Gothic Motifs Of Dracula And The Dark And Eerie Setting

Dracula is one of the earliest and successful vampire novels in history, which is why Dracula is considered to be the traditional vampire. Beginning with the fact that Dracula must sleep during the day, otherwise he will weaken in sunlight. The first clue was Jonathan Harker’s thought, “I have not yet seen the Count in the daylight” (Bram Stoker, 49). His thought is later proved to be true when Harker sneaks into Dracula’s room and is said, “There in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count” (50). The next being the obvious and most important is his consumption of blood. Another element is he is petrified of

Gothic literature is dominated by gothic horror, for instance dark and mysterious objects or events. It is a type of literature that combines fiction, horror, and romanticism. As Bram Stoker wrote his famous novel, Dracula he makes sure to include many different characteristics of gothic literature. Three important motifs that are stated in Dracula which also fit into the gothic literature category would be; blood, dreaming or nightmares, and superstition. This particular novel has many gothic motifs, but these are three that I believe really stand out.

The novel is a classic story of good v. evil. The author took many years and hard research to conjure up a literary masterpiece like Dracula(Burt). A unique type of

Tone is a writer’s tool that creates mood in a story. Within the first chapter of Dracula, the author, Bram Stoker, uses this to create a mood of terror. First, Bram Stoker shows tremendous change in scenery as the main character moves closer to Dracula’s castle. As the story begins, Jonathan is traveling from England to Transylvania. Through the window he sees the colorful fields, orchards of pears, apples, plums, all vibrantly full of life. However, as he nears Castle Dracula, he travels in the depth of night. Jonathan writes in his journal “we could hear the rising wind, for it moaned and whistled through the rocks, and the branches of the trees crashed together as we swept along.” (Bram Stoker 2003 Page 17) Hearing that creates a mood of terror for the reader. Because of the drastic change between the colorful setting

Dracula by Bram Stoker is the original vampire book, the one that started it all. From it derived the now so beloved and famous teen-romance vampire genre, with novels like Twilight. However, Dracula is not remotely like the sparkle-in-the-sunlight, falling-in-love-with-mortals vampire any more than Harry Potter is like the Wicked Witch of the West. Dracula is a gothic horror novel set in Transylvania and England during the Victorian Era. Letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings from the viewpoint of several characters tell the story, allowing for a wide variety of viewpoints that highlight happenings in Dracula as well as present the social issues pertained within. While it contains action, suspense, horror, and romance, it also displays the corruption within the everyday society. The way the women are presented, interacted with, and how Count Dracula affects them brings forth the issues within the Victorian society, especially the men’s treatment of women and the different social and gender roles, which Stoker uses to highlight the situational irony found within the novel.

Castles and strange places are important motifs in Dracula because the entire first section of the story involves Johnathan Harker making a trip up to Castle Dracula in Transylvania―a very strange place. The Count’s castle in Dracula, like any other castle described in Gothic Literature, is viewed as an old, deserted structure of terror. Castles in this time period were thought of as haunted and imprisoning,

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.

In ‘Frankenstein’ there were reasons behind the monster’s actions but this is not the case in ‘Dracula’, apart from him needing blood to exist. Dracula callously uses people and situations for his own ends, “Monster, give me my child!” here a woman from the village has had her baby snatched by Dracula, she knows Dracula has taken him and is pleading for the life of her child. The child is, of course, dead and this shows how little regard Dracula has for the innocence of any creature, then he uses his power over the wolves to command them to come to the woman and devour her. Towards the end of the novel, Dracula uses his power over Mina

Dracula is a signet classic novel written by Bram Stoker. This novel is portrayed by an antagonist character known as Count Dracula. He has been dead for centuries yet he may never die. He has a peculiar power of hypnotic fascination but he is weak in god’s daylight. He is immortal as long as he is able to drink blood from the living. He can change his form into a wolf, a bat or a puff of smoke. Dracula get in touch with Jonathan Harker through a real estate transaction. He went to Dracula’s castle through a carriage as were planned. After a few days, he felt as if he were prisoned in the castle as his movements were restricted. Meanwhile, Harker has a fiancée named Mina

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 could of have many reason to write this book, but the number one reason I believe he wrote this book is because of his interest in the supernatural. In the book Dracula Stoker many times speaks about the vampires

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.

With the creation of Stoker’s vampire, his book enters into Gothic literature. Dracula however was not the first of the Gothic genre, but was a standout feature in it. Gothic literature focuses on mystery and horror and a lot of time supernatural elements. Nevertheless, Gothic literature was big in Stoker’s life according to Nicole Lobdell’s article, “Stoker & the Victorian Gothic Stage”, Stoker loved Gothic plays, sensation melodramas, and vampire melodramas. Lobdell states “He interprets the causes and effects of melodramatic performances and translates those elements into his fiction” (Lobdell 273). In Dracula, a key component of its story is its supernatural elements which are a key element of Gothic literature giving forth the whole story being about vampires. Horror aspects of Dracula can be seen in moments where vampires lose their humanity. In addition to horror and mystery aspects, Gothic literature is also about the setting. The settings in Dracula give a sense of suspense and mystery making them Gothic settings. Settings in Dracula are shown in Galens’ novel, “Dracula”: Novels for Students when he states, “the various settings—including Dracula's imposing castle, the ghostly landscape of Transylvania, and the graveyard and Lucy's tomb in London—are all settings that are found in Gothic fiction” (Galens 32). Aside from Bram Stoker’s Dracula being a Gothic novel it is also classified into different subjects of literature.

Dracula uses his supernatural powers to feed his fascination with youth and innocence. In the beginning of the novel, when Dracula is first encountered, he is described as old, although “His face was strong… [his] lips, whose ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years… The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.” (27). This description of the Count shows that while he is old, he still possess some attributes and features of the young. Once Dracula finds that the men have made a bond against him, he makes a bond to take all of their women. He succeeds in transforming Lucy and scaring her mother to death, although Mina is stronger and the men save her by killing Dracula. Also, the three women vampires in his home are past conquests of beautiful, young women. Dracula only sucks the blood of young women in the novel reflecting his hunger for youth and innocence. As the

Dracula being the main character in the novel, everything revolves around him. He has a lot of power and recruited followers. Since he is a vampire, he never dies, and he lives sucking the blood of the living. Jonathan Hankers sets