Dracula By Bram Stoker English Literature Essay

Very famous for introducing Count Dracula and the novel tell the story of Count Dracula a vampire that have been seeking his dead love for hundred years but he finally found it In a young woman named Mina Murray that live in London that takes him to seek her but at the same time a group of men and the famous Van Helsing want to kill count Dracula they unleashes a battle between Dracula and Van helsing

Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature.

Characters Details:

Primary Characters-

Count Dracula:

A centuries-old vampire and Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula inhabits a crumbling castle in the Carpathian Mountains. He can assume the form of an animal, control the weather, and he is stronger than twenty men. His powers are limited, however for instance, he cannot enter a victim’s home unless invited, cannot cross water unless carried, and is rendered powerless by daylight.

Abraham Van Helsing:

A Dutch professor, his pupil is Dr. Seward. Called upon to cure the ailing Lucy Westenra, Van Helsing’s contributions are essential in the fight against Dracula. Unlike his comrades, Van Helsing is not blinded by the limitations of Western medicine: he knows that he faces a force that cannot be treated with traditional science and reason. Knowledgeable about vampire folklore, Van Helsing becomes Dracula’s chief antagonist and the leader of the group that hunts Dracula down and destroys him.

Jonathan Harker

A lawyer, whose firm sends him to Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with Dracula. Harker quickly finds himself a prisoner in the castle and barely escapes with his life. He demonstrates a fierce curiosity to discover the true nature of his captor and a strong will to escape. He help Van Helsing defeating Dracula

Mina Murray:

Jonathan Harker’s fiancée. Mina is a practical young beautiful woman who works as a schoolmistress. Eventually victimized by Dracula herself and the best friend of the Lucy Westenra who is the first victim of Dracula

Lucy Westenra:

Beautiful young woman, every man who meets her wants to marry her or save her life, or both. Lucy chooses Arthur to be his wife, but is Dracula’s first victim and she became in a vampire that eats the blood of the children but later she is killed by Van Helsing group in her tomb.

John Seward:

A talented young doctor he is Van Helsing’s pupil. Seward is the administrator of an insane asylum not far from Dracula’s English home and the first to see Lucy Westenra after she was injured by Dracula. Sewer notes are better than the other because I took the story through the eyes of Seward

Arthur Holmwood:

The one that Lucy choose to marry with, he is a sensitive man an is in the moment when they have to kill Lucy in her tomb he also lose his family in a short period he also finances the vampire hunt and lets everyone use his title to gain access to information about Dracula.

Quincey P. Morris:

Quincey is from Texas. He is an old friend of Arthur Holmwood’s and John Seward’s. He also wants to be helpful whenever he can. It is his seeming lack of importance that shows his personality Quincey ultimately sacrifices his life in order to rid the world of Dracula’s influence.

Second Characters-

Renfield: An inmate in Dr. Seward’s insane asylum. He is seduced by Dracula, who he hails as his “Master”. When he is at his best, he is polite and intelligent and he tries to do the right thing. When he is at his worst, he eats insects for their souls and is completely vulnerable to Dracula’s will. It is he who allows the Count into Seward’s home he is some kind of servant to Dracula

Peter Hawkins: Jonathan’s boss and mentor. He is very generous and has great faith in Jonathan, both as a solicitor and as a person.

Plot

This story begins with the journal of a man named Jonathan Harker who has travelled to Transylvania to give some documents about the new property in London to count Dracula, when Jonathan arrives to the castle and meet count Dracula he describes Dracula like a pale thin old man and finds strange the castle of count Dracula and have bad feelings about it, then he start to feel dark presence and hearing noises , when he tried to escape from the castle Count Dracula trap him on the castle with other three women vampires, Dracula prepared a ship to go to London . Jonathan has a fiancée, her name is Mina Murray who is waiting for the return of Jonathan, meanwhile she went to the wedding of her friend Lucy Westenra and Arthur Holmwood ,next in the night Mina see that Lucy was in the courtyard and she was attacked by a dark form of monster but when she went to help Lucy she only find her injured and nothing more, then her husband Arthur called the doctor John Seward who Is the one that give the treatment to Lucy that consist of giving her a lot of blood transfusions but is seems to have any good results so Seward decides to call his mentor Van Helsing who come from Amsterdam, when he arrives he checked Lucy and he tell them that Lucy cannot be saved them she die.

Jonathan has escaped an returned to London thinking about nothing happened in that castle was real when suddenly his boss Peter Hawkins died and leave a great fortune to Jonathan , then he marries Mina. One day Jonathan see Dracula but he can’t remember because Dracula has recovered his youth because the blood of his victims then Jonathan went unconscious and that allow mina to read his journal and know what happenen in the castle. Soon there is a rumor of a monster in London that sucks blood from people ,that take Van Helsing to gather Mina, Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey, Seward and to seek Lucy’s tomb and watch how Lucy wake up in vampire form and they killed her by cutting off her head , Van helsing prepare Mina, Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey and Seward to kill Dracula, but in the search Van helsing realized that Mina was on danger so Helsing and sewer went into Mina’s room and found Jonathan unconscious and mina in the arms of Dracula drinking blood from him, next Dracula disappear. When they think that all is lost Van Helsing tell them that if they kill Dracula after the next day Mina would return back to normal then they use Mina to led them to Dracula’s place and when they arrive to Transylvania they found the box that have the body of the count but it was protected by some gypsies but they won the battle an kill count Dracula and that make Mina back to normal but Sewer got bad injured and sadly he die, but at least Mina and Jonathan live happily that’s the end of the novel

Personal Evaluation and conclusion-

Book strengths:

in this book is written like in journals and letters , and give the point of view of almost all the characters that helps to get in their thoughts and to near feel as they feel in the novel, I liked that so much because this novel don’t have only one narration

Book Weakness:

It can be very heavy for some people because it is divided in journals and different points of view so it can be hard for some people to relate and to follow the story but it has its benefits

Sources:

Dracula by Bram stoker – book in Pdf

Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula

Horror novels review- http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/horror/dracula/bookreviews/bramstokersdracula.html

Dracula Characters- http://www.bookrags.com/notes/dra/CHR.html