I made a short post about this yesterday, but I want to discuss how the brevity of the recent entries convey the horror of the situation.
The first entries establish one thing about Jonathan Harker: He writes down every detail of his experience from the spicy chicken to the weird dreams to all the things that people say to him (even when he dismisses these things as unimportant superstition.) He is long-winded and detail oriented when he’s comfortable. Arguably because part of this exercise is to have a shorthand journal that Mina can read later, so he wants her to have the details of his trip.
Then it becomes a kind of coping strategy. As the May 12th entry establishes, he is writing down facts to ensure that he isn’t imagining his experiences. He has no one to talk to, so he confides in his journal. He takes writing down facts as a way to confirm to himself that strange things really are happening. Like winding his pocket watch, it is something to ground himself.
The brevity of the recent entries really shows that his coping has failed. He cannot reassure himself with facts, since the reality has become too supernatural and dangerous for that.
For example, earlier he wrote down the Count’s long description of the history of the region practically word for word. In today’s (May 19th) entry he writes a quick summary of the conversation with the Count with no exact dialogue.
It is a very clever way to show that Jonathan is becoming increasingly terrified and everything he has to comfort himself is failing. Modernity cannot save him now.
In a first person way, it shows the collapse of the rational in the face of monsters - which is a central theme in Gothic literature.
turnnoffyourmind
tangentwithtanner
areudirty
kaledo-art
