The version that I focused on for the sake of this essay was the book. I did watch eleven of the thirty-three Dracula movies that I own, so some references will be made to the movies. The book is told from the perspective of Jonathan Harker’s journal, with some letters to and from his girlfriend Mina. The purpose of his visit with Count Dracula is that Harker is selling a building to Dracula. Carfax Abby was in England where Dracula wanted to move. Harker went to Transylvania to assist Count Dracula in his move to England.
Although Harker was the protagonist, I didn’t consider him a hero. He didn't actively seek out anything heroic, he just goes with the flow. I was looking at Dracula as an anti-hero in this story. Even though he was technically the villain, I challenged myself to analyze Dracula as the hero in the story. If it weren't for Dracula, vampires wouldn't be so popular in pop culture today. There are a lot of vampire characters that speak on how much of an impact Dracula had on culture (Melton 303).
Bram Stoker took the legend of Vlad Tepes and used it as an idea for Dracula. He was the ruler of an old country called Wallachia. He is most famous for impaling his enemies on sticks around his castle. He taught himself how to miss vital organs in the body, causing the victim to die a slow painful death. This is why people consider him an ancient vampire. What people don’t know about him is that the rich loved him, but the poor hated him. To anyone that didn’t have to seal to make it by he was great. But to the poor people who couldn’t buy food, they were always in fear of him. He was abused as a child, and this is what is thought to have caused his behavior. (Melton 1053)
Someone else that fueled the legend of Dracul...
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...bout Dracula as the class system. Changing into a vampire could represent the changing of social class. Being involved with someone of a different social class was rarely done, and looked down upon. As well as that, it was nearly impossible to change classes once in one.
The vampire, or monster, could be seen as the unfavorable downturn in social status. The trust that the family put into Dracula only to be betrayed by him could be looked at as fraud. The hypothetical of what Dracula stands for, being the lower class, tricks the high class family into believing he is higher class than he really is. This makes him the villain. It also means that he needs to be outed for what is really is. This being shown when Van Helsing figures out that Dracula is a vampire. This would mean that the overt is a monster killing people, and the covert is secretly being lower class.
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has plentiful examples of key concepts we have examined in class including: Purity and impurity, magical thinking, strong emotions such as disgust and shame, , formalization, and myth. In this essay I will summarize events that take place within the novel when the protagonists deal with Dracula and then relate these events to the key concepts to demonstrate why the characters view him as dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided completely.
This fictional character was soon to be famous, and modified for years to come into movie characters or even into cereal commercials. But the original will never be forgotten: a story of a group of friends all with the same mission, to destroy Dracula. The Count has scared many people, from critics to mere children, but if one reads between the lines, Stoker’s true message can be revealed. His personal experiences and the time period in which he lived, influenced him to write Dracula in which he communicated the universal truth that good always prevails over evil. Religion was a big part of people’s lives back in Stoker’s time.
The story begins at status quo. Jonathan Harker lived a normal Victorian lifestyle. His fiancé was a virtuous school mistress named Mina Murray. Harkers occupation as a solicitor was how he was called to his adventure. His firm sent him to Transylvania where he was to conclude on a real estate transaction with the foreign client Count Dracula. During his visit to Dracula's castle, Jonathan was made prisoner to the ruthless vampire. He received
Dracula begins with a diary entry from Jonathan Harker, a real estate agent from England. Mr. Harker is traveling to Transylvania, where he is to confirm a business deal between Count Dracula and his mentor Peter Hawkins. En route to Transylvania, Jonathan comes across many people who caution him about his trip and his host. They cower at the thought of him going into the land, and give him gifts of garlic and a crucifix. At the time, Mr. Harker is unaware of the severity of his troubles. Although these people are friendly and reach out to help Jonathan, it is not considered homosociality, since they do not form the tight, same-sex friendship that is required of the term. For Jonathan, these early helpers are simply companions on a train.
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
In Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Dracula is portrayed as a monster made evident by his gruesome actions. An analysis of Dracula shows that: shows his evil nature in his planning, brutally killing Lucy Westrenstra causing a violent response from Dr. Seward and others, and how his evil ways lead to his downfall. To characterize Dracula in one way, he is a ruthless, cunning monster who uses tricks, torture, and wits to manipulate people to his will. However when he trifled with some courageous people, he had no knowledge that it would be his undoing.
