Chapter 1. My thoughts.

the first thing that struck me about this chapter and the openning of the novel was how well Bram Stoker creates a sense of realism in the chapter. the small paragraph that proceeds the openning chapter does this. it tells us that what we are about to read is taken from a mans "papers" and have been ordered to create a document of real events that this man has faced. as you read on through the chapter, you really get a sense that what you are reading are really from a mans diary. he talks alot about the food that he eats on his travels which is far from creating a gothic and scary read. he also writes about his journey and talks about how the trains were never on time. More over he writes himself little memos to remind himself to ask locals for reciepies that he has enjoyed. he also in one part of the novel describes where he is as he is writing this entry and switches to the present tense. this in my opinion really creates the sense that this is a man writing about his travels and not a fictional novel. the writer would want to create this sense of realism in his novel to make the book more scary to the reader. if we feel that the novel is fictisious then we are not scared by the characters or the events in the novel. however if we believe that the novel is real and is based on real events then we also believe that they can happen to us aswell.

towards the end of the chapter however the novel begins to swing more towards gothic but still keeps the realistic diary qualities. as they get nearer the castle the atmosphere becomes more and more gothic with the dark clouds, the full moon and the houling wolves. scary stuff!!! this is more what i expected from Dracula.

i think that the count so far has not been described yet but we can guess that he is not a good person from the local peoples reaction to him. however from his letter to Jonathan Harker he seems like a kind and friendly person. i think that he will show this kindness to Jonathan throughout the next few chapters, but we as the reader will know what he is really like. dramatic irony i think will be key in the following chapters.