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Analysis of the Dracula novel
Analytical essay of the novel dracula
Gothic literature in dracula
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Dracula has many themes which are represented by the characters themselves. While the most prominent theme included the focus on the imbalance of religion and science, a very subtle but important statement was made about the impact of evil on women. The graveyard scene summarizes Lucy’s progression from an innocent girl to an evil temptress. Not only does this apply specifically to women but anyone who is turned by Dracula. Thesis: Stoker contrasts the old Lucy with the new Lucy in the graveyard scene to portray her progression to a temptress to demonstrate___________________ Stoker creates a contrast between a light and dark tone to portray Lucy’s change from innocent to evil. Lucy’s “Sweetness”(233) and “purity”(233) was replaced with “Adamantine, …show more content…
The repeated reference to hell signifies her connection to it because she is a creature associated with satan. Her soul is in hell. This emphasizes the idea of “eyes are the window to the soul” as Stoker heavily focuses on the description of the eyes: “The eyes seemed to throw sparks of hellfire”(234). “wantonness”(233). Stoker’s description of innocent Lucy and evil Lucy is reflected through his tone to emphasize the transformation. Stoker subjectively demonstrates that impure woman are viewed as a temptress and are animal like. Stoker describes Lucy similarly just as the three women were described in the beginning of the book. The women are described as “Voluptuous”(233). This emphasizes how attractive women become once evil. Lucy seductively put “Arthur ... under a spell”(234). She treats the child like prey just as the three vampire women did when Dracula brought them a baby. Lucy the temptress Being turned to a vampire“Stained the purity of her lawn death-robe”(234). The act of Dracula turning her into a vampire changed her physically and
As she sits at the “churchyard” we can almost see her reflecting the ideas of the Victorian gentleman whose morals are based on religion, and as a male you had the right to go anywhere or do anything you please as long as you keep your gentlemanly status. The setting of the “churchyard” is also ironic to the acts that follow as there was something “long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure.” Dracula is our demon character in “black,” physically dominating over Lucy while Lucy is portrayed as innocent in “white.” This is much like “The nightmare” painting by Henry Fuseli, which portrays a demon sitting on top of an unconscious woman. The resemblance to Dracula is seen with the demon hiding in the shadows, but still controlling the woman by putting himself in a position on top of her while she is unaware. When Mina finally wakes up Lucy “she trembled a little, and clung to me.” This reaction could indicate that Lucy was unable to stop Dracula from biting her and was terror-stricken from the
Dracula can turn humans into the Undead. An example is the three women whom he has turned into vampires, creatures of the night. Renfield desires to be made into a creature of the night. He views Dracula as his master and seeks only to serve him. Lucy is made into a vampire by Dracula. However, the most memorable person he has given birth t...
Dracula kills Lucy who is a sweet, victorian woman that did not deserve to be bit by Dracula. Killing people, to most people, would be an action only a purely evil person would do “Lucy’s eyes in form and colour; but Lucy’s eyes unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle ors we knew” (226). Lucy getting bit not only hurt Lucy, but it caused all the people near and dear to her hurt also. Vampire-Lucy still looks pure and sweet which is even harder on the people she loves because they see that she looks beautiful and like herself but she is not herself. When something evil is being hidden as something good it is extremely evil and hurts the people that love and care for her. He does not act how a civilized and well manored man should act. He hurts other people to benefit himself. Clearly such actions are incredibly evil and no sane person would think to do such a
“Dracula, in one aspect, is a novel about the types of Victorian women and the representation of them in Victorian English society” (Humphrey). Through Mina, Lucy and the daughters of Dracula, Stoker symbolizes three different types of woman: the pure, the tempted and the impure. “Although Mina and Lucy possess similar qualities there is striking difference between the two” (Humphrey). Mina is the ideal 19th century Victorian woman; she is chaste, loyal and intelligent. On the other hand, Lucy’s ideal Victorian characteristics began to fade as she transformed from human to vampire and eventually those characteristics disappeared altogether. Lucy no longer embodied the Victorian woman and instead, “the swe...
As the saying goes, “Women can do everything Men can do.” In the Gothic Novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, there is a constant theme of sexuality, from both male and females in society. In the Victorian era, the roles of male and females have caused a lot of tension. After reading Dracula, some would argue the roles men and women hold in society. As mentioned in Dr. Seward’s Dairy from Val Halsing., “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and a woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination” (Stoker and Hindle, 2003 250). A women’s mind is not the always the first thing on a males mind. Some would overlook what a woman really has to offer.
Similar characteristics of vampires are evident in The Vampire Diaries, The Twilight Saga, and Stoker’s Dracula. Vampires in The Vampire Diaries become immortal, live, and die in similar ways to Stoker’s Dracula. In The Vampire Diaries, to become a vampire, a human has to die with vampire blood in their system. In the first episode, “The Return,” of season two. Caroline Forbes is in critical condition with her health and her friends, some of which are vampires, decide that to restore her health, she needs to ingest Damon, a vampire’s, blood. Katherine Pierce, the evil doppelganger of Elena, then murders Caroline to make her presence in the town known to the Salvatore Brothers. This ultimately makes Caroline a vampire. Life as an immortal being in The Vampire Diaries allows vampires to compel human minds, manipulating them. Katherine Pierce often used this technique to get what she wanted. Despite the longevity of life that has power perks, to kill the vampires, a wooden stake driven through the heart will suffice. These characteristics are apparent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well. Dracula compels Lucy to sleepwalk and come to him while unconscious during the night. He obtains the ability to compel or
Dracula accentuates the lust for sexuality through the main characters by contrasting it with the fears of the feminine sexuality during the Victorian period. In Victorian society, according to Dr.William Acton, a doctor during the Victorian period argued that a woman was either labelled as innocent and pure, or a wife and mother. If a woman was unable to fit in these precincts, consequently as a result she would be disdained and unfit for society and be classified as a whore (Acton, 180). The categorizing of woman is projected through the “uses the characters of Lucy and Mina as examples of the Victorian ideal of a proper woman, and the “weird sisters” as an example of women who are as bold as to ignore cultural boundaries of sexuality and societal constraints” according to Andrew Crockett from the UC Santa Barbara department of English (Andrew Cro...
