Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Setting within Dracula and Frankenstein
Within the novels Dracula and Frankenstein both Mary Shelley and Stoker use setting to
build tension and create an atmosphere within their novels
...

In Dracula, this occurs early in the novel, during the second chapter
...
The setting is described in
such a way that it seems unfamiliar, and slightly disconcerting along with disorientating for
the reader
...
This language would seem
even more strange to Stoker’s contemporary audience, because of the reduced experience
this audience would have had with other cultures compared to a more modern audience
...
Transylvania, which is Romania, is
particularly isolated and lies on the boundary between civilised and uncivilised
...
This can be further illustrated
through the litritary critique Gill Davis saving that stoker ‘uses its familiar locations to
heighten fears of invasion, contamination and disease’
...
This is shown though
the emphasis on the remote setting, and the mystery which surrounds this setting
...
Although Dracula isn’t presented as having such extreme behaviours as Vlad the

impeller, he does nevertheless share some of his characteristics
...
This is shown particularly when Harker muses about visiting ‘an
unknown place to visit an unknown man’
...
This is ironic as Harker has heard whispers about the ‘unknown man’ which
makes this more ironic, as he is trying to say blissfully innocent
...
There is also much emphasis on darkness, as well as meteorological phenomena
...
The comparative rarity of thunderstorms in England,
combined with their destructive potential, perhaps contributes to the way in which they are
viewed in society as unsettling and frightening
...
The setting outside of Castle Dracula is also used to
provide a contrast with the setting inside, which Harker describes as having initial qualities
of ‘light and warmth’ which ‘dissipated all my doubts and fears’
...
This helps the initial situation seem more
real to the reader – the comparative positive qualities of the castle, shown by words with
particularly positive connotations such as ‘light’ and ‘warmth’, contrasted against the words
of negative connotations used to describe the setting in which the castle sits, such as ‘dark’
and ‘wild’ mean that the reader does not doubt Jonathan’s judgement when entering the
castle
...
If, at this early stage, the contrast had been reversed then it
would seem unusual for Jonathan to rush into the castle with so little hesitation
...
The setting is described as ‘dreary’, and Victor is alliteratively
described as suffering from ‘an anxiety that almost amount to agony’
...
These are notions that for the modern reader are considered typically gothic,
however at the time this was written gothic writing didn’t really exist
...
Shelley had been introduced to her parent’s radical beliefs from a young age –
the French revolution challenged beliefs and created new and radical ideas
...
This helps
to increase our sense of the horror Victor experiences when the creature is created
...
During the creature’s ‘birth’, it is rather the fact that the setting changes
very little that is important
...
As throughout the novel nature is used extensively to illustrate
change within the setting, so the lack of change may illustrate the extent in which he is
going against God and nature

---