DRACULA

By Bram Stoker

This work,”Dracula” is a novel written by Bram Stoker.

Origin of the name ”Dracula”.The word for dragon in romania is
“drac” and “ul” is the definitive article.Vlad the 3 rd’s father thus came to
be known as “Vlad Dracul” or Vlad the Dragon”.
The myth of the Vampire takes root in the old slawian belief.The
tradition says that a vampire is an undeath deamon,similar to a bat.His
studies of vampires,Vlad Tepes and transsylvania gave him the information
and inspiration to write his famous book.
One interesting thing about Dracula is the very modern style-even by
standards 100 years later.There is no central narrator-instead the viewpoint
shifts between several characters.This book is comprised entirely using
the journals and correspondence of the various people in the story.
The thing I like most about this book is the way it is written.it is written
in the form of letters,diary entires,notes and newspaper articles-this is
from the characters’ viewpoint.This book is very good because it goes into
detail and gives descriptions of people and places.
“Dracula” is a gothic novel which starts with Johnathan Harker's
Journal. Harker is an English solicitor engaged to marry Mina Murray. He
reluctantly leaves behind his young fiancée, and heads for Transylvania to
help Count Dracula purchase a house in the suburbs of London. From the
beginning, we see that Johnathan Harker is naive. When he asks the driver
if he knows Count Dracula, the driver and his wife say yes, cross
themselves and so nothing more. The reader is aware of the dangers that
lay before Harker, but he is unmoved. He says on May 5 when he awaits the
driver:” I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words,
for there were many nationalities in the crowd; so I quietly got
my polglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out.”
In “Jonathan Harker’s journal” we find some compound words
like:”full blown solicitor”,”clean-shaven”.
Stoker uses well the techniques of the Gothic novel,and especially
the lack of demarcation between appearance an reality:” I think I must
have fallen asleep” and ”kept dreaming of the incident” for “it
seemd to be repeated endlessy”, and now,” looking back,it is like
a sort of awful nightmare” and the lack of demarcation between
rational and irrational:” This startled me”,but as the effect was only
momentary,I “took it that my eyes deceived me straining
through the darkness”.”I could not see any cause for it”.

1
 Some : -- visual images: -“ I could see even in the dim light…”
-“..and I saw through the chinks the gleam of a
coming light” .

--auditory images:- “…through these frowing walls and

dark window openings it was not likely that my voice could penetrate”
- “ I heard a heavy step approaching behind the
great door”
• Rhetorical questions:-“what sort of place had I come to,and
among what king of people?”
-:”what sort of grim adventure was it on which I had
embarked?”
-“ was this a customary incident in the life of a
solicitor’s clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a
foreigner?”