#their actions freak him out too much through the may 4th and 5th entries

[jaggedcliffs]

I've started up listened to the Re: Dracula audiobook (and reading a copy of Dracula that I picked up on a whim from an indie bookstore last month), and quite a few things are sticking out to me about the first few days

Jonathan's "I must ask the Count about these superstitions" was made fun of quite a bit, both because our cultural knowledge of Dracula makes it ridiculous, and also because he seems to be trusting the nobility's knowledge over the superstitious peasants, which ties into the sense that Jonathan is dismissive of the townspeople's warnings

But he opens his May 4th entry with asking the innkeepers for information about Dracula, and they keep ducking the answers.

(and it's fair that the people in the May 4th/5th entries don't say more when Jonathan asks (and he does ask), because unless you've grown up in the shadow of a vampire literally stealing babies from your villages, it would be a pretty insane thing to tell someone).

And when Jonathan finds the innkeepers' reactions "not by any means comforting," his first instinct is to want to ask other townspeople to find out more; he just doesn't have the time to investigate because the coach is (supposed to) arrive very soon after.

Plus, the innkeeper giving him the cross very much does freak him out! His first refrain of 'if I die, goodbye Mina!' comes at the end of the May 4th entry because of the innkeeper's worry.

The people speaking of "werewolves" and "vampires" only happens after he's already sitting in the coach -- which is when he makes the "ask the Count" note (a note that he likely makes because, again, he's sitting in coach and he's about to leave the townspeople behind). They only make a sign to guard him from the evil eye after the coach has just started on its way.

Before he leaves the town, Jonathan isn't given enough of a solid reason to present to his boss -- or to his client, if the client turned out to be a human person who doesn't imprison solicitors -- if he turned around or wasted the client's time and money by refusing the "best place on the coach" on the way to the castle. Nor is he given enough time after the first warning that something is off to find that solid reason or to find alternatives.

He even comments that as much as he's enjoying the scenery on the coach, he probably would enjoy it a lot less if he'd understood what the people on the coach were saying. It's more like he's trying to distract himself from the looming sense of dread, not that he's ignorant to it.

By the time Dracula is taking him in the calèche, the coach is barely out of sight before he outright says that he "think[s] had been any alternative [he] should have taken it" instead of doing whatever the fuck is happening to him now.

It's not just that he planned to ask the Count about the superstitions, but that he also wanted to ask the people about the Count. He wants to ask the Count about the superstitions because he isn't able to talk to the townspeople more. And he wants to ask the townspeople about the Count because the little he's heard so far worries him.

But after he gets his first warning of weirdness, he doesn't have the time to investigate further, or find a way to the castle in a way that doesn't put him in the count's power. Which is probably how Dracula wanted it

#dracula #re: dracula #jonathan harker #meta #jagged posts about dracula #reading back through some tumblr posts from back when dracula daily just started #the posts present jonathan as mocking the townspeople #but that's more the proto-jonathan from ''dracula's guest'' than the actual jonathan we get #our jonathan was at first just very 'wtf???' then was quickly 'oh god am I going to die???' #the line 'I must ask the count about these superstitions' is maybe the closest we get to him dismissing the townsfolk #but it's surrounding by jonathan going 'these people's worry for me is very sweet and also terrifies me' #their actions freak him out too much through the may 4th and 5th entries #to read jonathan as dismissing them as unimportant superstitious peasants