Why is Dracula such a great horror story?

Why is Dracula such a great horror story?

In my opinion 'Dracula' is a great horror story because it is highly

entertaining in its idea of vampirism, its atmospheric descriptions,

powerful characterisation and the horrific death of Lucy. The novel is

also interesting because of the religious perspectives, such as the

use of garlic, holy water and the crucifix as weapons against evil.

Jonathan Harker's journey to Count Dracula's home is described in

great detail. The atmosphere not only adds to the dangerous ride to

Dracula's Castle, but also comes alive as we're reading it. The

atmosphere surrounding Harker is incredibly frightening but the detail

and descriptions used are so astounding that we can feel the 'strange

chills'. I felt like I was sitting beside Jonathan Harker. I 'shared'

his 'fear'.

Harker is travelling in a Caleche, a small, open, horse drawn carriage

which is obviously dangerous. It adds suspense to the story, which

makes the reader automatically think something terrible is going to

occur. The 'long, agonized wailing' of the dogs seem to go on forever.

As the journey takes longer it becomes more fearsome. Harker feels

'lonely'. Harker's driver is a strange, mysterious character, with his

'gleaming smile' as he steers the Caleche without revealing his face

to Harker, or talking much. At this point the reader is thrilled and

excited, feeling like a character in the story.

The historical detail of the journey is also what makes this novel

brilliant. Harker is very uncomfortable, 'caught my arm in a grip of

steel.' I didn't realise how dangerous and uncomfortable the Caleches

were back a hundred years ago until I read Harker's account of his

journey. As the 'horses began to strain' and...

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...hough to

find out what people used to believe in.

Stoker has used imaginative and gruesome details, which interested me

a lot. I think this novel is wonderful mainly because of Lucy's death

and how her fiancé killed her. It shows how much Arthur loved Lucy. He

killed her vampire form and bought back Lucy's soul so it could go to

heaven. This dreadful part of the story is brilliant. I found it

heartbreaking but I was amazed at Arthur's strong character.

I think the novel was fascinating but it dragged and became boring in

places. The journey to Transylvania, for example, was very well

described and extremely spooky. However, this section could be

shortened to maintain tension. I also think some of the character's

diary entries could have been more focused on moving the story forward

rather than offering lots of information, which we didn't really need.