In comparison to modern perversions of the vampire genre, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was slower in progression, yet deeper in meaning. In modern interpretations of the genre, such as Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and The Originals, which are all stories I enjoyed, the plot progresses quickly and vampires are portrayed as redeemable. Contrasting these stories, Dracula progresses sluggishly with Stoker giving “too much information” throughout the entire novel. Moreover, Count Dracula is seen as an irredeemable, soulless monster. Since I was accustomed to modern perversions of the genre, Dracula was extremely dull. At various points in the story, I expected stronger plot development or suspense but the story lacked both. The climax of the plot is reached when the story is nearly over, when the main characters decide to hunt down Count Dracula. Due to the late climax, I was constantly expecting the story to climax throughout my reading, yet it seemed like it would never come. Holistically, the story lacked cohesion as the vast imagery and explanations of the character’s internal thoughts contributed nothing to the plot.
Despite the novel’s plot’s complete failure in interesting me, I was intrigued by Stoker’s style and story-telling. 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 so dully. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that Stoker is attempting to use rich
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.
A horror classic by Abraham Stocker, Dracula, may be one of the most notorious villain stories of all time. Bram Stocker is a Irish writer who changed the view of what to read in his time. He shows dark and twisted situations and metaphors throughout Dracula and many other of his horror novels. This novel was released in the Victorian era, which saw his type of writing as equivalent to the devil. This era was a long time of peace and bright minded people. Stockers style surprised many readers, because he always has you thinking it can’t get any darker than it is but it always exceeds the previous twisted situation or event. Bram Stocker shows Dracula as an iconic creature, with many reasons to be feared, but displayed in the wrong time era.
Vampires have been around for centuries, they represent the fear of many things such as sexuality, race, gender, etc. and above all, they stand for the fear of diseases. Vampires have once been the symbol of horror due to their terrific depictions and were described as a threat to the humanity. Throughout time, the image of vampire has changed dramatically from a monstrous, inhumanely creature that doesn’t belong to human society to such an attractive and adaptive figure that expresses more of the human side than the evil. They developed human feelings, senses, and live within our society. Modern vampire movies are often more romantic and “sympathetic” comparing to the past. Vampires have abandoned their horror and evolved to a more
Bram Stoker's Dracula is highly acclaimed and has received many different interpretations which deal with complex symbolisms and metaphors. These interpretations often require a great deal of knowledge in psychology, political science, anthropology, and other non-literary disciplines. These interpretations may be valid, as they are related to the disciplines on which their arguments are based, but the true power of the novel is due to a very simple theme that lies beneath the other, more convoluted interpretations. This theme is the universal concept of identity: us versus them. This criticism sets aside outside disciplines and focuses on the literary motif of identity. John
After decades of cheesy horror movies, the image of vampires has been misconstrued as sparkly, angsty teenage boys or handsome men that lure in girls for the fresh blood of a virgin. Many of these stereotypical vampires are influenced by the story of Dracula, held in the Victorian era. Yet, many of the stories published about vampires diverge from the message that Bram Stoker is trying to make. During the Victorian period, sexuality is repressed by society, as sexual behaviors from women are viewed as unacceptable. In the Gothic horror novel Dracula, Bram Stoker uses the traumatic experience of Jonathan Harker at Count Dracula’s castle and the invasion of vampires in Great Britain to create a social commentary on the sexual repression occurring in this era and its detrimental effect on the men.
Perhaps no work of literature has ever been composed without being a product of its era, mainly because the human being responsible for writing it develops their worldview within a particular era. Thus, with Bram Stoker's Dracula, though we have a vampire myth novel filled with terror, horror, and evil, the story is a thinly veiled disguise of the repressed sexual mores of the Victorian era. If we look to critical interpretation and commentary to win support for such a thesis, we find it aplenty "For erotic Dracula certainly is. 'Quasi-pornography' one critic labels it. Another describes it as a 'kind of incestuous, necrophilious, oral-anal-sadistic all-in-wrestling matching'. A
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a story of horror, suspense, and repulsion. The main antagonist, Count Dracula, is depicted as an evil, repulsive creature that ends and perverts life to keep himself alive and youthful. To most onlookers that may be the case, but most people fail to see one crucial element to this character. Dracula is a character that, though it may be long gone, was once human, and thus has many human emotions and motives still within him. Let us delve into these emotions of a historically based monster.
