Introduction
The Gothic horror novel Dracula is written by Bram Stoker. In 1897 the Irish author has composed the novel with the different collection of the memos, journal entries, telegrams and the letters. The writer of the novel place simple facts at the beginning of the story however at the later stage events became complex. The composition of the documents reflects the stack of evidence presented to the court. The straightforward and immediate style of the novel shows that events are happening in the real world. The novel also reflected the perfect blend of the adventure and the horror, which makes the reader enjoy and contentedly read the story.
Critical Analysis
Bram Stoker is best known for his contribution and as an author of the Dracula. He was born in the Clontarf city of Ireland. His boyhood passed as a sickly child. He graduated from the Trinity College and excelled in the mathematics, and in the academics. In the Irish civil service, he served for almost ten years. During the time of his service, he contributed to the drama criticism to the Dublin Mail. Along with his happy and active life, he wrote novels and story writing in the late nineteenth century. The Snake’s Pass was his first writing started in the years of 1890. The novel Dracula appeared in 1897. The author took certain folktales and turned them into the most horrific writing for all the times.
With Irving’s death in 1905, Bram associated with the literary staff of the London Telegraph. He wrote certain letters and other works of the fiction. Many critics have favorably reviewed the work of the Bram. The stereotyped characters and the romantic gothic plots are frequently available in his work (Dujovic, 52). Most of the modern readers are not interested in reading those horrific plots. The earliest reviews of the Bram’s works shows that critics have denounced his characterization and the flaws in his writing. However, the precise description of his writing was praised by many.
The short stories of the Bram Stoker have fared better with the modern readers. The Anthologists have included his stories in the composition of the horror fiction. The best known in this regard is the Dracula’s Guest which was intended as the prefatory chapter of the Dracula. Many critics and the scholars have the view that by writing the Dracula, Stoker’s have reflected the real-life story of the Vlad, who was the historical figure. Vlad had done certain horrible things and had captured his enemies. The historical context of the novel Dracula dates back to the Victorian era.
In the Victorian era, the study of natural history and the philosophy was considered as the science. By studying the history and philosophy students became gentlemen and the clerical naturalist. People of the era were believed in the natural laws and the progress associated with it. In the same way, regular interaction between the science, industry and the government was also in Victorian age (Salazar, 1). The work of the Stoker incorporates the number of examples that are associated with the Victorianism. The era was expanding the fundamental, formalized education and the natural beliefs about the role and place of humans in this world. The revival of the religious activity was also influencing England.
The revival of the religious beliefs has contributed to the code of moral behaviors. Religion occupied its place in the consciousness of the ordinary individual which was not in the history and also not retain its position after the Victorian age (Maguire, 375). The renewal of the religion and its impact people’s behavior lead to the concept of the Victorianism. The Dracula served as the establishing and supporting the gender stratification the community. The ideas in the novel like the saving of the women from the men explore the powerful evidence. Jonathan and the colleagues have helped the Mina from the powerful forces of the evils. This portrayal shows that men were placed at top of the hierarchy.
The distinct concept of the right and the wrong was also present in the novel. Dracula is explored as the evil force or the wrong characters while the Jonathan and the colleagues characterize as the good elements. Similarly, the evil elements fail over the good forces. The moral, religious, and social influence is also discussed in the novel. Dracula has to live forever because of the unquestionable thirst of the mankind (Stoker, 59). The story acts on several sexual, intellectual and the emotional levels, which shows the social influence and the ability of author’s to unfold the depths of the human psyche. In the same way, Stoker was a religious man and he also represents the religious influence in his work.
The cross, holy water, and the other related elements reveal the religiosity of the Dracula. He was highly influenced by the religious beliefs which he describes through his novel. The novel is also reflecting the Christian allegory (Wise, 335). Demonic Dracula has the power of strength, and to damn the souls by turning characters into the vampires. The use of good guys for the Mina and the Jonathan is the power of the Christian religion. The dramatic conflict between the good and the evil is present in the novel. The use of the sacred objects of the Catholic beliefs and practices in defeating the Dracula and for the protection purposes also unfolded the religious affiliation of the author.
