Bram Stoker’S 1897 Novel Dracula Is Far From Being A Simple

Dracula by Bram Stoker is a horror story about a hero’s quest to rid the world of vampires from the Victorian era. Readers are horrified by his graphic descriptions and horrifying struggles. However, Dracula is much more than just a vampire fantasy; in this novel, Bram Stoker explores the unconscious sexual desires repressed during the Victorian era and the controversy surrounding sexuality.

          The delineation between the lower and middle-upper classes can also be seen clearly in both parties' attitudes towards superstition and science. While the privileged classes are highly scientific and skeptical of superstition, the lower classes are just the opposite. Dr. Seward uses the phonograph machine, a cutting edge technology, to record his lengthy journal entries which include updates on his patient, Renfield, as well as the vampire problem. Dr. Seward and his advanced knowledge of science personify the attitude among the rich that science can explain all. He is scientific to the core, seeking a logical explanation for everything. Van Helsing wonders at his naivety and lack of imagination when faced with something purely unscientific. "Do you mean to tell me, friend John, that you have no suspicion as to what poor Lucy died of; not after all the hints given, not only by events, but by me?"(203). When he is confronted with the vampires, the situation rebukes Seward's principles of reason, eventually forcing him to accept the occult and superstition he had long denied. In contrast to the conservative scientific reasoning of Britain's privileged, the lower classes of Victorian England were superstitious to a fault. Evidence is offered when Mina and Lucy talk to old Mr. Swales about tombstones: "You start on the assumption that all the poor... spirits, will have to take their tombstones

To understand the significance of Van Helsing’s exchange with Seward, it is important to first establish the meaning of blood within the novel. After Lucy becomes ill, Van Helsing and Lucy’s suitors give her blood, while Dracula takes her blood. The exchange of blood in this way gains a clear sexual

Van Helsing takes great care and delicacy in proving that the vampire threat is real to his companions, taking a group of men to see for themselves that Lucy had turned into evil undead. To prove to the men that vampires are real, Van Helsing forces the men to see Lucy, whose eyes are “unclean and full of hell-fire” causing Dr. Seward to feel “the remnant of [his] love [pass] into pure hate and loathing” (Stoker 181). Van Helsing is truly brilliant, because after seeing Lucy in her state of ‘un-death’, the men are all ready to listen to him and act against the vampire threat. Van Helsing himself even admits that “at the first [he] was the sceptic” but learned to accept and deal with vampires “through long years [of training himself] to keep an open mind” (Stoker 203). Van Helsing is explaining how he is not insane, but rather more experienced and open minded.

In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker illustrates the increasing scientific and technological advancements but demonstrates the importance of religion in the Victorian era. Technology will always be advancing in society, but Victorian people choose to use religion that has been around for thousands years. Stoker’s Dracula, demonstrates how important religion is in a society that is always advancing. The Victorian people believe women should show their devotion to their husbands and families. Women need to follow the rules and expectations of society and their religious beliefs. Stoker’s Dracula illustrates all of the characteristics of a Victorian society that should be looked upon and women who would be isolated in society.

Bram Stoker`s “Dracula” is one of his most prominent work, originally published in 1897. Forming part of the gothic literature; the novel focuses, through the character of Dracula, on the theme of Supernatural and Religion in an era largely dominated by Science and Rationality. This critical essay, will therefore demonstrate how Dracula, portrayed as the “other,” is essentially different from the rest and, how he subtly manage to incite people and challenge values and ideals of the British Society.

The setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is in the late nineteenth-century London, where the flourishing of technology is replacing people’s belief of the old superstitious ways. The characters in this novel experience contacts with the supernatural beings that is unable to be proven even by the most advanced technology at the time, which leads them to doubt their own sanity. However, the progression of the novel proves that peace is restored into the characters’ lives after their doubts and confusions about what is reality and who is really mad. Ultimately, the categorization of the sane against the mad is unnecessary since the distinguishing factors shown in the novel are ambiguous. Subsequently, no characters can

Van Helsing who is an old, wise and educated man is determined to get rid of the Count. He knows much of how to rid vampires and has sworn till death that he will kill him. He joins forces with Jonathan Harker, Quincy Morris, Arthur aka Lord Godalming and Dr. Jack Seward to save the world from Dracula. Even after all he knows and has seen he still questions his sanity, “You may at the first think that I, Van Helsing, am mad-that the many horrors and the so long strain on nerves has at the last turn my brain” (523). Even Dr. Seward feels the loss of sanity amongst them, “I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats” (392) and even questions himself, “I am beginning to wonder if my long habit of life amongst the insane is beginning to tell upon my own brain”

We can also see how the Victorian Society also helps create the story, how it is wrote and how it influences Dracula so much. Vampirism is just a polite way Stoker has made to secretly talk about sex since anything that brought a blush to your cheeks was forbidden during the Victorian era. For example, when Lucy first gets bitten while sleepwalking “There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure” (Dracula 98). Lucy gets bitten by Dracula and she is already talking with three other men, ends up marrying one, this is in no way the ideal Victorian woman. Not only is she not an ideal Victorian woman, but to add on to the list of why she is not “The vampiric tradition of blood-sucking is symbolic of the exchange of bodily fluids during sex. For Stoker, writing in the sexually repressed Victorian age, vampirism is a convenient metaphor for sex and the closest he could get to writing about sex in a 'respectable' novel” (NovelGuide). As we all know she has many exchanges of bodily fluids, not only the blood-sucking of Dracula, but in fact blood transfusions from all three men as they vowed to never speak of it since Arthur believes that the transfusion made him and Lucy truly married “None of us said a word of the other operations, and none of us ever shall” (Dracula 188). Even though the audiences knows that the blood transfusion made by the men was meant as a kind gesture to save Lucy’s life as opposed to Dracula’s blood being the

Despite the plot’s complete failure in inciting interest within me, I was intrigued by Stoker’s style and storytelling capabilities. I was constantly curious as to why Stoker was revealing a vast amount of information about the scenery and internal feelings of each character while developing the plot in such a dull manner. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that Stoker is attempting to use rich imagery about both settings and the characters’ emotions to emphasize Count Dracula. While reading each chapter, clear mental images of the settings and the characters’ feelings are formed. Through the story being told from extremely

A key element of the fantasy / horror / gothic genres is to fascinate and intrigue readers through stories that pose the “what if” questions, thereby teaching us something new about the society we live in. Sometimes these stories are helpful in explaining difficult concepts of good and evil, science and religion. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, the mythical horror creatures, the vampires, have many differences in their mythical abilities, functionality and origin; however, they both serve to underline themes that remind the reader of what makes us human and what defines us as ultimately good or evil. Stoker’s Count Dracula is the product of a religious strike against the antagonist whereas the vampires in I Am

on the place; this makes us feel anxious to find out where he is going

Dracula written by Bram Stoker utilizes religious and scientific beliefs that many people still to this day are having arguments as to what is better. There are many instances where one has the upper hand on the other during the novel. Even though religious and scientific topics are both controversial there are occasions where both have the answer to the questions we may have. Throughout the text religious beliefs triumph science because the characters see themselves get better results from religious relicts. There are counter arguments where one is superior than the other but for the sake of this essay Stoker mainly used religion to solve their issues.

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

Bram Stoker’s ingenious piece of work on writing Dracula has set the expectation for gothic novels all over the world and time to come. The mindset of writing Dracula through the Victorian Era really sets the tone for the reader by creating a spine-tingling sensation right through the novel. With this in mind, Stoker wouldn’t have been able to succeed his masterpiece without the effective uses of symbolism, imagery, foreshadowing, and its overall theme.