While reading Dracula<\/u> I was puzzled by the way that time passed in the novel as well as the way that time functioned for the reader. There are some explicit references to the ways that time changes around Dracula. We\u2019ve discussed how train times and meal times represent a certain lifestyle or status as civilized, and while at Castle Dracula these become harder to set time by. The \u201cnormal\u201d progression of time is disrupted. \u00a0When Jonathan first arrives at the castle he states that \u201cthe time I waited seemed endless\u201d (Stoker 21). We as readers know that it was not endless because he is eventually allowed to enter into the castle. However the way that time is experienced by the narrator is shifted. It is also true that the Count himself disrupts the normative idea of linear time. It is not only \u201che sleeps when others wake, that he may be awake whilst they sleep\u201d but he is also immortal and does not have the same relation to history that humans do(Stoker 54). Jonathan states upon hearing the Count recount ( \ud83d\ude09 ) his family\/his own history that Dracula \u201cseemed to have in it a whole history of the country\u201d (35). Contained within himself or his own history is something much more vast. These anxieties mimic that \u201cthe Victorians were troubled by Time. On the one hand, there was not enough of it\u2026.On the other hand, there was too much time\u201d (The Victorian Age 1055). This reading points out the fact that simultaneously society was moving at a much faster pace while it was also learning about the vastness of history and the long years that we had never before seen. All this while still imagining time in a linear measurable way.<\/p>\n
In contrast to the way that the Count is experiencing time, as something moveable or insubstantial in his life, the \u201cCrew of Light\u201d is determined to document time accurately. There is a date and, if necessary, a time for each diary entry or each newspaper clipping. The meticulously document every train time despite the fact that the trains do not arrive or depart on time. For me, this relates to the way that this narrative insists on its factuality. Throughout the text there is an instance that everything is documented perfectly accurately and exactly how it happened and that the realness of these facts is indisputable. The fact that the normative passage of time is documented relates to the way that these diaries are supposed to give the readers a sense of reality. The opening paragraph states \u201cthere is throughout no statement of past things wherein memory may err, for all the records chosen are exactly contemporary\u201d (Stoker 6). Not only does this sentence insist again the factuality of this text but it justifies this through time. It argues that by using \u201ccontemporary\u201d documents is part of the accuracy of them; that a short passage of time between the event and the writing of it creates factuality.<\/p>\n
However, the presence of the Count disrupts this experience of time. He experiences time differently, I\u2019d assume as he is immortal, and he creates an environment around the protagonists that does not fit into the traditional narrative of time. He simultaneously disrupts the idea of factuality, not only through time but through his mere existence. When Van Helsing is trying to prove to Steward that vampires exist he appeals to the idea of belief. Steward, a man of science, of reason and logic, believes in facts and reality, but Van Helsing asks him \u201cto believe in things that you cannot\u201d (Stoker 206). This is a paradoxical sentence. If you cannot believe in something, then how can you believe in it? However, within the context of the narrative, vampires are real, they are fact. So why is there a need to believe in \u201cso sad a concrete truth\u201d (Stoker 207). The presence of fact seems to contradict the need for belief.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where I\u2019m really unsure of my ground. Just as this sentence seems to undo the exact thing it does, the presence of linear time measurements undoes the linearness of time in the text. The instance on fact undoes the very presence of fact. This text creates a tension between what is considered reality and what is experienced as reality. While time is considered to move linearly it does not. While facts are considered proven in the text, this is fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While reading Dracula I was puzzled by the way that time passed in the novel as well as the way that time functioned for the reader. There are some explicit references to the ways that time changes around Dracula. We\u2019ve discussed how train times and meal times represent a certain lifestyle or status as civilized, … Continue reading What time is it? Vampire time!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2598,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}