For example, the use of characterization Stoker uses when describing Dr. Van Helsing Leads us to believe that Dr. Van Helsing’s character is very intelligent, even-minded, well-educated,and has great instincts.Without Dr. Van Helsing’s intelligence or level head ,The fate of many characters would have been completely different. It’s because of Dr. Van Helsing that Mina and the others live to tell the story. When Mina was attacked by Dracula and forced to drink his blood,which made her “ Impure”. Dr. Van Helsing uses his intelligence and wit to change her fate. By listening to his instincts the doctor was able to help many people. But even he couldn’t help everyone. Lucy was one of those people. It was believed that Lucy had anemia,but in reality it was the loss of blood caused by Count Dracula that eventually killed her. Even though the doctors couldn’t save her life, something told Dr. Van Helsing that she wasn’t truly free. She was becoming the same thing that killed her, a vampire.By following his instincts, he was able to set her free and bring closure to those who loved her , As well as rid the world of another monster .
The relationship that exists between gender, sexuality and sexual practice is one that is not static, but is ever changing and shifting dependent upon the society in which it exists (Brickell, 2007). This essay aims to describe how Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula, presents a “characteristic, if hyperbolic, instance of Victorian anxiety over the potential fluidity of gender roles” (Craft, 111-112), whilst also inverting and subverting conventional Victorian gender patterns through the characterisation and portrayal of the vampire women residing in Count Dracula’s castle, Mina, and Lucy as well as the ‘feminine’ passivity and submissive depiction of Jonathan Harker.
The novel had a lot of detail and stoker really knew how to get the audience attention. This was a well written book that I believe that many young upperclassmen would enjoy reading. If you're thinking about reading Dracula you are surly in for a lot of horror and suspense. I understand why Stoker would turn such a great story into a novel. I think that back then people were really into the supernatural. I would even say that many people including stoker himself believed in the supernatural. The novel also wouldn't just of been written for getting a good scare but for those upper class people. My reason for that was because of the high use of vocabulary in the novel. I was also clearly able to see who the good guy was in the story as well as the bad. It was obvious that Dracula was the evil one in the Novel. At first it was hard to tell who was the protagonist because the story starts of with Jonathan Harker which automatically made me think that he would be the good one in the story. Once we were introduced to Van Helsing my opinion completely changed on who the protagonist would be because once we were introduced to Van Helsing he was the one with the most knowledge on vampires. He seemed to have experience with vampires on how to cure wounds from vampires and how to kill them. The whole novel over all was a great novel that I would recommend to many of my friends who enjoy the thrill of
The novel Dracula had, and still has an immense effect on horror through its use of literary elements which are observable in horror movies. Bram Stoker's Dracula was revolutionary in its use of literary devices such as dramatic irony, to convey suspense, and the use of sexuality in literature. These devices were adapted to film in early horror movies and continue to appear till today. Dracula was very influential to the film industry when it comes to horror movies because horror movies draw a lot of devices used in Dracula and use them in their movies, this can be seen in movies such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the movie adaptation of Dracula.
The Victorian men and women conveyed in Bram Stoker's Dracula are pure and virtuous members of the upper and middle class. However, hiding behind this composed and civilized conception of England lies a dark and turbulent underbelly. This underbelly is the lumpenproletariat, whom Karl Marx defined as "the lowest and most degraded section of the proletariat; the down and outs' who make no contribution to the workers cause". Victorian culture discriminated against these vagrants, who were seen not only as shiftless and immoral, but dangerous as well. Sex was taboo and purity was held sacred to the Victorian middle and upper class, but prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases ran rampant among the lumpenproletariat. The rich strive
Although in modern times people are exposed to sexuality from a young age through advertisements, media, and pop culture, during the Victorian era in England, the only acceptable exploration of repressed sexual desire was through a book that upholds the Christian belief of sexuality’s corruptive effects on society. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a gothic, horror novel, Dracula, a vampire from Transylvania, preys on Mina Harker, a devoted Christian and intelligent woman, and Lucy Westenra, an innocent, young woman pursued by three suitors, by luring them and sucking their blood; the women and their suitors form a gang of vampire fighters who track and eventually kill Dracula defeating his devilry with the forces of
In a particular addition of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Maurice Hindle had suggested that “sex was the monster Stoker feared most.” This essay will examine the examples of this statement in the Dracula text, focusing on female sexuality. The essay will also briefly look at an article Stoker had written after Dracula which also displays Stoker’s fear.
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