An Analysis of Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the story about how the small company of men and a woman lead by Professor Abraham Van Helsing combats against Count Dracula, who moves from Transylvania to England in order to manipulate people as “foul things of the night like him, without heart or conscience, preying on the bodies and the souls of those [they] love best” (223). Stoker employs an epistolary format in this novel and nowadays, Dracula becomes one of popular literary works representing epistolary novels written in the nineteenth century. The term “epistolary novels” refers to the novels composed of different types of documents, such as journals, letters, newspaper clippings and so forth. One of the effects created by using an epistolary format is providing the characters’ inner state throughout the story, which “focuse[s] on a broader exploration of the insights that made up the conscious self by and [the broader context]” (Ştefan 73). Consequently, Stoker’s use of fragmentary narratives delivers the main characters’ emotions and thoughts in more picturesque ways. In Dracula, the epistolary format of the novel increases terror and suspense, which derived from tension when the story alters after alluding characters’ insecure future and immense power of Dracula affecting not only the main characters, but the third parties who are irrelevant to them.

A reader’s anxiety accelerates from altering the story from Jonathan Harker’s journal to Mina Murray’s letter when Jonathan commits to escape from Dracula’s castle. While Jonathan stays at Dracula’s castle coercively, as he depicts himself as “a veritable prisoner, but without that protection of the law which is even a criminal’s right and consolation” (40), he always seeks for an opportunity to g...

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...(145). This passage alludes that there will not be many days left to her life and a reader’s anxiety about Lucy inclines when a reader recognizes Mina’s letter is unopened by her, which comes immediately after Seward’s diary. If there is only one letter unopened by her, a reader may think about other causes besides Lucy’s inability to open the mail—such as the letter was missing due to a mailman’s mistake. However, the existence of another unopened letter indicates that the cause is neither a coincidence nor someone’s mistake—which consequently leads to consider about Lucy’s misfortune.

Works Cited

Bram, Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company, 1897. PDF file.

Ştefan, Anca. "Aspects Of Epistolary Representation." Petroleum - Gas University of Ploiesti Bulletin, Philology Series 61.1 (2009): 73-78. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.