Language and form Essay

In chapter three, Dracula begins by describing his countries people and boasts of his family name to Harker. It then goes on to when Dracula quizzes Harker about England and forces him to write letters to his relatives informing them of his extended stay. One of the more startling events in the chapter involves Harker spotting Dracula crawling down the wall of the castle which makes him think of the predicament he finds himself in. Towards the end of the chapter, Harker goes against Dracula’s advice and falls asleep in a foreign room only to find himself with three voluptuous women but just as one puts her lips on his neck, Dracula disturbs them ordering them to leave with the â€Å"smothered child† he provided them. Harker is still not sure if they were a figment of his dream or not. From the very beginning of the chapter, Harker seems to have found himslef in a very much more hostile environment then he was previously in as he has recently found himself in â€Å"a veritable prison† himslef as the â€Å"prisoner†. From this moment on the tension seems to grow in the oevrall plot as Harker’s â€Å"wild feelings† and â€Å"helplessness† is portrayed in his actions of desperately trying to find an escape. By far and away, one of Stokers’ greatest techniques in building up the tension is by hinting at the things we know will develop later. A great example of this technique is the moment when Harker himself realises that the castle has no servants and the coach driver who controlled the wolves with such fearless power was actually the Count himself, all along the reader knew this however was kept in suspense as they wanted to see how Harker would react to this, in Chapter three they finally get to see his reaction and this adds instant suspense to what he will do and gives another twist as he tries to â€Å"keep his knowledge and his fears to himself†. Tension also builds up increasingly as the chapter continues as refrences back to Dracula and his brutal and vicious strength are made all the more frequent such as the simple yet very powerful gestour of â€Å"laying a heavy hand on my shoulder† which almost single handedly frightened Harker into writing the letters to notify his relatives about his extended stay. Not only does the chapter describe Dracula’s strength but it also touches on his attributes and one of them being the moment in which Harker saw the Count crawl down the sheer of the castle in a â€Å"lizard-like† way. These such instances create an eery feeling and again relates back to Stokers’ technique of hinting at the things we know will develop later as readers all know about dracula’s special skills yet just little hints like this rather then being blunt about it makes the reader really get the feel of Harkers emotions and develops dracula more effectively as the figure of fright in the story. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Bram Stoker section.