Bram Stoker's Dracula

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.

Bram Stoker's Dracula has been reviewed and reflected upon in the literary world for it engaging plot and characters as well as it's hidden undertones. As a modern society, pop culture has reshaped the image of vampires and the image of monsters in general. Today media alters the once threatening figure of blood-sucking overpowering beings into personable, even heroic at times with human flaws that make them more relatable to the average person. Movies and TV have make celebrities out of these fearful creatures. However, the classical tropes of vampirism comes from Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel, Dracula (1897).

In Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror, written by Carol Senf’s, is a critical analysis of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There are many points that are made throughout the critical analysis of this beloved novel. One point, on the basis of the unreliability of the narrators. For instance, Senf states, “…Stoker provides several clues to their unreliability and encourages the reader to see the frequent discrepancies between their proposed beliefs and their actions” (Senf 423). Carol Senf argues in her essay, that Jonathan Harker, could have been prejudice against the customs of the Transylvanian lifestyle. Whether it be the way he documented in side notes, the peculiar recipes, or the way Harker would

In the 19th century, this basis of scary and thriller books started to emerge. This essay will be about who Dracula enticed women, how his detainer was unsettling and demonic. How the era in which the novel was written plays a part in the ideas of Dracula and how behaves; with such things as women, food, and Harker. The Victorian era definitely influenced the writing of the time through reflections of exploitation of women and a certain darkness in ones self, also explains of mystery and suspense.

Dracula succeeds on the suspenseful level despite Stoker’s obvious flaws as a writer, especially in his characterization, which oscillates between pompousness and lack of

The novel, Dracula, was written by Bram Stoker in the late eighteen hundreds. The setting of Dracula is during the end of the nineteenth century, in England and Eastern Europe. The entirety of the novel is based on a vampire with heinous intentions that he casts upon a group of English citizens whom decide to rid the town of his evil. While reading the novel it is apparent that the genre is horror and gothic and that the tone is very dark and dramatic. Bram Stoker does this in a very intentional way. Therefore, discovering the ways Stoker implements Dracula into the criteria of the gothic fiction genre is simple.

Stoker’s childhood has caused many conspiracies surrounding the essence of his writing. He was a sick boy, bedridden for the first seven years of his life due to an unknown illness. He was, in a sense, paralyzed and unable to move from his bed with only his mother to entertain him with tales of ghosts, goblins, and demons, with help from the shadows playing on the wall. He later grew out of the illness, went to school and became a star athlete with no serious health problems. He published his first writing, a handbook, in 1879 around the age of forty-two, then gave us the literary classic Dracula in 1897.

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.

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

Bram Stoker’s Dracula does not follow the norm of the nineteenth century novels, that is, it is not written in a straightforward narrative but instead comprises of a collection of letters, journal entries and diary scrawls. Apart from that, it also includes a ship's log, numberless clippings from newspaper and also, a "phonograph diary.” This form of writing invariably helps in developing the “mystery” aspect of this horror novel since it either gives us no information about a particular thing or gives us information from various points of view so that it is impossible for the readers to come to one conclusion and they keep playing with different possibilities in their minds.

In the 1897 novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, a vampire named Count Dracula is brought about and brung into the “real world”. Many stories, books, movies, and games have developed from this novel. In the novel, Dracula has a lot of myths attached to him. These myths are what make him a vampire, and so when other people come up with these new stories or books or movies, they also implement myths into their characters to give them life as a vampire. In every story, most of the characters are considered either “bad” and “evil” or “good” and “friendly”. These labels are based on the characters actions, thoughts (when possible), and personality traits. In Dracula, Count Dracula would primarily be classified as the antagonist and evil. As previously mentioned, this is based on the fact that he made evil decisions, and had very bad qualities about him. However, in Twilight, Edward is a much more difficult character to label. Him and the Count have many similarities, however they are also much different.

“He speaks in perfect English and welcomes Harker inside, shaking his hand with an ice-cold, vice-like grip” (Dracula, 55). Dracula explains to him that he will no be able to make the trip to London, but one of his trusted servants will be going along with Harker back to London. After supper Jonathan analyzes Dracula and notices one very strange feature, his mouth is thick and white; they cover sharp white teeth, which stick out over his lip. What Jonathan does not know is that those teeth are canine teeth only found in animals. There are exceptions, for instance, vampires have these teeth so they can puncture the human’s carotid vessel in their neck and suck their blood. The first time that Jonathan sees Dracula’s cannibal teeth grow is when Harker starts shaving. He accidentally cuts himself and Dracula leaps for his throat so he can suck his blood. Harker touches his crucifix and Dracula’s “demonic fury” vanishes. The strangest event that Harker notices in Dracula’s castle is “Dracula emerge from his room on the floor below, slither out, head downward, in lizard fashion, with his cloak spread out around him like great wings” (Dracula, 179). This shows that “Dracula is not a person. He is a presence, an absence that requires concealing” (Wolf, 368). This tells Harker that something is very wrong with this man. He recalls how the peasants behaved

This is much different form the novel version of the Count, who Harker describes as a monster will wants to “satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless” (Stoker 53) Another difference that is different in Dracula’s film version is how he is killed. In the book, Harker slits his throat after a climatic chase and battle, and immediately turns to dust (Stoker 325). This battle still occurs in Coppola’s version; however, he is eventually killed by Mina and the act is seen as one of compassion and kindness. Stoker does not explore this idea in his novel. Stoker does not explore this idea in the novel, as doing so would have taken away from the frightening, undead character that he was trying to create. This is not to say that Coppola was wrong to go this route, however, only that the perception of vampires had shifted and he needed something to fit along with this shift.

While in Stoker’s novel, the alluring Count Dracula spends the nights continuously feeding on the blood of the innocent, the villagers all the while living in fear. He sucks the life from young maidens, transforming them into his unholy minions.

The story of Dracula is well documented and has stood the test of time since it’s Victorian age creation. More times than not, literature writings are a reflection of the era from which they are produced. In the case of Dracula, Vampire literature expresses the fears of a society. Which leads me to the topic I chose to review: sexuality. The Victorian Era was viewed as a period diluted in intense sexual repression and I believe that Dracula effectively exploited this as the fear of sexuality was commonplace in the society. In this paper I will examine Bram Stoker’s Dracula and highlight his use of sexuality. I will analysis the female sexuality that is prevalent throughout the book, the complexities are at work within the text, and the