{"id":1851,"date":"2021-10-27T10:59:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T14:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1851"},"modified":"2021-10-27T10:59:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T14:59:22","slug":"i-know-he-might-be-dying-but-do-you-think-he-likes-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/10\/27\/i-know-he-might-be-dying-but-do-you-think-he-likes-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I Know He Might Be Dying, But Do You Think He Likes Me??"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s \u201cDracula\u201d effectively utilizes the gothic tenant of the uncanny to urge his\u00a0readers to reflect on the value they place on their own domestic lives.\u00a0Following Mina\u2019s reunion with her now recovering fianc\u00e9, Jonathan, she\u00a0enquires\u00a0about his\u00a0health\u00a0to the nurse who has been looking after his treatment.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The nurse\u2019s immediate reaction is to\u00a0her questioning is to\u00a0assure Mina that Jonathan has\u00a0remained faithful to her while she was abroad saying \u201cyou, as his wife to be,\u00a0have no cause to be concerned. He has not forgotten you or what he owes to you. His fear was of great and terrible things, which no mortal can treat of\u201d (114 Stoker).\u00a0Her first comment is a direct reference to the domestic of Jonathan and Mina\u2019s relationship status, emphasizing his loyalty through the allusion to the marriage laws of the time period with the statement \u201che has not forgotten you or what he owes to you\u201d\u00a0(114 Stoker). By doing this, the nurse asserts that not only has he remained faithful, but his illness will not impede their plans for marriage as he has previously pledged to\u00a0carry out.\u00a0This is then used as a backdrop for the following phrase of \u201chis fear of great and terrible things, which no mortal can treat of\u201d (114\u00a0Stoker). The escalating language of \u201cgreat and terrible\u201d being used to describe his experiences abroad, paired with a reference to\u00a0the presence of the supernatural in this moment with the description that \u201cno mortal\u201d can help his malady. The use of\u00a0the phrase \u201cno mortal\u201d implies the existence of other worldly forces at odds with Jonathan. The\u00a0juxtaposition of the concern over Jonathan\u2019s fidelity and his terrifying experiences with the supernatural is almost comical. The readers know that Jonathan has just been through a series of traumatic events and yet his partner is more focused on his\u00a0loyalty to her than his wellbeing. This comparison draws attention to the real-life domestic\u2019s concern with\u00a0seemingly trivial subjects in light of such a situation. I believe that Stoker is using this moment to point out societal\u00a0unrelenting\u00a0focus on\u00a0interpersonal relationships even in the chaos of constant change that typified the Victorian era.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s \u201cDracula\u201d effectively utilizes the gothic tenant of the uncanny to urge his\u00a0readers to reflect on the value they place on their own domestic lives.\u00a0Following Mina\u2019s reunion with her now recovering fianc\u00e9, Jonathan, she\u00a0enquires\u00a0about his\u00a0health\u00a0to the nurse who has been looking after his treatment.\u00a0\u00a0 The nurse\u2019s immediate reaction is to\u00a0her questioning is to\u00a0assure Mina … Continue reading I Know He Might Be Dying, But Do You Think He Likes Me??<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4751,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}