More handpicked essays just for you.
Dracula and comparisons to gothic literature
Essays on dracula
A brief summary of the dracula by Bram Stoker
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Bram Stoker’s fiction novel Dracula is an iconic literary work that still greatly influences the portrayal of vampirism in modern television. For example, aspects of the CW’s drama TV series, The Vampire Diaries, are loosely based on Dracula’s plotline and character constructs. The show is an adapted interpretation of L.J. Smith’s young adult novels, The Vampire Diaries. Both the TV show and the book series feature renditions of original ideas in Dracula that have become popularized, such as the concept of a supernatural, vampiric love triangle. Through the intentional character development of three main protagonists, Elena, Stefan and Damon, as well as reoccurring thematic narratives, the writers of The Vampire Diaries illustrate a universal …show more content…
The mere sound of Elena’s name even resembles that of Mina’s. Elena is a magnetic archetypal character and is constructed into what can be interpreted as an idealized version of Mina, with the justification that Stoker’s Dracula serves as a guideline for the narratives that gender roles have in vampiric stories. Stoker’s influential novel is the first Westernized construct of a literary vampiric story in Europe and ergo creates the first idea of what aspects a vampire story should have, including the construction of distinctive gender roles. Due to the diffusion of the influence of Dracula in pop culture, Mina becomes an idea of complexity and attraction to which the human and undead take great interest in. The relationship between Dracula and Mina is far from romantic and is further complicated by the underlying sexual nature of Dracula’s night visit to Mina. But, as vampires became more desirable as suitors in supernatural pop culture, the relationship between the alluring feminine being and the masculine immortal vampire shifted. The differentiating aspect between the relationships of characters in Dracula and The Vampire Diaries is that Elena’s love triangle features reciprocated romantic interest from all three persons and is not modeled after Mina’s unpleasant relationship with …show more content…
Stefan Salvatore, a brooding, morally straight vampire who is strives to be in touch with his humanity reflects attributes of Harker. Harker is devoted to loving and protecting Mina with his life and proves his love when he avenges her by killing Dracula. Stefan, who falls in love with Elena partially because of his humanistic tendencies, is extremely devoted to Elena and would do anything, including sacrificing himself, to ensure her safety. Stefan fulfills the masculine archetype of heroism through his steady devotion to Elena. However, the most striking comparison that link Stoker’s complex of Harker’s to Stefan stem from the structure of the novel. Many of the chapters in Dracula are Harker’s reflections of his day interpreted through diary entries and letters. In The Vampire Diaries, the show often begins and/or ends with a narration from either Elena’s or Stefan’s personal diary entries told from their perspective point of view. The action of narrating the show via journal entries justifies the influence Dracula has in the portrayal of The Vampire
At first glance, Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the hour-long TV series which premiered in 1997 and is now in its third season, bears little resemblance to the book which started the vampire craze -- Bram Stoker's Dracula, published a century earlier. And yet, looks can be deceiving. Although the trendy -- and often skimpy -- clothing and bandied about pop-culture references of "Buffy" clearly mark the series as a product of a far different culture than that of the Victorian England of Dracula, the underlying tensions of the two texts are far similar than one might think. Beneath the surface differences in the treatment of their heroines, the two texts converge in similarly problematic anxieties about gender and sexuality.
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 Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
Stevenson, John Allen. A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula. 2nd ed. Vol. 103. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1988. JSTOR. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
Conclusively, while Bram Stokers novel Dracula is seen as a gothic and horror story, I argue that it is a novel that seeks to address female sexuality directly. Seen through numerous passages, Stoker confronts and battles the views between sexuality during the Victorian era though his genius of characterization of characters present within the novel. As it seems highly intentional to me, I respect the way in which he criticizes and critiques upon female sexuality by bringing into light new ideas regarding female desires. When contrasting his text upon today’s culture, the differences to how one perceived the vampire has changed significantly.
This essay will attempt to discuss the two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power.
Stoker uses phenomenal imagery to produce a late nineteenth century setting, located somewhere within eastern Europe. Transylvania, the infamous home to Dracula himself, is described in great detail in Harker’s journal. There, Stoker purposely and meticulously outlines Dracula’s castle and the surrounding town. Stoker manages to do this with a very gothic tone, immediately lowering the societal status of women. In conjunction with Dracula’s gothic tone comes the understanding of male and female traditional roles of the era. The reader sees that there is no hesitation differentiating between the two, as Stoker “ cast[s] men as rational, strong, protective and decisive…[and] women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and submissive.” (Tyson, 82).
Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, is a highly controversial work of fiction that is still being read for the first time today. Dracula touches many different categories including; sci-fi horror to 1800’s English romance literature. This is the main reason why the novel Dracula can be analyzed in many different ways using many different literary theories. The theory which stuck out most to me while reading this novel was the Feminist Theory. The Feminist Theory cannot be used to analyze Dracula as a whole novel, but it can be used in order to analyze the different female characters throughout the book. Therefore, Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be analyzed through the feminist theory by focusing on the characters Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra, and the three brides of Dracula.
One of the well-known characters in Dracula is, Mina Murray, virtuous, kind and good-natured, schoolmistress. Murray is the embodiment of the, “New Woman”. She empathically embraces the anti-Victorian feelings of that time in front of the rea...
Over the course of cinematic history, many filmmakers have attempted to recreate the chilling, unprecedented world of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Arguably very few have succeeded, for the majority of directors tend to avoid the pervasive sexuality inherent in the novel. It is a difficult task to achieve, considering the blatant imagery surrounding sex and vampirism, such as the reproduction following a vampiric encounter and the phallocentric nature of the violence committed both by and against these creatures: penetration is involved in their hunting, and one must impale them with a stake in order to destroy them. Readers are thereby forced to admit that Dracula is, in fact, a highly eroticized piece of literature, though whether or not Stoker himself was aware of this suggestiveness, we cannot be sure. The most successful effort at capturing that sexual energy on film has been Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, it has often been proposed that Coppola’s version is too carnally focused in comparison to the original work, which leads a viewer to wonder about the purpose in this overt sexualization. It can be concluded that adding copious amounts of eroticism to the film is directly related to Coppola’s strive to depict Count Dracula as more human rather than monster, and sexuality in his film serves as a balance so that the lines between good and evil are blurred. Evidence for this deduction is found in three scenes in particular: Jonathan’s seduction by Dracula’s vampiric wives, Lucy’s demonic transformation, and Mina and Van Helsing’s relationship during the climax of the story.
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre; These factors include setting, actions of each vampire, the initial reactions to news of them, and how their presence affects the people who live within the region the vampires inhabit.
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
Vampires have been a popular figure in literary works for almost 200 years; from John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005), the figure of the vampire has changed and developed over time but still remains popular and recognisable throughout literary history. The figure of the vampire is often used to represent ‘the other’, or as a manifestation of social anxieties at the time of writing. This is why it is interesting to study the how the tropes found within vampire fiction differ between texts, and the reasons behind these differences or transformations in the figure of the vampire. I will look at a range of texts to study how sexuality
Dracula’s peculiar actions begin when Johnathan Harker takes a Journey to help Dracula with some business. When Harker was getting
The “Otherness” Dracula possesses reinforces our own norms and beliefs through his transgression that separates him from society and the polarity to Western norms and ideals makes him an effective device for extorting revulsion and horror. Stoker’s novel employs Gothic tradition, providing “the principle embodiments and evocations of cultural anxieties” from which the very Gothic mood and horror is produced, establishing the baseline used to distinguish the modern vampires, as part of vampire mythology within the Gothic (Botting Aftergothic 280). Differences Between Dracula and Twilight The similarities between the two novels are namely Gothic imagery and theme, but the Gothic mood predominates in Dracula over Twilight and it is this difference that makes Twilight not belong in the vampire canon. Horror is the element that Dracula possesses that Edward does not, and it is crucial in the interplay between transgression and limit.
Bram Stoker was writing in the conservative Victorian Era while Coppola was trying to please social norms and fads in the nineties. (Stoker Dracula) (Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula") In the course of the novel, Mina Harker is an aspiring ‘New Woman’ in the Victorian Era. She states in a letter to Lucy that she is an assistant schoolmistress and that she has been practicing her short hand and typewriting skills which was very unlike a traditional Victorian woman. Along with the ideology of the ‘New Woman’ she strives to follow in the footsteps of “Lady Journalists” by writing in a journal daily about whatever she sees fit and remembering conversations and writing them down.