Dracula Ch.6 & Ch.7

Mina Murray's Journal

Mina Murray, as we found out in the last chapter is engaged to Jonathan. She is also a childhood friend of Lucy Westerna.

I think Mina's journal is very interesting. She talks about many things; from her surroundings to the people she meets or just comes across. Her descriptions of people are brilliantly done. Also we clearly see that Mina really worries about people she loves and also takes care of Lucy very well. An old man is also introduced to this chapter.

Mina's curiousness about things the old man talks about like "The Day of Judgement" leads one conversation to another with the old man but everytime it looks like he does not want to disclose anything at all. We find argument after argument as their conversation proceeds.

Lucy's sleep-walking habit has returned bringing more trouble for Mina. As she is unable to lower her guard at night fearing Lucy would walk out. Poor Mina's worries never ends. Jonathan's first letter brings along more anxiety as it contains no address with only a line dated from Castle Dracula.

The chapter ends with an upcoming storm and the old man saying he was going to die.

Mr Seward's Diary

This part of the chapter is quite strange. Mr Seward who is a psychiatrist is examining this person named Renfield who is somewhat mad but sometimes acts normal. His talks with the doctor seems normal but then his love for animals is quite weird. He asks the doctor if he can raise flies as his pet and then later has switched to spiders. But he is clever enough to use his food as a bait for flies to feed the spiders. I found it really disguisting when he actually catches a fly and puts it in his mouth.

He then swiches his pets to sparrow and then decides to ask for a kitten. Here we see his childish side when he says, "I only asked a kitten lest you should refuse me a cat. No one would refuse me a kitten, would they?" Unfortunate for him, the doctor refuses to allow him to keep a kitten. The strangest thing was what the doctor found out that Renfield was trying to do. His animals grew bigger and bigger and he had cleverly set the preying range. The kitten would eat the sparrow, the sparrow would eat the spiders and so on.

News Report

It mostly talks about the storm making it disastrous and dark. Tension builds up more and more. The whole atmosphere has changed. Not while ago Mina and Lucy were admiring the scenery but now darkness has covered its beauty.

Lucy's sleep-walking habit returns with the return of Dracula. Thrills and the Gothic genre has finally returned and the story is getting more and more interesting.