Stoker, Bram
Dracula

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Analysis of "Dracula"

Writer: Bram Stoker
Edition: Penguin books, 1993, unabridged.
Date of writing: 1897

Theme: "Dracula" is about a centuries old vampire that lives on human blood that has to be "killed" to prevent one of the main characters from becoming one of the Undead herself, and to save the world from further killings by his hand.

Place: This book is set in many places, but mainly in England (Whitby, London), and Romania (Transylvania, Borgo Pass).

Time: The time is most likely around the time of writing: about 1897.

Time element in the story:
-Is it a chronological story? The story is almost completely chronological, except for some anomalies in the order of the diaries/letters.
-How much time goes by between the beginning and the ending of the book? The first diary entry is made on the third of May and the last on the sixth of November, so the book contains about six months.

Characterisation:
-Jonathan Harker: he is a round character. Jonathan is a sort of real estate broker, who is engaged to Mina Murray (he marries her during the book), whom he loves deeply. He is a courageous man who is willing to die for the sake of his wife's soul.
-Mina Murray (later in the book Mina Harker): she is a round character. Mrs Murray is a young woman who is very bright and has a deep faith in God. She loves her (soon to be) husband truly and does everything for him.
-Dr. John Seward: a round character. Dr. Seward is doctor in a sanatorium, where he also lives. He is very interested in one patient in particular (Mr Renfield) of who's behaviour he keeps accurate note. Jack Seward is in love with Miss Lucy Westenra.
-Renfield: a flat character. This patient of doctor Seward is a zoophagous madman who is under great influence of Count Dracula.
-Count Dracula: a flat character. The Count is a man who "lived" about four centuries ago and was a great commander of his soldiers during the wars against Turkey. Somehow he turned into a "nosferatu", an Undead, and now preys on the blood of man.
-Miss Lucy Westenra: she is a round character. Miss Lucy is a young and cheerful woman who is engaged to sir Arthur Holmwood, until the Count starts feeding on her blood and eventually turns her into one of his kind.
-Quincey Morris: he is a flat character. Mister Morris is a Texan man in love with Miss Lucy.
-Abraham van Helsing: he is a flat character. Dr. Van Helsing is being called to England by dr. Seward when he doesn't know what to about Lucy's case anymore.
He is a very smart man who is the first one to figure out that Lucy isn't just ill, but being killed by a strange being.

Narrator: In this book there is no narrator, since the entire story is told through diaries, letters, telegrams and notes made by the main characters.
Genre: "Dracula" is a letter novel with elements of a science fiction novel, since vampires and all the superstition surrounding it have never been proven to be founded on any scientifical fact.

Abstract:
Jonathan Harker takes of to Transylvania to wrap up the final deals with Count Dracula who has the intend of moving to London where he will move into Carfax, a house next to an asylum. Jonathan arrives at the castle in the Borgo Pass after having had some strange reactions from the local population when revealing his destination. In the castle some strange things happen, like the Count never eating and having no reflection in the mirror. One night Jonathan falls asleep in a strange part of the castle and all of a sudden is attacked by three beautiful women, but are just in time stopped by the Count. Jonathan is being held prisoner for some weeks, but he manages to escape. He ends up at a convent, where the Sisters send for his wife-to-be Mina to come to Romania, where they marry.
In the meanwhile Mina Murray's best friend Lucy Westenra suffers some strange illness, which seems to cause great loss of blood. Dr. Seward, who also is the doctor of the sanatorium, calls Van Helsing from Holland to see Lucy, but even he can't help her, for after numerous bloodtransfusions and in spite of the care everyone gives her, she dies. She has been bitten and drained from her blood by the Count, who has arrived in England. Lucy is now one of the Undead too, but Van Helsing figures it out and convinces Arthur Holmwood, Lucy's fiancé, Jack Seward and Quincey Morris, a friend of the former, that Lucy's soul is now under the devils spell and they go to Lucy's tomb to free her soul by putting a stake in her heart and cutting her head of.
But the Count is really after them, because not long after Mina is starting to get quite pale to, when visiting at Seward's house. It turns out that the Dracula obeying patient Renfield has invited him in, so that the Count could drain Mina of her blood.
But with Mina Dracula goes further than with Lucy: he also lets Mina drink of his own blood, which creates a connection between them. During sunset and sun-rise Mina can under hypnoses experience whatever the Count is experiencing at that time. So they learn that the Count is on his way back to his castle over water. The group, consisting of Van Helsing, the Harkers, Holmwood, Morris and Seward, decides to go after him by land, using Mina's connection with him to know where he is.
At last they meet the Count on the Borgo Pass, where he is being brought by gypsies. They manage to defeat the Count by stabbing him through the heart, but sadly Quincey Morris dies as a consequence of the wound he got trying to get past the gypsies.



Author & background:
Bram Stoker was born as Abraham Stoker in 1847 in Dublin, Ireland.
He was the son of a civil servant. He studied mathematics at Dublin University and was president of the Philosophical Society. He worked as a civil servant in Dublin, and during this period he wrote dramatic criticism. He was a huge admirer of Henry Irving, which led him to becoming his touring manager and secretary in 1887. He wrote multiple books, of which almost only Dracula is remembered. His other work includes "The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland" (1878), about his time as a civil servant, "Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving" (1906), about his time working for Henry Irving. He also wrote "The Mystery of the Sea" (1902) and "The Lady of the Shroud" (1909).
Dracula sold over a million copies when it was first published and up till today people are still buying Stoker's most famous novel.
Bram Stoker died in 1912.
Many films were made about "Dracula", the first being "Nosferatu" (1922), for which was given no official consent by Stokers widow, so that of this movie almost al the copies were destroyed. In 1931 a movie (with sound!) was made about "Dracula", staring Bela Lugosi as the (hardly English speaking) Count. Many Dracula movies followed, including comedies and many sequels to the original story. The latest movie by the director Francis Ford Copola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" keeps reasonably good up with the original book, although the Count has been given a more gentle and loving side to his personality.

Personal opinion: "Dracula" is most certainly a very exiting book, although a bit dull in the beginning, because the story has to be built up, and it takes about two hundred pages for vampire ever to be mentioned, although that does keep the suspense alive. At the end however everything goes very quick and happens within a few pages. But even though the novel is told by letters and diary-entries, there is hardly any fact that is being told more than one time, like happens in a lot of other letter novels.
A down side of this book is that it is in one aspect very much a book not of this time: women are considered not to think and to just be there to take care for their husbands and to have children. For a century ago that was normal thinking though, so it is to be expected from a book written in 1897 that it has hardly any feminism in it.

Stoker has done the brilliant thing of taking an old superstitious believe that is known all over the world, although in different form and by many names, and combining it with the history of one of the cruelest rulers that ever were: Vlad Tepes, the Romanian ruler that was known for spearing his enemies on wooden stakes, who had the nickname "Dracula", son of the dragon, thus creating the most famous bloodsucking creature ever and a story that even a century after it was first published still manages to find a great audience. Still the Vampire is an often used topic in movies, television series (even in Sesame Street, Count Count) and books, something that probably had never happened hadn't it been for Dracula.