Dracula is a novel written by Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. The novel tells the story of Count Dracula's attempt to move from Transylvania to England so that he may find new blood and spread the undead curse, and of the battle between Dracula and a group of people led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
One of the most notable aspects of Dracula is its use of multiple narrators. The story is told through the use of letters, journal entries, and newspaper articles, all written by different characters. This technique allows the reader to experience the story from multiple viewpoints and adds to the sense of mystery and uncertainty surrounding the events of the novel.
Another notable aspect of Dracula is its themes of good versus evil and the dangers of unchecked desire. Count Dracula represents the ultimate evil, a creature who preys on the innocent and spreads death and destruction wherever he goes. In contrast, the characters who attempt to stop him, such as Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker, represent the forces of good and their struggle against Dracula is a metaphor for the struggle between good and evil in the world.
Furthermore, the novel also explores the dangers of unchecked desire, as Dracula's thirst for blood represents a primal and uncontroll desire that ultimately leads to his downfall. This theme is also reflected in the characters of Lucy and Mina, who are both tempted by Dracula's charms and must resist his seductive influence in order to survive.
Overall, Dracula is a classic work of horror literature that continues to be widely read and adapted to this day. Its use of multiple narrators, exploration of good versus evil, and examination of the dangers of unchecked desire make it a timeless and enduring work that continues to captivate readers more than a century after its initial publication.
Dracula: Literary Context Essay
The novel's first four chapters are related as the journals of Jonathan Harker. Aside from the historical, Count Dracula also has literary progenitors. Yet while Stoker drew inspiration from his predecessors, his novel also played a huge role in canonizing tropes popularly associated with the vampire narrative today. Reading a book with such a familiar theme was an interesting experience I haven't watched the movie based on it. . That's all I can summise from the prompt and that seems unlikely since this isn't a psychology course. Seward is a general practitioner, every type of surgeon and a psychiatrist to boot.
John Seward, keeper of an insane asylum, notices a strange habit of his patient Renfield: consuming live things so as to absorb their life energy. Van Helsing concludes that Dracula is doing what he did when he was a mortal man — raising an army and invading another country, only it's England this time and not the Ottoman Empire. Derleth, August; Wandrei, Donald eds. Comparisons to other works of The Woman in White 1859. It's also stated that he has at least three doctoral degrees, one of which is an MD. Indeed, seeing her bearing fangs with bits of blood on her lips, acting not at all like the Lucy they know feral and seductive instead of kind and caring , acting fearful of a cross and using her powers to flee back to her coffin is more than enough proof to the men that vampires, and the threat they pose, are real. Alice Freeman Palmer: The Evolution of a New Woman.
Back, I tell you all! Seward originally disbelieves in vampires since it sounds pretty fantastical. McNally and Radu Florescu's In Search of Dracula mentions the novel's "immediate success". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lucy: Come to me, Arthur. The fact that Dracula can change into a bat at will is also featured in Stoker's Dracula. . Several of the men also have brief hysterical episodes.
Dracula, Bram Stoker: Exploration Of Its Literary Influence
In Hughes, William; Smith, Andrew eds. Whether the vampire films and novels include the actual Count as a character or not, Van Helsing appears in most of them in one form or another. . And later escapes and breaks through Lucy's garlic-protected window. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Had Stoker completed his original plans, a German professor called Max Windshoeffel "would have confronted Count Wampyr from Styria", and one of the Crew of Light would have been slain by a Dracula might have originally been intended to be a detective story, with a detective called Cotford and a Publication Dracula was published in London in May 1897 by Archibald Constable and Company.
It seemed like the pleasure of fiends. Alas, when Lucy is drained too heavily a third and final time, the marks heal on their own, which Van Helsing cites is too late for her. Seward notifies his Dutch mentor, Dr. Stoker took nine years to write his novel, spending time at the British Library in London for research. Another commercially successful vampire series was created by Stephenie Meyer, beginning with the novel Twilight in 2005.
The Truth About Dracula. This is a more extreme example: Renfield suffers multiple cranial and spinal injuries, such that he'd have been paralyzed for life if he'd lived, but Seward marks down the maner of death as "misadventure in falling from bed". The vampire has involved into a more sympathetic being in some media, having emotions, and even empathy, with the ability to fall in love — something radically different from the embodiment of evil, an undead monster whose sole intent is self-preservation with no ability to identify with the living human beings it preys on. Honestly, if Drac had landed anywhere else, his plan would've gone off without a hitch. Disease The novel's representation of vampirism has been discussed as symbolising Victorian anxieties about disease. Also, one of Dr. He fails miserably with both.
Dracula by Bram Stoker. Search eText, Read Online, Study, Discuss.
His counteractions are just simple wards at best and it doesn't take much for his efforts to be ruined and Dracula to finish feeding on Lucy. Then the thin man smile and say that of course he must go when he think fit; but he will be surprise if he go quite so soon. For instance, they indicate that the novel's vampire was intended to be a count, even before he was given the name Dracula. Dictionary of Literary Biography. . Vampire Literature Dracula belongs to the tradition of vampire fiction, which is literature thematically concerned with the topic of vampires.
Harker's wife Mina and the young and innocent Lucy Westenra are easy prey for the notorious Count Dracula. Oh, how we are beset! Here is the original text of the prompt:. The whole story and characters have a human touch, which makes it an almost touching story. But both shed tears after Mina is attacked, and Seward has to pause his recording at one point because he chokes up while describing an emotional scene: Seward: I cannot go on. He then embarked on a career in the theater, moving to London and working for the Lyceum, befriending such intellectuals as Oscar Wilde, and working as the Lyceum's stage and business manager for over a decade. The following night, Van Helsing gathers the rest of the men and confront Lucy directly as she prowls the night. Lycanthropy in German Literature.
Dracula's Influence on Pop Culture, Literature & The Modern Vampire
Go safely and leave something of the happiness you bring. Van Helsing doesn't want to say that Lucy will be alright "will make a good crop when the time comes" unless he can know this for sure through further examination. Publisher's Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature. Having said all this, boy, is Stoker's style verbose! In 1797 the German dramatist, Goethe, published The Bride of Corinth, a poem featuring a bloodsucking woman; the English poet Coleridge produced the chilling story of a lesbian vampire, Christabel. The novel has become a part of the Western popular imagination, drawn as it was from Victorian ideas of morality and reinterpretations of Central European myths about "wampyrs," or vampires. The Vampire Legend The vampire legend is generally associated with Eastern Europe and the Balkan region, though belief in revenants dead people returning from the grave has roots in ancient times.
