Dracula and How to Read Literature Like a Professor Essay

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Caitlin Batchelor Dracula and How to Read Literature like a Professor 30 August 2012 Bram Stoker’s Dracula is in a word - perfect. It is the perfect example of gothic literature, and it is the perfect book to apply the techniques for reading like a professor, learned in Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor. It is filled with symbols and has hidden themes. As a piece of gothic fiction, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is dark, but after reading How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster Dracula becomes more of a tragic love story fueled by sex and religion containing many symbols that create a new way to view the story. Dracula is a book with many hidden surprises. One of the hidden surprises is the elements of Gothic literature Dracula contains. The first is setting in a tall building such as a castle. Jonathan Harker first encounters the Count at his castle in Transylvania. Another element is an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Throughout the novel readers are kept wondering about different situations such as Lucy’s fate, Dracula’s next victim, and Renfield’s purpose. Presence of the supernatural is an element as well. Dracula is a vampire which is supernatural. The next element is a woman or women in distress. Lucy is the damsel in this case and Mina almost is when the Count tries to go after her as well. This also is an example of another element, women threatened by powerful men. Finally the last element is metonymy of gloom and horror. Dracula diffidently contains gloom and horror. There are wolves howling at the Count’s command, Jonathan gets trapped in a room with the three female vampires, and the females cackle is spooky. The presence of gore also proves that Dracula contains horror. Dracula drinks blood, and to kill the vampires stakes where driven through their hearts. Dracula is Gothic literature

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