Bram Stoker 1897 Dracula 

 Contents Author Mini Biography Settings Characters Plot Summary Literary Elements Quotes From Text Critical Analysis Work Division References

 Author Mini Biography Abraham (Bram) Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1847. Until the age of seven, he was bedridden, always on the verge of death. Nonetheless, after recovering fully from his illness, he became a star athlete at Trinity College, in Dublin. Although Stoker managed to write a number of novels, he was not primarily an author by profession. In 1878 he began to work with his friend, the famous actor Henry Irving, as a manager at London's Lyceum Theatre. His first novel, The Snake's Pass, was published in 1890. That same year he began work on Dracula, which was first published in 1897. In 1900, a paperback version was released. Few people still read The Mystery of the Sea (1902), The Jewel of the Stars (1903) or The Lair of the White Worm (1911); Dracula is generally considered Stoker's only great novel. Dracula is an example of Gothic literature, a genre that began over a century earlier with Henry Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). Few Gothic novels, though, have enjoyed the long-lasting popularity of Dracula. While some doubt its value as literature, there can be little doubt of its longevity and allure. However, Dracula was one of the last books of the genre. Nonetheless, its effect can be seen in modern-day writers such as Joyce Carol Oates and Anne Rice. Part of that allure comes from the dark sexual implications of the novel. The irony is that Stoker himself believed immoral sexual content should be censored, a view he out forth in an article called "The Censorship of Fiction" published in Nineteenth Century and After in 1908. Bram Stoker died in 1912

Settings  The setting of Dracula is medieval Europe at the end of the ninteenth century. Stoker relies heavily on the conventions of Gothic fiction, a genre that was extremely popular in the early nineteenth century. Gothic fiction traditionally includes elements such as gloomy castles, sublime landscapes, and innocent maidens threatened by ineffable evil. Stoker modernizes this tradition in his novel, however, moving from the conventional setting of Dracula’s ruined castle into the bustle of modern England. Stoker portrays the collision of two disparate worlds—the count’s ancient Transylvania and the protagonist’s modern London.

Characters  Dracula is a Transylvanian count who has been "Un-Dead" for several hundred years. He keeps his vitality by sucking blood from live victims which motivates his desire to move from the barren and desolate Transylvania, which is sparsely populated, to the more populous England. Jonathan Harker is the London solicitor who is sent to Transylvania to finalize the transfer of real estate in England to Count Dracula. He keeps account of his stay at the Castle Dracula by journal. Harker is engaged to Mina Murray. Miss Mina (Wilhelmina) Murray is the fiancée of Jonathan Harker; is an assistant schoolmistress. She will later become Mina Harker and will assist in tracking down Count Dracula. Miss Lucy Westenra is Mina Murray's closest friend. Draculas first victim. After her "death," she becomes one of the "Un-Dead." Arthur Holmwood is A vigorous man, twenty-nine years old, the only son of Lord Godalming; Holmwood will later inherit this title after the death of his father. His affection for Lucy convinces him join in hunting Dracula. Dr. John Seward is the head of a lunatic asylum, Seward is roughly the same age as Holmwood and is one of Lucy Westenra's suitors. He is an intelligent and determined man. Quincey P. Morris is another of Lucy's suitors. Morris is an American from Texas. His great wealth allows him to pay many of the expenses incurred in tracking down Dracula. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing is an M.D., a Ph.D., and a D.Litt., as well as an attorney. He is a lonely, unmarried old bachelor who is both kindly and fatherly. He is from Amsterdam, and his profound knowledge of medicine, folklore, and the occult allows him to take complete charge of Lucy's illness, which he identifies immediately as vampirism. He is also chiefly in charge of the strategy of tracking down Count Dracula. R. M. Renfield is fifty-nine-year-old mad patient of Dr. Seward; he also comes under the influence of Dracula.

