Contemporary English 3Ivica Kolarević, as.Domagoj Šokičić

Bram Stoker: Dracula

Dracula is an 1897 novel written by Irish author Bram Stoker. It has been assigned to

many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, and invasion literature. In

spite of the fact that it was written in the late nineteenth century, it would be best described as

a gothic novel, a literary genre that made its appearance in England in the middle of the

eighteenth century. The beginning of Dracula is set in Transylvania, in southeastern Europe at

the end of the nineteenth century, which indicates the gothic nature of the novel. From there,

the action moves to Whitby, a town on the Yorkshire coast of Great Britain and the rest of the

action takes places around and in London, the capital of Great Britain.

Dracula is primarily told through characters’ journals. That writing style helps us to

identify and understand one’s reactions and emotions. There are many characters that are

considered to be the protagonists of the novel, but being the first one to introduce himself to

the reader, I consider Jonathan Harker to be the main protagonist of Dracula. In addition to

Jonathan Harker, many think that Van Helsing, John Seward, and Mina Murray are those who

initiate literary action. At the beginning of the novel, Jonathan Harker engages us into his own

world and describes his reason to travel to Castle Dracula in the Eastern European country of

Transylvania. Traveling through the country, local residents warn him about evil and strange

happenings in their country. Frightened by the words of peasants Harker cautiously enters the

old castle and acquaints himself with Dracula. Dracula appears to be a very intelligent,

educated, and well-mannered gentleman. Not long after that, Jonathan Harker realizes that he

is Dracula’s prisoner in the castle and finds out that the count possesses inexplicable powers

and evil ambitions. In parallel with this action, in England, Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker’s

fiancée visits her friend Lucy at the seaside town of Whitby. After a Russian ship was

wrecked on the shore, and all of its crew is either missing or dead, Lucy begins sleepwalking.

The only cargo on the Russian ship was a set of fifty boxes of earth shipped from Castle

Dracula. One night, Mina Murray finds Lucy, sleepwalking in the churchyard, with a dark

entity with glowing red eyes next to her. Getting closer to Lucy, a mysterious entity

disappears and Mina finds Lucy shivering, ill with two red marks on her throat. Not being

able to diagnose Lucy’s illness, Mina and Dr. Seward go to Professor Van Helsing to ask for

help. From this point on, one can recognize many characteristics of a gothic novel. Gothic

novel usually have a beautiful young lady who is victimized by a tall, dark villain, as the main

protagonist. The reader follows her suffering and unsuccessful attempts to break free and at

one point a young, handsome, rich hero comes to the her rescue. Professor Van Helsing seems

to be successful in helping Lucy fight the illness, using the garlic, a traditional vampire and

vampire-bassed illnesses repellent. But Lucy’s mother’s ignorance (removing the garlic from

Lucy’s room) leaves Lucy vulnerable to the next attack. Seward’s and Van Helsings’ attempts

to further help Lucy are in vain, and Lucy’s death comes in form of wolf attack. After Lucy’s

death, reports indicate strange attacks on young children. Van Helsing, suspicious that Lucy

may have become vampire, summons Dr. Sewards and the others to pursue Lucy and kill her.

Upon finding her, Van Helsing’s suspicion comes to be true as they saw Lucy as an un-dead,

vampire. They killed Lucy in the only fashion known to work on vampires: stake through the

heart, beheading and filling the mouth of a vampire with garlic. After Lucy is killed and her

soul saved, the fellowship pledges to kill Dracula. One can figure out that Dracula, the main

villain of the novel, does not make appearances often, but whenever Stoker focuses on

Dracula, the story comes alive, and the reader finds himself in a very exciting and horrified

environment. The last part of the novel; the fellowship’s adventure of finding Dracula, their

journey through the unknown, pursuing Dracula across land and sea, Dracula taking Mina

with him, death of three female vampires, portrayal of Dracula’s death; provides exactly that

kind of atmosphere. Dracula’s death comes to be the universal way of vampires dying.

In writing Dracula, Bram Stoker manages to compose, in my opinion, the best horror-

fiction novel. His writing style is fluent, consistent, and picturesque, his horror based plot is

exciting and engaging, the characters are brilliantly well-made. One cannot go wrong with

reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula.