Student 1
Student Example
Mrs. Davis
Honors English 9- Period 6
16 August 2012
Literary Analysis #1
“And again great frowning rocks guarded us boldly on either side. Though we were in
shelter, we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled through the rocks, and the
branches of the trees crashed together as we swept along” (Stoker 11).
Bram Stoker has implemented personification in this description of Jonathan Harker’s
final stage of the journey to the castle of Count Dracula, creating a place where rocks frown,
wind moans, and tree branches crash. He is in a horse-drawn carriage during a rising storm in the
dead of night, and all around him wolves are howling in the darkness, creating a frightening
sense of danger. Adding to this feeling is the suspiciousness of the driver, a man “with very red
lips and sharp looking teeth, as white as ivory…” and “a grip of steel” (9). By giving the nature
around Jonathan a foreboding feel with personification, Stoker turned the elements against him,
leaving almost nothing good for him to cling to in the horror-filled night. This sense of imminent
peril continues throughout Jonathan’s stay with the Count, and is here used as slight
foreshadowing of the danger to come. There is nothing good in the land he is entering, not even
the rocks and trees. Everything, it seems, is sided with the Count, although Jonathan hasn’t
realized this yet.
Student 2
Literary Analysis #2
“His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and
peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the
temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over
the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far
as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with
peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness
showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at
the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though
thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor” (Stoker 15).
The main antagonist of this novel, Count Dracula, is the archetype for the modern
vampire, which is hinted at in this initial description of the man with the detail of his sharp white
teeth. After shaking hands, Jonathan found that the Count’s hands “seemed as cold as ice, more
like the hand of a dead than a living man” (14). The generalized vampire does not make a
reflection in mirrors, which Jonathan discovered applied to the Count after not seeing him in his
small shaving-mirror (22). Not once did he see Dracula during the daylight (stated on page 39),
and after exploring the castle, found him lying in a coffin as if he was asleep or dead (40). There
he looked “as if his youth had been half restored,” which could have occurred after sucking
blood, another stereotype of vampires. Although the idea of a vampire had been written about
before, Bram Stoker’s creation would be looked at as the way one should be for years to come.
Student 3
Literary Analysis #3
“But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I have seen the view I explored
further. Doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the
windows in the castle walls is there an available exit. The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a
prisoner!” (Stoker 22).
Here, at the end of Chapter Two, Jonathan Harker has an epiphany about the true
condition of his stay at the castle of Count Dracula. Previously in the chapter, he had been
exploring the numerous rooms and corridors by himself, and found almost all of them locked.
Dracula was out of sight, and after Jonathan ate breakfast he found a room with a “magnificent”
(22) view of the surrounding areas. However, looking out at the cliff the castle stood upon, he
had a sudden realization that he was not a visitor, but a prisoner of the Count. After the harsh
reality of this hit him, “a sort of wild feeling came over” him, followed by hopelessness after
“trying every door” and window and finding himself truly locked in (23). Discovering this was
more than a random realization; it was an epiphany since knowing this bred more paranoia about
the Count and what would potentially happen to Jonathan during his time caged in the ominous
castle. The idea of being a prisoner would lead to constant questioning and fear of Dracula’s
motives, and Jonathan might end up doing something that would only make his situation worse
by trying everything possible to escape.
Student 4
Literary Analysis #4
“I looked out over the beautiful expanse, bathed in soft yellow moonlight till it was
almost as light as day. In the soft light the distant hills became melted, and the shadows in the
valleys and gorges of velvety blackness. The mere beauty seemed to cheer me. There was peace
and comfort in every breath I drew” (Stoker 29).
In his journal, Jonathan is describing the beauty of the view from a staircase looking
South with great imagery. Before he is calmed by the sight, he was talking about how he truly
felt like he “was indeed in prison” (28) and how the nocturnal way of life was “destroying his
nerve” (28). However, the sight laid out before him of the land around the castle in the middle of
the night had a comforting effect on him, and its description allowed the reader to paint a better
picture of the setting in their mind. Compared to previous experiences Jonathan had at night in
the castle, this one displays a quieter, more beautiful side to the terror-filled darkness that had
been seen before. Making use of imagery here gave a better understanding of the setting, as
opposed to a less descriptive piece that wouldn’t provide any more angles to the castle and its
surroundings. It shows how there is a light side, seen here, to places that seemed to only hold the
dark unknown before.
Student 5
Literary Analysis #5
“Today is a gray day, and the sun as I write is hidden in thick clouds, high
over Kettleness. Everything is gray except the green grass, which seems
like emerald amongst it, gray earthy rock, gray clouds, tinged with the
sunburst at the far edge, hang over the gray sea, into which the sandpoints
stretch like gray figures. The sea is tumbling in over the shallows and the
sandy flats with a roar, muffled in the sea-mists drifting inland. The
horizon is lost in a gray mist.” (Stoker 63)
This is an example of repetition, taken from Chapter Six, which is told from the point of
view of Mina, Jonathan’s fiancée, back in England, and her journal entries. Here, the recurrence
of the word gray emphasizes the dullness of the day and the coming storm by mentioning how
almost everything is of the same bland shade. Before this description, Mina was worrying about
Jonathan, and how “the suspense is getting dreadful”, waiting for a letter from him (63). She was
feeling impatient, uneasy, and perhaps lonely and without him, which could be another reason
for the stress on the grayness, or depression, of the day. This excerpt could also be seen as
foreshadowing to the great storm that would come shortly after the journal entry, in which a ship
is seen off in the distance with potential importance to the plot. Repeating the word gray shows
how the gloomy weather imbedded itself into every piece of the day, from the clouds to the
rocks, and took over almost everything except for the grass, which stood still stubbornly green as
an analogy to a piece of hope Mina still clung to about Jonathan and his safety.