C. Thesis Statement: Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, is filled to the brim with gothic elements which gives the reader an atmosphere of mystery and horror.
II. BP1/Topic Sentence: Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, contains many elements of gothic literature pertaining to the setting.
A. According to the report written by David De Vore, Anne Domenic, Alexandra Kwan, and Nicole Reidy at UC Davis, “The setting is greatly influential in Gothic novels. It not only evokes the atmosphere of horror and dread, but also portrays the deterioration of its world” (Vore, Domenic, Kwan, and Reidy).
1. In chapter two, Jonathan Harker, a real estate lawyer arrives at a dark and ruined castle.
a. “Suddenly I became conscious of the fact that the driver
In his thesis, David Gates articulates, “The major characters in Stoker 's fiction are patterned on the prototypes established earlier by Gothic novelists. Stoker worked variations on the traditional types of the persecuted maiden, the stalwart young hero, and the diabolic villain” (31).
B. Mina Murray-Harker is the “persecuted maiden” in Dracula.
1. Exemplifying the perfect Victorian woman, Mina is the persecuted maiden in the novel because she unrightfully fell victim to Dracula.
C. The stalwart young hero in Dracula is embodied by Jonathan Harker.
1. Jonathan is the man that finally kills Dracula. By killing Dracula, he saves his companions as well as the society as a whole.
D. In How to Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster declares that the essentials of a vampire story are, “A nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates young women, leaves his mark on them, steals their innocence” (16). Foster adds that there needs to be “…a continuance of the life force of the old male; the death or destruction of the young woman” (19).
1. With his thirst for blood, a nasty old man who steals young women’s innocence, and benefits from that is the perfect portrayal of Dracula, making him the diabolic villain.
V. BP4/Topic Sentence: The tone of Dracula is greatly influenced by Gothic
In addition to the dark tone of Dracula, a mysterious and suspenseful tone is present as well.
1. Before Jonathan ascertains the truth about Dracula, it is clear there is something unnatural going on.
a. While shaving in his mirror, Dracula comes into Jonathan’s room and he notices that there is no reflection of Dracula in the mirror.
b. A mysterious tone is set in the scene where Jonathan witnesses Dracula descending down the wall like a lizard. Jonathan proceeds to write in his journal, “But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down, with his cloak spreading around him like great wings” (Stoker 44).
VI. BP5/Topic Sentence: In Dracula, the gothic influence on the symbols is clear to see.
A. Blood, the most prominent symbol in Dracula, represents life. Just as Adeline Hoe states in “Gothic Keywords”, “…blood naturally represents life in most of Gothic literature, for ‘the blood is the life’” (Hoe).
1. Blood symbolizing life is exemplified in Dracula when Lucy, as well as Mina, grow sicker and more like the undead once Dracula begins feeding off of
However; once she sleep walks and has her interaction with Dracula, who is then the embodiment of impurity (undead), she becomes gaunt and ashen, her demeanor is that of a wild animal and she is impure. This follows the law of contagion as well, the interaction with the impure body (Dracula) transfers his undead essence into Lucy and therefore makes her impure. Dracula’s undead essence is acquired through the law of similarity. He sleeps in coffins, and through that he is then given the essence of the Undead. Much like the Corpse handlers in Cantonese society, Dracula carries the essence of death with him through the law of similarity. , Conversely, there cannot be impurity without the possibility of purification. For Lucy, the purification ritual is her true death once Van Helsing and Seward drive the stake through her heart and cut off her head. Although Lucy is the strongest example of contamination via impurity, the same can be said about Mina in chapter 21 when she is bitten and forced to ingest The Count’s blood. She is later touched with a communion wafer and her skin is burned, signifying her contamination from the
To begin, the author incorporates the act of Religion to parish off the malicious Dracula. When Jonathan Harker is shaving, Dracula emerges behind him without seeing his reflection in Jonathan 's mirror. stunned, Jonathan ends up cutting his face. Dracula replies: “When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew
Anyone who has ever seen one of the several adaptations of Dracula as a movie will know that it was intended to be a horror story. Stoker goes to great lengths in order to create an atmosphere of terror and villainy, while hinting at exciting things to come. Straight from the beginning of the book, foreshadowing is utilized to hint at horrifying future events. As Jonathan Harker was about to depart for Castle Dracula, an old lady accosted him and said, "It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that to-night when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?" (Stoker, 4). However Harker leaves anyway, despite the warning. Thus the reader is fully aware that something awful is going to happen to him. This quote makes one's mind think of possible future events, thus creating imagery. Every writer aspires to create good imagery, and Bram Stoker is particularly good at doing so.
“Dracula, in one aspect, is a novel about the types of Victorian women and the representation of them in Victorian English society” (Humphrey). Through Mina, Lucy and the daughters of Dracula, Stoker symbolizes three different types of woman: the pure, the tempted and the impure. “Although Mina and Lucy possess similar qualities there is striking difference between the two” (Humphrey). Mina is the ideal 19th century Victorian woman; she is chaste, loyal and intelligent. On the other hand, Lucy’s ideal Victorian characteristics began to fade as she transformed from human to vampire and eventually those characteristics disappeared altogether. Lucy no longer embodied the Victorian woman and instead, “the swe...
Conclusively, while Bram Stokers novel Dracula is seen as a gothic and horror story, I argue that it is a novel that seeks to address female sexuality directly. Seen through numerous passages, Stoker confronts and battles the views between sexuality during the Victorian era though his genius of characterization of characters present within the novel. As it seems highly intentional to me, I respect the way in which he criticizes and critiques upon female sexuality by bringing into light new ideas regarding female desires. When contrasting his text upon today’s culture, the differences to how one perceived the vampire has changed significantly.
