Form of Dracula, why is it written in letters and journals?

Annoyingly Dracula is written in letters and journals. I personally hate this form as it makes the book hard and stilted to read and stops you getting into the book. However Stoker may have chosen to write Dracula like this for versimilitude. By writing Dracula in this form  it helps to suspend the reader's disbelief and stops the questioning the whole book and say it hasn't really happened. I suppose you could argue that this makes the "horrors" (questionably) even more terrfying as it is putting on the appearence that it could all be real.

As well as this by using letters and journals it is an invasion of privacy. We as a reader intrude on the characters personal thought and feelings which other are not supposed to read, 'it is not intended for them' This personal invasion may help us to suspend our disbelief because as they are only writing to themselves or their close friends, they have no reason to exaggerate the horrors which have happened to them. If anything they would try to downplay it or reason with themselves and their friends with what they saw to try and prove that it was real and they havn't gone insane. 

Don't really know what to say apart from that so toodles :) xx

Dracula Chapter 3, Freud

Why are we doing this? We all agree that Freud's interpretation that everything we dream is about sex and sexual organs is a pile of jelly tots. Are you really telling me that when I was like 3 and dreamed of pretty, colourful balloons I was in fact dreaming of a mans sexual organ. I think Freud was one, completely disturbed and two, must have been a sex addict as he seems completely obsessed by the idea of sex. I do not and will never believe that humans are as clear cut as that. 


I suppose then I should start the task at hand and so will identify some of the points in chapter 3 that this theory could relate to.

• The castle Harker's trapped in, the many passages and doors within the castle
• Count mentions battles which would have involved weapons e.g. knifes, daggers etc...
• Library they sit in, books
• Letters he writes 
• Hills and the landscape
• Count crawling down the castle wall
• Count described as a lizard 
• Obviously whole scene with the three vampire girls 

There you go I feel that's enough examples.

Faustus Gothic or Tragic Character

Personally I think that Faustus is more of a tragic character this is because:

• His arrogance can be seen as his hubris (tragic flaw which leads to his downfall)
• He has a high status which is shown through him speaking latin
• He is intelligent, he knows what the consequences of his actions will be
• At the beginning of the play he starts in top with high ambitions and desires, however throughout the play he falls until he just becomes a servant of other people's desires and wishes

However it can also be argued that he is a gothic character:

• He sells his soul to the devil
• He's destined for damnation
• He isolates himself voluntary from the world
• Obsessive in his quest for power

Goodbye for now :)

Act 4

After having a little cheeky look at Jenny's blog I have discovered that we are supposed to be looking at How does Faustus fall further in act 4? I suppose that means before I start to write this blog I should actually read this act, give me five....
Ok not going to lie, its late, I'm tired, want to go to bed so have just skim read it hoping that we will look at it properly in class. Please don't judge me Mr Francis. 


From what I have gathered that Faustus has lost even more of his ambitions in act 4. At the beginning of the play Faustus seemed to have big ambitions to rule the world but in act 4 scene 1 he says 'I am content to do whatsoever your majesty shall command.' If he realised this is the way he would have acted after he had sold his soul, I'm sure he never would have gone through with it. This is because he hasn't raised himself in the world that much or reached his high ambitions. He's still doing what the Emperor wants him to do, serving him and his desires. His arrogance has also seemed to disapear as he seems pleased and satisfied to be beneth men and do there bidding 'I must confess myself  far inferior to the report men have published.'  When reading this line you think maybe he's being sarcastic but he does exactly what the Emperor asks him to do. This suggests to me Marlowe is showing that power isn't everything, when you have it you don't know what to do with it and so therefore you are better without it. I feel that Faustus probably would have achieved more without all this grand power because then he would have had to work to achieve his desires and dreams. However because it has all been handed to him on a plate it means he has been distracted of why he sold his sould to the devil in the first place therefore wasting the opportunity to fufill his desires.


Tis short and sweet but it's better then not doing anything :)

Mephistopheles Act II t

I do apologise in advance for this very boring blog but I'm already sick of this blogging lark.

At the minute I'm still very unsure of what to make of Mephistopheles. In act 2 scene 3 he still seems to be honest as he answers Faustus's questions but I think that we may be starting to see the bad side of him which caused him to go to hell in the first place. He only seems to give Faustus basic answers, withholding the knowledge he craves deceitfully, causing Faustus to become annoyed and dissatisfied as he's only being told what he knew already. 'Tush, these slender trifles Wagner can decide.' As well as this in act 2 scene 1 we see how M is full of trickery and is manipulative as he deliberately tricks Faustus into being put off by the idea of marriage which is holy and against Lucifer, instead promising to give him a courtesan (in other words a prostitute) every morning. Therefore I don't think that he can really be as honest as he is made out to be in act 1 as he isn't fulfilling his end of the bargain of giving Faustus everything he desires and is I feel just trying to distract him in order to stop him repenting. 


