Welcome to Castle Dracula

Please note you have entered of your own free will. Cakes available upon request. 🍰 Dracula Daily & Dracula Comedy of Terrors fan posts.

[re-dracula]

[immediatebreakfast]

This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in bygone days, for the furniture had more air of comfort than any I had seen.

Jonathan finding more comfort in the ladies' room of the castle, and telling how he hates the other rooms because of Dracula's lingering presence is really a different beat; Jonathan is far more aligned with the gothic feminine than the gothic masculine. The ladies portion of the castle he found is not only a place of rest, but also it's where he can hide from Dracula's patriarchal figure.

Coincidental or not, the fact that Jonathan is now using tactics to escape from Dracula's masculine presence, and decided that a ladies room was the safest option he could find is a detail that should not be overlooked. Dracula has made it very clear that he can keep crossing the line with Jonathan's boundaries since he is his superior in any aspect of their current dynamic. Superior as his boss to employee, superior as his noble to working class, superior as his older masculine figure to younger feminine character. Jonathan cannot "win" against the Count in a traditional masculine manner since it's simply not a trait in his characterization, and he knows very well that doing something in that line of manner would end up with him dead.

Moreover, there isn't a single hint of irony or mockery towards the ladies room nor the feminity of the scene, everything that Jonathan says is truthful, and he embraces it far more. Jonathan doesn't find it shameful to identify with fair ladies of years past, nor tries to excuse his thoughts to save his "masculinity" at the eyes of the reader, it's all written in modest honesty.

[scissorsaint]

Yaaaawn! Call me when they're covered in blood and having gay sex

[tooth-with-eyes]

[lamemoirepoetique]

Count Dracula (1970), directed by Jesús Franco.

[inkskinned]

you're not quite an emergency, is the thing. you're just having a bad spell. so what if you can't ever really catch your breath. can't ever really feel at ease. a buzzing, terrible feeling.

but emergencies are loud, and passionate, and hit the floor. you are not a lion or a hurricane, you just live in a pretty okay apartment and your back hurts. you wake up and drag yourself out of bed and banish what if i was dead thoughts like cobwebs. you pick out your clothes and try to stay active. you apply for jobs on the internet.

the anxiety is a wave, and the depression is a spiral. the other stuff keeps things "colorful." you mitigate your symptoms and take your meds when you have them and you try to hang out with friends. you go home and your head is full of riverwater. no matter how much you sleep, you still stay tired. you journal and practice gratitude and build from the bottom upwards. and still, the haunting.

you're not a 911 call or a shriek. you're just staring up at the ceiling and feeling the house settle into your bones. you feel you are playacting as a wolf when you're only a sheep. not quite dry and not quite drowning.

over and over, you slog through the creek.

[lifeofbrybooks]

thinking about how in today’s entry, Jonathan says he doesn’t have the heart to describe beauty. And how different that is from the man who raved over the tiny towns and trickling streams and rolling hills outside his train window. How it coincides with the realization he’s a prisoner now. Locker doors rather than train cars and carriages. A journey versus a cell. No more recipes and train schedules and breathtaking scenery. The darkness is creeping over him

[elizabethswitch]

-----------------------------SPOILERS-------------------------------------------------yes for an antique novel we have first timers----------------

Taking as given that Count Dracula attacks Jonathan Harker, when does it begin and how can we tell?

Certainly by the end of his stay at the castle, Jonathan has been attacked. Perhaps during the time when he makes no entries (at least none that are in Mina's manuscript) this happened also.

But consider his night at the Golden Kroner Hotel Royale in Klausenberg in light of what happens to Lucy and to Mina.

He has strange dreams. He hears howling. He is consumed by thirst. He is nearly unrousable.

Change the pronoun and it's Lucy.

Mina Harker decided to include this entry because it was horribly familiar, is what I think.

And when Jonathan tells us later that he cannot delay his trip, I think it's genuine. He can't. He doesn't know why but he truly cannot disobey. Dracula said get on the coach and so he must.

It doesn't start at the castle, or in the Borgo Pass. It starts on page one.

It's like thinking the coaster is climbing when I'm already at the first hill's crest.

[ladyteldra]

There's something warming about all the efforts complete strangers go through to try to protect Jonathan. From starting early to blessings to pushing faster than is likely wise. To have arrived early in an attempt to just maybe have him continue on their journey.

How they all know, and likely know the possible repercussions. How they dare not completely stop him. Can not tell him the exact dangers, but still try to give him every chance to slip the noose they see.

[lifeofbrybooks]

these first few passages always really strike me because of how they define jonathan’s character. He is young — so young. Mesmerized with what he is seeing outside his window always. He is dutiful. So eager to prove himself in his work. A bit naive. Maybe a touch ignorant, but not with any malice. He’s sentimental. He wants to gets recipes for his soon to be wife and share the beauty of this part of the world with her. That’s what this journal was meant to be. A testament of the love and wonder of who Jonathan Harker is. But that’s not what it becomes… and that’s a bit heartbreaking

[anonym-potato]

Tumblr is great because we've successfully turned Dracula into Hadestown

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

Everyone shouting at Jonathan to just leave Castle Dracula has got to remember you're talking about this guy:

"I have had a long journey with many train delays and this is my first job and I have no money and my fiancée is waiting for me to come home after a job well done and I am very smol so you can imagine the kind of stress I am under"

[maryshelleysgrave]

I've only just realised just how quickly Jonathan starts predicting his doom. Maybe I took it for granted last year and gloss over it when I read the actual book (because I fly through the first four chapters in one go like a bat out of hell normally) but it's literally day two of Jonny's little Transylvania trip and he's already saying good bye to Mina

It just seems so tragic that in the space of a day he's gone from sheer excitement and curiosity, to caution and fear

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

when you're reading the very first email from Dracula Daily and Jonathan says he's on his way to Castle Dracula to meet Count Dracula

[erynies]

He's here.

He's back.

My good friend Jonathan Harker.

Going to be absolutely normal about this until November.

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

[loucifer-777]

Where can I find a friend who shares the same hyperfixation as me? FYI it’s a 128 year old novel about a silly little english lawyer who goes to stay with a weird guy™ who doesn’t show up in mirrors, has questionable bedtime habits, and can scale walls like a lizard.