Setting Assignment:
It is generally in the first few chapters of a novel that the setting of the story is revealed, however, in the case of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the reader presented with a story, which is not restricted to one place. While both Transylvania and England play integral parts in the story, it is the former that provides the reader with the most insight into the story or at least it’s most complex character, the Count himself. At the opening of the story, Jonathan Harker provides a description of the district as being “just on the border of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina… one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe”, while he did not know it at the time this quote captures the mystery and hidden secrets of the landscape (Stoker, pg. 1). The fact that Castle Dracula sits on the border of three contentious states makes it seem like the forgotten land stretching between entrenched enemies, and the description of it being the “wildest” part of Europe adds to the intrigue and also the sense of no return. In such a forgotten and forsaken place it seems as though any rescue or escape would be impossible. Stoker adds to the idea that Harker is moving farther and farther away from the rest of the world by describing his travels, and specifically the modes of transportation. He first travels by train, but by the time he reaches Castle Dracula, he is in a private caliche (Stoker, pg. 1, 21). The reason why this is so interesting is that at the time, the early eighteenth century, everything is being powered by steam. Stoker uses the coaches to highlight the lack of industrialism and modernism in the east and how “backwards” the region seems in comparison with flourishing England. Another important physical aspect of the setting is the Castle itself, with all its locked doors and strange rooms, the Castle is Dracula’s home and therefore is the most accurate depiction of his life. The Castle is richly decorated with expensive cloth and furniture however they all have the appearance of never being used or touched, like Dracula himself studying and learning but never being able to share his knowledge (Stoker, pg. 27). The Castle is in fact a metaphor of Dracula himself, it holds all his secrets, all his memories, and like him is perched on a precipice, though he sits of the edge of death not a cliff (Stoker, pg. 33). The Castle is a sort of rabbit hole where the reader started to imagine that demons are real and evil is alive. It is a transport device which takes Jonathan and the audience it a different world. The Castle is crucial to the stories sense of realism as it allows the reader to suspend reality. Whilst trapped in this terrible prison, Harker is comforted by a rosary given to him by the landlady of one of the inns that he stayed in. The story is shrouded in superstitions so common to the territory and the rosary embodies this. Harker is moved and disturbed by the superstitious behaviors of the people he encounters on his way to Castle Dracula, as though he senses that they know more than they would care to about the Count. Lastly and most importantly is the diary; Harker’s account of the events is presented as journal entries because it allowed Stoker to play with the reader. If the details of Jonathan’s stay with the Count was simply narrated in third person it would leave less room for the reader to be skeptical, to question Harker’s sanity, or the accuracy of the story. It is because of the dairy that the story is such a mystery; the reader is encouraged to question whether or not any of it really happened. In essence, the character of the story’s setting is best captured by Count Dracula when he warns Jonathan that, “we are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things” (Stoker, pg. 28). Stoker’s Transylvania cannot be found on a map, it is a fantastical and mythical place where “all the evil things in the world … have full sway” (Stoker, pg. 14).
Style Assignment:
Like many gothic novels of its time, Dracula has a very distinct style. Stoker uses cryptic language and foreshadowing to engage the reader in his story but prevent them from fully understanding the intentions and reasoning for his characters. To maintain this element of veiled mystery, Stoker employs many literary devices. Most interestingly, Stoker plays with point of view so as to allow his characters to speak with an all-knowing wisdom at various points throughout the novel almost breaking with their character. Jonathan Harker does this when he stumbles upon the moral of the story that “it is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import” (Stoker, pg. 21). This is Bram Stoker’s style, he plants the seed of an idea in the reader’s head so that they can mull it over for the rest of the novel and let it percolate through the rest of the story. Another integral piece to the style of the novel is Stoker’s continuing juxtaposition between the Human characters and Count Dracula. He highlights their mortality by playing emotions; all of the characters in the novel except Dracula talk of their love for something or someone, they feel anger, and pain, and their weakness. Dracula feels none of these things as far as the audience can tell and it is for this reason that he becomes so threatening, that he becomes a monster. While of course his rather distasteful diet has a large part to play in his villainy, a man who has not ties to anything and no Achilles heel is infinitely more dangerous than the monsters of folklore. One testament to the interplay between the mortal and immortal is the willingness of four men to give there blood for Lucy even though it weakness them. It is Dr. Seward who captures the importance of the action in saying “no man knows till he has experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins if the woman he loves” (Stoker, pg. 126). What is so beautiful about this statement is that it is the exact opposite of what Dracula does to his victims. This reversal is characteristic of Bram Stoker’s writing throughout the novel.