In Senf’s essay she points out that modern readers of Stokers novel are more likely to be surprised by this version of Dracula. In Stokers novel most of the action occurs in nineteenth-century London. Senf also shines a light on the fact that Stoker has made it so he cannot comment directly on his characters’ failures in judgment, or their lack of self knowledge with the type of narration selection he has chosen, Dracula as well is never allowed a voice in this novel.
Stoker uses phenomenal imagery to produce a late nineteenth century setting, located somewhere within eastern Europe. Transylvania, the infamous home to Dracula himself, is described in great detail in Harker’s journal. There, Stoker purposely and meticulously outlines Dracula’s castle and the surrounding town. Stoker manages to do this with a very gothic tone, immediately lowering the societal status of women. In conjunction with Dracula’s gothic tone comes the understanding of male and female traditional roles of the era. The reader sees that there is no hesitation differentiating between the two, as Stoker “ cast[s] men as rational, strong, protective and decisive…[and] women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and submissive.” (Tyson, 82).
The idea of Victorian womanhood is extremely sacred, especially to a woman like Mina, who primarily wishes to be of use to her husband. Dracula’s penetrating the West and his actions are threats to female purity, and so they are threats to Victorian culture and order of England (Western world). Dracula is penetrating the entire nature of Vi...
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” was written the year after Stevenson released his book. Dracula follows Byron’s idea of being alluring and of magical ability, but differs in that he is unpleasant in ...
Since the 19th Century, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has entertained its readers taking them to heights of excitement in the climax
When Van Helsing figured out what was happening to Lucy he told Dr. Seward and after Lucy passed away the men went to where she was buried and it had been weeks and her body. The sight they saw was “more radiant and beautiful than ever; and I could not believe that she was dead. The lips were red maybe redder than before” (Stoker 171). This line should that Lucy turned into a vampire because Dracula had been sucking her blood. Jonathan Harker was also a victim of Dracula’s games but he fought through his mental trauma with the help of his Wife, Mina. The rein of Dracula’s evil ways came to an end and although Lucy lost her future, all of her friends were finally safe from
Dracula is “un-dead”, once human before his vampire state and clearly separate from human form, establishing his frightening allure. His fangs, hands and sharp nails are horrifying up close. He is not corpse at first look, mysteriously resisting the decay of death. Dr. Seward comments, “she was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever; and I could not believe she was dead” on Lucy’s vampire state (Stoker 200). At several points in the novel Dracula is life like, “simply gorged with blood; he lay like a leech, exhausted with his repletion” (Stoker 52). The monstrous life in death is an “essential gift of Stoker’s vampires to the twentieth century; a reminder, not of the dreadfulness of death, but the innate horror of vitality” ( Auerbach 95). Edward is opposite in appearance to Dracula. The venom from the bite that transforms human into vampire freezes their appearance forever. Edward was bitten at 17, and never labeled as horrifying.
While the character of Renfield is ostensively extraneous to the central plot of Dracula, he fulfils an important role in Stoker’s exploration of the central themes of the novel. This paper will examine how Renfield character is intertwined with the three central themes of invasion, blood and otherness. Firstly, through Renfield’s inner struggle we learn that he is ‘not his own master’ (Stoker, 211). The theme of invasion is revealed by the controlling and occupying powers of Count Dracula. Secondly, the recurring theme ‘the Blood is the Life’ (Stoker, 121), is portrayed throughout the novel and has been interpreted through Stoker’s character Renfield. Then finally, a look at the social construction of the ‘other’ in Dracula and how, through Renfield, who is ‘unlike the normal lunatic’ (Stoker, 52), the Count emerges as the ‘other’ of all ‘others’.
Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu’s texts, Dracula (1898) and “Carmilla” (1872), use gothic tropes in similar ways to captivate readers with horror and terror. This essay will illustrate how, in comparison, both texts include gothic tropes: the New Woman, sexuality and setting, in order to provoke emotions and reactions from the readers. To achieve this, this essay will focus on the women that challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and deconstruct each text in regards to the very strong undertones of homosexuality; specifically between Carmilla and Laura, and Dracula and Harker. By discussing the harshness and darkness of the environments described, including ruined castles and isolated landscapes; this essay will also explore the
He is on his way to Transylvania to complete a property transaction with Dracula at his decaying castle (Swan). Then Jonathan soon realizes he is a prisoner at the castle with Dracula and the three sisters who reveal themselves as vampires to Jonathan (Stoker). But there are differences between the novel and the film with the first being in the movie when Jonathan ask the Count why are you buying houses in these specific locations (Bram Stoker’s)? The movie never answers this question, but the novel explains the fifty boxes that have Transylvanian dirt in them need to be at these locations neighboring London, so Dracula could rest and rebuild his strength which must be in a coffin with his homelands dirt (Bram Stoker’s). Next are the variations of how he became to know the sisters of Dracula (Canby). The movie shows the sisters morphing up through his mattress while he is trying to sleep. Although the novel states he wanders into their room where he sits down to write in his journal when he becomes sleepy and they appear out of nowhere trying to feast on his neck (Canby). Next is the contrasting effect of Jonathans religion. In the novel, he is a devout religious God-fearing man praying and asking Him to help and keep him safe each step of his way while in the movie Jonathan wears the crucifix he received on his carriage ride to the