Identify a central idea in the text

Analyze how the authors use of one writing strategy (literary element or literary technique or rhetorical

device) develops this central idea.

The following excerpt is a diary entry from the novel Dracula. When I found that I was a prisoner a sort of wild feeling came over me. I rushed up and down the stairs, trying every door and peering out of every window I could find, but after a little the conviction of my helplessness overpowered all other feelings When I look back after a few hours I think I must have been mad for the time, for behaved much as a rat does in a trap. When, however, the conviction had come to me that I was helpless I sat down quietly-as quietly as I have ever done anything in my life and began to think over what was best to be done. I am thinking still, and as yet have come to no definite conclusion of one thing only am I certain that it is no use making my ideas ionown to the Count. He knows well that I am imprisoned, and as he has done it himself, and has doubtless his own motives for it, he would only deceive me if I trusted him fully with the facts. So far as I can see, my only plan will be to keep my knowledge and my fears to myself, and my eyes open. I am, 1 low, either being deceived, like a baby, by my own fears, or else I am in desperate straits; and if the latter be so, I need, and shall need, all my brains to get through I had hardly come to this conclusion when I heard the great door below shut, and knew that the Count had returned. He did not come at once to the library, sol went cautiously to my own room and found him making the bed. This was odd, but only confirmed what I had all along thought--that there were no servants in the house. When later I saw him through the chink of the hinges of the door laying the table in the dining-room, I was assured of it;for if he does himself all these menial offices, surely it is proof that there is no one else to do them. This gave me a fright, for If there is no one else in the castle, it must have been the Count himself who was the driver of the coach that brought me here. This is a terrible thought; for if so, what does it mean that he could control the wolves, as he did, by only holding up his hand in silence. How was it that all the people at Bistritz and on the coach had some terrible fear for me? What meant the giving of the crucifix of the garlie, of the wild rose, of the mountain ash? Bless that good, good woman who hung the crucifix round my neck! for it is a comfort and a strength to me whenever I touch it. It is odd that a thing which I have been taught to regard with disfavour and as idolatrous should in a time of loneliness and trouble be of help. Is it that there is something in the essence of the thing itself, or that it is a medium, a tangible help, in conveying memories of sympathy and comfort? Some time, if it may be, I must examine this matter and try to make up my mind about it. In the meantime I must find out all I can about Count Dracula, as it may help me to understand. To-night he may talk of himself, if I turn the conversation that way, I must be very careful, however, not to awalce his suspicion.- Later.-I endorse the last words written, but this time there is no doubt in question. I shall not fear to sleep in any place where he is not. I have placed the crucifix over the head of my bed-1 imagine that my rest is thus freer from dreams, and there it shall remain When he left me I went to my room. After a little while, not hearing any sound, 1 came out and went up the stone stair to where I could look out towards the South There was some sense of freedom in the vast expanse, inaccessible though it was to me, as of compared with the narrow darkness of the courtyard. Looking out of this, 1 felt that I was indeed in prison, and I seemed to want a breath of fresh air, though it were of the night. I am beginning to feel this nocturnal existence tell on me. It is destroying my nerve. I start at my own shadow, and am full of all sorts of horrible imaginings. God lanows that there is ground for my terrible fear in this accursed place! I looked out over the beautiful expanse, bathed in soft yellow moonlight till it was almost as light as day. In the soft light the distant hills became melted, and the shadows in the valleys and gorges of velvety blackness. The mere beauty seemed to cheer me; there was peace and comfort in every breath I drew. As I leaned from the window my eye was caught by something moving a storey below me, and somewhat to my left, where I imagined, from the order of the rooms, that the windows of the Count's own room would look out. The window at which I stood was tall and deep, stone-mullioned, 2 and though weatherworn, was still complete; but it was evidently many a day since the case had been there. I drew back behind the stonework, and looked carefully out. ... What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the semblance of man? I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me; I am in fear-in awful fear-and there is no escape for me; I am encompassed about with terrors that I dare not think of