The consecrated host, crucifixes, and the indulgences are some of the examples present in the Dracula. Most of the elements belong to the religious concept are presented in an unorthodox and improper way. The Dracula is attributed to the different genres of the English literature. The invasion literature, gothic novel, horror and vampire fiction are some of them. The structure of the novel possesses epistolary elements which are incorporated with the letters and the series of diaries entries (Salazar, 1). The critics and the reviewers have examined the number of themes in the novel. The conventional and the conservative sexuality, colonialism, folklores, immigration and the role of females in the Victorian era are the main themes of the novel.
The author did not invent the vampire. It is the influence of the novel on the vampires which is responsible for many film interpretations and the theatrical interpretations throughout the twenty-first century. A lot of the recent books are the derivatives of the Dracula. The majority of the story revolves around the newspaper clippings and the entries of the journals. The journalistic style represents the harrowing account and events of the novel. Description of the Dracula’s family at the beginning of the story was based on the real story of the fifteenth-century family Vlad. The Vlad Dracula had a bloody career. The prince of Wallachia was the general who impaled his enemies.
The cruel prince was represented who killed beggars, women and other weak people of his society (Stoker, 59). The wild general force women to eat their babies. Stokers managed to make Count Dracula similar to that of his ancestor. The similarity of the character with the Vlad provides a guise of truth to the Dracula. There are many gothic conventions in the novel of Stoker. The gothic elements are included the sublime landscapes, innocent young girls menaced by terrible evils and the gloomy castles. Stoker’s modernizes the tradition of his works and move from the traditional landscapes into the clamor of contemporary England. The author portrays the collision of two different worlds. One was the Transylvania where lives the Count while the protagonist lives in the modern London. The writer has revealed many concerns about his times like the effects of scientific progress and impacts of the traditional beliefs.
Dracula in the present times is the captivating reading of the different attitudes towards the science, sex and the religion (Stoker, 59). The narrator of the story is the protagonist which is supplemented with different clippings of the newspaper for the narration of the events. Those events take place in the Transylvania and England. Creepy, old and occasionally boring Dracula is a lot more interesting to discuss than to read. Just like the present vampires in 1897 stood for the anxieties and the contemporary fears. The vampire craze of the twentieth century is representing the fears of the conspiracy and the corruption theories. The bloodsuckers represented the globalization of the London.
The risks of the sexual activity and the presence of technology is also represented by the vampires. Dracula left his native town Transylvania which is presently named as Romania located in the southeastern European region and immigrated to England. The purpose was to feed the teeming millions in the populated city of the London (Salazar, 1). The invasion literature was popular at that time which had to do with the monsters invading the British Empire. The literary figures like the Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan, and the H.G Wells have also written the sensational and the adventures stories from all around the world. Stoker’s in this regard does not consider himself as the great artist instead he was a businessman.
Stokers managed the Lyceum Theatre in the London. He wrote novels to pay the bills. He was astonished by the lasting impact of the Dracula. His writing style for the Dracula is in a piecemeal, disorganized way. The novel was popular the time of 1897 and it was received well. However, it was not a blockbuster hit (Maguire, 375). The film version of the novel started appeared in the late twentieth century. The popularity of the novel was skyrocketed and it had a considerable impact on the popular culture of the society. Every bloodsucker in the literature from the Cullen Twilights to the True blood of Eric, the count owes their life and also the chauvinistic story of the Stoker’s seducing the suitable English ladeez. In other words, the Dracula is the wonderful repugnant grandpappy of the Bella Swan.
The every vampire book or the film in the twentieth century owes something related to the novel of the Stoker. The Edward Cullen found his work needed the revisiting to polish his human girlfriend Bella in order to negate that all the work is not originated from the novel of Stokers. Regarding the popular culture, Dracula is present everywhere. The Count in the Sesame Street is projected on the basis of the vampire of the Stokers. The author has a lot to say about the political culture of his times.
