FREE ESSAY ON DRACULA

DRACULA

Bram Stoker's Dracula 
The setting of the story begins in 19th century Europe, in the eerie country of
Transylvania. 
The story begins with a solicitor from England named Jonathan Harker is sent by a
business man to meet with an old Count named Dracula at his castle located far from
civilization. Residents of Transylvania who become aware of his destination begin
crossing themselves and giving him garlic and blessings. As a result of these gestures,
Mr. Harker soon develops an uneasy feeling about visiting the mysterious Count. He
arrives at Castle Dracula regardless, and makes his acquaintances with Dracula. He soon
realizes that the count is no normal human, but an evil, blood-sucking vampire, who can
command animals and elements with the 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 an open-minded, but ingenious
professor, a psychologist, an American, a rich man, as well as Jonathan Harker and his
wife Mina, learn of the Count's sinister plan and pledge to destroy him before he can
create an army of un-dead vampires. They systematically destroy his coffins with holy
wafers and chase him out of England back to Castle Dracula. There they carry out an
ultimate plan to destroy Dracula. 
The Author uses suspense as a storytelling device rather effectively throughout the
story. There are a fair number of parts in which the reader is left suspended on the edge
of seat, eager to find out what is to happen next. However, there were parts where
suspense could be used in a manner that would enhance the gravity of the plot.
Nonetheless, The book is written in a unique way that allows suspense to be used easily
and effectively built up. Dracula is written in first person like many other novels but
then it differs slightly. The book starts off as a first person Journal of the first
character describing his experiences. But then it switches to someone else's journal, and
then to letters between two characters, and later to a newspaper article. It follows this
pattern roughly throughout the book. At various points, the plot builds up with one
character's journal and then it jumps to another character's journal so that you must
read a ways through it before the exciti conclusion to that particular event is revealed.
At other times deductions must be made on what a character has written to ascertain what
has occurred. There is a good example of this when the first character, Jonathan Harker,
is imprisoned in the castle close to sunset and knows that the Count will attack him that
night. His journal ends as he describes what he might do to escape. But the success of
his escape is not evident until the first part of his fiancee's journal is completed.
This sort of suspense can be quite frustrating and annoying at times. Thus it's purpose
is often defeated and the plot suffers. But there is also the more prevalent type of
suspense used where the character is on the verge of an important discovery or he is in a
dangerous predicament but the author is slow to divulge what is to happen. When the
suspense was used properly, it proved to be both interesting and very dramatic. In
conclusion, Bram Stoker's Dracula turned out to be a very exciting and fascinating novel.
The plot was well structured and was very suspenseful. The author used his historical
knowledge of Europe, particularly Hungary and Transylvania, very well in conveying a
certain idea in the book. For example, Count Dracula was described as a noble of the
Magyar peoples of eastern Europe who fought valiantly against invaders during the 14th
and 15th centuries. Full insight was given into the minds and personalities of almost all
of the well developed characters. Initially, the Count remained somewhat mysterious for a
specific reason. This allowed for the main characters to slowly discover who the Count
really was thus developing the character slowly for the reader. The intrigue built into
his character intensified the mystery. Suspense was used extensively throughout the
novel. The book probed deeply into peoples superstitions, fears, and beliefs of the
supernatural, and how others are skeptic of them are sometimes proved wrong. In all,
Dracula is a clever, exciting, and suspenseful novel that uses a ruthless villain to
terrify you but forces you to read more.