Another interesting factor of Stoker’s writing is the transformation or metamorphosis of his characters. Though Jonathan’s evolution is the driving force of the story; it is Lucy’s transformation, which sheds light on the way Dracula hunts and affects his victims. At the opening of the story, Lucy is the perfect prim princess; she is described countless times as “lovely”, “pretty”, and “beautiful” and it is the waning of her looks which people notice initially when Dracula beings to pray on her. She goes from being an almost angelic figure around which all of the other characters orbit to being a weak waif of a girl, much like a sparrow who’s wings were broken. However, perhaps most interestingly is her transformation after death when her beauty is twisted into a more sinister power, which is solidified by her almost vicious reaction to Van Helsing as she lay dying (Stoker, pg. 155). Her digression into an almost sultry being is symbolic of the demonic nature of Dracula’s poison in her vein. In the end, Dr. Seward sums up Lucy’s transmutation when he said, “we thought her dying whilst she slept and sleeping when she died” (Stoker, pg. 156).
Another interesting factor of Stoker’s writing is the transformation or metamorphosis of his characters. Though Jonathan’s evolution is the driving force of the story; it is Lucy’s transformation, which sheds light on the way Dracula hunts and affects his victims. At the opening of the story, Lucy is the perfect prim princess; she is described countless times as “lovely”, “pretty”, and “beautiful” and it is the waning of her looks which people notice initially when Dracula beings to pray on her. She goes from being an almost angelic figure around which all of the other characters orbit to being a weak waif of a girl, much like a sparrow who’s wings were broken. However, perhaps most interestingly is her transformation after death when her beauty is twisted into a more sinister power, which is solidified by her almost vicious reaction to Van Helsing as she lay dying (Stoker, pg. 155). Her digression into an almost sultry being is symbolic of the demonic nature of Dracula’s poison in her vein. In the end, Dr. Seward sums up Lucy’s transmutation when he said, “we thought her dying whilst she slept and sleeping when she died” (Stoker, pg. 156).
Conflict Assignment:
Dracula is unique in that all of the characters are unanimously united against one person. Moreover, the audience is also rooting for the ultimate demise of the Count and the glorious victory of mortality. Van Helsing neatly explains the conflict and, more specifically, the direct effect that it has on driving the story;
“there remains a greater task: to find out the author of all this our sorrow and stamp him out…but it is a long task, and a difficult, and there is danger in it, and pain…and do we not promise to go on to the bitter end?” (Stoker, pg. 205).
It is in this passage that one comes to understand not only what evil the heroes face but also the length to which they will go to exterminate their tormentor. Each of the makeshift band of demon fighters pledge to make any sacrifice to stop the Count; this sacrifice is outlined by Stoker at one of their meetings;
“For if we fail in this our fight he must surely win…but to fail here is not mere life and death. It is that we become as him; that we henceforward become foul things of the night like him - without heart or conscience” (Stoker, pg. 223)
Stoker purposefully creates a villain worthy of his reader’s hate so that the other characters in the book, for example Lucy and Renfield, are forgivable despite their unsavory actions.
Conflict Headlines:
Below are headlines for news stories that could have been printed during Stokers story. They each capture an act of result of Count Dracula’s plot.
1. “British solicitor kidnaps local children!”
This headline refers to the time that Jonathan Harker spent in Transylvania and his startling discovery that, not only had the Count stolen his clothes but that, Dracula was masquerading as himself when he hunted in the villages.
2. “HMS Death! Ghost boat washes ashore amid a violent storm in rural town”
This headline would accompany the story of how the Count’s ship was wrecked in the Whitby harbor and the terror that ensued upon the discovery of the dead captain and the missing crew.
