Contemporary English 3

Ivica Kolarevi, as.

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Bram Stoker: Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 novel written by Irish author Bram Stoker. It has been assigned to
many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, and invasion literature. In
spite of the fact that it was written in the late nineteenth century, it would be best described as
a gothic novel, a literary genre that made its appearance in England in the middle of the
eighteenth century. The beginning of Dracula is set in Transylvania, in southeastern Europe at
the end of the nineteenth century, which indicates the gothic nature of the novel. From there,
the action moves to Whitby, a town on the Yorkshire coast of Great Britain and the rest of the
action takes places around and in London, the capital of Great Britain.
Dracula is primarily told through characters journals. That writing style helps us to
identify and understand ones reactions and emotions. There are many characters that are
considered to be the protagonists of the novel, but being the first one to introduce himself to
the reader, I consider Jonathan Harker to be the main protagonist of Dracula. In addition to
Jonathan Harker, many think that Van Helsing, John Seward, and Mina Murray are those who
initiate literary action. At the beginning of the novel, Jonathan Harker engages us into his own
world and describes his reason to travel to Castle Dracula in the Eastern European country of
Transylvania. Traveling through the country, local residents warn him about evil and strange
happenings in their country. Frightened by the words of peasants Harker cautiously enters the
old castle and acquaints himself with Dracula. Dracula appears to be a very intelligent,
educated, and well-mannered gentleman. Not long after that, Jonathan Harker realizes that he

is Draculas prisoner in the castle and finds out that the count possesses inexplicable powers
and evil ambitions. In parallel with this action, in England, Mina Murray, Jonathan Harkers
fiance visits her friend Lucy at the seaside town of Whitby. After a Russian ship was
wrecked on the shore, and all of its crew is either missing or dead, Lucy begins sleepwalking.
The only cargo on the Russian ship was a set of fifty boxes of earth shipped from Castle
Dracula. One night, Mina Murray finds Lucy, sleepwalking in the churchyard, with a dark
entity with glowing red eyes next to her. Getting closer to Lucy, a mysterious entity
disappears and Mina finds Lucy shivering, ill with two red marks on her throat. Not being
able to diagnose Lucys illness, Mina and Dr. Seward go to Professor Van Helsing to ask for
help. From this point on, one can recognize many characteristics of a gothic novel. Gothic
novel usually have a beautiful young lady who is victimized by a tall, dark villain, as the main
protagonist. The reader follows her suffering and unsuccessful attempts to break free and at
one point a young, handsome, rich hero comes to the her rescue. Professor Van Helsing seems
to be successful in helping Lucy fight the illness, using the garlic, a traditional vampire and
vampire-bassed illnesses repellent. But Lucys mothers ignorance (removing the garlic from
Lucys room) leaves Lucy vulnerable to the next attack. Sewards and Van Helsings attempts
to further help Lucy are in vain, and Lucys death comes in form of wolf attack. After Lucys
death, reports indicate strange attacks on young children. Van Helsing, suspicious that Lucy
may have become vampire, summons Dr. Sewards and the others to pursue Lucy and kill her.
Upon finding her, Van Helsings suspicion comes to be true as they saw Lucy as an un-dead,
vampire. They killed Lucy in the only fashion known to work on vampires: stake through the
heart, beheading and filling the mouth of a vampire with garlic. After Lucy is killed and her
soul saved, the fellowship pledges to kill Dracula. One can figure out that Dracula, the main
villain of the novel, does not make appearances often, but whenever Stoker focuses on
Dracula, the story comes alive, and the reader finds himself in a very exciting and horrified

environment. The last part of the novel; the fellowships adventure of finding Dracula, their
journey through the unknown, pursuing Dracula across land and sea, Dracula taking Mina
with him, death of three female vampires, portrayal of Draculas death; provides exactly that
kind of atmosphere. Draculas death comes to be the universal way of vampires dying.
In writing Dracula, Bram Stoker manages to compose, in my opinion, the best horrorfiction novel. His writing style is fluent, consistent, and picturesque, his horror based plot is
exciting and engaging, the characters are brilliantly well-made. One cannot go wrong with
reading Bram Stokers Dracula.