Preview

Symbolism Of Dracula

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
227 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Symbolism Of Dracula
The plot of Dracula itself mirrors colonization in Great Britain. Jonathan Harker, just like Great Britain, has to travel to far and unknown lands for the purpose of business. One of the main reasons for colonization in Great Britain was for economic growth. The plot continues to mimic this by Dracula buying property that is foreign to him. Eventually Jonathan Harker is imprisoned by Dracula and as time progresses he becomes very uneasy of his new surroundings and sees the powers of where he is by expressing, “there is something so strange about this place and all in it that I cannot but feel uneasy” (30). This beginning of the plot expresses the fear of the unknown. British people are traveling great lengths to discover new land. With this

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    During his time in Castle Dracula, Jonathan Harker encounters three vampire women when he falls asleep in what used to be a lady’s sitting room. When he awakens in the middle of the night, Jonathan sees three women in the room and two send the third to ‘kiss him’. Before she is able to, Dracula appears and drives them off, leaving Jonathan to wonder if the whole experience was merely a dream. The whole experience sets off Jonathan’s curiosity and drives him to continue exploring the castle and eventually escape Dracula altogether. This experience also instills the fear of vampires in Jonathan that causes him to have a breakdown multiple times, the fear that is only dispelled when Mina herself must be rescued from Dracula’s clutches. This instance…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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.…

    • 209 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Stoker’s Dracula, by contrast, is refined and enthralling. He has transmutated from a monster of sorts to a mysterious seducer, from a coldhearted “beast” of incontestable evil to a complex human arousing a strange sympathy and blurring the lines between good and evil. Count Dracula is now an attractive, sophisticated aristocrat who moves about easily in polite society. Dracula’s motivation throughout the film is the pursuit of his lost love, reincarnated in Mina Harker.…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In an analysis of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and one of many film adaptions, Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it is very evident that the female characters within the movie and the book are remarkably different. Not only is the love interest between Mina (Ryder) Harker and Dracula (Oldman) an addition to the movie, but the extreme sexualization of all the female characters within the film adaption portray the women in a new light. Through the distinction in character portrayal between the movie and the book, the underlying contrast between the “New Woman” and the Victorian Woman become very identifiable.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written just before the turn of the 19th century; the beginning of this new era threatened a conservative, unchanging culture, and had people of all classes and religions in England on edge. Social fears such as the fall of the British Empire, the beginning of a new movement that would become what we now know as feminism, and changes in gender roles, gripped the nation. It is interesting the note that this not too dissimilar to the fear that gripped the world of the ‘millennium bug’ in 1999. Written and published in 1897, Dracula contains many of the fears that were in the minds of the Victorian public in this dawning age of social change. The British Empire was threatened by unrest and calls for independence in its…

    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Apocalypticism In Dracula

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Apocalypticism that pertains to the religious beliefs which talks about the end of the world at a specific point of time. This too has a deeper reach in the theme of Dracula with Dracula expanding his reach beyond the seas and performing the role of Satan as the evil bearer. The believers plan for this event mimicking to the events of the Noah in the bible in order to save themselves for the end of world. The same way the characters in the story fights against the evil and become successful in delaying the end of days. Jonathan’s visit to Transylvania drops him amidst the myths and occult of the place. He questions and wonders the superstition beliefs the local people has, for instance of crossing their fingers as a crucifix. The similar warning…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dracula Dynamic Quotes

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dracula drives the plot in several ways. He decides to come to England, which is why he invites Johnathan into his castle. “ I had the idea to go to London.” (Stoker) London is also where Lucy lives. Dracula kills Lucy. Killing Lucy causes her to become a vampire.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I read Dracula as a criticism of an individualistic search for power. Take away the supernatural elements and the story is of a man who gains power by ruining the lives of others. Bram Stoker’s motivation for writing Dracula was likely not one-dimensional. While there is the obvious attempt to play on the fear of foreigners, I think it is incredibly important to remember that Dracula is not the typical foreigner. Even when you disregard the fact that he is a vampire, he is still a count. There is quite plainly an element of class warfare. The story is interesting because it paints Dracula as evil and makes sure to leave out any elements of his past. He is pure evil with no redeeming factors. He doesn’t have the innocent start of Frankenstein, the upstanding alter ego of Dr. Jekyll, or some…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Final Essay

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein, a book by Mary Shelley about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein, exhibits many elements and has lots of hidden symbolism within the text. My creature really shows just how unique this book is by having each body part represent some element of the book. The head of the monster is supposed to represent how quick the monster learns and how reading affected his growth. The monster learns language very quickly “My days were spent in close attention, that I might more speedily master the language; and I may boast that I improved more rapidly than the Arabian, who understood very little and conversed in broken accents, whilst I comprehended and could imitate almost every word that was spoken” (13. 12). This shows how the monster learns very fast, faster than a normal…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dracula, a vampire that serves as an anti-Christ, is a human embodiment that the Victorians fear and hope to destroy. Stoker describes him as a prominent figure of grieving evil, a curse that is a disgrace to the Victorian society. Having seen Count Dracula being ostracized from deviating from Christianity and creating his own religion, Stoker intends to persuade readers that believing in such religion is required and essential to human survival.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “There is reason that all things are as they are...” (Stoker 17). Outlasting countless other tales of its time, Bram Stoker’s lore of “Dracula” began as and still continues to be a classic, frightening novel and despite how some would classify it on only a single one end of the spectrum, it holds true elements of both literary and commercial fiction. He uses various techniques of writing, such as the epistolary plot structure and dramatic irony, and elements, including suspense, to present an unexpected, fear-inducing concept based on the xenophobic idea of the Victorian era.…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fog In Dracula

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dracula by Bram Stoker is a story about a vampire, Count Dracula, that holds Johnathan Harker captive in his castle and he eventually escapes after he has witnessed events that change him forever. Also in this story, Count Dracula bites two ladies Lucy and Mina. Lucy turns into a vampire after multiple encounters with Dracula and Dr. Steward, Dr. Van Helsing, Lord Godalming, and Quincy Morris free her from her vampire state. Then, Dracula forces Mina, who is happens to be Johnathan Harker’s wife, to drink his blood to become his slave. Dracula flees from the men after they decide to hunt and kill him. The men follow him back to his castle and catch him along the way killing him by cutting off his head and freeing Mina from her captivity to Dracula. Throughout this story, Stoker uses several elements…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The use of symbolism also strengthens the prevailing theme by tying in additional hidden messages to the novel. The process of Frankenstein relaying his story is painful for him because it is symbolic that he never learned from his mistakes or repented. He expresses this grief to Walton “I cannot describe to you the agony that these reflections inflicted upon me; I have tried to dispel them, but sorrow only increased with knowledge” (Shelley 83). Frankenstein’s story shows how his entire pursuit has brought him nothing but pain and grief. Yet despite telling this story and experiencing all his grief anew, he still does not fully reject the pursuit of excess knowledge. This is symbolic of him being in a state of denial which ties in to how he…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays