#OTD in Stoker’s Dracula
My main character is still waiting for that answer, in case you’re wondering. Jonathan Harker, however, seems to be losing his marbles. —God preserve my sanity, for to this I am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past. Whilst I live on here there is but one thing to hope […]
My main character is still waiting for that answer, in case you’re wondering.
Jonathan Harker, however, seems to be losing his marbles.
—God preserve my sanity, for to this I am reduced. Safety and the assurance of safety are things of the past. Whilst I live on here there is but one thing to hope for, that I may not go mad, if, indeed, I be not mad already. If I be sane, then surely it is maddening to think that of all the foul things that lurk in this hateful place the Count is the least dreadful to me; that to him alone I can look for safety, even though this be only whilst I can serve his purpose. Great God! merciful God! Let me be calm, for out of that way lies madness indeed. I begin to get new lights on certain things which have puzzled me. Up to now I never quite knew what Shakespeare meant when he made Hamlet say:—
“My tablets! quick, my tablets!
‘Tis meet that I put it down,” etc.,
for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose. The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.
If you want to read something nice about the usage of Shapeskeare in Dracula, I suggest you take a look here.
My favourite take on the subject, however, has to be Christy Desmet’s essay “Remembering Ophelia: Ellen Terry and the Shakespearizing of Dracula” in the excellent Shakespearean Gothic published by the Wales University Press.
