Levine, Matthew

Dracula
Fiction by Bram Stoker

325 pages

Plot: This story starts with a man named Jonathan Harker going to Castle Dracula in Transylvania in order to finalize an
agreement that Dracula, the resident at the castle, made to buy land in England. Dracula ends up keeping Jonathan
Harker captive in his castle for a couple months. While in the castle, Harker starts to get suspicious as to what Dracula is
and ends up escaping. While Harker is a captive in the castle his fiancee Mina Murray is helping her friend Lucy
Westenra because Lucy received marriage proposals from 3 different guys. Lucy ends up accepting a man named Arthur
Holmwoods proposal. Mina visits Lucy in Whitby where a Russian ship crashed with everyone dead on the ship except
for a big dog. This ship just had a bunch of dirt from Castle Dracula. Lucy begins to start sleepwalking and Mina finds
her one day at the cemetery with a figure leaning over her and after this encounter Lucy has two red dots on her throat.
Harker returns to Budapest suffering from brain fever and Mina visits him. Lucy begins to get very sick and one night
when everyone lets their guard down a wolf breaks into where they were staying and the shock gives Lucys mother a
fatal heart attack and it attacks Lucy, killing her. Lucy was turned into a vampire so a man named Van Helsing convinces
Holmwood, Seward, and Quincey Morris that they need to kill her for good. They are successful in killing her and the
men decide they need to destroy Dracula, too. Dracula ends up biting Mina and turns her into a vampire and the men use
all the journal entries people wrote and Minas connection to Dracula in order to hunt down Dracula and kill him. The
men do this successfully and kill Dracula.
Tone: This book is dark because it is about a vampire and was written as a horror book. There is also a lot of loss in the
book which makes it dark and depressing. This book is closest to an argument to explore because it is mainly trying to
look further into and understand the idea of salvation. We can see this because there are a lot of things in the book that
seem to be religion verse Satan and the way to beat Satin is by salvation. It also can be seen that the author believes that
everyone deserves to achieve salvation because of the fact that even after you are turned into a vampire which is a
soulless being you can still be purified and you are still able to achieve salvation.
Context: Religion and salvation- This is seen in this book because of the fact that the ways to kill a vampire, which
embodies evil, are all based on religion. The weapons used to combat Dracula are mainly things like crosses and other
symbols of Christianity. Dracula is seen as a manifestation of Satan just due to the fact of his physical appearance
because he has pointed ears, fangs, and flaming eyes and he drinks blood. Also, this book shows that when Lucy is
turned into a vampire she seems to be barred from salvation until she receives her second death which returns her to her
innocence and purity and ultimately to salvation.
Modernity- In this book it is seen that it is important to modernize but not to the point where you stop believing in myths
and legends like vampires. There is a huge divide in the book between the extremely modern people of England and the
extremely not modern people of Transylvania. In the book you see that modernity is good but it is bad to forget about
things that are not exactly scientifically proven like vampires. This is seen when nobody understands what is wrong with
Lucy except for Van Helsing who is a scientist that still believes in some of the old tales like vampires. Also. it can be
seen that Draculas threat on England is so great because of the fact that the English are so modern and they do not
believe in Dracula and vampires being real.
Lust- Lust is very apparent in this book. We see lust affect both the men and the women in different ways. We see how it
affects men when Harker meets the three female vampires in Draculas Castle. It warns us that the way they act is bad
because they are out of control and they are evil creatures and they could be seen as representing lust which shows that
lust is bad. We see how lust affects women when Dracula bites Mina and Lucy. We see how it affects them because in the
book we see that Dracula can only attack willing victims. We can see that this will can be considered lust and it is again
related to something evil which is Dracula in this case which shows that lust is bad and evil.
Vocabulary Word or Phrase
Brook

