Dracula: Chapter 4

The whole of Chapter 4 is basically a dramatic climax of all the clues that Jonathan Harker puts together during his stay at the Count's castle. By this time he has realised that the Count is in fact an element of the supernatural, and there are lots of gothically iconic images used to convey the intense, dark and (most importantly) gothic atmosphere during this chapter.
The setting itself in chapter 4 is key to what is conveying this gothic atmosphere. The ruined chapel is most responsible for this, and the fact that Stoker has included a graveyard indicates that this is how he wants to convey this setting, as graveyards are used prominantly within gothic writing. The use of "welcome cock crow" is also interesting because this gives off a homely feeling which relates to feeling safe as if you were at home, when actually it is strongly going against the elements of what is coming up for Harker. Stoker also uses the dramatic build up to build up towards a shock tactical image of the Count in his coffin inside the vault, of him "gorged with blood". This gothic snapshot would have been shocking for a reader within the days that this book was published, especially with the vivid description of the Count whilst he is asleep in his Coffin with "There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck.". Even though this sentence is extremely long, the phrases within the sentence used are short and these constant pauses of semi colons and commas portrays perhaps gasping for breath, simply because everything that has just happened is incredibly overwhelming and horrifying. This allows us to empathise with Harker to a very strong degree at this point, by almost putting us in his shoes. From this point there is an incredible tension right to the end of the chapter, with the gripping scene of Harkers hysteria when he attempts to make a great escape which unfortunately ends up with him attempting suicide. However just before this the Szgany leave without him, which means that he was then alone with the Count. Satanic lexis is also used with "They are devils of the Pit!" which adds to the texture that Stoker is portraying. There is also the constant use of exclamation marks which is also effective on the hysteria that is being portayed at this point, including short sentences aswell.
Unfortunately at this day and age chapter 4 ended up being rather predictable for a modern day reader, but for a reader that read the book shortly after it was published (end of 19th century) it would be the complete opposite. A gripping climax to what is Harkers last journal entry.