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. Bram Stoker, our author, was born in Clontarf (an area near Dublin), Ireland in early November of 1847. He was accomplished in many fields, including athletics, but he was, and probably still is, seen as the most …show more content…
Tepes and his brother were sent to the Turkish Sultan as ‘official’ hostages a year later, for education in change for loyalty to the Sultan. During a war with Hungary in 1447, Vlad II Dracul (Dracula’s father) and Tepes’s eldest brother were killed by Hungarian assassins. Wallachia was ruled by Hungary, and the Turks released and gave Tepes an army in order to capture Wallachia. He held the throne for two months before being forced to run away. He then abandoned Turkish ties and appealed to Hungary to become Prince of Wallachia. His following rule, though bloody, brought Romania together like never before. He was made famous by his rule as well since his name “Vlad the Impaler” came during this rule. He got this name from his use of torture as punishment; his ‘favorite’ act being using a large wooden stake to impale criminals from the groin to the mouth. Soon war began again with Turkey and Hungary, and he was removed and regained the throne a third time before he was killed in a war with the Turks, his head sent to the sultan as proof of his death. Stoker used this historical basis to build Count Dracula, the now vampirised Vlad III Tepes. It would have been many years since Tepes’s rule over Wallachia, and he would have to hide in Transylvania discretely. As a few centuries passed, we can assume things were relatively tame for the Impaler, as he was no longer battling the Turks and impaling
Throughout the novel Dracula, the text prominently features the ‘uncanny.’ In literature and other texts, the uncanny refers to an unfamiliarity that is frightening familiar. It’s presence in Dracula is obvious as we and the novel characters see Dracula as uncanny. Both appropriations of Dracula, Nosferatu (1922) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), reflect their context and hence reflect the values, idea and themes prominent in their context. Nosferatu resembles its isolated German Expressionist Cinema context through its jewish propaganda portrayed by many techniques, most notably its heavy use of dramatic lighting. Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s contrasting themes include its romanticisation of Dracula which expresses the romantic notions prominent
Vlad Dracula formed an alliance with Hunyadi, in the hopes of persuading him he was the rightful heir to the throne, but it wasn't until 1456, that Vlad Dracula would make his move, killing his father's murderer, and defeating Vladislav II, to take over as the new ruler of Wallachia. In 1569, following an Easter Sunday feast, Vlad Dracula had all the boyar families who had been attending arrested. Those who were in good health were condemned to a life of slavery, and put to work on the construction of his Poenari Castle on the Arges river. Those who were old and weak were impaled for all to see. Thus began Vlad the Impaler's reign of blood and terror.
A horror classic by Abraham Stocker, Dracula, may be one of the most notorious villain stories of all time. Bram Stocker is a Irish writer who changed the view of what to read in his time. He shows dark and twisted situations and metaphors throughout Dracula and many other of his horror novels. This novel was released in the Victorian era, which saw his type of writing as equivalent to the devil. This era was a long time of peace and bright minded people. Stockers style surprised many readers, because he always has you thinking it can’t get any darker than it is but it always exceeds the previous twisted situation or event. Bram Stocker shows Dracula as an iconic creature, with many reasons to be feared, but displayed in the wrong time era.
Bram Stoker's Dracula is highly acclaimed and has received many different interpretations which deal with complex symbolisms and metaphors. These interpretations often require a great deal of knowledge in psychology, political science, anthropology, and other non-literary disciplines. These interpretations may be valid, as they are related to the disciplines on which their arguments are based, but the true power of the novel is due to a very simple theme that lies beneath the other, more convoluted interpretations. This theme is the universal concept of identity: us versus them. This criticism sets aside outside disciplines and focuses on the literary motif of identity. John
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.
