FREE ESSAY ON BRAM STOKER

BRAM STOKER

Dracula
Bram Stoker
Copyright 1996 (Modern library edition)
Bram Stoker was born November 8, 1847, in Clontarf Ireland, north of Dublin. His full
name was Abraham Stocker. He was the son of Abraham and Charlotte. He was the third of
seven children. For the first 7 years of his life Bram was bedridden with a flurry of
childhood diseases. This led him to spend much of his time reading. Later in his life,
after healing from his diseases, he attended Trinity College in Dublin. There, he was an
honor student, played soccer, and was involved in marathon running. After he graduated
from college he followed in his fathers' footsteps, and became a civil servant at Dublin
castle as a junior clerk. He began his literary career in 1871, when he took up a post as
the unpaid drama critic for the Evening Mail, while he was also writing short stories.
His first literary success came in 1872, when the London Society published his short
story The Crystal Cup. Bram Stoker encountered Henry Irving, who he had once critiqued
while he was at Trinity College. Stoker saw his portrayal of the role Hamlet and wrote a
favorable review of it. Irving was impressed with Stoker's review. This resulted in
Irving inviting Stoker backstage and from there a good friendship was formed. 
In 1878. Irving had taken over his own theater company called the London Lyceum. He
didn't like the management, and therefore approached Stoker to handle the business.
Stoker gave up his civil servants jobs to go work for Irving. Shortly after, Stoker began
his new career, the publishing house of Sampson. He was contacted with interest in making
a collection of "Stoker Stories". Under the Sunset was published in 1891, and was well
received by some of the critics, but others thought the book would not be good for
children. By the time Stoker had written The Snake's Pass (1890), he was already started
working on a novel with a vampire theme. Dracula was then published in June 1897. Reviews
on Dracula were mixed. In a favorable review, the Daily Mail compared it with
Frankenstein and Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Others found it to be a good book
but said that the descriptions were "hideous and repulsive. After Dracula came out,
things started to go downhill for Stoker. Stoker published The Jewel of the 7 Stars in
1903, a book based on information from Egypt. In 1905, his close friend Irving, died. One
year after Irving's death. Stoker wrote Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving. Stoker
managed to write other novels after this point, until he died in 1912, of syphilis, at
the age of 64. 
The story begins in 19th century Europe, in the country of Transylvania. A salesman from
England, named Jonathan Harker, is sent to meet with an old Count named Dracula, at his
castle located far from 
civilization. The people of Transylvania who become aware of his 
destination begin giving him garlic and blessings. Mr. Harker soon feels uneasy about
visiting the Count. He arrives at Castle Dracula, regardless, and meets with Dracula. He
then realizes the Count is a blood-sucking creature. He can also control the elements and
animals with a wave of his hand. Harker escapes, but the Count has devised an intricate
plan to move to London and exercise his evil forces on innocent people there. However, a
group of friends, including a professor, a psychologist, an American, a rich man, as well
as Mr. Harker and his wife Mina, learn of the Count's sinister plan. They decided to stop
him before he can make the people of London part of his army of vampires. They
systematically destroy his coffins with holy wafers and chase him out of England back to
Castle Dracula. There they carry out their plan to destroy Dracula. 
The theme of Dracula is of a very powerful vampire. The Vampire, Count Dracula, has come
up with a plan to get himself to London where he can gather the innocent people to be in
his army of un-dead. The story is written in the form of diary entries from different
people involved, and also from newspaper clippings. In order to understand the book fully
one has to read the entries of all the people. Dracula doesn't remind me of any other
book I've read, due to the fact of how it was setup. I've never read a book that was
mostly journal entries, also, I've never read a 
book that even anything to do with vampires of any sort. The things I've seen about
Dracula have all been good. I looked up several book reviews by people, and what
customers thought of it, and they were all good. Many of the people thought that it was
the best Vampire story ever written, and that it will never be considered a bad book. I
would have to agree with them. I don't know if there is anyone I can totally relate to in
the story. The only part that comes to mind is when Harker finds that he's trapped in the
Count's castle and he talked about how he went mad for a little while. I can understand
why he would say that. If I was in a large spooky castle where all the doors were locked,
and the only person I'd ever seen in the castle was Dracula, I think I'd go a little nuts
too. The book good in my opinion. I enjoyed how the book gave the direct perspectives of
all the different characters. The diary format made it more personal too, not just like
your reading a story from a 3rd person point of view. With the diaries, it's an up front
perspective of the story, like you're right there in all of the action. The most
memorable part of the book for me was the final chapter. The professor went into the
castle and killed the un-dead in the chapel. Later, when the sun was setting, and Mina
and the professor got into the circle, for protection from Dracula, the gypsies had
surrounded them. Then, Mr. Morris had arrived with Mr. Harker, getting the gypsies
attention. Eventually, they fight the gypsies off, in the process of fighting them,
Harker gets Dracula's 
coffin off of their wagon, pries it open with his "kukri" knife, then Morris jumps in and
stabs Count Dracula in the heart shortly before the sun fully sets. I would recommend
this book. Not only is it a classic novel and should be read by that fact alone, it's an
interesting book. Bram Stoker wrote an intriguing book.