Dracula Group at eNotes

Grammardog Guide to Dracula

Can someone help me understand the significance of Jonathan and Seward...

Sun, 31 May 2009 10:12:47 PST

Can someone help me understand the significance of Jonathan and Seward keeping a journal in chapters 14-16?

"Dracula" Research Guide

The real story of Dracula, the novel, is that of an English lawyer named...

Fri, 8 May 2009 12:05:09 PST

The real story of Dracula, the novel, is that of an English lawyer named Jonathan Harker who conducted a business transaction with a man whose name is Count Dracula. This man leads him to the castle where he lives to be hospitable to Harker, but Harker discovers shortly that he has been captured to be kept there. Slowly we are introduced to the vampirism, diabolical natures, the supernatural activity, the vampires, etc. All this unveils until...

Dracula, the creation of writer Bram Stoker, is the classic Gothic tale...

Fri, 8 May 2009 06:15:37 PST

Dracula, the creation of writer Bram Stoker, is the classic Gothic tale - full of Gothic traditions of old crumbling ruins, dark forbidding settings and young vulnerable women in trouble. Although the tale of Dracula has been subsumed by the movie images of Van Helsing, Blade and any number of Dracula films there was an original historical figure that Bram Stoker based his book on. This was Vlad III, prince of Wallachia in Romania...

What is the real story of Dracula?

Thu, 7 May 2009 18:24:46 PST

What is the real story of Dracula?

English Romantic Poets

Mon, 4 May 2009 16:29:33 PST

A lot of Romanticism was about getting back to nature and reaction to Industrial revolutions. What caused the era to catch on? Also, among other Romantic poets of his day, what was it about English poet William Wordsworth (character or writing style wise) that made him stand out?

Dracula Study Guide

Dracula Study Guide (Enhanced eBook)

I agree with parkerlee's answer above, but here is another aspect of...

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:40:59 PST

I agree with parkerlee's answer above, but here is another aspect of this approach. Dracula is presented to us as a character so far outside the experience of the "normal" human that we cannot enter into his mind, as we would in a normal narrative. Where we as readers might be presented with insight into a regular literary character through references to what he thinks and does, we are only presented with Dracula through the eyes of...

Stoker addressed issues which were taboo to even discuss in hushed...

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 09:52:26 PST

Stoker addressed issues which were taboo to even discuss in hushed whispers, the main one being feminine libido - that is to say the sex urge as a 'basic instinct.' At the time women were to have docile subservient roles as devoted wives fulfilled by their role within the household; in 'Dracula' Stoker recognized the full sexual potential of the woman repressed by the society she lived in. You can imagine that this was "hot stuff" when it came...

The elusiveness of Dracula lends to the suspense and angst of the story....

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 09:04:40 PST

The elusiveness of Dracula lends to the suspense and angst of the story. As the master of darkness, he hides in the shadows and cannot be approached, but he can appear of his own will at any moment. The anticipation of his presence is as bad or worse that the thing itself. However, this 'stalling' technique in epistolary form has often been criticized as the weakness of the novel. Indeed, all the soul-searching and speculation over the...

The novel is based off and around the character of Dracula, yet we only...

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 18:14:23 PST

The novel is based off and around the character of Dracula, yet we only see glimpses of him in the narrative, why did Stoker do this?

How did the novel "Dracula" make Bram Stoker stand out among writers of...

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 12:26:13 PST

How did the novel "Dracula" make Bram Stoker stand out among writers of his day and how were his writing methods meaningful?

Bram Stoker, like many other Victorian-era writers, reflected the...

Sun, 5 Apr 2009 12:29:56 PST

Bram Stoker, like many other Victorian-era writers, reflected the behaviors and beliefs of London society as a way to let society see itself through an alter mirror, and to cast his own arguments in favor and against the memes of the time. In the case of Dracula, this happens even in the fact that he setting of the story is mainly in modern London, whereas the historical facts of the story remain at Eastern Europe. This gives Stoker a chance...

Why was Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" so revolutionary for its time and...

Sun, 5 Apr 2009 11:47:19 PST

Why was Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" so revolutionary for its time and what was his purpose of writing it?

Dracula and "Gothic" Poetry

Wonderful question. Dracula stands for all that is dark, sexual, and...

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 06:35:20 PST

Wonderful question. Dracula stands for all that is dark, sexual, and forbidden in Victorian society (and even in our own, for that matter). Dracula stands for the fear of death, the fear of the dead, and the fear of our own mortality. Dracula is the inversion of the Christian belief and he is an inversion of the Victorian ideal of the strong, cultured man. Dracula also is symbolic of the mechanics of mastery and submission, of unknowable and...

In Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," what does Dracula himself stand for in...

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:45:23 PST

In Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," what does Dracula himself stand for in a symbolic sense?

Where in the novel would you find proof (quotes) that Dracula is set in...

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:45:29 PST

Where in the novel would you find proof (quotes) that Dracula is set in the Victorian era?