Imprisonment:
Justified vs. Unjustified
Justified
Renfield at Insane Asylum
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Unjustified
Jonathan at Castle Dracula
Vampire’s souls being locked in them
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Character Reactions
Characters doing the imprisoning are in favor of imprisonment while the prisoners themselves or their friends are not
Reader Reactions
Characters doing the imprisoning are in favor of imprisonment while the prisoners themselves or their friends are not
- Jonathan/Renfield tried to escape
- Exception: Renfield’s feelings fluctuate
- He escapes but then agrees to go back knowing it is best for him
- He is also completely insane
Reader Reactions
- David Barry - Imprisonment is clearly a complicated issue. In the novel, it seems to be portrayed as negative; even the justifiable imprisonment of Renfield ended poorly. From the perspective of the characters, however, I completely am able to relate to almost all of their decisions and emotions. For example, keeping Renfield imprisoned was justified based on his past behavior and letting him out would have been risky at the time. Also, those who are imprisoned never seem in favor of it, and I am sure that the horror of the situations would make me dislike it, too. Overall, I agreed with the two justifiable imprisonments that are listed, regardless of how they turn out, because they occurred for the reason of protecting others.
- Ben Pugh - I agree with David on the imprisonment issue. Because of past experiences, a person like Renfield should be imprisoned because of his behavior. Also I think that the imprisonment of Lucy in her room after she has the encounters with Dracula are justified because she can be a danger to others as well as to herself.
- Colleen Gaughan - I agree with both Ben and David in the idea that I would be accepting of justified imprisonment, such as Renfield to protect the whole of society and not be accepting of wrongful imprisonment, such as Jonathan at Castle Dracula. As David said the imprisoned obviously would not consent to it either way but it has to be looked at from an objective standpoint.