Mariah’s CPB: “Hey Mariah, After looking through your commonplace entries over the week I have noticed a pattern in what you choose to include and how you include it. You always take the time to find images to go along with the commonplace entry which makes it more interesting and interactive in my opinion. I also noticed how you seem to focus more on the criticism of the novel and you don’t just find things from the back of the…
For this week, I looked at Eve, Mariah and Caitlyn’s common place book entries. They all focused on different aspects of the novel, but one thing that I found in common between their entries was a depiction of the character of Dracula. What I found most interesting was the variety within the depictions. Mariah and Caitlyn depicted the character of Dracula as a handsome, attractive man who would be able to seduce any woman which agrees with the description and…
“Among the other fantasies are those of life after death, the triumph of ‘good over evil’, mere man over super-human forces, and the rational West over the mysterious East.” (415) “As observed, the split between the sexual vampire family and the asexual Van Helsing group is not at all clear-cut: Jonathan, Van Helsing, Seward and Holmwood are all overwhelmingly attracted to the vampires, to sexuality.” (415) “The novel tells of two major episodes, the seduction of Lucy and of Mina,…
Quotation: “Just over the external jugular vein there were two punctures, not large, but not wholesome-looking. There was no sign of disease, but the edges were white and worn-looking, as if by some trituration. It at once occurred to me that this wound, or whatever it was, might be the means of that manifest loss of blood; but I abandoned the idea as soon as it formed, for such a thing could not be.” (115) Comment: This was the first…
This week I looked at Eve, Mariah and Caitlyn’s commonplace book entries regarding Dracula. It was interesting to see what they chose to focus on within the contemporary criticism for the novel. Eve and Caitlyn chose to look at the sexuality aspect of the novel and Mariah focused mainly on the setting of the novel and the use of the characters to depict Victorian beliefs. Despite the difference in appearance Mariah’s entry could be tied to the other two entries…
Three sources of superstition in Transylvania: 1. “First there is what may be called the indigenous superstition of the country, the scenery of which is peculiarly adapted to serve as background to all sorts of supernatural beings and monsters” 2. “Secondly, there is imported superstition! that is to say, the old German customs and beliefs brought hither seven hundred years ago by the Saxon colonists from their native lands, and like many other things, preserved here in greater perfection than…
Quotation: “Be so good as not to trifle, Mr. Atherton. If what you say is correct, and the wretch to whom you allude really has Miss Lindon at her mercy, then the woman I love – and whom you also pretend to love – stand in imminent peril not only of a ghastly death, but of what is infinitely worse than death.” (254) Comment: This is one of the first times Lessington begins to acknowledge what happened in his past…
It was very interesting and enlightening looking at other people’s common place book entries for this week. Looking at them has brought new perspectives of the novel and the appendices into light and has been very interesting to think of. The three common place book entries I looked at this week had different aspects and perspectives that they chose to highlight, but they all worked together to enhance my reading of the novel. Caitlyn chose to look at the perspective…
“London is its own singular, often monstrous, character in the fiction of the last two decades of the nineteenth century” (323) “There is, without doubt, a language or discourse of the city at the end of the century which grips the literary imagination, and of which Marsh partakes readily.” (323) “The new woman has no desire to imitate the bad points of the other sex: she sees no shame in womanliness; but unfortunately, neither men nor women exactly agree on…
Quotation: “In my sudden passage from one mood to another, I was filled with the desire to shake the life half out of him. But so soon as I moved a step in his direction, intending war instead of peace, he altered the position of his hand, holding it out towards me as if forbidding my approach. Directly he did so, quite involuntarily, I pulled up dead, – as if my progress had been stayed by bars of iron and…
