Powers Of The Vampire In Bram Stoker's Dracula

In the novel Dracula, Stoker uses unbelievable strength, illusions and supernatural abilities to create his diabolical vampire. The first four chapters are told through the eyes of Jonathan Harker, a young english solicitor, who is at castle Dracula to finalize a legal transaction with the Count. Throughout Jonathan’s journals, Stoker introduces the powers of the vampire one-by-one.

The strength of the vampire is noticed subtly by Jonathan Harker. Stoker uses the vampire’s strength to engage the reader and establish how dangerous vampires are. The first thing Jonathan records is the strength of the driver, who later turns out to be Dracula. As Jonathan switches coaches, he notes “the driver helping with a hand, caught my arm in a grip of steel:”

(11) A few moments later, Harker notices that Dracula’s grip is almost identical to the driver’s. As Jonathan enters castle Dracula, he realizes that “the strength of the handshake was so much akin to which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had not seen, that for a moment I doubted if it were the same person.”(17) These quotes cause the reader to anticipate the situation Harker is putting himself into. Later, when Harker is about to be bitten by a vampire, Dracula steps in and Jonathan remembers that “with a fierce sweep of his arm, he hurled the women from him,”(43) Jonathan watches as Dracula bickers back and forth with the women, however, all he can think about is how Dracula threw the women across the room. Despite of Jonathan not knowing what exactly these creatures are, it becomes clear to him that they are strong.
As Jonathan witnesses how strong the vampires are, he can not help to notice how the seem to disappear. Several times, Jonathan notes that the vampires seem to not be physically present. When Jonathan is shaving, he “started for it had amazed me that I had not seen him, since the reflection of the glass covered the room behind me.”(28) This shows that vampires