Plot Summary  Dracula begins with the journal of Johnathan Harker, a young solicitor on the way to Transylvania to give information to Count Dracula about his new estate in London. Dracula takes the Harker prisoner, he witnesses many strange and evil things before escaping into the night. He later decides he must have been mad. Meanwhile, back in England, Johnathan’s fiancée, Mina, visits her friend Lucy. Lucy just decided to marry Arthur Holmwood after refusing other suitors. Dracula, who is moving to London to feast on more humans, happens to land in the area Mina and Lucy are staying. His first victim is Lucy. Dr. Seward, who, by coincidence, runs the insane asylum next door to Dracula's primary London home, tries to treat Lucy's 'illness.' He calls in from Amsterdam his friend and mentor Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing figures out what is wrong with Lucy, but cannot save her. By this time, Jonathan has made it home to England and is happily married to Mina. Van Helsing brings together Mina, Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey, Seward and himself and convinces everyone of the reality of vampires and the danger of this particular one, who was in his human life a great warrior and thinker. They have already The men find out about Dracula's activities and step up their efforts. They manage to drive him out of England, but realize that if they fail to finish the job then Mina will become a vampire anyway. They follow his trail to Transylvania, where he and his faithful gypsies manage to keep outwitting them. Finally, minutes before he reaches his castle, the entire team descends upon him while he is being transported in his box of Transylvanian earth. Jonathan and Quincey kill him, though not before Quincey himself is mortally wounded. With Mina free from her fate, the rest return to England and remain lifelong friends.

 Literary Elements Tone - Gothic, dark, melodramatic, righteous Point of view  - Shifts among the first-person perspectives of several characters Themes  -The promise of Christian salvation; the consequences of modernity; the dangers of female sexual expression Conflict - Stoker's novel deals in general with the conflict between the world of the past — full of folklore, legend, and religious piety — and the emerging modern world of technology, positivism, and secularism. rational/superstitious conflict

Quotes from Text  "When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demonaic fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there." Chapter 2, pg. 28 ...[A] man, tall and thin, and ghastly pale... I crept behind It, and gave It my knife; but the knife went through It, empty as the air." Chapter 7, pg. 93 "I don't want to talk to you: you don't count now; the Master is at hand." Chapter 8, pg. 111 "I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave..." Chapter 8, pg. 113 "It will be a painful task for you, I know, old friend, but it will be for her sake, and I must not hesitate to ask, or you to act." Chapter 9, pg. 121 "I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body." Chapter 15, pg. 221 "As he [Van Helsing] placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it - had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white hot metal." Chapter 22, pg. 327

 Symbolism Religious The folk legends and traditions Van Helsing draws upon suggest that the most effective weapons in combating supernatural evil are symbols of unearthly good. Indeed, in the fight against Dracula, these symbols of good take the form of the icons of Christian faith, such as the crucifix. The novel is so invested in the strength and power of these Christian symbols that it reads, at times, like a propagandistic Christian promise of salvation. The vampires’ drinking of blood echoes the Christian rite of Communion, but in a perverted sense. Rather than gain eternal spiritual life by consuming wine that has been blessed to symbolize Christ’s blood, Dracula drinks actual human blood in order to extend his physical life. The importance of blood in Christian mythology elevates the battle between Van Helsing’s warriors and the count to the significance of a holy war or crusade. The Weird Sisters The three beautiful vampires Harker encounters in Dracula’s castle are both his dream and his nightmare—indeed, they embody both the dream and the nightmare of the Victorian male imagination in general. The sisters represent what the Victorian ideal stipulates women should not be—voluptuous and sexually aggressive—thus making their beauty both a promise of sexual fulfillment and a curse. These women offer Harker more sexual gratification in two paragraphs than his fiancée Mina does during the course of the entire novel. However, this sexual proficiency threatens to undermine the foundations of a male-dominated society by compromising men’s ability to reason and maintain control. For this reason, the sexually aggressive women in the novel must be destroyed. The Czarina Catherine The Czarina Catherine is the name of the ship in which Dracula flees England and journeys back to his homeland. The name of ship is taken from the Russian empress who was notorious for her -promiscuity. This reference is particularly suggestive of the threat that hangs over Mina Harker’s head: should Van Helsing and his men fail, she will be transformed into the same creature of appetites as Lucy.

 Work Division Title, Author, Publishing Date- Dustin Author Mini Biography- Bree Settings- Dustin Character Discriptions- Rianna Plot Summary- Amy Literary Elements- Rianna Quotes- Amy Critical Analysis- All Work Division- Bree References- Bree

Critical Analysis  What I took away from the story is a newly acquired understanding of the tale. Though the idea of Dracula is introduced to everyone sometime early on, you cannot fully understand Bram Stokers meaning of the story until you read the book. The story of Dracula was very interesting, and at some times exciting. But in my opinion it was slow paced and was packed with a lot of distracting dialogue. I think Dracula had a lot of thought provoking subject material and good historical references making the story more believable.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Unabridged. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1897. References  http://media-imdb.com/media/rm347707648tt0021814 Http://www.bookrags.com/notes/fra/SUM.html www.cliffsnotes.com www.wikipedia.com www.sparknotes.com Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Unabridged. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1897.