Dracula by Bram Stoker which is written in the style of journal entries, newspaper clippings, and other forms of personal narratives from various characters, and their viewpoints of the peculiar events surrounding them. There are many interpretations of this novel, many different viewpoints on the themes of the novel. Carol Senf, wrote an essay called Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror. In this interpretation, there are many different viewpoints and ideas about Dracula. There are many ways to interpret and argue the validity of an argument, in Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror, I agree with Senf’s argument. It is valid and makes a point, one never sees the viewpoint of Dracula, but of the other characters who have a bias to destroy Dracula.
Vampires are very present in today’s society. Many novels and shows, like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, show that vampires are still integral to our culture. However, the birth of such a cultural phenomenon would not have happened without Dracula. Without Bram Stoker’s novel, there would be no stereotypical vampires that capture the culture’s conscious. Aside from telling a story on vampires, Dracula also explores ideals about the women of the time in which it was written, which is the Victorian Era.
Vlad lll was born in Sighisoara, Romania in 1431 to Vlad ll and the Moldavian princess Cneajna (Snow White) Bathory. Vlads father joined the order of the dragon which was tasked with protecting the christian world from the Ottoman Empire (muslims) which is what is now Turkey. After joining the order of the dragon Vlads father became known as Vlad Dracul which means dragon in Romanian, Vlad lll would later come to be known as Vlad Dracula which means little dragon or little devil in romanian (Goldberg, 10). When Vlad lll was about 12 or 13 his father had to send him and his younger brother to live with the turks. The turks tried to convert Vlad lll and his brother to islam, and they were both trained as soldiers. They were also educated by Turkish tutors and it was here that Vlad lll learned to speak and read perfectly in Turkish. As a prisoner Vlad lll was tough and quick to anger, his tutors often used a whip to keep him in line (Goldberg, 14). In 1449 Vlad lll left the turks and went to Moldavia where his uncle by marriage was the ruler
Many scenes in ‘Frankenstein’ are pastoral, thus creating a non-threatening atmosphere, however, it is circumstances and ignorance which result in the creature becoming despised and hunted which in return change his nature and character when he seeks revenge for the injustices done against him. Dracula, from the beginning, is the embodiment of evil - he plots and schemes. One could make excuses for him and say he needs blood or he becomes extinct and it is a form of self-preservation. This is so, however, throughout the novel we are faced time and again with examples of gratuitous malevolence he makes no distinction between man or woman, child or baby. Many scenes in ‘Dracula’ are set in the dark and ominous Castle Dracula, this results in a pervading atmosphere of apprehension.
Since his rise to fame, Dracula has been found to have many similar connections to Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian prince. However many of these connections made are merely coincidences and wishful thinking from fans around the world. If any connections are to be made, they should be made between Dracula and his creator, Bram Stoker. Many themes of the story reflect Stoker’s own life rather than Vlad the Impaler’s (Pitt). Even Dracula’s castle, Bran Castle, which was assumed to be where Vlad the Impaler had lived, was found to be false. In fact, historians have found that Vlad the Impaler actually passed through the town of Bran, in 1459, and destroyed everything in his path. Three years
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different
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 Dracula is a true Gothic novel that belongs on any gothic literature course. Focusing in on the recurring themes, characters and settings used throughout the novel one sees how Dracula has set the standard for Gothic literature today.
Abraham Stoker was born on November 8, 1847, in Clontarf, Ireland, although when his name was to appear on the front cover of the critically acclaimed gothic horror novel, Dracula, fifty years later, he would have long since adopted an abbreviated version of his name, Bram. When Stoker was born, he had two older siblings, and would later get into the habit of living with four younger ones. (Novels for Students 23). During his formative years, he came down with a serious illness, and was confined to his bed for the first seven years of his life. He read a great many books in the process of recovery, and his mother, Charlotte, often told him disturbing horror stories of sickness, particularly the ravaging effects of the cholera
The Vampire in Dracula threatens the very existence of Victorian England. Stoker constructs the vampire as an embodiment of threat by surpassing his Gothic novelist predecessors to bring the threat of the Gothic home to Victorian England (Arata 119). This in turn crosses the boundary between what is foreign and what is national; and dually East and West. Dracula is open to many