“‘ Monster, give me my child’……. Somewhere high overhead, probably on the tower, I heard the voice of the Count calling in his harsh, metallic whisper. His call seemed to be answered from far and wide by the howling of wolves…..I could not pity her, for I knew now what had become of her child, and she was better dead.” (48-49)
Paige, I like the images you included of the different covers of this novel. It shows what stands out to the publishers of the novel (i.e. the gloomy setting, Dracula himself, the wolves, the castle, etc). Jen included some commentary on the appearance of the first edition of the novel, so it was interesting to compare that language with images of the other covers. Nice work!
Hi Paige!
I really enjoyed the quote that you chose because when I read it also stood out to me and was really emotional in that the woman will never get her daughter back because of how Dracula seems to manipulate and convince people to join him. When Harker states that the woman’s daughter is better off dead it was really shocking but speaks to how Harker actually understood how dangerous and influential Dracula was. I also enjoyed the images you chose because they are all different variations of how people interpret Dracula over the years which was interesting to see.
Hey Paige!
Nice job with your entry for this week!
I like that you chose to include this particular quote from this first section of the novel. It definitely serves to demonstrate the more “monstrous” and cruel aspect of Count Dracula’s “perversely dual” character that can simultaneously attract and repulse the victims he traps in his vampiric “web”. During his time at Castle Dracula, Johnathan appears to be toggled, mostly against his will (alluding back to the loss of autonomy seen in The Beetle), back and forth between these aspects of vampiric attraction and repulsion. This particular scene in which Dracula calls on his “henchmen” the wolves to kill the distraught mother of the young child that the Count had previously abducted is definitely one of the highlights of this section of the novel for demonstrating Dracula’s monstrous capacity for cruelty.
The various book covers that you chose to include are also interesting. They really work to depict various incarnations of Dracula’s character that have pervaded in the public consciousness since the novel’s publication – whether as a tortured Byronic hero (the first cover), a ruthless warrior or “king of darkness” (the second cover, which recalls the tentative historical connection of Count Dracula to the cruel Romanian ruler “Vlad the Impaler”), or as an uncanny mix between an “undead” human and a bat. It is also interesting to see the color red repeatedly appear in connection with the novel (including on our own Norton cover). This could be a result of the literal “bloodiness” of the vampire that is evoked through the color red, but also could be used to evoke the strong emotion/intense passion evoked by the figure of the vampire (given that red is an intense/“energetic” color).
I was not expecting that quote to be chosen, as I had not thought much of it before outside of just how cruel the event was. Now I’m considering that the event of the child’s kidnapping and mother’s death may be symbolic of children falling into and being consumed by sin and them and their parents being (in this case literally) destroyed by this, much like Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and Jekyll were in their pursuits. I also found the variation in covers very interesting, as they appear to be efforts to capture different audiences. The top one is for the romantics (note that cover Dracula looks nothing like the book’s description), the second one is for the most dark-minded and those who probably appreciate the book’s classic nature most, and the third is creepy yet almost comical, for those who just want a good scare.
I loved the visuals you chose, they’re very different from the others I’ve seen. I especially liked the enriched classic cover, where there’s bodies impelled with sticks so rounding the castle. It shows how deep and powerful this book can get, and how manipulative Dracula is.