Dracula Journal Entry Essay

Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula is composed of many journal entries and even though they are in chronological order, when writers switch, the times will overlap. This allows Stoker to hide the truth of situations and make the novel more mysterious. It also allows the reader to experience events as the characters themselves experience them. The diary entries begin in May and end in early November so in five hundred pages, the book covers seven months. With this short time period Stoker includes a lot of detail into his characters and their stories. Stoker writes in a straightforward way displaying an everyday style of writing. This follows his epistolary style and makes the diaries more convincing. These diaries not only keep track of everything

the characters go through but also provide evidence against vampires. All the characters are tied together with their sole purpose of defeating Dracula. They all experience his terrors first hand and their entries often cover the same story with different authors. The characters feelings and tied experiences make the plot a complex one. The reader sympathizes with the characters and like the characters, wish for Dracula’s downfall.
Stoker writes this novel in first person with the narrator's constantly switching. Writing in this style allows Stoker to make his characters believable, which allows the readers to sympathize with them. Each entry contains personal information and feelings that characters sometimes do not want each other to know. The narrator's writing in the present make their experiences more real. They allow for multiple narrations on the same event, which lets the reader decide whom they wish to believe or whether or not the character’s actions are justifiable. Each entry is a piece of the whole and everyone of them is imperative to the novel.
Through the use of the epistolary style Stoker makes this story's tone personal. The reader's experience events with the characters and connect with certain characters that draw out their own emotions. Since diaries provide a way for feelings to be expressed, Stoker easily displays personal thoughts. Due to the horror genre, Stoker’s tone is also dark. Many events throughout the novel are grim and scary. Lucy sleeps walks during the night and escapes her house during a thunderstorm. This leads to a frightening encounter with Dracula. Stoker uses Dracula to provide the story with horror and mystery. Because Stoker does not give Dracula any thoughts or diary entries, he remains frightening and inhuman. His powers far exceed those of humans and he feeds on human blood. Turning into mist, he seeps into rooms and leaves Renfield lying in a pool of his own blood. Most of the action takes place during the night due to Dracula’s nocturnal instincts which makes the novel creepy.
Throughout the course of the book, the readers sympathize with all of the characters because of their believable personalities and unfortunate troubles. Mina Harker marries Jonathan Harker and strives help him in anyway possible. While she is good looking, her looks do not define her. Instead, Stoker displays her intelligence and makes her the pillar of support for the men. Because of her purity and intelligence, Dracula fails to turn her into a vampire. She does everything she can to keep the men ahead and organized even though they have her stay away from most of the immediate danger. This does not stop her from retyping every document and memorizing the train routes to Transylvania though. Time and time again she proves to her importance to the group, when they are beaten down, she lifts their spirits and returns their hope. She thinks outside the box and provides options that the men would not have thought of without her push. While comforting Arthur she thinks to herself, “We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother spirit is invoked” (304). This thought displays her true personality. Even in hard times she is kind, intelligent, and determined to do the best she can. Van Helsing understands her true value and often times rejoices in her brilliance. He is a wise old doctor and got pulled into the group by his former pupil John Steward. Helsing acts as the leader and father figure in the group of men and possess all the knowledge on vampires. He displays tough love with Arthur and does not hesitate to speak his mind when frustrated with the stubborn men. He has a strong sense of justice and feels that it is their job to rid the world of Dracula. Helsing does not change at all during the course of the book and retains his righteousness. While trying to convince Arthur staking Lucy is necessary, he exclaims, “My Lord Godalming, I too, have a duty to do, a duty to others, a duty to you, a duty to the dead, and by God, I shall do it!” (273). Lucy Westenra’s main characteristic is her beauty. Stoker uses her to contrast Mina and to become sexual. Before she turns into a vampire all men find her attractive, but after she turns her beauty increases. To show her sexual desires she walks toward Arthur, “with a languorous, voluptuous grace,” and said, “Come to me Arthur. . . . My arms are hungry for you” (280). Describing her as wanton, Helsing decides that her death will save the lives of many children. After Arthur stakes her, she turns human again and therefore her innocence returns. Dracula portrays the monstrous antagonist in this novel. As the story proceeds, his many supernatural powers come to light. He can shape shift, control animals, and possesses inhuman strength. While he has all these amazing abilities, he does have major downfalls that prove to kill him in the end. He seeks to gain family power that declined over time and to experience human life. Living in Transylvania caused him to lose modern ways which he tries to make up for through reading. During his discussions with Harker Dracula says, “I long . . . to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its like, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is” (27). Even though he has great ambitions his downsides prevent him from his true almighty potential. He represents ambition a lack of modernization, and sexual desires.
To keep with the “present” idea, Stoker strives to make the setting fit with the time period, 1897. He goes into explicit detail of Harker’s journey to Dracula’s castle and of Transylvania at the time. Harker’s observations of Transylvania are creepy and mysterious. They speak an odd language from his normal English and he makes it a point to point out their superstitious habits. Upon arriving at the castle Harker observes the, “frowning walls and dark window openings”, of the castle (20). Later he finds out that most of the doors and windows are locked. Stoker uses these details to make the castle more prison like and Dracula more mysterious and ominous. Little technology is used while in the castle but back in London, Stoker provides many forms of technology that were used back in 1897. The telegrams, trains, and phonograph make the readers feel that the story is happening in their present time and not some far away unrealistic world.
Throughout the novel, Stoker provides symbols that represent power, lust, and life. Vampires use blood as a food source but for humans it keeps them alive. For both humans and vampires blood represents life but for humans it means family. After Dracula drains Lucy’s “life”, the men perform a blood transfusion to save her life. Arthur bravely submits himself for the transfusion and tells the others later that, “he felt since then as if they two had really married” (231). In this case blood means family but in Dracula’s case it sometimes represents sexual desires. Dracula takes the blood of Mina and Lucy during the night and makes Mina drink some of his so he can control her. He drinks their blood to elongate his physical life in a parasitic way. This in turn can be compared to the symbol of the communion wafers used to keep Dracula at bay. Christians eat the wafers and drink the “blood of Christ” to cleanse their soul and gain spiritual strength. Drinking blood and only strengthening the physical body contradicts the religious aspect, which causes him to be harmed by religious items. In the Victorian age, women were supposed to posses traits of purity and innocence. The three vampire women were sexual and beautiful. They symbolize men’s desires and imagination but in the end are vanquished because of man's intelligence and strength.
Stoker emphasizes good versus evil through his themes and their similarities.

He displays evil through the vampires and Dracula as the main evil. Darkness is synonymous with bad or ominous events and this happens to be the time when Dracula is active. Even though the guys hate Dracula and condemn him, they display similar action as Dracula. Like Dracula, the men attack at night and murder people. The difference is that they can justify their actions with their entries and thoughts. They use Dracula’s weaknesses, religious items, against him to destroy him. Crosses, wafers, and holy water represent God and goodness. Through these details a clear barrier is drawn between good and evil. The guys seek to rid the world of Dracula, to stop him from harming any more people. With Dracula’s death Stoker shows that good conquers evil, even though the road proved to be difficult. While modernization improves the lives of many, Stoker shows the negative sides to it. Through Van Helsing he shows that knowledge is power. When Lucy was ill, John could not figure out the cause of her illness even with his technology. Helsing with his wisdom and open mindedness figures out her problem quickly after seeing the bite marks. Upon learning the cause of her illness, he returns to his hometown to gain more knowledge on vampires so they can defeat Dracula. Stoker shows that without knowledge of the past some problems cannot be

solved.