Dracula: Honestly, Travel Is Kinda Draining

This post only includes spoilers through chapter 4 of Dracula.

But first I found some cool stuff:

• Examples of Kodak photography 
• short write-up of early photography including “hidden mothers” and portemortm photography: YIKES?
• description of shorthand/stenography with examples: SO COOL

 

Jonathan finding Dracula’s inert body during the daytime.

So in chapter 4 as we’ve seen, Jonathan continues to have a horrifying time. I think it’s weird that Jonathan mentions that the vampire ladies want to suck his blood, though (51)? They only talked about kissing in the last scene, and based on Jon’s reaction to the mirror-throwing I assumed he would assume they were talking about actual kissing. The vampire ladies also appear to be able to morph to/from dust (56), unless that’s just Jonathan hallucinating as they approach? What do you think?

Jon is a newbie in terms of vampire lore, as we see again when the Szgany are unloading the “great, square boxes” (55) with no commentary from Jon. I CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT THOSE ARE FOR. 

Jon keeps exhibiting the traditional behavior of literary Victorian women, eg “I sat down and simply cried” (57). I don’t blame Jonathan AT ALL for freaking out 24/7 while he’s in a vampire’s house. But it’s really interesting to me how far this book goes with it, considering that in most Victorian literature the women are constantly having fits of hysterics and attacks of the vapors while the men run off to do the deadly deeds. COMMENTS?

Jon also seems to fear that his experiences in Castle Dracula may have tainted him spiritually or something, implied by when he is considering escape and hoping that “the dreaded Hereafter may be open to me” (58). He doesn’t want to die but also doesn’t want to be damned to hell and I don’t really understand what is going on here, to be honest.

So far I am picturing Dracula as a dragon/leech/basilisk hybrid. Y/N?