Dracula + The Bloody Chamber...trying to make sense of annotations!

I have a bad habit of reading about four books at a time and switching between them so rather than finishing Dracula, I'm 3/4 of the way through and have started the Bloody Chamber. Well...Dracula - I've really got into it! The fact that I've had to read it at night with a torch for most of the time has helped create the right atmosphere also! I've gone a bit mad with annotation so I'm going to try to make sense of some of my waffle and convert it into a blog.

While reading, I've realised how important those lessons, in which we talked about elements of gothic literature, were. There are loads of times when characters are trying to explain things using logic ('my eyes deceived me') as if they're trying to resist facing up to what's really happening. The idea of the fine line between being asleep and awake has also been one I've been thinking about, with characters in Dracula talking about surreal states and 'horrible nightmares', with Dracula himself being found in a sleepy/death-like state and the husband in The Bloody Chamber being of a 'waxen stillness'...people not being able to read people's facial expressions in the novels, I have found to be quite un-nerving.

The theme that I've found the most scary in both Dracula and The Bloody Chamber has been 'being alone'. My favourite part of Dracula was when Lucy is left alone with the 'dead' after her mother dies and the maids have been drugged (again...asleep/awake...dead/alive) - I found that section really gripping as she's frightened to be alone but also frightened because she doesn't want to be joined by Dracula and there's a sense of impending doom. There are parallels with The Bloody Chamber in that the girl in that finds herself alone with the dead also (some of which look alive...the ex-wives of her husband) and she finds herself in a state of panic, torn between which is worse...being alone with those no longer living or being joined by the man who she knows is going to kill her. Reading both texts, I've got carried away in the moment and have been panicked for Lucy, the girl in Bloody Chamber and Jonathan in Dracula who all find themselves in similar situations.

The other things I've found most scary about Dracula is the fact that you see evidence of him throughout the novel...the man in the aslyum, the wolves, the dog e.t.c. and evidence of what he's doing so you know he's present but you can't put a finger on him. He's a constant presence but a hidden one, which is pretty ominous and creepy.

I've got loads more to say but I don't want to waffle on too much but...one last point...I love the way The Bloody Chamber is written. The language is really rich, lavish and imaginative and is enjoyable to read. Just the way in which Carter phrases things is so interesting - she phrases things that could be said very plainly in a much more imaginative way - ('my rank forbade overtures of friendship to the staff') and the metaphors are so imaginative and visual...'I had the brief notion that his heart, pressed as flat as a flower, crimson and thin as tissue paper, lay in this file'. The pre-modification Carter uses also gives her writing that added element of interest...for example...rather than just saying 'darkness', she will say 'absolute darkness' to add drama. Reading The Bloody Chamber, I found myself getting excited about little things like the way adverbs are used...it sounds so simple, but interesting adverbs ('He...laid his hand imperatively') make all the difference and it's these subtlties that have made reading Carter's work so pleasurable.