3. “Escaped wolf returned safe and sound”
This headline would have been printed after the Count’s final attack on poor Lucy. He used his power over mundane creatures to force the wolf to escape the zoo and break through Lucy’s closed bedroom window.
4. “The Bloofer Lady strikes again!”
This headline tells the tale of the child whom Van Helsing and Steward saved from Lucy on their first night time visit to the graveyard. Lucy’s conversion to a vampire is a testament to the Count’s destructive power and gives the reader a glimpse and what it would mean if the Count turned more people.
5. “Disturbance at the Carfax manor causes neighborhood concern”
This headline would have been printed after the nighttime visit that Van Helsing, Steward, Harker, Morris, and Holmwood paid to Dracula’s haunt. It describes the eerie events of the night, which made the reader feel as though the Count knew they were there.
“there remains a greater task: to find out the author of all this our sorrow and stamp him out…but it is a long task, and a difficult, and there is danger in it, and pain…and do we not promise to go on to the bitter end?” (Stoker, pg. 205).
It is in this passage that one comes to understand not only what evil the heroes face but also the length to which they will go to exterminate their tormentor. Each of the makeshift band of demon fighters pledge to make any sacrifice to stop the Count; this sacrifice is outlined by Stoker at one of their meetings;
“For if we fail in this our fight he must surely win…but to fail here is not mere life and death. It is that we become as him; that we henceforward become foul things of the night like him - without heart or conscience” (Stoker, pg. 223)
Stoker purposefully creates a villain worthy of his reader’s hate so that the other characters in the book, for example Lucy and Renfield, are forgivable despite their unsavory actions.
Conflict Headlines:
Below are headlines for news stories that could have been printed during Stokers story. They each capture an act of result of Count Dracula’s plot.
1. “British solicitor kidnaps local children!”
This headline refers to the time that Jonathan Harker spent in Transylvania and his startling discovery that, not only had the Count stolen his clothes but that, Dracula was masquerading as himself when he hunted in the villages.
2. “HMS Death! Ghost boat washes ashore amid a violent storm in rural town”
This headline would accompany the story of how the Count’s ship was wrecked in the Whitby harbor and the terror that ensued upon the discovery of the dead captain and the missing crew.
3. “Escaped wolf returned safe and sound”
This headline would have been printed after the Count’s final attack on poor Lucy. He used his power over mundane creatures to force the wolf to escape the zoo and break through Lucy’s closed bedroom window.
4. “The Bloofer Lady strikes again!”
This headline tells the tale of the child whom Van Helsing and Steward saved from Lucy on their first night time visit to the graveyard. Lucy’s conversion to a vampire is a testament to the Count’s destructive power and gives the reader a glimpse and what it would mean if the Count turned more people.
5. “Disturbance at the Carfax manor causes neighborhood concern”
This headline would have been printed after the nighttime visit that Van Helsing, Steward, Harker, Morris, and Holmwood paid to Dracula’s haunt. It describes the eerie events of the night, which made the reader feel as though the Count knew they were there.
Character Assignment:
The character of professor Van Helsing is perhaps the most important in Stoker’s novel. Van Helsing is the glue that holds the story together; he is the saint, all knowing and better than the average man. The Professor plays several crucial roles; he is the one who reveals Dracula’s true identity, he is the one who devises the plan to destroy the Count, and he is the one who bolsters and supports all the others on their quest for freedom. Van Helsing himself does not seem ignorant of the profound purpose he serves; it is as if he is humbled and burdened by it, “madness were easy to bear compared with truth like this” (Stoker, pg. 185).
Van Helsing himself is a bit of an anomaly. For someone who knows all to well the darker side of reality, he is a surprisingly devoted believer in God and the ability of good to triumph over evil. He reminds the others continually that “God is merciful and just, and knows your pain and your devotion” (Stoker, pg. 284).
Van Helsing himself is a bit of an anomaly. For someone who knows all to well the darker side of reality, he is a surprisingly devoted believer in God and the ability of good to triumph over evil. He reminds the others continually that “God is merciful and just, and knows your pain and your devotion” (Stoker, pg. 284).
For both of these reasons I believe a good “license plate” for Professor Van Helsing would be;
WERHOLY
WERHOLY