Through the gothic writing of Stoker, there was a huge intimidation of Dracula coming forth from it. “Stoker spared no effort to present his demonic vampire as dramatically as possible” (Leatherdale 105-17). With this sinister presence of death, people start to panic. As a vampire hunter, it was Helsing’s job to help notify people on how to rid themselves of this demon. Stoker portrays survival in the form of teamwork between the men and women of the novel. These characters soon take survival into their own hands. “‘We must trace each of those boxes; and when we are ready, we must either capture or kill this monster in his lair; or we must, so to speak, sterilize the earth, so that no more he can seek safety in it’” (Stoker 373). At this point in the novel, the characters know about the existence of vampires. The consequences are also put on top priority. The men know of the consequences, yet still want to go after this demon. “By chasing Dracula, the men risk being sentenced to an immortal life as a vampire. This immortality is endless time lived in physical form” (Poquette 35). Knowing the risks of hunting a vampire, the characters ignore them to protect their loved ones. A vampire hunter is an important factor in the novel because without one, the other characters wouldn’t know what to do. Stoker chose right in including
While studying the diabolical figures in the devil, the idea of presenting Dracula came to mind. Dracula represents the devil in many similar ways. Dracula remains as a character in many diabolical movies and films. For instance, Van Helsing provides a good interpret of how Dracula remains noticed in the past and in present day. Although Dracula’s character obtains different views in every movie and film, he plays an important role in Stephen Sommers Van Helsing movie. In the movie, he acts as many different things. Demonstrating both the kind and evil inside, Dracula portrays his character as a mystery. Different views of Dracula throughout the movie include harsh, strong, powerful, evil, the devil, and unstoppable. The studies of Dracula
Stoker chooses to lay some clues out for the readers in order to help them interpret Dracula. The distinct warning presented on the page before the introduction saying the narrators wrote to the best of their knowledge the facts that they witnessed. Next is the chapter where Jonathan Harker openly questions the group’s interpretations of the unsettling events that occur from meeting Dracula, and the sanity of the whole. Several characters could be considered emotionally unstable. Senf suggests that Stoker made the central normal characters hunting Dracula ill-equipped to judge the extraordinary events with which they were faced. The central characters were made two dimensional and had no distinguishing characteristics other then the...
...gue of Vampirism. Stoker plays upon the irony of England, at this time one of, if not the largest, colonizing countries, being colonized, not by another country but by an intangible immigrant. Dracula’s intent is not of material wealth or power, but of controlling the people and using them as livestock. We can see this when Dracula tells Jonathan Harker that he “[has] come to know your great England, and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is” (Stoker 19). Kane reaffirms this by contending that Dracula is an example of “invasion literature” acting upon the readers on England by playing with “a considerable variety of fears regarding the state of England and the English themselves” (9).
Dracula most definitely contains degenerate characteristics throughout the novel. He has a lack of compassion for people’s well being, and has signs of selfishness. Vampires fit under the degenerate theme very well. How he became a vampire we are not sure, although Van Helsing calls him King-Vampire, because of his consistency and power driven obsessions towards his cravings. His powers include a wide range of abilities in which some are beyond the powers of the other vampires or immortal people in the novel. Degenerates are predestined to crime and don’t know why it is wrong. Van Helsing wrote of Dracula by saying, "The Count is a criminal and of criminal type. Nordau and Lombroso would so classify him, and qua criminal he is of imperfectly formed mind" (Stoker chapter 28). With all his killings and bites he proceeds on people, Dracula fights the degenerate theme.
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
In the book, Dracula by Bram Stoker there are many characters that display qualities of good verse evil. The Count Dracula is a mysterious character who appears as an odd gentleman but the longer the story goes on Dracula shows his true self. Dracula started infiltrating the lives of anyone who crossed his path and he was not stopping his destruction of others’ lives. Many people were affect by Dracula’s actions but there were two people that Dracula caused an impact on during his rampage. Dracula is an evil, cunning, and selfish character who harms the life of a young man and ruins the future of an innocent woman.
Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is a classic tale of Gothicism. Traditionally, gothic tales only carried single theme of horror. Through Dracula, Stoker breaks this single theme barrier. The theme throughout Dracula is clearly displayed through the characters as they step from ignorance to realization in this tale of horror.
Dracula, the most famous vampire of all time, which readers were first introduced to by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 with his novel Dracula, which tells the story of the mysterious person named Count Dracula (Stoker). The book is an outstanding masterpiece of work, which is why it has been a prototype for various movie releases over the decades. Whenever a film director decides to make a movie on behalf of a novel the hope is that the characters concur from the novel to the movie, which leads to the exploration of the resemblances and modifications between the characters in Dracula the novel by Bram Stoker and Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992 movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.