Location seems to be so prevalent throughout Dracula. Why did Bram Stoker made these choices and how did location impact the characters?
meaning behind location.
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Bram Stoker's Draculais considered on of the most popular and staller examples of Gothic literature. One feature of Gothic literature has to do with the psychic spaces of the mind (in terms of both character mindsets and readers' perceptions) and how they correspond to descriptions of actual physical spaces inhabited by the characters. According to an outline on the Gothic Novel published by the UCDavis website, "The setting is greatly influential in Gothic novels. It not only evokes the atmosphere of horror and dread, but also portrays the deterioration of its world." Dracula's castle is such a place of horror and decrepitude, and Stoker's lush descriptions evoke a powerful sense of place that may be applied to the emotional situations faced by the characters. Even this seemingly neutral description from Jonathan Harker suggests his growing sense of fear and dread:
I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake I must have noticed the approach of such a remarkable place. In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark ways led from it under great round arches, it perhaps seemed bigger than it really is. I have not yet been able to see it by daylight.
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