Dracula: Reason vs. Rationality

It was a dark and stormy night. I, Jonathan Harker, was shaking and I didn't know what was going on. I was seeing terrifying shadows around my room. Also, last night, I thought a person or a thing was behind me, but I couldn't see its reflection through the mirror. I didn't know what to do, so I started packing.

    In the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, there is much evidence of foreshadowing and parallels to other myths.  Dracula was not the first story featuring a vampire myth, nor was it the last.  Some would even argue that it was not the best.  However, it was the most original, using foreshadowing and mood to create horrific imagery, mythical parallels to draw upon a source of superstition, and original narrative elements that make this story unique.

Vampire is "a bloodsucking ghost that come back from dead person believed to come from the place where a body is buried and wander about by night sucking the blood of people asleep and causing their death." Before vampires were seen as evil monsters and creatures humans must fear. However, now, vampires have become an "famous popular culture and fascination among teens around the world"  This art has increased vampire large groups of fans this way resulting to the creation of many fan clubs and social organizations, whether online or not.

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.

Marxism is a system of political, economic, and social theories developed by Karl Marx in the mid-nineteenth century. It emphasizes the idea that social life is based on conflicts of interests between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariats. Anyone who has ownership and controls the means of production is powerful within a society. This concept is apparent in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, although not the notion of the lower-class attempting to rise up and overthrow those in the upper-class. Instead, Marxism is explored with Count Dracula being a true consumerist and a powerful, controlling, and demanding figure in the text, in the form of a rich aristocracy.

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.

Good versus Evil is an important concept. Evil sometimes overcomes our good but never exceeds good. The difference between evil and good is that good is an ability to have empathy and compassion towards other people. Evil is people who are selfish, self-absorbed and don’t have empathy towards others. Literature plays a vital role in developing concepts of good and evil and effectively portrays the morals of its time period. In the novels Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the authors explore the human nature of good and evil in men from different perspectives of Dracula, Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll.

Kali is a different form of the Mother Goddess, Durga. She is depicted as appalling and ferocious with dark skin and long, untamed hair along with her long tongue protruding out of her mouth. In two of her four arms, she carries a bloody sword and the head of the demon Raktabija. Kali is the goddess of destruction and change.

“Despite the claimed reverence for puritan ideals, the Victorian era brought numerous challenges to Christianity, including the growing trends of materialism, rationalism, communism, and "higher criticism" of the Bible.” (WEB). There was a lot of controversy going on at that time so people were beginning to doubt their religion and the church, these people who were against God were seen as immoral just as Dracula seen as. Just like Mina and Lucy were infected by sinful blood, the people in that time were also brainwashed by scientists to believe that religion was not true. However Bram Stoker reinforced his universal truth to show that in this context, religion was the good and that scientists were the bad of that time. “A great number of people were habitual church-goers, at least once and probably twice, every Sunday. The Bible was frequently and widely read by people of every class; so too were religious stories and allegories.” (WEB). Although some people went astray of their religion, a large part of the population was still true to their roots and followed religious practices. The church’s main goal was to increase its followers, usually the ones off track were brought back only when the doubt was destroyed; Mina’s process of conversion was stopped the same when Dracula was destroyed. Being religious meant the god would keep you in health and if you were evil then you would have a terrible life. Stoker described

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is a story about a Vampire named Count Dracula and his journey to satisfy his lust for blood. The story is told through a series of individuals’ journal entries and a letters sent back and forth between characters. Bram Stoker shows the roll in which a certain gender plays in the Victorian era through the works of Dracula. This discussion not only consists of the roll a certain gender takes, but will be discussing how a certain gender fits into the culture of that time period as well as how males and females interact among each other. The Victorian era was extremely conservative when it came to the female, however there are signs of the changing into the New Woman inside of Dracula. Essentially the woman was to be assistance to a man and stay pure inside of their ways.

Bela Lugosi is arguably the most classic example of an actor taking on a vampire role. However, during 1931 when the universal studio was casting the 1931’s Dracula, Lugosi could only barely speak English, and therefore almost lost his chance at playing the iconic part (“Dracula (1931 English-Language Film”). Nonetheless his accents and costumes, which has become the classic look of the vampire, he himself was so typecast in his role that he was actually buried after his death in his Dracula costume. Certainly, it is Lugosi’s performance that makes Tod Browning’s film such an influential Hollywood picture. Overall, I will give it a 3 star out of 5, compared with the older version film of Dracula, because of the dialogues and sounds, the plot is much easier for the audiences to understand, without any editing or background music the horror of the film is not inferior to

In everyday life, as in literature, there will always be an opposing force to evil. In the novel “Dracula,” by Bram Stoker, Professor Van Helsing acts as Dracula’s main antagonist. An antagonist is the character who acts against the main character, which increases the conflict of the story and intensifies the plot. Through the use of theme, characterization and specific events, the author shows readers how Dr. Van Helsing effectively fits the role of Dracula’s most threatening adversary.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula magnificently portrays Anti-Christian values and beliefs through one of its central characters, Dracula. Dracula himself, a demonic figure, both in appearance and in behavior, could be considered the Anti-Christ. This idea of Dracula as a gothic Anti-Christ is a major element in the novel. Stoker displays numerous Anti-Christian values, superstitious beliefs, and compares and contrasts the powers of God with those of Dracula.

Lucy is not seen to be the ideal Victorian wife, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men or as many that want her”, due to her low morals and her naivety towards the way a women was expected to act it allowed Dracula to exploit her. Stoker presents Lucy in a way that would be shocking and unacceptable for a Victorian reader. Stoker insinuates that Lucy is fatherless because Stoker only refers to her father once in the book and it is in the past tense, “Lucy’s father, had the same habit he would get up in the night and dress himself”, even if Lucy’s father is alive it is clear that he has had minimal involvement and impact on Lucy’s life. Stoker could be suggesting that Lucy’s lack of a patriarch has meant that she has a desire and craving for one leading her to finding one where ever she could find it. When Dracula is removing blood from Lucy she is described as “half-reclining” Stokers use of this word suggests that Dracula is not forcing her or even restraining her, it implies that she is accepting what is taking place. Stoker goes as far as to imply that Lucy is enjoy the experience, “Her lips were parted… heavy gasps”, this is very sexually suggestive of a post climatic moment. It could be argued that at this moment she is conforming to the hierarchy of society by being submissive due to her possible positive “father complex” (created by Sigmund Feud and Carl Jung), so is therefore acting how a Victorian should by

The legend of the vampire has emerged countless times within human imagination over the past few centuries. The first available representation of the mythical creature in prose fiction can be found in John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” (1810). It was not until eight decades later that Bram Stoker popularized the existence of this figure with the publication of “Dracula” in 1897. The folklore of the vampire has come a long way since and can be found in today’s popular media more frequently than ever before. However, with due course of time, the representation of the creature has taken alternate routes and today’s vampires are noticeable different – socially and physically – from their predecessors. One effective path to trace this