In chapter 21, the passage I have chosen to study is on page 235 due to the melodrama, symbolisms and gothic

imagery. As we read the words, moonlight, and great black clouds it adds to the sinister atmosphere. The powerful description of Draculas looks, wild beast, white sharp teeth and blood-dripping mouth evokes a feral animalistic nature and in the scene, it symbolises the predator hunting its prey. In this case, it is Mina who represents the prey and Dracula, the predator. We get a great deal of knowledge based on Draculas character. The way he acts, for example, leap once again emphasises his animalistic personality, the simile used, champedof a wile beast reflects his vicious nature, possibly giving us an insight on his basic instincts that we naturally find in animals. The hellish look and devil passion emphasises that Dracula is a creature, a monster and most importantly, is not part of the living. The Devil relates to great evil, and especially hell. We feel fear, especially readers from Stokers time as we read, eyes flamed red, it is an inhuman trait, and anything to do with the devil was considered terrifying. With the image of the devil and animalism being portrayed, it is not hard to understand that there is a lack of soul within Dracula. At this stage, we can be sure he has no soul. The act of selling ones soul to the devil suddenly seems to have another meaning. We can associate this with the talk between Dr Seward and Renfield. The confusion that Renfield felt (page 224) about not wanting souls but only life can be understood a bit more clearly. Life means to have a soul. We learn that vampires only seem to want the essence of life: blood. They do not desire the burden of a soul. This can be linked to the Holy Spirit, which is one part of the holy trinity in the faith of Christianity. It is ironic to see the role reversal of prey and predator as Dracula cowered when faced with the crucifixes and Sacred Wafer. This highlights clearly the power of religion, holiness and purity against the dead and impure. The battle of good and evil is another gothic feature. The contrast of colours such as white sharp teeth, the red of blood and the great black clouds suggests there are many different conflicting forces fighting against each other. It creates a clash, a divergence, inconsistency, tension and controversy. We can see morality against versus corruption. The men and Mina are trying to do what is right, and then there is Dracula and Lucy (after her transformation), committing crimes of murder as they feed off innocent people and drain them of their life. The words victim and thick stream of blood underlies their sins, as it makes it look similar to a murder scene, where Dracula has just been caught in the action. There are two ways we can interpret this idea of a trap. One is where Mina falls into it as she is held in the Counts terrible grip. He is in control, and it allows us to imagine that Mina (as the prey) is ensnared by her predator. It relates to the image described on page 234, resemblance to a childto compel it to drink. On the other hand, Dracula is caught in his own ambush as he is discovered - something he did not expect and it appears he did not count on their knowledge of his fear against holy items such as the Christian cross. It is ironic that such a small item can cause a powerful being to feel apprehensive and weak, yet this only stresses the power of religion, morality and purity that would have on against evil. Gothicism has one other attribute where it features on sexuality. Stoker manages to convey this subtly along with describing the events, and the horror experienced by the other characters. It is understated which adds to the effect. For example, the description for Mina is very effective, as it not only describes her state, face was ghastly and pallor but also accentuates the proximity of her looks, smeared her lips and cheeks and chin. The fact that she had blood trickling down her throat provokes images from the readers mind; it makes us imagine the close proximity between the Dracula and herself. It illustrates how Mina was helpless to resist and shows that Dracula is not the cause of open sexuality, but releases them in the female victims he captures. When Stoker describes Minas eyes, if we recall in chapter 16 (page 175) he performs the same thing with Lucy. Dr Seward expresses his horror in seeing Lucys eyes full of hell-fire and calls them unclean. Although this is after Lucy is turned into a vampire. Mina is not transformed, but her eyes were mad with terror and the ear-piercing scream almost resembles the idea of having gone through hell. The mad can be linked to insanity, which strikes a chord with Renfield again. The fact that he is an asylum and Mina is almost trembling with panic due to such a traumatic experience can provoke readers to feel anger towards Dracula, for causing such pain and trouble in innocent peoples lives.