Murray, Paul. From the hadow of Dracula: A Life of Bram toker. New York,
Jonathan Cape. 2004.
This biography of the often secretive and obscure life of Bram toker is based on factual details and evidence. The work also relates the life and times in which he lived to the other literary figures with whom he interacted. The book provides an absorbing insight not only into the man but into the social milieu in which he wrote. For example, the book provides insight into toker's friendships and relationships with figures such as Henry Irving and Conan Doyle.
This is essentially a links site but it provides valuable sources of information for research; such as background information and biographies on toker. The site also proves links to historical data and information that are unusual and useful in the exploration of toker's works. There are also links to various' etexts'…...
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Senf C.A. Science and Social Science in Bram Stoker's Fiction. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 2002.
This book is an important critical and literary reference for the works of Bram Stoker. It includes some of the most important critical responses to his work. The book also makes reference to the often ignored fact that Stoker wrote much more than the novel Dracula. Another important issue that is raised in this collection of criticism is that Bram Stoker was also concerned with the numerous social and political issues of his time; for example, the role of women in society. Importantly the articles in the book place the works of Bram Stoker in a wider context, both in terms of his society and other literature of his age. The various sections of the book also include articles on the way that the Stoker responded to the racial, ethnic as well as scientific issues of his time.
ram Stoker's masterwork and greatest novel, Dracula, has been and remains one of the most culturally pervasive novelistic tropes of the last 100 years. Indeed, in multiple film versions as well as in the novel and myriad other mediums, it remains a deeply pervasive cultural idea. Part of the inspiration for the story no doubt takes elements from Stoker's own life and fictionalizes and dramatizes them to the point where the elements of personal struggle remain only as barely audible echoes within the text. Nonetheless, they are there, and particular such issues as his estranged relations with his wife and his long illness as a child are reflected in portions of Dracula. Nonetheless, the main aspect of Dracula that has ensured its continuing popularity is its resonance with the Freudian concepts of Thanatos and Eros, which were some of the most important and prominent ideas in 20th Century Wester culture,…...
Film Adaptations of ram Stoker's Dracula Over The Years
The stuff of legends in Eastern Europe, vampires have become a staple of the horror film industry. From Max Schreck's Count Orloff in 1922 to Lugosi's Dracula in 1931, to Lee's unforgettable performances with Hammer studios during the 50's and 60's, the vampire has been primped, gussied up and redressed with every theatrical incarnation. In ram Stoker's Dracula, Gary Oldman dons the fangs and cape and delivers one of the most incredible performances, the count has ever seen. Visually stunning in every detail, Dracula, tells the story of a Romanian prince who slaughtered many in the name of the church only to cradle the broken body of his wife at the conclusion of his conquests. A wife he knew would be safe because of his service to the church. Seeds of betrayal and rage bloomed and in a fit of madness brought…...
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Bibliography
Stoker, Bram. Dracula, intro. Leonard Wolf, Signet Publishers, 1997.
Higashi, Sumiko. Virgins, Vamps, and Flappers. St. Albans, Vermont: Eden Press, 1978.
Stevenson, John. "A Vampire in the Mirror The Sexuality of Dracula." P.M.L.A. 103 (1988): 139-47.
Hogan, David. Dark Romance. Sexuality in the Horror Film. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1986.
nineteenth century, the women's suffrage movement was gaining momentum. Appearing out of an era heavily influence by Victorian ideals and beliefs, it was now a question of whether or not women should be allowed to vote, work, eat, and appear as they wished. At this point in history, women were considered significantly inferior to their male counterparts and were not considered so much as citizens of the United States of America according to its constitution. They were recognized as people but fell into a special non-voting category and it wasn't until the 1890s that the first state (yoming) granted women the right to vote. In England, Queen Victoria was in power and supported ideals of blissful motherhood and marriage as an ultimate goal.
In the midst of the suffrage movement, Bram Stoker wrote his immortal novel Dracula. His two leading female characters, Mina Harker and Lucy estenra, though different in…...
Allegorical Dracula
It seems strange at first to consider one of the greatest of Victorian gothic novels, and the genesis of the entire modern vampire craze as a masterpiece of Christian fiction. However, it is precisely accurate to do so. If it were written today, it would most certainly be considered Christian niche fiction. The entirety of the novel is filled with appeals to the wisdom, justice, and aid of God, and the protagonists eventually consider themselves to be the righteous warriors of God fighting to save Christian England. There is throughout a very strong sense of evangelicalism in phrases such as "God is merciful and just, and knows your pain and your devotion."(Ch 22) What, one might ask though, is a Christian book doing introducing one of the most seductively evil of modern monster protagonists? The answer is as simple as it is obvious: the vampire Dracula is portrayed…...
Though the character is remarkably static for a major character -- he is meant to be seen as completely evil -- he is worth studying as a major character in regards to the origins of his evil and immoral behavior.
n the other side of Dracula, Van Helsing, Dracula's foil is portrayed as an older, educated man who is, nonetheless, moral. While Dracula and Van Helsing share many characteristic, including education and well-mannered social skills. Although Van Helsong changes by the end of the novel, considering Dracula committed to his moral and religious beliefs, Van Helsing offers an interesting contrast to the spectrum of character.
Levels of Horror
ne of the most horrific aspects of Dracula is the aspect of familiarity turned terrific. Through using settings like Whitby and London, settings that seem familiar and comfortable, Stoker establishes that horror and terror can occur anywhere. Similarly, by using ordinary characters like Jonathan,…...
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One of the most horrific aspects of Dracula is the aspect of familiarity turned terrific. Through using settings like Whitby and London, settings that seem familiar and comfortable, Stoker establishes that horror and terror can occur anywhere. Similarly, by using ordinary characters like Jonathan, who goes on an ordinary business trip to another part of Europe, and Dracula, who seems like an ordinary, older man, and involving them in unspeakable terror, Stoker makes readers understand that anyone and anything can be terrifying -- a horrific concept.
Dracula - Bram Stoker's Immortal Count, the Modern Anti-Hero and Fallen Angel of omantic Dreams
Dracula, written by Bram (Abraham) Stoker in 1897, and was originally published by Archibald Constable and Company. The modern version is Published by Penguin Classics, London. Dracula is set in 1893, 4 years prior to the books published date of 1897, Bram Stoker takes the reader from the journey of a young Solicitor named Jonathon Harker through to a series of individual accounts that give the reader the understanding of how Victorian life and how classes were supposed to act.
Stoker has used a mix of narratives using the past tense in the form of Journals, diaries, personal letters and recordings collectively assembled by one of the characters during the book.
Apart from the main character of the book that is Dracula, who is actually absent from the novel for nearly three quarters of the narratives, there are…...
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References
Bronte. C (1993) Jayne Ayre Penguin Classics. London Kramer, H & Sprenger J. (1486, 1986 edition) Ed Montague Summer: Malleus Malleficarum (hammer of the Witches) A Classic Study of Witchcraft: Arrow Books. London Leatherdale, C. (1985) Dracula the Novel and the Legend: a study of Bram Stoker's Gothic Masterpiece. Aquarian Press. Wellingborough.
Stoker, B (1993) Dracula. Penguin Classics. London Anonymous (1994) Changing attitudes toward death and dying. USA Today (Magazine), April v122 n2587 p16(1)
Women counted for little, but not everyone agreed with these Victorian standards.
For example, J.S. Mill and Harriet Taylor, a couple who flaunted convention of the time, advocated happiness above all and divorce when necessary (which was unheard of in Victorian times). They write, "If all persons were like these, [happy] or even would be guided by these, morality would be very different from what it must now be; or rather it would not exist at all as morality, since morality and inclinations would coincide" (Mills and Taylor 108). All they advocated was contentment over convention, but it was a radical idea for the time. The couple also advocated the "elevation of women" in society, and recognized the difficulty of being a woman in Victorian society - something which most Victorian men did not understand or agree with at all (Mills and Taylor 109).
Most men held beliefs more like Thomas…...
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References
Gisborne, Thomas. "Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex." Early Liberal Thought and Practice. 100-106.
Mill, J.S. And Harriet Taylor. "Essays on Marriage and Divorce." Early Liberal Thought and Practice. 106-121.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. (Revised Edition). New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.
Dracula, By Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker is considered to be the world's most famous horror novelist. Though he has produced a number of short stories, essays and novels, his classic novel Dracula, published in 1897 remains to be his most praised and admired work. Dracula is a story, which focuses on a Transylvanian vampire that comes to London. One of the most pressing themes in the novel, Dracula focuses on the Fulmination of oman Sexual Expression (Themes, (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dracula/themes.html).The theme reinstates how women behavior during that era was delineated by the austere European expectations. Stoker characterizes the status of women and how they were expected to behave by the society through his heroines Mina and Lucy and how their behavior changes to opposite that is unacceptable by the society.
In this fiction Bram Stoker reflects the bigotry and skepticism with which the Victorian Britain espied the Eastern Europeans. During his lifetime Stoker became…...
The character of Dracula is both evil and corrupt in the extreme but he is also a source of sympathy to a certain extent. This apparent contradiction is due to the fact that his longings and desires are perverted in comparison to the normal, but they are still recognizable as human qualities even in their distortion and corruption. In the final analysis, it is possibly this strange mixture of the abnormal and the normal that makes this novel and the Gothic genre so interesting.
orks Cited
Craft C. "Kiss Me with those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker's
Dracula." Representations, No. 8 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 107-133
Daly N. Modernism, Romance, and the Fin de Siecle: Popular Fiction and British
Culture, 1880-1914. London: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Dracula and gothic literature: A discussion about the imagery that is used in the novel Dracula that exemplifies gothic literature. July 9, 2009.
Gothic Novels. July 9, 2009.…...
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Works Cited
Craft C. "Kiss Me with those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker's
Dracula." Representations, No. 8 (Autumn, 1984), pp. 107-133
Daly N. Modernism, Romance, and the Fin de Siecle: Popular Fiction and British
Culture, 1880-1914. London: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Dracula and its psychological perspective. The writer uses aspects of the plot to detail the various psychological aspects of the story itself with a focus on the people whose diaries and journal entries are psychologically driven. The writer offers a psycho-analytic interpretation to Dracula. There were two sources used to complete this paper.
