Teaching notes · Example 4
Teaching notes: Fear in Dracula
Essay questionRead the extract printed below. This is from the section of the novel where Mina gives an account of Jonathan’s reaction to seeing Dracula when they are in London. Explore the significance of fear in the novel.
You should consider:
- the presentation of fear in the extract below and at different points in the novel
- the use of fantasy elements in constructing a fictional world.
These notes sit outside the essay. Related candidate scripts belong to their examination boards and are identified by board, year and task. A reported mark applies to that script, not to the Estate’s example.
Chapter C: Aqa course guide, sources and reports · Board-published candidate-response catalogue.
Teaching notes and examiner feedback
Board-published responses
No AQA answer to this exact question has been located in this collection. The nearest labelled example is the Section B Dracula response in AQA’s pack of student responses with examiner commentary, which answers the specimen question on Lucy’s physical state (the pack heads it “Question 4”, but it answers specimen Q05). No mark is given. What lifts it is that it builds Lucy’s change from more than one narrator – Mina’s hedged, modal account and Seward’s clinical description – so narrative form becomes part of the argument, and the commentary credits its integration of Gothic conventions and fantasy elements. That is the move our essay makes with Mina’s narration of Jonathan’s fear. AQA 7707/1 student responses, Section B, pp. 2–3 (the board’s own material).
What the examiners said
- Dracula–fear was one of the less popular Section B questions in 2022; most students across the section discussed their extract with knowledge and chose relevant moments from elsewhere in the novel. AQA 7707/1 report, June 2022, p. 7
- The most successful answers discussed how narrative point of view is constructed and how it shapes the representation, and evaluated genre conventions “linking these clearly to the specific question focus”. Same report, p. 8
- “Significance” was still a problem. Some students repeated the word without explaining anything; examiners advise asking, after the what, where and how, why the writer chose this presentation. Same report, p. 10
- Section B still produced too many “literature” answers with no linguistic analysis. Select language levels precisely and make sure the feature you name is the feature you then analyse. Same report, p. 9
- The mark scheme’s indicative content for this extract includes Mina’s homodiegetic viewpoint, the semantic field of fear, epistemic modality in “believe”, Jonathan’s response as “oblivion”, and Mina as “more in control” – the material of our ¶2–3. It suggests Chapters 4, 21 and 27 for elsewhere. AQA 7707/1 mark scheme, June 2022, pp. 22–23
- How the examiners view context: for AQA, AO3 includes the fantasy features of the extract and novel, genre conventions, and contexts of production and reception. Stronger answers integrated conventions into the discussion of specific examples instead of listing them in the introduction, and examiners singled out Dracula answers for handling context and reception well. The mark scheme lists Gothic and horror conventions, earlier Gothic stories and critical readings – so Radcliffe and Arata count as context here, provided each is tied to a quotation. AQA 7707/1 report, June 2022, p. 10
Points to test
Does the thesis survive its strongest counter-evidence? Check every quotation’s chapter, speaker and context. Where could a different interpretation change the conclusion?
Prepared by the Bram Stoker Estate. Page last updated 8 November 2026. Report a correction here.