Comparative Literature: The comparison between the book Dracula to the movie is that in the movie starts with legend of Vlad the impaler which is not in the book. In the movie Dracula has a shadow that operates separately from his body movements. Character of Dracula is less threatening initially in the book than in the movie. In the movie, Dracula appears as a wolf rather than the wolf escaping from the zoo being controlled by him which is not in the book. Lucy does not seem very ill compared to the description in the book. Dracula only appears as a bat briefly at the end of the movie in the abbey scene, not at the windows of the house.…
Bram Stoker’s book Dracula begins with a journal entry by Jonathan Harker. Harker is an English lawyer traveling to Transylvania, an Eastern European country, to meet with Count Dracula for business purposes. In his first journal entry, Jonathan records his trip to Dracula’s castle. Along the way local peasants warn him not proceed on to his destination especially so late at night. The worried peasants keep repeating the word “vampire” and give him crucifixes to ward off evil. Harker does get a bit scared but he still decides to continue on to the castle. When Jonathan arrives to his final destination, the friendly and gently Count greets him. During his stay at the castle, Harker feels more and more uncomfortable as certain events take place.…
Between the chapters of five and seven, Stoker used many signs to show that Dracula had entered England. One of the more prominent signs was seen in a newspaper clipping from August 8th, about through a storm that had hit a ship near Whitby. The storm set the mood of the chapter to be dark, gloomy and evil and Stoker described it using many literary devices. For instance, before the storm approached:…
The most prominent double that validate how Dracula is a representation of human evil and humans as the double edged sword is between Van Helsing and Dracula himself. Van Helsing is an illustrious doctor sent to take on Dracula. Dracula is the evil while Van Helsing is the representative of all the good in the world. As an authoritative figure in the story, Van Helsing has a thirst for power among the other characters. He feels the need to always take the lead. Dracula is similar in this way, in he has a thirst for blood. His thirst for blood grants his authority over their personal choices and freedoms. For example in Chapter 23, Van Helsing takes control over Mina when he hypnotizes her to try and track Dracula’s movements. In this way, Van Helsing has complete control over Mina. Dracula and Van Helsing use forms of mental manipulations to get what they want. Dracula has a direct mental connection to Mina. Their similarity is apparent when Van Helsing compared himself to Dracula. Van Helsing said, “our old fox is wily; oh! So wily and we must follow with wile. I too am wily and I think his mind in a little while” (Stoker…
Cesar Chavez was an American farm worker labor who was a leader and civil rights activist. Later, in 1962, Chávez founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), later renamed the United Farm Workers (UFW), which became the voice of migrant farm workers throughout the United States. Cesar Chavez tactics were successful because his childhood experiences with discrimination made him get the courage to fight for their rights; besides he became passionate about improving the way of life for farm workers and for his people; additionally he also used nonviolence tactics, for example boycotts and strikes, nevertheless when the California Senate considered a bill to memorialize Chavez by making his birthday, March 31, a state holiday, the masks came off. The Senate approved the bill, 23-0, and sent it to the Assembly. But 16 senators abstained. The dissenters, Republicans, who opposed the bill, didn't even have the guts to make a counter-argument for fear of appearing anti-Latino, given the affection that many, but not all, Latinos feel for Chavez. This fear is not unfounded; Latino voters make for a high percentage in California today.…
One question has puzzled men who try to answer it since the beginning of human existence, this question being which of the two is stronger, good or evil. The question has been addressed throughout history in many cultures and in many different ways. It is seen often in literature and can be presented through many techniques. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the eternal struggle between good and evil is played out between two characters who are sharp contrasts to one another, Count Dracula and Abraham Van Helsing. These foil characters are used by the author to illuminate an important theme of the novel, the power struggle between good and evil.…
Vampire stories have been popular for years. One such vampire is Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel. Dracula drives the plot in many ways, but he is not always the nice guy. Not everyone like him; in fact most are scared of him. Dracula is dynamic, but the antagonist for several reasons. Dracula is evil, scares everyone, and he kills a lot of people.…
In order for Seward, Mina, Harker, Morris, and Helsing to defeat Dracula they had to work together with both technology and their own faith. The character would often find themselves asking for God’s help and saying the phase “God’s will be done.” With the increase in their Catholic faith, the characters were able to believe in their religious tools and defeat Dracula. With faith and hope on Catholicism, they were able to achieve their goal.…
In Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula is depicted as the definition of evil. Throughout the novel, there is no doubt about his nefarious intentions and murderous pastimes as he proclaims, “My revenge has just begun! I spread it over centuries and time is on my side “ (Brams 339, ch 22). Thus it is apparent in the novel that Dracula is evil. Brams made his definition of evil quite clear through Dracula’s sexualized, violent, and sacrilegious actions. Evil was elucidated as an overtly sexually driven being, who is fueled by violence, and does not follow God. To Stoker, this was a definite ideal of evil befitting of his time, so then, why are will still obsessed with Dracula today, why has this tale in particular persevered? Again, the clear declaration of Dracula as an antagonistic murderer still fulfills humanity's desire for a definitive ideal of good and evil, over time that ideal has not faded into the background. We as human beings have gravitated towards such a clear-cut definition of evil, and rarely have we come across one so obvious as Dracula’s tale. We yearn for a separate ideal of good like that of Jonathan Harker to defeat the looming threat of evil of Dracula. Thus, we are drawn to Dracula because of how clear-cut the lines between good and evil are in the novel and how we yearn for our reality to parallel this black and white…
“Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremonial” (Turner, The Ritual Process 95). Arnold van Gennep’s original concept of liminality is a central theme to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It provides depth and understanding behind many of the superstitious beliefs and occurrences throughout the novel. Liminality is the threshold and the presence of an in between state occurring within rituals, natural events, and supernatural beings among a variety of other happenings. Many of these are touched upon in Dracula including, but not limited to, the half-being, physical boundaries, and the nature of the vampire.…
The words of dracula mean more than is read by most. The Symbols throughout Dracula, have often been thought to mean many diffrent things throughout history. It is believed by most that a large number of the themes are catholic oriented, Which is very understandable due to the books time period and what the book consists of. Also a number of the symbols stood against females being anything but a mother or wife. The battle of good versus evil, in this book, stood for much more than most would pick up, saying that God will protect you and that Christianity will always combat the evils of the world. The constant theme of blood througout the book also shows it connection to the Bible and Jesus.…
Other than being remade into other forms such as movies and cartoons, Dracula was a relatively new concept during the time of its publication and had a major impact to its surrounding society. Today, the novel’s uses of multiple unique elements of writing such as dramatic irony, the everyman, and suspense/mystery continues to speak to interests of readers. In addition, the character itself, like any other supernatural beings including ghosts and witches, naturally intriguing us just based on many people’s love of getting scared; Dracula is portrayed in the novel as a completely evil and manipulative character that feasts upon the lives of mortals for his survival. Throughout the course of “Dracula,” Stoker used an epistolary form of writing not only for its prevalence in the Victorian era, but also for its effectiveness in portraying first person point-of-views and first-hand accounts for multiple characters. By doing so, he was able to make readers feel as if they themselves could have been in the characters’ shoes. Because it was an epistolary format and readers knew exactly what each character knew and did not know, his application of dramatic irony became clearer than other literary pieces as well. Dramatic irony was used in the course of the novel in multiple ways. The Victorian readers already knew of the vampire concept by the 18th century and Dracula was written in the early-mid 19th century. As they read the novel, they generally would have known what Dracula was, and had a similar idea to what we think now, before Jonathan Harker’s realization of Dracula’s intentions (Stoker 22). Another way dramatic irony was added in the novel was the placement of each journal. For instance, readers were notified first of Jonathan’s experiences in his journal and then Mina’s journal was revealed with her wondering about the condition of her finace (Stoker 27,…
Dracula is a story about the perennial battle between good and evil involving Dracula as the antagonist. This war dates back as far as God versus the Devil or the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch in Oz. It is black and white, right? But wait, wasn’t it God who drowned the entire human population at one point and killed every Egyptian firstborn son at another. Was Lucifer a revolutionary who spoke out against dictatorship and was cast down to Hell for it? The Wicked Witch’s name already spells out how we should view her but is it not well within her rights to inherit her dead sister’s shoes? Instead we see them on the feet of her murderer, does that make her Wicked? Why does The “Good” Witch leave out the fact the shoes are magic until after she allows the innocent Dorothy carry out the deed of murdering her rival? The maxim goes “There are two sides to every story” and I have to whole-heartedly agree with it. No human being is wholly good and neither are they completely evil. In this essay, I will examine the themes of good and evil and attempt to change the way you view Dracula, its characters and plot.…
I first met “Shock Illusionist” and “Anti-Conjurer,” Dan Sperry, back in 2011. His morgue-nificent Magic Show was the headlining act at the now defunct Times Scare New York City, which was located on (the infamous) 42nd Street. Times Scare NYC featured: a year-round haunted house, restaurant (with two bars) and a lounge. Its old fashioned theatre was reminiscent of the Midnight Spookshows, and this is where Dan Sperry regularly performed to amaze audiences. The building that housed this atrocious attraction was once a crematorium during the Roaring Twenties, and some have claimed it was truly haunted.…
In the novel, Dracula by Bram Stoker, he developed the writing of his novel by addressing the struggles between a modern society of progress, science, and technology with superstitions, folk beliefs and from the past. Bram stoker became interested in ancient superstitions including one from Cluj in Transylvania, Romania. He was a sickly child whose mother used to tell him ghost stories. Throughout the novel, two characters addressed these behaviors, Abraham Van Helsing, a Dutch professor who is a doctor and a lawyer and a philosopher and metaphysician. Also, Dr. John Seward a young doctor who studies psychological and owns his own asylum. Both of them showed their work by stopping the Count Dracula and killing him and going through rough obstacles.…