Essays on Dracula

Some of the greatest works of Victorian literature look at English culture in the 1800s through a critical or jaundiced eye; these works then find ways to expose the restrictive, oppressive and isolationist aspects of British culture that were characteristic of the empire at that time. This is particularly true of Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel Dracula, as it looks critically at race through the personification of Dracula as the feared Other from Eastern Europe, seeking to violate the women of England with his exotic sexuality and behavioral taboos. Looking at Dracula through the lens of race, it becomes ...

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Introduction Vampires are mythical creatures that appear in ancient folklores. Most cultures have their own version of the vampire although they share a common characteristic; that is, the lust for human blood. There is no particular gender to the vampire character. Male and female vampires do exists even in ancient literatures, making the vampire one of the most gender neutral characters. The depiction of the female vampire in human culture, however, is an interesting way of looking into the development of women, particularly on how society views women and their social status over the course of time. ...

Varney the Vampyre Analysis

Varney the Vampyre by James Malcolm Rymer is a very early vampire story that predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 50 years (Dracula n.p.). James Malcolm Rymer was apparently the given name for a writer of many popular novels and stories in London in the 1840s through the 1860s. He wrote and published works under many names however, but one of his specialties was novels and stories about the supernatural, horror, and terror. He was a “hack” writer, meaning that he wrote voluminously on many subjects for popular publications. “Hack” is generally defined as “a mediocre and disdained writer” (“Hack ...

Bicycle Thieves, also referred to as The Bicycle Thief is a film that tells the story of a father seeking to find a bike that has been stolen throughout Rome. The film has often been considered to be one of the most well-respected in the neorealism genre. Specifically, because of its depiction of harsh realities of life post World War II, and its effects on the conditions and psyche of individuals. A horror thriller masterpiece, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is noted for its distinctive subject matter and for spawning what is considered to be an extremely successful subgenre of the ...

Ghost stories and narratives can take many different forms and change according to history, location and culture. What is considered scary in one culture could be dismissed as a fantastic tale or a comical narrative by another. The cultural values and everyday narratives of the people in a certain location determine what is scary and what is not. The West and the East have different cultural values and beliefs. They differ not only in simple matters such as greeting a stranger but also in the principles that govern their conduct in life and business. These differences are also evident ...

Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula

The Film Dracula directed by Godfather trilogy director Francis Ford Coppola and based on the book by Bram Stoker, released in 1992. The story was slightly revamped from the book and it was modified to adapt to the culture of the 1990s. As in Stoker's book, sexuality forms the core part of the film. It defines the characters in many ways. The scene in which the Dracula and Harker were together alone, shows great passion and closeness between these two. The scene where Dracula shaves Harker in front of a mirror and when the mirror reflects only Harker, it ...

Literature Review #2

Citation Knewitz, Simone. “God Hates Fangs? Mortality, Ideology, and the Domesticated Vampire”. Collision of Realities: Establishing Research on the Fantastic in Europe. Eds. Lars Schmeink and Astrid Boger. Boston and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012. Print. Summary In this paper, the author looks at the way in which the vampire has evolved as a social creature in the past decades. In particular, the author looks at the television program “True Blood”, in which vampires have stopped drinking blood and rely instead on a synthetic type of blood, thus gaining access to the society. The author shows that by looking ...

Literature Review #1

Citation Kane, Tim. The Changing Vampire of Film and Television: A Critical Study of the Growth of a Genre‬. McFarland and Company Inc. Publishers. 2006.Print. Summary The book analyzes the seventy years long history of vampire films. He divided the films in cycles, according to the transformations suffered by the vampire narrative in the course of the time. Thus, the first is the Malignant Cycle, from 193 to 1948 .This cycle includes films in which Dracula is perceived as the antagonist and the predatory function dominates the composition. In films produced during the Erotic Cycle, which comprises films produced ...

Ghost stories and narratives can take many different forms and change according to the history, location and culture of a place. What is considered scary in one culture could be dismissed as a fantastic tale or a comical narrative by another culture. The cultural values and every day narratives of the people in a certain physical location determines what is scary and what is not. The west and the east have different cultural values and beliefs. they differ not only in simple matters such as greeting a stranger but also the principles that govern their conduct in life and ...

Van Helsing as a Protector: The Role of the Vampire Hunter the Present-Day Vampire Culture

Abstract The vampire culture grew out of the Gothic genre and became extremely popular throughout the world. The first and most famous representative of the vampire cast is Dracula, who first appeared as a protagonist in Bram Stocker’s book with the same name. Dracula was created as a predator that hid within his threatening castle, and attacked helpless women. The author also introduced Van Helsing, the hero who acted as a protector of women and fought to destroy the monster. However, Van Helsing remained a less popular and well-known character as compared to the monster he hunted. In ...

