The Symbolism Of Dracula In Bram Stoker's Dracula

The novel, Dracula was not chosen in vain as this particular work of Stoker’s boldly tackles the subject of immigration and its dangers. The main plot of the story is that a powerful vampire from Transylvania, Count Dracula, enters England to conquer it. Essentially everyone is oblivious to Dracula’s invasion except for our six heroes who are all that stand in his way. These heroes successfully save England, and humanity as a whole, by driving Dracula, the foreigner, out and eventually brutally murdering him. Through the tale of Dracula, Stoker and his stance on immigration become extremely clear: uncontrollable immigration must be stopped. As stated by Stephen Arata, this fear of the “primitive force”

Vampires have been around for centuries, they represent the fear of many things such as sexuality, race, gender, etc. and above all, they stand for the fear of diseases. Vampires have once been the symbol of horror due to their terrific depictions and were described as a threat to the humanity. Throughout time, the image of vampire has changed dramatically from a monstrous, inhumanely creature that doesn’t belong to human society to such an attractive and adaptive figure that expresses more of the human side than the evil. They developed human feelings, senses, and live within our society. Modern vampire movies are often more romantic and “sympathetic” comparing to the past. Vampires have abandoned their horror and evolved to a more

Are there still connections between Bram Stokers famous novel Dracula and modern day society? In Dracula, Stoker expands on many themes that indeed exist today. Not only does he touch on the most obvious theme, sex. He expands on gender division and good versus evil. Some say since times have changed the themes I introduced have changed as well, leaving connections between then and now irrelevant. However, I feel that although times have changed they still have roots from the time of the novel to now. In this essay I will expand on the themes of this novel while connecting them to modern day society, the critical texts I have chosen and will mention later on in the essay are a good representation of the commonalities between the chill, dark Victorian days in which the era that Dracula was written in and modern day.

Dracula is of mixed racial heritage and blood “in the whirlpool of European races,” a concept which would have been fearful to the novel’s white, upper-class English audience. This widespread xenophobia, a fear and hatred of foreigners, was a reaction by Victorian England to the perceived threat of outsiders to white genetic purity. Dracula’s real threat is not in the physical destruction of Western Europe, but in the assimilation, reproduction, and infestation caused by the literal and figurative mixing of his barbarian animal blood with that of the “superior” English race. The concept of eugenics, the “qualitative and quantitative improvement of the human genome” (Galton 99), gained widespread popularity during Stoker’s lifetime and became a prevalent theme in the works of many authors aiming to make a social commentary or criticism on the invasion of England by foreign peoples. Adolph Hitler would later adopt eugenic ideals in the intended creation of a “master race,” one which victimized many of the same groups and relied upon almost identical anti-Semitic imagery as the earlier Victorian proponents (Hauner 15).

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

The setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is in the late nineteenth-century London, where the flourishing of technology is replacing people’s belief of the old superstitious ways. The characters in this novel experience contacts with the supernatural beings that is unable to be proven even by the most advanced technology at the time, which leads them to doubt their own sanity. However, the progression of the novel proves that peace is restored into the characters’ lives after their doubts and confusions about what is reality and who is really mad. Ultimately, the categorization of the sane against the mad is unnecessary since the distinguishing factors shown in the novel are ambiguous. Subsequently, no characters can

Despite the plot’s complete failure in inciting interest within me, I was intrigued by Stoker’s style and storytelling capabilities. I was constantly curious as to why Stoker was revealing a vast amount of information about the scenery and internal feelings of each character while developing the plot in such a dull manner. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that Stoker is attempting to use rich imagery about both settings and the characters’ emotions to emphasize Count Dracula. While reading each chapter, clear mental images of the settings and the characters’ feelings are formed. Through the story being told from extremely

Dracula reflects both Bram Stoker’s context and his interest in controversial ideas. Use ‘Dracula’ and ‘Van Helsing’ to demonstrate what concepts and concerns have endured and how they have been represented in both texts.

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

Dracula: Productive Fear The ‘anxieties of empire’ depicted within Bram Stoker’s Dracula have gathered immense criticism and attention from enthusiasts and scholars. The publication of Stoker’s novel in 1897 was in a period experiencing heightened nationalism together with imperial decadence. Friedrich Kittler claims that Jonathan Harker, the English solicitor visiting Count Dracula, was an imperial spy (Kittler, 60). Patrick Brantlinger fruitfully identifies the novel as ‘a piece of imperial Gothicism’.

The gothic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker portrays the fears and anxieties of the Victorian society between 1837 and 1901. England was in that time an imperial force and in the peak of the industrialization. Through the numerous colonisations they came in touch with various nations. This paper will analyse the fears and anxieties. The first chapter offers a brief look into the Victorian era and the most important events that shaped the society. The second chapter is will examine the contrast between modern science and folklore, how the legends of Eastern Europe fused with the objective science. The third chapter will discuss the taboo topic of that period, sexuality and homosexuality. Stoker used blood as a device to demonstrate

As a result of the transformation, “Lucy represented the potential for women in this strict Victorian society to give into temptation” (Podonsky) and evolve their personalities from pure to evil. The three “weird sisters” (Stoker 71) represent the complete opposite of the ideal Victorian woman with erotic and sexually aggressive characteristics. They were described has having a “deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck and licked her lips like an animal…the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue…” (Stoker 55-56). This depicted a very subliminally sexual scene between Jonathan and the sisters portraying female dominance, aggression and prowess.

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.

Consider as well how the four men in the story risk their lives for that of Mina's. Bram Stoker reveals his attitude towards the nature of Victorian society by making the evil side in this novel very seductive. Even though the side of good is well aware of the harm the evil side can cause, the seductiveness of the evil side tempts our protagonists on many occasions. For example when Van Helsing has trouble bringing himself to stake the three women because of their physical beauty and when Jonathan Harker nearly allows himself to be bitten by one of the women because of how physically attracted he is to her. "I felt in my heart some wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips."# Stoker comments on the nature of Victorian society by showing how unacceptable it was to give in to those primal desires. This relates to the struggle between good and evil between our heroes of Victorian society and the devilish vampires. Vampires are in control of those evil, primal desires in the story and good people like Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing must fight off these desires lest they lose their clean and pure Victorian existences.

Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, published in 1897, explores various sexual erotic possibilities in the vampire's embrace, as discussed by Leonard Wolf. The novel confronts Victorian fears of homosexuality; that were current at the time due to the trial of playwright Oscar Wilde. The vampire's embrace could also be interpreted as an illustration of Victorian fears of the changing role of women. Therefore it is important to consider: the historical context of the novel; the Victorian notion of the `New Woman' specifically the character of Lucy Westenra; the inversion of gender roles; notions of sexuality; and the emasculation of men, by lessening their power over women; in the novel Dracula. In doing this I will be able to explore the effects