New Moon

New Moon is the setting for a night when the diarist’s exhaustion with her constrained life comes into sharp focus. With the moon hidden and darkness lying over the land, she awakens burdened by dread, reluctant to leave her coffin, and longing for England and her family.

The Night in the Diary

The entry presents the New Moon as both a condition of the night and the backdrop to an unusually heavy mood. On awakening, the diarist feels pensive; awareness brings a heaviness in her heart, and dread colors her thoughts. She remains still after climbing from her coffin, struggling to summon the will to venture out.

Setting and Contrast

The darkness does not keep Dracula’s Brides from moving through the castle grounds. The diarist follows the sound of her vampire sisters chasing one another, though their gaiety repels her; later, their laughter leads her into the tangled gardens, where they play without regard for the absent moon. Their animation throws her isolation and weariness into relief.

Significance

Against this nocturnal activity, the diarist’s longing for England and her family makes the night a measure of captivity as well as a setting. The hidden moon accompanies no resolution: the entry instead captures the strain of enduring a life whose constraints she increasingly resents, and the distance between the sisters’ apparent gaiety and her own dread.