Introduction

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” These words by Stephen King illustrate the concept of the modern literature: what is treated as an imagery shall become a fixed figure of the culture. The effect of the mass culture provoked a big irreversible changes of the European culture into the mass one. For example, a vampire no longer rises from his grave and turns into bat to fly from place to place. Skinner Sweet, an anti-hero born from the comic book series by Stephen King and Scott Snyder, is the first American ...

Bram Stoker’s epistolary novel, entitled Dracula, offers a glimpse of a dark, supernatural world, wrought with sexual symbolism and the draining of human power. Stoker introduces his protagonist, a young solicitor named Jonathan Harker, who finds himself on the road to Transylvania for the purpose of visiting a certain count Dracula and organizing a real estate transaction. Harker leaves behind the vehicles of modern civilization as he is driven into the desolate mountain country (Davison 79). The countryside he passes through is picturesque enough to lull him into a state of false security, while the villagers offer charms against dark, evil forces and mutter ...

The territory of the modern Romania in the middle ages was captured by the Slavs (VI century), Bulgarians and Hungarians in the IX century, the Mongol-Tatars in the XIII century. In the XIV century, the territory of present-day Romania was formed by two feudal principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which were conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the XVI century. In the XVI century, the Transylvanian principality was founded, which has left the Hungarian authorities and recognized the suzerainty of the Turkish sultan. In comparison with other Balkan territories, captured by the Ottomans, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania retained greater ...

“There is reason that all things are as they are” (Stoker). In the written works of Dracula and The Metamorphosis, the authors use two very different styles to portray horrifying fantasy. In Dracula, Bram Stoker uses realism in the form of journal entries, letters, ships’ logs, and newspaper articles to tell the story of the vampire Count Dracula. In The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka uses surrealism in the form of third person narrative, to tell the story of Gregor Samsa, who wakes one day to find he has been transformed overnight into a huge, disgusting bug. Although the authors employ different ...

Dracula, Bram Stoker’s legendary novel, is more than just fiction writing, it is a blurry reflection and critique of the Victorian era, with its thoughts, lust and decadence hidden under a pile of conservative ideas. It draws its essence from common fears of the Victorian era and from the author's own view on homosexuality and sex, at the same time relying on several sources. The novel was published in the early half of the 20th century, before the beginning of the suffragette movement (Levin 14), when the standards and expectations with regards to women were extremely limiting. In a society ...

Fear drives people to do incredible things to escape the harsh consequences. The same thing drove the main character of the movie Dracula Untold, Prince Vlad, to protect his kingdom from enemies. Everyone who has watched this film can attest to the fact that it is intriguing. Some bloggers call it vague and dull, but an individual is entitled to his or her view. The aim of this article, however, is not to review this particular film. Instead, it will evaluate the components of the movie such as the scene arrangement, sexuality, gender, race, use of color and costumes. ...

Annotated Bibliography: Definition of a Monster

Introduction Considering that particular focus of this research is defining what a monster is. The sources incorporated herein essentially work to define the term monster in relation to film literature, and personal perceptions. In a bid to accomplish this, sources that are to be used in the research establishes the chronology of the term monster, culture perception of the term monster, and finally the relation of monstrous characteristics to human behaviour. The most important ideas in understanding the subject of the research evident from the sources below include myths, history of monsters, magic and believes. Asma, Stephen T. On ...

Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley was first published in 1818 . It was updated and published again in 1831. It is the story of a genius who tried to create life and suffered as he had brought to life evil in the world. It is a typical gothic novel that gained popularity during the 1800s. The period was referred to as the age of enlightenment or the age of reason. It was the time when many great philosophers arose. The period came after the Renaissance and the Reformation. There was greater freedom for philosophers to write about anything ...

Value of Community: Gregor’s Father vs. Van Helsing

Dracula was a Gothic horror novel that was written by an Irish writer named Bram Stoker. In the novel, Van Helsing is portrayed as a monster who had a desire to hunt for evil. It is believe that Van Helsing was becoming an ultimate threat to humans. But in the novel, The Metamorphosis that was written by Franz Kafka, there was a character named Mr. Samsa. Mr. Samsa was Gregor’s father, who is portrayed as a father who did not care about anything. When his son turned into a monster, it had no impact at all on him. The only thing that bothered him ...

