In gothic novels, the physical setting—and frequently, elements of the natural world at play within that setting—are of tantamount importance. Stoker uses less dramatic language to describe London (and most other physical locations in England) when compared to the language that he uses to describe Transylvania. In Chapter 3, Jonathan Harker observes the landscape surrounding Dracula's castle:
The castle was built on the corner of a great rock, so that on three sides it was quite impregnable . . . . To the west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged mountain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices and crannies of the stone.
The mystical grandeur of nature and the physical setting here mirrors the extremity of the supernatural horrors that Harker experiences.
In contrast, everything supernatural that occurs in England seems out of place; the setting contrasts with the extreme "otherness" of the supernatural events. A key example of this supernatural setting intruding on the "normal" world occurs when Dracula's boat arrives in England. In a newspaper report at the beginning of Chapter 7, the writer describes the weather that accompanied Dracula to England:
To add to the difficulties and dangers of the time, masses of sea-fog came drifting inland - white, wet clouds, which swept by in a ghostly fashion, so dank and damp and cold that it needed but little effort of imagination to think that the spirits of those lost at sea were touching their living brethren with the clammy hands of death.
In this passage, the landscape and setting typical of Dracula's supernatural world intrude on the English landscape. The fog is strange and unearthly, atypical when juxtaposed with the tame English countryside and coastline.
In gothic novels, the physical setting—and frequently, elements of the natural world at play within that setting—are of tantamount importance. Stoker uses less dramatic language to describe London (and most other physical locations in England) when compared to the language that he uses to describe Transylvania. In Chapter 3, Jonathan Harker observes the landscape surrounding Dracula's castle:
The castle was built on the corner of a great rock, so that on three sides it was quite impregnable . . . . To the west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged mountain fastnesses, rising peak on peak, the sheer rock studded with mountain ash and thorn, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices and crannies of the stone.
The mystical grandeur of nature and the physical setting here mirrors the extremity of the supernatural horrors that Harker experiences.
In contrast, everything supernatural that occurs in England seems out of place; the setting contrasts with the extreme "otherness" of the supernatural events. A key example of this supernatural setting intruding on the "normal" world occurs when Dracula's boat arrives in England. In a newspaper report at the beginning of Chapter 7, the writer describes the weather that accompanied Dracula to England:
To add to the difficulties and dangers of the time, masses of sea-fog came drifting inland - white, wet clouds, which swept by in a ghostly fashion, so dank and damp and cold that it needed but little effort of imagination to think that the spirits of those lost at sea were touching their living brethren with the clammy hands of death.
In this passage, the landscape and setting typical of Dracula's supernatural world intrude on the English landscape. The fog is strange and unearthly, atypical when juxtaposed with the tame English countryside and coastline.
