In the captivating stories Dracula by Bram Stoker and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, the authors express the power of sensory details and mood to forge a deeper understanding for the readers to enjoy. Through vivid and suggestive descriptions that engage our senses, Stoker and Mandel make us feel like we understand the story more, capturing our emotions with a sense of fear, suspense, desolation, and nostalgia.
Stoker's masterful usage of imagery and mood is shown through the pages, as the rising wind "moaned and whistled," and the branches of trees crashed, intensifying our sense of near danger. These spine-tingling sounds coil around us, intensifying the tension to its breaking point, perfectly capturing the mounting danger experienced by the protagonist, Jonathan Harker. Furthermore, Stoker's skillful use of visual imagery immerses us in a haunting atmosphere, where "great frowning rocks" loom and falling snow blankets everything in an icy shroud. These chilling visual details contribute to a pervasive sense of fear and isolation, transporting us deep into the eerie heart of Count Dracula's foreboding castle.
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The stark description of black ruins against a sea of pink flowers serves as a touching testament to the devastation along with the pain and the struggle for civilization. Bounded by the wreckage, beauty perseveres, beckoning us to think about the passing nature of existence and provoking a sense of sadder and introspection. Mandel's skillful inclusion of the sense of smell within imagery further deepens our immersion in the post-apocalyptic landscape. We inhale the scent of decaying remnants and ashy shadows, each whiff suffusing our senses with the visible essence of desolation, submerging us ever deeper into the haunting world of Station
These visual details emphasize the devastation while simultaneously highlighting the beauty that still exists amidst the ruins, evoking a sense of melancholy and reflection. Moreover, Mandel incorporates olfactory imagery when describing the scent of decaying remnants and ashy shadows in the post-apocalyptic landscape. By invoking the sense of smell, Mandel intensifies the readers' perception of the desolate environment, further immersing them in the world of Station Eleven. In Dracula, Stoker's visual descriptions of the "great frowning rocks" and the falling snow that blankets everything create a chilling and isolated ambiance.
Unlike the last one, this passage solely focuses on the sight aspect of the novel. Whilst reading through this passage, Mandel coaxes these senses in the scene of the protagonist going a travel through this post-apocolyptic world. During this scene, the protagonist happened to stumble upon a deserted location. An example of this description would be this line “They skirted the building first, looking in windows, and saw only ruined classrooms with graffiti on the walls. The back door gaped open into a gymnasium.
In gothic literature, such as “The Devil & Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, certain elements are used to create some sort of effect on the reader. No matter what the author may be writing about when creating gothic literature, they will use things such as the supernatural, women being in distress, mystery, tension, personification, and/or suspense with the intent to scare the reader. In these two writings, the suspense is made clear, everything being written about prior to the main point is to build up to the situation. In “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, there are many moments where the narrator describes things, such as the house, or Rodrick Usher, to create a sense
Station Eleven, a science-fiction novel that is written by Emily St. John Mandel, is a unique piece of work in the grand literature field. While other post-apocalypse novels focus on dangerous environment and struggling of survivors, Mandel takes her aim at portraying a group of joyful artists who travel from towns to towns in the ruined world. For each stop, the Symphony would build up a stage and entertain the local public with classical concerts and Shakespeare’s theatrical dramas. Indeed, the content of Station Eleven has successfully drawn readers’ attention, and Mandel is a skillful writer who is adept at portraying her characters’ emotion and specific features to make them particular. However, Mandel may still depict the world after
The central idea of this excerpt from Dracula was the fear of the prisoner living in the castle of Count Dracula who felt trapped and alone. The authors use of first person point of view of the prisoner was able to develop this central idea of fear because prisoner was able to describe his feelings first hand living in the castle with the Count as well as emphasize the thoughts that were scattered inside of his head during this time. An example of the author using first person point of view to help develop the central idea of fear was when the prisoner had realized that he was helpless in the situation of his current living conditions. The prisoner said "I think I must have been mad for the time, for I have behaved much as a rat does in a trap" (lines 4-5).