Define or describe the following terms and their importance to the history of the American science fiction and horror genre:

1) Expressionist film in Germany is a period of silent movies. The primary feature of Expressionist film is the theatrical appearance in the films. The actors used painted, dramatic scenery and exaggerated make-up. The changes in the German art were reflected in the sets, which had high contrast between white and black, different geometric shapes were used, all of which created exaggerated light and shadow. 2) Dracula of 1930 was inspired by the novel written by Bram Stoker and it is significant to the history of the American cinematography, as its main character, Dracula, set the bar for numerous ...

Define or describe the following terms and their importance to the history of the American science fiction and horror genre:

1) Expressionist film in Germany is a part of the Expressionism movement in the country of 1920ies. This was a period of the silent movies and their main feature was the theatrical look in the films. The actors used painted, dramatic scenery and exaggerated make-up, which is commonly used in the theater. The changes in the German art were reflected in the sets, which had high contrast between white and black, different geometric shapes were used, all of which created exaggerated light and shadow. Although this movement did not last for long, it had significant impact on film makers from different ...

Introduction

The novel “Dracula” narrates how he attempted to shift to England from Transylvania in the midst of a tussle between him and a group of men and women. In the context of the novel, several scenes define thematic expressions that reflect the current world and it moral values and culture. Dracula’s character is one of the major trends in the current times where people have adopted supernatural beliefs and differentiated themselves from other human beings. Sucking of human blood, magical appearance of Dracula in several places is sign of how the world has evolved to accommodate such categories of people. ...

Produced in 1897, Bram Stokers renowned tome Dracula, has been the muse or catalyst for innumerable plays, movies, short stories and fiction. This book not only delineated the modern concept of a vampire and outlined how contemporary horror novels should flow, it presented, extrapolated upon and discussed hotbed issues in Victorian culture that illustrate how swiftly the times where changing as well as the tussle between a civilization advancing while it sheds the encumbrances from the previous modes of life. This situation is particularly depicted in regards to the altering roles of women and how sexual relations were viewed. Penned ...

Bram Stocker’s Dracula is a movie based on novel which is based on an illusion of existing creatures. Hughes points out that, the movie creates an illusion that vampires and humans can live together taking into consideration the fact that vampires can transform to humans (12). The creation of the movie is aimed at making the audience creating a mental picture of non existing creatures and the relations to the human life. Additionally, the vampire abilities in the film are imaginative creations aimed at depicting the extra ordinary abilities of the creatures. In an argument by Hughes the film also ...

In Phillis Roths critical essay, “Suddenly Sexual Women in Dracula” there is an allusion to the societal view of women sexuality, which forms that main theme of the essay and by extension, the book. The setting differs in the fact that Dracula was written many years ago, but Roth analyzed the book in an era when the society seems to revolve around sex.Roth assumes that Dracula is the father figure while the mothers are represented by Mina and Lucy. The sons are Van Helsings men as described in the essay which is in agreement with the Oedipus complex.

Roth ...

When Blood is The Path

In every literary work, certain character has its place and role given by the author. Main characters are usually the easiest ones to read and understand their meaning for the narration and author's attitude to them. On the other hand, secondary characters serve a different purpose. They are often used to unravel depth of main heroes' characters and mode of actions. On the other hand, sometimes the meaning of secondary characters and the reason why author pays attention to them might be not evident at all. This is the case of Dr. Seward's patient Renfield in Bram Stoker's "Dracula". " ...

In his iconic novel Dracula, Bram Stoker moves away from the traditionally accepted notion of an ordinary narrative, and in an effort to obscure the narrator’s own voice, resorts to a technique referred to as an epistolary narrative, where the plot is unfolded before the reader in a succession of personal letters exchanged between characters, diary entries, ship logs, newspaper reports, and similar. By utilizing this technique, the author distances himself from the position of an all-knowing, all-powerful, omniscient narrator, and allows every single character to divulge as much information as he or she possesses as an individual. Consequently, it ...

Bram Stoker’s most renowned epistolary novel Dracula deals with numerous themes portrayed through the utilization of various symbols. One of the most potent ones would definitely be the ubiquitous struggle between the forces of good and evil, or in other words, between the angelic messengers of God and their nemesis, a demon from Hell. The strength and power of Christian paraphernalia serve as symbols of earthly as well as divine good, such as crucifixes and prayers, while the soulless entity of the Count and his undead brides symbolize the curse of longevity at the cost of one’s soul. ...

Question 1

Oppositional readings are a strategy being adopted by individuals who feel the media sometimes provides them with what they do not require. This is usually revealed through criticism of some authors and even movies ‘fans take found footage from television texts and edit them to construct their own videos which comment sometimes with irony’ (Jenkins, 1989, pg 550). Authors and directors who form part of oppositional analysts go a head to write books and even shoot movies to discourage the audience against such literature. A clear example is the movie titled I hate vampires. The movie is a production of people who ...