Literary Criticism Of Dracula

As the first character writes about his personal experiences we find that proves to be very effective, in the way the writer is able to portray the gothic theme to the reader. The first example would be Jonathan's journey to Eastern Europe,

Are there still connections between Bram Stokers famous novel Dracula and modern day society? In Dracula, Stoker expands on many themes that indeed exist today. Not only does he touch on the most obvious theme, sex. He expands on gender division and good versus evil. Some say since times have changed the themes I introduced have changed as well, leaving connections between then and now irrelevant. However, I feel that although times have changed they still have roots from the time of the novel to now. In this essay I will expand on the themes of this novel while connecting them to modern day society, the critical texts I have chosen and will mention later on in the essay are a good representation of the commonalities between the chill, dark Victorian days in which the era that Dracula was written in and modern day.

Dark, dank, eerie, and oppressive are all words that contribute to the setting in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The story starts off in the Victorian Era in Transylvania, Romania. The town is rustic, primitive and medieval. The town was frightened by Dracula due to the town’s fears of superstitions. The dark and dreary mood will contribute to the character’s actions, reactions, and promote the fear of the undead. Bram Stoker’s use of imagery in Dracula keeps the story moving at a fast pace, creates drama and suspense and keeps the reader guessing what will happen next.

The play-script book “Dracula”, adapted by David Calcutt, is a captivating reword of the iconic epistolary horror novel of a same name which was written by Bram Stoker, The author outlines the power struggle between good and evil in the text through messages and symbols. The author focuses on Dracula and a group of friend’s actions and emotions in which he uses narrative conventions to convey key messages in the book. The messages I found that were prominent were “evilness is an infection”, “greed is consuming” and “good always prevail”.

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.

In the 19th century Bram Stoker wrote the infamous novel, Dracula. This novel was composed in the style of letters, journal entries, newspaper articles and telegrams in order to convey to the reader a realistic story. The story of Dracula is about an ancient vampire who moves to London from his native country of Transylvania. In London, Dracula seduces and bites a young woman by the name of Lucy Westenra. When Lucy falls sick, no one knows how to help her because while Dracula has bitten her many times she has always been in a trance. Lucy?s friends decide to join together to combat what ever is ailing Lucy. In hopes of some help, Lucy?s friend Dr. Seward asks an old mentor of his by the name of Dr. Van Helsing to come to London

The Gothic horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker introduced a new literary taste in the Victorian era, one that tends to be one of the most-read literary genres to this age. The novel excavates several themes like role of women in the Victorian society, immigration, sexual conventions, colonization and post-colonialism. Dracula has been a subject to major literary criticism upon its release and its controversial portrayals tend to be a part of modern literary discussion as well. The novel received acclaim from literary critics on being one of the best pieces of gothic horror fiction of the century.

Dracula modernly and controversially touches upon subjects of sexuality, gender roles and religion, and there are some forthcoming arguments that Dracula even serves as an autobiography of Stoker himself (Belford). Overall, the story behind Dracula is as mysterious as the story of the novel itself, which is why it is considered to be one of the most memorable pieces of literature in history. The novel consists of multiple diary entries, newspaper articles, telegram’s and so forth

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.

Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel, Dracula, is a piece of literature that has cultivated a genre of storytelling and writing. Stoker’s novel, published in 1897, follows the story of a party of friends united to end the tyranny of the vampire, Count Dracula. Set in England and Transylvania in the late 1890’s, the novel has been a popular discussion topic by both critics and lovers of the book. The novel, with its use of different styles, was written to give multiple points of view. It was Stoker’s use of these aspects and more, that gave the novel true and timeless Literary Merit. Literary Merit is defined by the quality of language and style, timelessness, influences to era, ability to immerse the reader and the ability to present creative ideas and innovation. Novels possessing all of these rare qualities are regarded to have Literary Merit. Stoker’s Dracula certainly fits the criteria and rightfully deserves its title of classic with all qualities of Literary Merit.

‘Dracula’, written by Irish author Bram Stocker, is part of the Gothic fiction genre, which explores the disintegration of scientific understanding, control and social order. The villain in the book has supernatural powers which challenge science as one way of understanding the world. Count Dracula is defeated by the heroes, joining modern science with understanding of vampire legends, which brings back order to society. Dracula, the main villain, is a centuries-old vampire who has enormous physical strength, is capable of controlling nocturnal animals, has hypnotic abilities and can also change his form into several different ones.

The epistolary novel Dracula by Bram Stoker reads as a group of connected short stories that supplements the storyline and actions in the novel. An episodic structure does not weaken the story as a whole, however the reader’s interest piques and dips in various sections of the novel. Overall, the different points of view from each character sets the scene for various situations. The novel has a puzzle-like aspect that adds to the suspense and dramatism of Dracula. Additionally, the omnipresent perspective causes the reader to fabricate better relations with specific characters and gives better insight to these characters.

Stoker uses the figure of the vampire as thin-veiled shorthand for many of the fears that haunted the Victorian fin de si?cle. Throughout the novel, scientific rationality is set against folklore and superstition; old Europe is set against modern London; and traditional notions of civilized restraint and duty are threatened at every turn by the spread of corruption and wanton depravity.? (Dracula: The Victorian Vampire) In this story, Jonathan Harker, a lawyer in London, was hired to find and purchase land in England for Count Dracula. As he travels to the Count?s Transylvanian castle, he is attacked by wolves, and it dawns on him shortly after arrival, that he is a prisoner of Dracula. It turns out Count Dracula is a vampire who?s survival depends

Initially thought of as another tasteless fiction similar to its predecessor The Snake’s Pass, Irish writer Bram Stoker silenced his critics and received worldwide praise on June 1897 with his popular literary work Dracula. Although many literary works about the vampire originated far before Stoker’s time, such as Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819), James Planchés The Vampire; or, the Bride of the Isles (1820), Alexandre Dumas’ play Le Vampire (1851), James Malcolm Rymer’s Varney the Vampyre (1847) or Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (1872), much of the contemporary vampire works are based off the foundation Stoker set. One could even argue that Dracula did not reach its peak popularity until the late 20th century, due to today 's appealing views towards the vampire. When analyzed closely, whether or not it remains accurate to Stoker 's intentions, readers are able to depict two types of the Count throughout the novel: a satanic beast who wishes to pervert and diminish the Victorian society and a complex creature eliciting an unusual sense of human sympathy. To highlight the era’s immense growth with the arrival of the Industrial Revolution and modern medicine, the creation of Dracula stands along as one of the most influential achievement of its time.

Bram Stoker unleashed his horrific creation on an unsuspecting world over one hundred years ago. One could hardly imagine that his creature of the night would delight and inhabit the nightmares of every generation between his and ours. Count Dracula has become an icon of evil, and is perhaps the most widely recognized bogeyman in all of world literature. To date, there have been over one hundred films made about Dracula or other assorted vampires, not to mention countless novels, comic books, nonfiction works, toys, clubs and societies—even a children’s breakfast cereal celebrating the myth of the undead count. Dracula’s notoriety is of such epic proportions that it has all but obscured the man who gave us this