This article will examine how H.P. Lovecraft creates suspense using Narrator’s point of view and sensory language. I will be showing how the literary devices create suspense by using quotes and explaining the reasons why they create suspense. Understanding suspense and literary devices can help us read and understand the story. “Pickman’s Model” By H.P. Lovecraft tells
At first glance, the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker appears to be a typical gothic horror novel set in the late 1890s that gives readers an exciting look into the fight between good and evil. Upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Dracula is a statement piece about gender roles and expectations for men and women during the Victorian age. Looking at the personalities, actions, and character development of each of the characters in Dracula bring to light startling revelations about Victorian society and how Stoker viewed the roles of men and women during this time period. To really understand Dracula, it is important to note that this novel was written during a time “of political and social upheaval, with anxieties not just about the
The horror genre of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, combined with mild eroticism is able to draw in readers due to the fact that Stoker is able to intricately weave suspenseful sexual scenes/scenes of desire throughout the novel—making it clear that
This imagery is used to convey the mood of the story, which is one of oppressive, eerie stillness. For example, the description of the Clutter home after the murders is
Throughout the excerpt from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stoker utilizes diction to convey the central idea that peoples’ worst fears lie in the unknown. In this section, the narrator is being held captive by an unknown entity. He begins to feel that his only hope is to understand the captor and starts to question the manner of the individual. In an effort to express the central idea, Stoker employs diction.
Bram Stoker, describes one of the verbal taboos of the Victorian era, violence, through the representation of vampires as “monsters” through the point of view of their victims in his novel Dracula. Stoker portrays violence in three distinct categories- physical, visual and psychological. Each one of these categories is described by one of the antagonists in the Novel, with Count Dracula as the physical aspect of violence, his underlings, the female vampires as the visual and Renfield, the patient at Dr. Seward’s mental asylum, as the psychological aspect of violence. This essay looks at the portrayal of such Categorical violence as different renditions of a “monster” and considers why Stoker would segregate violence in such a manner.
Gothic horror novel Dracula, the title character makes only several relatively short appearances, some of which are while in disguise. Throughout the novel, Stoker keeps Count Dracula in the shadows, both literally and figuratively. This essay will describe these appearances and analyze Stoker’s use of them to determine what effect they might have on the impression of the character and the novel overall. It will be claimed that by keeping his title character hidden for much of the novel, Stoker’s Dracula is made much more frightening to the reader. Human beings tend to fear the unknown, and by leaving Dracula to the imagination,
Have you ever read a story that causes chills or your emotionally invested in a character. The story’s Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The mysteries of udolpho by Ann Radcliffe are literature that are centered in fear. These story’s cause suspense or has ghost or some type of monster. A gothic is a great example of fear in literature. The settings, characters, and story line has a way of making the reader invested by hooking to their emotions.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a Gothic tale that in a lure of decadence warns against the pull of the past. Victorian ideals are set to cherish the idyllic home, but when the national dwelling is compromised, Dracula’s invasion mixes the foreign with the familiar. England, a paragon of Western order and a colonizer, fears any disease that weakens the growing Empire. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Count embodies the Victorian fear of reverse colonization through his deliberate crossing of cultural and physical boundaries as a way to undermine British imperialism.
“Fear can challenge our sense of humanity and understanding of the world” This is a broad statement and in a book with over 300 pages, I will be focusing on certain parts in each of the books. Proving that fear can and really does challenge our sense of humanity and understanding in the world, from the start of the book where they tried to make up a rational solution to make this all seem like it wasn’t real, to actively fight against the evil they had so vehemently protested against existing. Bram stokers 19th-century fictitious Gothic novel 'Dracula ' is incredibly complex with many different characters from the meek and underestimated Mina, to the courageous and respected Van Helsing.