Definition
To go through a bad thing

Inrushing

A sudden, dangerous, rush of something

Solemnly

Dark, depressing

Inquisition

To look into or investigate something

Opiate

A type of medicine that can help with sleep

Levine/Dracula
Comparison to other works and events: Dracula by Bram Stoker is similar to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. These
two books have very similar plots because they are both about beings of great power that are not human causing
destruction for the main characters until they get defeated. In both books the protagonist fights to destroy the monster
that is causing so much destruction. A difference, however, is that the monster in Frankenstein was created by the
protagonist where the monster in Dracula was around for a long time before the protagonist got involved with it. Another
difference in the two stories is how you feel about the protagonist. In Dracula you feel some sympathy for the
protagonist because he did not do anything to deserve the fate he was going to face but in Frankenstein you actually feel
bad for the monster because it seems that if Dr Frankenstein had treated the monster like a kid or at least with some more
sympathy the monster would not have went out and caused as much harm and destruction. Another difference in the two
stories is the way in which the protagonist dealt with the monster. In Dracula the protagonist gets help from his friends
after he escapes from Draculas castle where in Frankenstein the protagonist tries to hunt down the monster on his own.
Finally, a third similarity is that in both stories there is a female secondary character who acts in different ways
throughout the story. In Dracula Mina Murray, Jonathan Harkers wife by the end of the story played a huge role in
tracking down Dracula. Mina insisted to have the men let her help them track down Dracula and when Mina got bit by
Dracula she used her connection in order to help the men track Dracula down. Mina was very involved in Jonathans life
throughout the story and wanted to help in any way possible. In contrast, the secondary character in Frankenstein,
Elizabeth Lavenza stays out of Frankensteins life for the most part because he blocks everyone out. One big mistake that
Frankenstein made was not telling Elizabeth about the monster he created and towards the end of the story during
Elizabeth and his wedding night Elizabeth is killed by the monster. In conclusion, although the two books have some
similarities throughout them like the fact that they are both about a monster that causes harm to people, both have a
protagonist that fights to kill the monster, and both have secondary characters who are women with similar relationships
to the protagonists, they are different in many ways as well.
Passage:
1. As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower
behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round us. This
was emphasized by the fact that the snowy mountain-top still held the
sunset, and seemed to glow out with a delicate cool pink. Here and
5. there we passed Cszeks and Slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I
noticed that goitre was painfully prevalent. By the roadside were many
crosses, and as we swept by, my companions all crossed themselves.
Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine,
who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in the self10. surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer world.
There were many things new to me: for instance, hay-ricks in the trees,
and here and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch, their white
stems shining like silver through the delicate green of the leaves. Now
and again we passed a leiter-wagon--the ordinary peasants cart--with
15. its long, snake-like vertebra, calculated to suit the inequalities of the
road. On this were sure to be seated quite a group of home-coming
peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their
coloured, sheepskins, the latter carrying lance-fashion their long staves,
with axe at end. As the evening fell it began to get very cold, and the
20. growing twilight seemed to merge into one dark mistiness the gloom of
the trees, oak, beech, and pine, though in the valleys which ran deep
between the spurs of the hills, as we ascended through the Pass, the
dark firs stood out here and there against the background of late-lying
snow. Sometimes, as the road was cut through the pine woods that
25. seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us, great masses of
greyness, which here and there bestrewed the trees, produced a peculiarly weird and solemn effect, which carried on the thoughts and grim
fancies engendered earlier in the evening, when the falling sunset

threw into strange relief ghost-like clouds which amongst the

30. Carpathians seem to wind ceaselessly through the valleys. Sometimes
the hills were so steep that, despite our drivers haste, the horses could
only go slowly. I wished to get down and walk up them, as we do at
home, but the driver would not hear of it. No, no, he said; you must
not walk here; the dogs are too fierce; and then he added, with what
35. he evidently meant for grim pleasantry--for he looked round to catch
the approving smile of the rest--and you may have enough of such
matters before you go to sleep. The only stop he would make was a
moments pause to light his lamps.
Levine/Dracula
Analysis:
In these lines from the book Jonathan Harker is writing in his journal everything he is seeing and experiencing on his way to
Draculas Castle. He uses a lot of detail which is very successful in helping the reader picture what he is seeing which helps the reader
put himself in Harkers shoes and experience what Harker is experiencing. Harker is trying to describe to the best of his ability what
he is experiencing so that people reading his journal can picture what he is experiencing better. Some examples of Harkers great
description of what he is seeing are that he said in line 25 that the darkness seemed to be closing down on them which helps to picture
how intense and strong the darkness actually was and he says that the falling sunset made the clouds look ghost-like in line 29 which
helps the reader to picture in extreme detail what the clouds and the rest of his surroundings actually looked like. Those are just two of
the many great descriptions Jonathan Harker uses to help the reader see what he is seeing.
This is a very important paragraph of the book for many reasons. First it sets the tone for the book. It shows how the
environment that Harker was in went from a protective, religious, environment to a dark and evil environment. We see this because it
starts by saying how they are passing by people praying at shrines at first but as they kept going it started to get darker and the wolves
start to come out. This sets the dark tone of the story as well as shadow what Jonathan Harkers life is about to become. He is going
from his protective environment at home to the dangerous and evil environment of Count Draculas Castle. Another reason why this
paragraph is important is because it shows a huge theme of the book which is religion and salvation verse evil and satan. This is seen
because a lot of the people on the roadside have crosses but as Harker keeps going and as he gets closer to Draculas castle darkness
which represents evil took the place of these holy crosses. This foreshadows how religion will be important as the story goes on. The
last reason why this is important is because there is a lot of foreshadowing in line 36 to line 37 when the driver says and you may
have enough of such matters before you go to sleep. The driver is talking to Harker and foreshadowing to the hell that he is about to
have to go through.
Jonathan is very effective in making his point because of how descriptive he is about his experience on the way to the castle.
Because Jonathan is so descriptive the reader can really put himself in Jonathan Harkers shoes and feel the way Jonathan is feeling. If
Jonathan had been less descriptive than the reader may not have been able to put himself in Jonathans shoes and feel the fear that
Jonathan is thinking. Jonathan is also very effective in making his point because of the way the paragraph is organized. It is organized
very well because the way Jonathan goes from the crosses on the side of the road to the crushing darkness really helps to set a contrast
as to what his life used to be while he lived in England to what his life was about to become even though he did not know at the time
his life was about to become a living hell.