"Every single word secretly paints a fairytale...."

In Thursday's lesson we started looking at fairytales, in preparation for our lessons on The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.
We each brought in a classic fairytale which we read to the class and we analysed the content of these fairytales to find similarities and differences between them. We found that there are a lot of commonly occurring themes and ideas in fairytales including:

• The accepting of magic (eg. talking animals)
• Characters defined/named by their roles (eg. The King)
• Weak paternal figures and a fear of the matriarchal figures
• Deals, oaths and conditions
• Gruesome deaths

The six stories that were chosen and read were: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Rumpelstiltskin.

We identified a lot of similarities between the stories such as fathers 'giving away' their daughters, bad settings in forests, repetition and the use of the number three and of course the classic 'happy ending'.

"Cause all you people are vampires and all your stories are stale..."

Last Thursday's lesson saw the end of out lessons on Dracula. So, as a neat way of rounding it off we looked at some essay questions on Dracula, focussing mainly on essay introductions and how to make them awesome!
We each had a go at writing our own essay introductions and then looked at each others to pick up on what we could do to improve our own.
We decided on the key point that aid the writing of a perfect essay introduction, these are as follows...

• To refer to the title of the essay in the introduction
• To focus the introduction and set the scene for what will be included in the essay (don't be too general!)
• Use the phrase 'In this essay I will...'
• Use the word however where possible

"The vampires and wolves won't sink their teeth..."

In Thurdsay's lesson we looked at the 'vampire baptism' in Chapter 21. This is the first time in the book, since the chapters set in the Dracula's castle, that we see Dracula in his human form as before this point he has only ever been talked about, or seen in animal form. They find Dracula in the Harker's bedroom with Mrs Harker "forcing her face down on his bosom". Mina's husband Jonathan is in a stupor whilst she is being forced to drink Dracula's blood: "her white nightdress smeared with blood". This 'vampire baptism' alludes to rape as Dracula is forcing himself upon Mina by holding both of her hands and gripping her by the back of the neck to force her to drink the blood and it is somewhat adulterous as this act is taking place in the marital bedroom and her husband is present.
There are many Gothic elements portrayed within this chapter. For example the setting, as the act is carried out at night in an asylum, the setting of the bedroom also links to the Gothic as it suggests a violation of privacy and the idea of making a place of safety become feared. There are a lot of contrasting ideas such as light vs dark and attraction vs repulsion. The theme of light vs dark is recurrent throughout the book and can be connected to good vs evil, as nighttime is Dracula's realm. The elements of attraction vs repulsion can be seen in Mina's reaction to Dracula's corruption as she is repulsed by what happened when she is recounting the episode yet she says she "did not want to hinder him", which contrasts with her description of him placing his "reeking lips" upon her throat. This shows Dracula's control and manipulation of the situation and his egotistical nature.