Dracula is a household name; however, the actual meaning is not as well known. The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker contains a unique story, one which due to the structure of the book there are multiple main characters. The book is written in the form of letters, allowing the focus to be on many different people and viewpoints. Dracula starts out with Jonathan Harker an, Englishman, who takes a trip to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula. On his way to the castle he is warned of the dangers of Dracula, however, Jonathan chooses to persist.
Abstract: Dracula is a Gothic horror novel by the Irish author Bram stoker. There have been so many permutations of the Dracula and vampire theme in modern culture in print, television and film that it is easy to forget how it all started; with the publication of the Dracula novel in 1897. In fact, Bram Stoker did not invented the idea and the legend of Dracula or vampire, but his fictional story brought all the myths and legends together on one table that were already in existence into a cohesive whole. Stoker 's tale of the Count Dracula caught the imagination of the Victorian audience and continues to appeal to readers to this day. The adaptation of this legend and myth to different other stories and movies is a mile stone in English literature.
“The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East” (Bram Stoker) This is one of the opening statements with which Stoker’s main character, Jonathan Harker, starts his description of the landscape he encounters while traveling across the continent towards Transylvania. As we come to understand later on, this remark is the first of many to segregate the West from the East in Dracula, converting rural Transylvania into “a place where the supernatural reigns supreme.” (Light, 2009: 243). Moreover, Stoker’s novel placed in motion an entire vampire culture during the 20th and 21th century, which eventually established an enduring place myth around Transylvania, and implicitly Romania, as the home of vampires
Introduction Literature has proved to be throughout time a powerful tool for creating enduring myths, legendary characters and fictional stories, making thus the truth irrelevant as long as the narrative was gripping. Such aspects, together with the context and period into which a novel was written brought to life stories that have become immortal and are going to last for eternity. This seems to be the case of the 19th century author Bram Stoker, who, upon fact, legend and fiction brought to life his eponymous vampire: Count Dracula, a sinister and monstrous predator who thrived on the blood of living souls. Regarded by many as the defining work of Gothic fiction, Stoker’s fin-de-sìecle novel achieved a pervasive hold on Western imagination, transforming it into one of the most lasting literary myths of all times. Hence, it comes as no surprise that when we say “vampire” we immediately think of Dracula, and such has been the superstition created around this character that nowadays it is impossible to allude to Romania, and particularly to Transylvania, without thinking of it as the home of Dracula.
The role of female characters in Bram Stoker 's "Dracula" and its movie adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola Gothic novel made its breakthrough with Horace Walpole in the late 18th century, when the term 'gothic ' was used to describe something barbarous or medieval. In the late Victorian era, Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula", a novel written in a form of journal with a monster living in a castle full of mysteries that ought to be revealed within the atmosphere of gloom and terror. After the first publication in 1897, its movie adaptations, which "constitute a simpler attempt to make texts 'relevant ' or easily comprehensible to new audiences and readerships via the process of proximation and updating" (Sanders 19) have begun. The most famous ones are "Nosferatu" by F. W. Murnau in 1922 and "Bram Stoker 's Dracula" by Francis Ford Coppola 70 years later, analyzed more minutely in the essay. In most of the adaptations the emphasis is on the character of the Count
Bram Stoker became familiarised with the idea of vampires and the dark east of Europe by various The transition from Victorian Age to modern times is not only marked by a change in industry and trade, but also in values which is prominently featured in Dracula. The years at the end of the 19th century were atilt to the woman’s suffrage movement, and societies’ break with the classic Victorian morality, which consisted of sexual
If we see Victor Frankenstein’s connections in the novel we come across his father, his brother, his friend, his friend’s (Walton’s) crew and we tend to see them in the front row where as women in this novel are seen blurred out. Also, everything concerning female characters is narrated actively by the male characters. The role of women is very little or you can say that it was almost negligible. The women characters in her novel- Frankenstein were introduced only to accelerate the plot of the novel. To cite an example, in the very beginning of her work we have an ‘epistolary’ form of writing where in a brother (R.Walton) is writing letters about his explorations and travel to his sister (Mrs. Saville).
In order to fully understand this development, some influential works should not go unmentioned. As mentioned before, it was Bram Stroker 's novel Dracula which defined the vampire narrative more than any other literary work. Stoker selected featured from folklore and literary vampires, added ideas of his own and combined them into a strong archetype. “The way ancient tradition, such as folkloric elements of vampires or the influence of early demon forms […] were intertwined with cutting edge technology, such as the used of shorthand, Dr Seward 's phonography and Van Helsing 's blood transfusion, allowed for the creation of what is essebtially the vampire 's passport into the twentieth century and its manifestation once again as a socially relevant
At the end of his article, the Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies states, “Bill Hughes has a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Sheffield” and “[Hughes] has also published on Richard Hoggart, intertextuality and the Semantic Web, and contemporary paranormal romance” (22). Moreover, “[Hughes] is on the editorial board of the journal Monstrum” (22). The journal Monstrum is “an academic journal which specialises in monsters and the monstrous” (Monstrum: A New Journal). Therefore, being on the editorial board of another academic journal lends Hughes even more credibility than he has. Furthermore, the journal which his article is written is peer-reviewed and is cited by other authors, as well as his article is displayed on academic search pages, all of which mean that the journal his article is written in gives Hughes even more credibility.
These works also share a reoccurring theme about the corruption of money and the role of money and possession in an individual’s life. Victorian literature was predominantly opposed to the rigid class structure embedded into British culture. Dickens in particular was an author who addressed these theme in nearly all of his works and was devoted to breaking down social barriers. Dickens, along with other authors, promoted education as a means to gain agency in British culture and break free from the oppressive class structure. Austen, on the other hand, was an other from the romantic period.