the recurring theme of entrapment. The statement itself is anthropomorphic, making the trees seem uncanny, this links to the idea of things not being quite dead, but undead.
The theme of entrapment is further enforced when Harker mentions the barking of dogs becoming fainter and the 'baying of wolves' sounding 'nearer and nearer'. This indicates that Harker is leaving a place of safety and walking into the jaws of danger.
The wolves are used throughout the extract for numerous reasons. One is that they represent superstition which links to the theme of the foreign, earlier on in the chapter when Jonathan is offered by a local gypsy lady a rosary for protection he turns his nose up believing it to be superstitious nonsense and himself to be good 'English Churchman'. Within this extract the theme of the foreign presents itself. Pathetic fallacy is used to show a foreign lad, for example the closer that Harker gets to the castle the colder the weather becomes, showing that he is moving further and further away from safety. The darkness of the woods (a typical Gothic setting) is also representative of the foreign as entering darkness shows that someone is entering the unknown and the foreign is unknown.
He then goes on to talk about the appearance of 'a faint flickering blue flame', the flame is also used to show the superstition of Romania. The locals believe that the appearance of a blue flame on St. George's night means that the dead can pass into the mortal world. The flame's colour is also highly uncanny. Blue is a very cold colour whereas fire is warming and comforting, in this chapter the flame provides no comfort for Harker.
It is at this point that the reader questions the reliability of the narrator. Harker does not know whether or not he is asleep and imagining or awake and experiencing. This shows that he cannot properly distinguish reality therefore neither can the reader.
Throughout the chapter, we have this constant mention of 'circle' and 'ring'. In the Pagan religion, the circle is used to protect those inside but here we see that it is being used to remind the reader of the entrapment theme, the circle of wolves is trapping Harker.
It is at this point that the wolves move-in closer. Harker says that ; 'the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them' This is representative again of superstition that the moon is causing the wolves to do bizzar and strange things, this stereotypical Gothic element is used here to scare both character and reader.
Then the calech ascends on Castle Dracula which is described as being; 'a vast ruined castle... tall black windows... broken battlements showed a jagged line...' this description makes this typical Gothic setting seem forbidding and frightening and gives the scene an air of danger and unease, this is again, representative of the foreign, as this description shows that the castle is very ancient in comparison to modern Victorian Britain.
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