The entire story of Dracula is founded in the need to believe survival is a given with mankind. One of the first things the reader becomes aware of is the underlying common belief that the castle of Dracula is evil. The journal being quoted in chapter one provides this understanding with the reaction of the innkeeper, his wife and the village residents when John sets travel plans to be taken to the castle. The psychological need to be more powerful than evil is something that is as old as time. People have a need to believe that…...
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Works Cited
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Tor Books; Reprint edition (September 1997)
Author not available, Bela's Dracula still has bite., USA Today, 10-31-2001, pp 01D.
Troy Boone writes Van Helsing "affirms a utilitarian view of the vampire-fighter, whose role is to minimize human suffering by combating evil" (Boone). He goes on to explain how Stoker explores this notion by adding to his summation that Van Helsing realizes the different forces at work. Dracula is "finite, though he is powerful to do much harm" (Stoker 320-1) and he cannot be avoided or ignored, he must be stopped. Such a character leaves Van Helsing as a kind of "monster of righteousness" (Bloom), writes Harold Bloom. Van Helsing is the vampire's enemy and opposite and Stoke has situated him in the novel as the only person qualified to fight this evil.
Another way in which Stoker presents Van Helsing as a hero is through the different characters he must face when fighting evil. He is not simply after stopping Dracula. Dracula's women pose the same great threat Dracula…...
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Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. "Bloom on Dracula." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Dracula, Bloom's Modern Critical
Interpretations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary
Dracula
The novel "Dracula" was written by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897. Set in nineteenth-century Victorian England and other countries of the same time, this novel is told in an epistolary format through a collection of letters, diary entries etc. The main characters include Count Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Dr. Van Helsing. Count Dracula is the antagonist character of the novel, and is a vampire. The group of men and women led by Dr. Van Helsing are the main protagonist characters. The novel talks about Count Dracula's endeavor to relocate from Transylvania to England, and his demise. The story begins with an English lawyer, Jonathan Harker, visiting Dracula's castle to assist him with some real estate issues. During his stay in the castle, Harker discovers that the Count is a vampire and barely escapes with his life. Then the narrative turns into a…...
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References:
Parsons, G. (1989). Religion in victorian britain. (Vol. 4)
Stoker, B. (1897). Dracula. United Kingdom: Archibald Constable and Company.
Wood, P. (2004). Science and dissent in England, 1688-1945 (science, technology and culture,
Though the Monster tries to refrain from interfering; "hat chiefly struck me was the gentle manners of these people, and I longed to join them, but dared not…[remembering] too well the treatment I had suffered the night before from the barbarous villagers" (142). The Monster learns how society behaves through the observation of the family, and through the reading of books. Much like Frankenstein, the Monster is greatly influenced by what he reads including Plutarch's Lives, Sorrow of erter, and Paradise Lost. The Monster's innocence and ignorance, at this point, does not allow him to fully understand or relate to any of the characters in the books (166). The Monster eventually relates to Adam in Paradise Lost, not considering himself a monster, because even "Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him" (169). As Adam was created in God's own image, the Monster is a "filthy…...
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Works Cited:
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Project Gutenberg. Web. Retrieved
Essay Topic Examples
1. The Evolution of the Vampire Mythos:
This essay would explore the historical and cultural evolution of vampire legends from their earliest iterations in folklore to their present-day representations in media and literature. It would analyze the factors that have led to the transformation of the vampire archetype and its continued popularity.
2. Vampires as a Reflection of Societal Fears:
This topic looks at how vampires have been used as metaphors for various societal fears and anxieties throughout history, such as disease, sexuality, and the outsider. The essay would examine different periods and how the portrayal of vampires corresponded with the contemporary issues of those times.
3. Gender and Sexuality in Vampire Fiction:
Delving into gender dynamics and the portrayal of sexuality, this essay would discuss how vampire fiction often subverts traditional gender roles and explores sexuality in a unique way, offering a lens through which to view societal norms and the fluidity…...
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Primary Sources
Calmet, Augustin. The Phantom World: Or, The Philosophy of Spirits, Apparitions, &c. (Translated by Rev. Henry Christmas, 1850) [Original Title: Traité sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vampires ou les revenans de Hongrie, de Moravie, &c.]
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Archibald Constable and Company, 1897.Polidori, John William. The Vampyre: A Tale. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1819.Rymer, James Malcolm. Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood. E. Lloyd, 1847.Byron, George Gordon. The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale. John Murray, 1813.
1. The Origins of Vampire Myths: Exploring the Ancient Roots of Bloodsuckers
Investigate the origins of vampire lore in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. Discuss the historical events and beliefs that may have influenced the development of vampire myths. Analyze the role of fear, superstition, and the unknown in shaping vampire legends.
2. Vampire Legends: A Global Perspective on Bloodthirsty Creatures
Compare and contrast vampire lore from different cultures around the world. Examine the similarities and differences in beliefs about vampire appearance, abilities, and vulnerabilities. Discuss the cultural significance of vampire stories and their impact on local....
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