Many reviewers of his work and the critics have looked the Dracula in a different angle. They explained it as a fear of British Empire about the colonized nations and the oppressed people to take revenge from the British on their brutalities. The important thing that makes the Dracula so scary is that he is a foreigner (Stoker, 59). The critics unfolded the multiple themes of the novel and some of them consider it as the collapse of the British Empire and the imperialism. The immigration of the Dracula towards the British is a kind of invasion. The folks worried about the years spent by the British in colonizing and suppressing other cultures have indicated some people inedible and off.
The concern was that suppressed people might come back and demand the paybacks of their suffering from the British. The Stockers makes a big point by unfolding and describing Dracula as the emphatically alien (Stoker, 59). He was weak in English he speaks with an imperfect accent and requires the guidance of the Jonathan while dealing and negotiating with the British individuals. The cultural norms and the procedures were also new for the Dracula which resembles his status as the foreigner. The invasion of the Dracula is reproduced with the little level in “invasion” of the Lucy’s English home. His ability to victimize the Lucy advocated that he can victimize the whole nation.
In the same way, the description of the women in the novel is the depiction of most dangerous women and also the sexiest. Dracula is a cultural touchstone from which everybody became inspired and wanted to read it again and again. Similarly, Stokers have explored the real facts in the story. He presented the novel as the series of the supposedly real document. He provided the facts of the case and events to the reader which is written out by the people who experienced the issues directly (Maguire, 375). The narrative techniques applied by the Stoker on his novel, Dracula puts the reader in a position of judge or jury.
The reader while going through the novel have the privilege of the variety of different eyewitnesses which are otherworldly and terrifying. The author also uses the first person technique in narrating the events and the story of the novel. Positives of the first person techniques is that reader can hear about the facts and events from the multiple perspectives. The access to the multiple views enhances the rationality of the reader. There will be no sympathy with the particular character (Wise, 335). The techniques implied by the Stoker’s is also effective in sustaining the suspense until the complexity of the novel resolved. The author has set the protagonist of the novel as a very rational individual. The young lawyer is organized and the logical person.
By implying the rationality in the protagonist Stoker’s have encountered the horror of melodrama which will occur after him. The sense of terror in the narration of Stoker’s will become more believable and the less feverish. The author saved his gothic melodrama from becoming ludicrous and laughable by not choosing the emotional and nervous style of hero. The careful and calculated way in which the authors unfolded the mystery of Count Dracula he achieves the mystery over his subject matter (Dujovic, 52). The mystery mitigates the horror and exaggerates every chapter with the sense of anxiety and the terror. Stoker has used a lot of devices to let his readers known of the fact that the protagonist is the sensible and rational character. The composition of the Dracula’s story revolves around the mystery. The author has borrowed the techniques from the Wilkie Collins, who implied the same narrating style in his detective novel.
Conclusion
Concluding the discussion on the Dracula, it is to say that the novel describes the real picture and the events of the life. The horror novel is attributed to the various horror fiction and the invasion literature. The author has established many traditions of the subsequent vampire fantasy. The novel is the standard form for the adaption by many literary theatres and actors in the coming decades. Through the novel, Bram Stokers have also depicted the different appearances of the Victorian society. The perfect blend of the adventure and the horror in the Dracula provides the fascinating story for the readers.
Works Cited
Dujovic, Ljiljana Pajovic, and Dijana Vuckovic. “VAMPIRE AS A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT-FROM A MONSTER OF GOTHIC LITERATURE TO THE ROMANTIC VAMPIRE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM.” FOLIA LINGUISTICA ET LITTERARIA 16 (2017): 45-55.
Maguire, Muireann. “Book Review: Catherine Wynne (ed.): Bram Stoker and the Gothic: Formations to Transformations.” (2016): 374-376.
Salazar, Anthony. “Curing the Vampire Disease with Transfusion: The Narrative Structure of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” English Language and Literature Studies 7.3 (2017): 1.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula: The Postcolonial Edition. Universitas Press, 2016.
Wise, Nicholas. “‘A review of The Dracula Dilemma: tourism, identity and the state in Romania’ by Duncan Light, Surrey, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2012, 196 pp. £ 55 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-4094-4021-5.” (2014): 334-336.