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most blatant and powerful symbol is blood. He takes the blood that means so much to the believers of this legend and has it represent more than even they could imagine. Blood is the main object associated with vampires and vampirism. From a mythical standpoint, it is the basis of life for the vampires as they feed off of the blood of young, vibrant souls. From a more scientific standpoint blood is what would drip out of the corpse's mouth when family members would dig up their dead kin to check for the dreaded disease. Stoker takes the significance of this symbol and puts his own unique twist to the meaning of blood. He combines the traditional folklore of vampirism and the immense sexual undertones of the Victorian era to create a simply horrific tale which completely confuses the emotions of his readers. Stoker knew bloods importance in vampire history and used the overwhelming symbolism to convey his own personal lust and sexual obsessions. The scenes where Lucy is receiving transfusions; first from Holmwood, then from Seward, and the unforgettable vampire baptism between Dracula and Mina all have these very erotic, sexual feelings associated with them. What makes these so powerful is the combination of violence and sex. As a reader, you know that what Dracula is doing are horrific and wrong, but because they are so sexually described and associated you think you should enjoy them, but you can't. This is the confusion which stoker implements into his readers minds, especially ones of the Victorian era. This is why stoker used blood as the most important symbol in the novel; to create an intense horror that was not just in the words of the book, but in the minds of the reader.
Similar to almost every piece of literature ever created, Dracula by Bram Stoker has been interpreted many different ways, being torn at from every angle possible. Just as one might find interest in interpreting novels differently, he or she might also find interest in the plot, prose, or theme, all of which ultimately lead to the novels overall tone. Throughout the novel, it becomes blatant that the novel contains an underlying theme of female incompetence and inferiority. Through a true feminist’s eyes, this analysis can clearly be understood by highlighting the actions of Mina and Lucy, the obvious inferior females in the book. Through Stoker’s complete and utter manipulation of Mina and Lucy, he practically forces the reader to analyze the co-existence of dominant males and inferior females in society and to simultaneously accept the fact that the actual text of Dracula is reinforcing the typical female stereotypes that have developed throughout the ages.
In Lucy Steele’s confession to Elinor that she is engaged to Edward Ferrars, we can see how the novel illustrates gossip as a cause of both internal conflict, in Elinor, and external conflict, present between Elinor and Lucy. Elinor becomes jealous because of Lucy’s boastful gossip about her life, placing the two into a conflict over romance. When the two meet, Lucy divulges in her relationship with Edwa...
...kindness towards Lucy. Prior to this scene the narrator, recalling this shot, questions if Cheng even remembers his initial purpose for coming to London. The color change acts as a visual realization of Cheng’s newly reinvigorated spirituality and Buddhist belief.
In Dracula, Bram Stoker portrays a clear battle between the “traditional woman” of the time and the “new woman.”. Stoker uses the contrasting characters of Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray to depict this evolution in women and, also, to paint an image of the reaction to this advance, expressed by both men and women.
...es her unconventional treatment. Second, Van Helsing is reminiscent of the occult expert, Doctor Hesselius. Both men engage in study of the supernatural as a hobby outside their medical profession. Finally, Van Helsing is a resonance of Baron Vordenburg. Like the Baron, Van Helsing places great value in his books and papers for knowledge of the supernatural; moreover, he is responsible for confirming Lucy’s undead state and educating the other men in how to stake her; and, it is Baron’s governing principles of the vampire which foreshadow Van Helsing’s characteristics of the enemy, Dracula (344).
... Dracula were used to show that Mina and Dracula are aware of each other’s presence. In the scene, Lucy, who is a pure and virtuous woman, is willingly having sex with a werewolf and enjoying it. A taboo of bestiality is openly and provocatively shown here. Lucy having sex outside of marriage is a transcension of the social norms of 1897, when Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written. Lucy’s destruction in Bram Stoker’s novel and any Dracula movie shows a “deliberate attempt […] made to make sexuality seem unthinkable in ‘normal relations’ between the sexes” (Senf, 39). During and after Lucy’s transformation, she becomes very sexual and makes several sexual advances. By killing Lucy in the novel, Stoker shows society’s fear of female sexual assertiveness and the belief that sexually assertive women are evil and un-Christian and unable to be in a ‘normal’ relationship.
In Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Dracula is portrayed as a monster made evident by his gruesome actions. An analysis of Dracula shows that: shows his evil nature in his planning, brutally killing Lucy Westrenstra causing a violent response from Dr. Seward and others, and how his evil ways lead to his downfall. To characterize Dracula in one way, he is a ruthless, cunning monster who uses tricks, torture, and wits to manipulate people to his will. However when he trifled with some courageous people, he had no knowledge that it would be his undoing.