Dracula - Blog #7

"I remember hearing the sudden barking of the dogs and a lot of queer sounds, like praying on a very tumultous scale, from Mr. Renfield's room, which is somewhere under this. And then there was silence over everything, silence so profound that it startled me, and I got up and looked out of the window. All was dark and silent, the black shadows thrown by the moonlight seeming full of a silent mystery of their own. Not a thing seemed to be stirring, but all to be grim and fixed as death or fate; so that a thin streak of white mist, that crept with almost imperceptible slowness across the grace towards the house, seemed to have a sentience and a vitality of its own...The mist was spreading, and was not close up to the house, so that I could see it lying thick against the wall, as though it were stealing up the windows. The poor man was more loud than ever, and though I could not distinguish a word he said, I cold in some way recognize in his tones some passionate entreaty on his part" (275).

This passage is very foreboding due to the various literary devices used. The repetition of words like "dark," "black," and "silent" gives the passage a very dark, still, tense mood. The simile "but all to be grim or fixed as death or fate" further adds terror to the foreboing mood. What is really eerie is the mist, which Van Helsing earlier explained was Dracula. The mist is described as being very thick, sneaky, and graceful as it creeps up the house towards Mina's window. Because of the terrifying, deathly mood, this partially foreshadows how Dracula will be coming after Mina, and now we see some of his sneaky tactics he uses to get to people. The sounds and excitement coming from Renfield further add to the horrific mood because we know that he has some sort of connection with Dracula, and he's getting excited that his "master" has come. Overall, this passage really illustrates that even though Lucy has been taken care of, there is still a much larger problem to take care of, and that it's not going to be easy. Additionally, the eerie mood foreshadows some kind of horrific happenings that will occur before the end of the novel.