Renfield's Use Of Motifs In Dracula

1.) Renfield is characterized as a mental patient in Seward’s mental asylum who has a desire to gain the "life-force" of flies, birds, and cats by consuming them. While the character of Renfield may be considered seemingly irrelevant and extraneous to the central plot of Dracula, he functions as a rather important role, providing insight to multiple central motifs in the novel, such as invasion and blood. Firstly, through Renfield’s inner struggle we learn that he is “not his own master” (Stoker, 211). The motif of invasion is revealed by Count Dracula’s control that he has over the main characters in the novel. Secondly, the recurring motif of blood is portrayed multiple times throughout the novel and has been interpreted only through Renfield. …show more content…
evil’ through characterization. For instance, Jonathan, on his first trip into Romania, will pass the “grey of the morning” with a “high sun” whose path leads towards “the distant horizon, which seems jagged” (Stoker, 11). Here, Stoker has identified Jonathan’s ignorance towards the future through this bright pastoral setting of the “high sun” (Stoker, 11). Jonathan will then proceed to pass through “green swelling hills”, where he will discover “all the glorious colours of this beautiful range, deep blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and brown where grass and rocks mingled, and an endless perspective of jagged rock and pointed crags” (Stoker, 12). Here, Stoker is using the motif of color to relay Jonathan’s personal feelings (concerning the atmosphere) upon the reader—that the land has infinite potential for beauty, but also rough, distasteful features such as “jagged rocks”, which represent Count Dracula’s horrors (Stoker, …show more content…
Throughout the novel, technology assists in illustrating the transformation of English society into the modern 20th century through the various forms mentioned previously. For instance, Dr. Steward uses the phonograph in his medical practice, and Mina Harker uses the typewriter to compile various letters and journals into a single, coherent narrative. Throughout the novel, both ‘shorthand’ technologies and phonography are portrayed as efficient methods of recording information. To elaborate, when Mina suggests that Dr. Steward's phonograph “beats even shorthand”, the reader may assume that plays a role as an even more efficient and accurate method of recording one's thoughts (Stoker