“Today is a grey day, and the sun as I write is hidden in thick clouds, high over Kettleness. Everything is grey – except the green grass, which seems like emerald amongst it; grey earthly rock; grey clouds, tinged with the sunburst at the far edge, hang over the grey sea, into which the sand-points stretch like grey fingers.”
-Dracula, Chapter 6, Page 89: Mina Murray’s Journal, August 6th
I believe that this passage shows multiple things. Mainly I believe that it is foreshadowing the arrival of the Count in England in the part where Mina describes almost everything around her as being grey, with the exception of the grass. There is also the sun going behind the clouds, which could be foreshadowing the coming of death, and finally the only other colour that Mina uses to describe the scene green has an interesting symbolic meaning.
The greyness of everything that Mina describes could represent the Counts and the boredom or depression he has, a possible reason for his immigration to England. Considering that there is evidence from his stories that his life has been filled with many conquests, and the fact that he has a massive castle with barely anyone in it, suggest that the Counts glory days are somewhat behind him. By going to England he is trying to renew them.
The sun in Christianity represents God, and since the Middle ages, Christianity has been the main religion in England, life and the giving of it, and resurrection. The “sun being hidden by the clouds” could arguably represent God or the light (good) literally and figuratively being shrouded by the darkness of the grey clouds. For the life side of the metaphor is can be seen as the coming of death. Also described in this passage are “grey clouds, tinged with the sunburst at the far edge” which could be representative of John Harker’s attempt to escape from the Counts castle, clinging to life figuratively and literally clinging to the castle walls.
The most interesting one though, is resurrection. Going meta for a moment, from what I can recall in the Dracula movies that I have seen, resurrection is part of the process of turning into a vampire. Though I am not sure what the covering of the sun mean through the in the lens of resurrection. It could be foreshadowing to the demise of Dracula, though that theory seems to be a stretch. Perhaps it means something different through this lens, or perhaps nothing at all.
In the middle of the passage, Mina says “ except the green grass, which seems like emerald amongst it”. The colour green usually associated with immaturity and, but one of its more relevant meanings is that in Christianity, green represents the deathly sin envy. It could be seen as Mina’s envy of Lucy and all that has happened to her recently. The fact that Lucy is too marry soon, that she lives in such a nice place, and that she had three proposals in one day. I believe that the green speaks for the emotions of Mina and not the Count, like all the other things in this passage because green is the colour of spring, when new things are born, which I believe directly represents Mina.
I believe that there is much symbolism in this passage from Dracula. The greyness of everything and how it represents the Count, the sun going behind the clouds and its foreshadowing of the coming of death and the fact that only the grass in this scene is described as green representing Mina and her feelings.