However I suppose you could argue that due to trickery and deception being innate with M as he comes from hell, he isn't that bad as he yet hasn't done anything worse then persuade Faustus not to marry and he seems a much more sympathetic character then Lucifer. He even stays with Faustus when Lucifer walks of stage end of act 2 scene 3 suggesting he is more loyal to Lucifer (but this could be very easily argued against). This suggests that he's possibly having a battle with himself as he doesn't want Faustus to go to hell but at the same time wants his soul and him to suffer in the way that he's suffering.


What I do disagree with is the possible interpretation that M has homosexual tendencies towards Faustus, I personally don't like these very ambiguous theories when there doesn't really seem to be any evidence in the play for it. So unless we read later on that M gives Faustus a cheeky peck on the cheek I will remain unconvinced.

lol? nahh

Sad Panda

I understand that Marlowe may have wanted relief from the drama and tension of Faustus making the decision to sell his soul to the devil, but tbh je déteste la comédie c'est très ennuyeux! I do understand that what we think is funny nowadays would have been very different back then, butI don't think the comedy has travelled well through time. Personally when I saw Dr Faustus last year they added an extra hour onto the play making it way too long and they didn't add anything to it. For me it wasnt light relief during the dramatic moments it was boredom, in fact I started to watch the lighting guy next to me moving the switchs on the lighting board. I don't think this is what Marlowe intended people to do when they saw this play but he should have thought about that before he wrote these scenes.


Honestly I think that Marlowe may have only written theses scenes to boast to the audience of his genius blank verse being his usual modest self. I know that this is very easily argued against especially the fact that many believe he didn't even write these comic scenes but oh well, I like to be original. 


Personally I don't think we need the light relief from Faustus as he is the interesting character in this play, especially at this stage when the audience is wondering whether he is really going to go through with selling his soul to the devil. Therefore I think that these scenes are a bit distracting from him and the story, causing us to become impatient and annoyed. Honestly I think these scenes are an epic fail on Marlowe's part but I will forgive him due to the rest of the play being rather good in my opinion.

Gothic elements and Looking at the character of Mephistopheles

To begin with we looked at what we believe to be the elements of the gothic. I feel that in fiction the term gothic can be applied to a novel or play if the story emphasises on that of the grotesque, mysterious and desolate. According to a glossary term of gothic fiction this is what they believe gothiic elements include these:

• Ancient prophecy, especially mysterious, obscure, or hard to understand.
• Mystery and suspense
• High emotion, sentimentalism, but also pronounced anger, surprise, and especially terror
• Supernatural events (e.g. a giant, a sighing portrait, ghosts or their apparent presence, a skeleton)
• Omens, portents, dream visions
• Fainting, frightened, screaming women
• Women threatened by powerful, impetuous male
• Setting in a castle, especially with secret passages
• The metonymy of gloom and horror (wind, rain, doors grating on rusty hinges, howls in the distance, distant sighs, footsteps approaching, lights in abandoned rooms, gusts of wind blowing out lights or blowing suddenly, characters trapped in rooms or imprisoned)
• The vocabulary of the gothic (use of words indicating fear, mystery, etc.: apparition, devil, ghost, haunted, terror, fright)             

      

After discussing what we believed to be the elements of the Gothic we started to look at the character of Mephistopheles who is introduced to us in Act 1 Scene 3. To be honest I was surprised by him as although being a messenger of the devil he didn't appear to be very evil, weird... In fact he was very honest as he tells Faustus how hell is not a nice place and even admits that God is more poweful then Lucifer. He even sounds quite human especially compared to Faustus who is so self-absorbed he doesn't see why there is a problem with him wanting to sell his soul to the devil, how dumb can you get?? I think that in all this is a nice little twist Marlowe has going on as it's not a cliche and is very unexpected, I aprove. On the other hand I suppose that Mephistopheles could just be cunning and trying to set the audience on edge creating the atmosphere of suspense and terror. Although this may be the case I have always tried to see the good and people and hope that Mephistopheles is what he appears, I suppose we will just have to read on to find out for certain.         

Beginning Dr Faustus

Before I begin to write my thoughts on the lesson, first I feel that I must congratulate Mr Francis on making a lemon cake which is actually better then edible, as I believe that lemons must be one of the worst fruits in the world! Therefore I greatly encourage you to make more cake in the future *hint* *hint*.


Anyway, on being introduced to the character of Dr Faustus I personally feel that he is a bit up himself and needs to take a reality check. His dreams of usurping God and taking over the world I feel to be a little selfish, especially as he only seems to want to have that much power because he is bored. I believe that being bored and sick of being cleverer then everyone else is no excuse to think that you have the right to world domination.


I also feel that unlike a lot of main characters in plays or novels you would never ever want to meet him at a party. Due to the fact that he would stand in a corner all night, thinking he is better then everybody and when you try to talk to him you walk away feeling very stupid, pathetic and what is the point to your life. All in all, not a nice guy.


Possibly a reason why he intends to become God is the fact that he drove everybody away by his arrogance and pride and therefore has no friends.Billy no mates. Ok if this is true I do feel a little sorry for him, especially if he was one of those kids writing to agongy Aunt 'ahhh' but to be honest if he feels he can get and keep friends by spontaneously speaking latin, reciting Aristotle and constantly boasting of how clever he is, he has a lot to learn and therefore I am not suprised he may be a lonely person.


Just food for thought x