Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Pick one of the social spaces of the novel (i.e. Count Dracula’s castle, Dr. John Seward’s lunatic asylum, Count Dracula’s houses in London, Mina’s room, the outside spaces in or near London, etc.) and discuss its significance in relation to the characters and, ultimately, your interpretation of the story. Discuss how these settings, in all their details, contribute to build and mirror the characters’ thoughts and actions, which is what ultimately drives the plot and influences our interpretation.

Count Dracula's castle is an imprisoning and frightening place, remote and isolated. These characteristics mirror, and in fact, inspire, Jonathan Harker's growing desire to escape, as well as his feelings of horror and isolation.
The locals who take Harker to the castle treat the location with fear and dread. From the start, everything seems "off" inside the castle. Harker writes:

There is not even a toilet glass on my table, and I had to get the little shaving glass from my bag before I could either shave or brush my hair. I have not yet seen a servant anywhere, or heard a sound near the castle except the howling of wolves.

Harker meets with locked doors and a sheer drop down the side of the castle, making the sense of entrapment acute. His host, who only appears at night, becomes stranger and stranger. For example, Harker sees him scaling the sheer castle wall like a lizard. He later encounters him bloated like a "leech," a line of blood dribbling from his mouth. The creepy and fantastic setting, with its medieval feel, extenuates Harker's sense of horror as he contemplates his fate:

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.

What Harker experiences lends credibility to the idea that a vampire might be walking the earth.