Stoker continues with his epistolary style, continuing in the tradition of having two young, naive ladies corresponding about love and life. These innocent girls will very soon become involved in the horror which Dracula brings. Stoker contrasts their innocence with the approaching plague of horror and evil, a typically gothic pattern of narrative; it would not be dramatically effective to have depraved characters confront the evil menace.
The setting is a typical one for the gothic novel. We leave the hustle and bustle of a metropolitan city and journey to an isolated city, replete with legends of empty graves, sepulchral old natives, and legends of dead people who haunt huge old houses. Furthermore, any type of ghost story should be set in some place far from civilization, and here at Whitby, where there are rambling old houses, sleepwalking, and graveyards, we have a perfect gothic setting.
The story of Renfield foreshadows the social disruption and insanity which will accompany Dracula's descent upon England. This is further symbolized by Renfield's desire for blood and the sucking of fresh blood, which will be Dracula's, or the vampire's, goal. Renfield can be seen as an archetype of "the predecessor" (such as John the Baptist) because Renfield prepares us for the imminent arrival of his "lord" and "master," Dracula. Stoker will continue to pervert Christian myths throughout the novel. Dracula is a satanic figure, and the horrors of Renfield are maudlin, compared to the greater horror which is Dracula himself.
Lucy's sleepwalking also prefigures the arrival of Count Dracula. As it happens, the day that she begins sleepwalking will closely correspond to the day that Dracula's ship crosses the straits of Gibraltar into Western civilization. And it will be because of her sleepwalking that she will become a member of the "Un-Dead."
Old Mr. Swales is the archetypal prophetic figure, one who senses and can articulate the approaching doom and horror, yet one whose exhortations and prophesies are ignored or remain misunderstood by the populace.
