Dracula 3

"There was a bright full moon, with heavy black, driving clouds, which threw the whole scene into a fleeting diorama of light and shade as they sailed across... Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and churchyard became gradually visible...the silver light of the moon struck a half-reclining figure, snowy white...it seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell...The town seemed as dead, for not a soul did I see;...it seemed to me as if my feet were weighted with lead, and as though every joint in my body were rusty. When I got almost to the top I could see the seat and the white figure...There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure. I called in fright...and something raised a head, and from where I was I could see a white face and red, gleaming eyes."
Chapter VIII, page 102

This passage, where Mina witnesses Lucy under the thrall of Dracula for the first time, is rife with Gothic imagery. The bright moon and shifting clouds, as well as the setting of a crumbling church and graveyard, are staples of Gothic tone. The authors diction makes heavy use of sharp consonants i.e. "as sharp as a sword-cut" and "light of the moon struck...", thus lending the scene a lot of tention and a sense of unease and what might be described as "the need to move quickly". Lucy is consistently described as white, a color with the connotation of innocence and child-like qualities; the count is described as a black figure leaning over the fallen white one, unmistakable imagery of an evil man taking advantage of an innocent girl. The recurring motif of death in this passage, and the metaphor of "a sword-cut", and the similes which Mina uses to describe her body as "weighted with lead", all add more to the mood of fear, tension, and all-around panic of the scene.