Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I was surrounded by vampires… Not literally, but some of the best vampire media was released in those two decades. TV shows like Forever Knight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Movies and books such as Once Bitten, Lost Boys, and Interview with the Vampire. Of course, they were all preceded by one of the greatest, Dark Shadows. So, it’s no surprise that vampires are easily one of my favorite monsters. It’s also no surprise that I loved Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Dracula is one of the most renowned horror stories of its time and beyond and is told as a collaboration of journals, letters, newspaper articles, and ships’ log entries. It opens with Jonathan Harker’s journal entries detailing his trek from Exeter to the Carpathian Mountains to work as an estate agent for Count Dracula. Harker recounts many odd and frightful events along that journey such as howling wolves, strange dreams, frightened horses, and several people crossing themselves when they hear of his destination.
“I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul.”
Upon Harker’s arrival, things are already not what they seem. Jonathan believes that he not only witnesses the Count’s ‘wickedly blazing eyes’ but that the man is up to some sort of depravity. He is consumed by this notion and ventures out at night and stumbles upon Dracula’s three brides. There are many moments in Stoker’s novel that are heavily steeped in morbid sexual undertones and this is one of the most prominent.
“Once again…welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”
This epistolary format tells the story of Dracula’s efforts to move from Transylvania to England in hopes of finding new blood and creating new vampires. Once the Demeter docks in Whitby, England, he encounters Lucy Westenra and she quickly falls under his spell. Eventually, Dracula is confronted by a group of men and women led by Abraham Van Helsing.
Bram Stoker laid the foundation for both gothic fiction and vampire culture. Count Dracula is the benchmark of what all gothic villains should be. The macabre atmosphere of Dracula has been copied though never captured many times since the novel’s release. While modern day vampires may sparkle, burst in flames on a sunny day, or die by a stake to the heart, Bram Stoker’s notorious villain is much more macabre and horrific in his gothic overtones and cunning actions. All this and I still haven’t discussed the insane sycophant, Renfield.
“How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.”
Dracula is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunt Dracula and, in the end, kill him.
