Paula Rashel Flyangolts Professor: K. Sanders English 151-9613 23 February, 2011 Superstition and Religion in Dracula Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is a novel that can be considered known throughout current culture, as it is a classic. Written in 1897, it is still one of the most popular books in literature. It is referred to as a horror story and is sure to indulge you. However, Stoker’s intention was not to petrify the people of Victorian times, who were the first people to be entertained by the novel. Stoker created the character of Dracula to teach the readers lessons and morals about life and its questionable attributes.
The settings presented are also dark and eeire, and Dracula himself lives in solitude with no other companion. The film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ is just as reliant on the conventions of Gothic fiction (a genre that was extremely popular in the early nineteenth century when the book was written) as the novel, making it not only follow nicely in the novel’s footsteps but also proving to be a chilling delight for the viewing audience. Gothic fiction traditionally includes elements such as wild landscapes, eerie castles, darkness, and decay, isolation, security, the supernatural and innocent maidens threatened by unspeakable evil. Stoker has utilized all of the above and consequently, as does this film adaptation. An example of this would be in the theme of isolation as Dracula’s castle is hidden in the recesses of Transylvania, kept away from civilization of any description.
Why Dracula is a Gothic Novel The horror story Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, is a thrilling novel about the notorious vampire, Dracula, and about a group of men and women who suffered from his evil and fought back. This novel, written in 1897, is one of the most famous gothic novels, and one of the most famous pieces of literature still to this day. The setting of the novel, the terminology, and the deep emotion that Stoker used allows the reader, and literary critics, to classify Dracula as Gothic Literature. The elements that Dracula contains to make it gothic include the setting of a castle, a suspenseful atmosphere, dreams and visions, inexplicable events, overwhelming emotions, distressed women, metonymy of horror, and of course gothic vocabulary. For a novel to be considered gothic, it must contain certain elements; Dracula reflects many of these unique principles.
As preoccupied with propriety as the Victorian era was, it always surprises me to read a classic from this period that could just as easily have been written a hundred years later. Dracula, a novel by Bram Stoker, was published in 1897, but it reads like any horror novel written today. The novel is so modern, in fact, that it has inspired many movie adaptations, two of the most recent being Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992 and Van Helsing in 2004. Toward the beginning of the novel, when Jonathan Harker is trapped in Dracula's castle, Harker's journal tells how he was waylaid by three female vampires while resting in an ancient section of the castle: "I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the super-sensitive skin of my throat,
Forward thinking in Dracula. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stoker challenges the Victorian mind in ways that had never been done before. The novel is written in a way to fool readers to think the story is true. He covers subjects of religion, sex and the supernatural in an attempt to expand the shallow thinking of the time. The character of Dracula rarely appears in the text after the first few chapters to create a sense of mystique for Dracula, and by doing so proves Dracula is supernatural.
The two biggest and most conflicting religions in this period were two sects of Christianity, Protestantism and Catholicism. This conflict can be seen in a lot of literature in the Gothic genre, as the villains were mainly Catholic, which gave authors a gateway in which to insult Catholicism. However, in Dracula, Stoker creates the setting for Gothic conventions, but does not fully concede to this stereotype, making one of his protagonists Protestant but using Catholic symbols to help protect him. At the start of the novel, when Harker is travelling to Dracula’s home, he seems to be travelling between two different worlds, when passing through the landscape Harker notices a thunderstorm at the Carpathian Mountains which seems to “[separate] two atmospheres” (14) and describes the scenery as a “frontier… [that] has had a very stormy existence” (6). This suggests that Harker is leaving one world behind, the world of security, and is passing a world of superstition and danger, which can be otherwise seen as Harker digressing into Limbo, the theological “in between” world, between Heaven and Hell, in this context Heaven is Britain is Heaven and Transylvania is Hell.
Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, has a very prestigious rise to self-actualization in the book. Victor also has a very dark, and deep downward spiral back towards the most basic deficiency needs as all of his mental abilities for relationships, esteem, and love are lost due to his actions in the novel. Victor Frankenstein supports Abraham Maslows theory of needs by proving it through his life’s story. Victor Frankenstein can be used to prove Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, thus giving persuasion and justification to Maslow’s theory.
I will analyze the author's title and expain the relationship between the title and the novel. I will also discuss the effect of the title on the reader. -The name "Frankenstein" is often used to refer to the monster itself. Frankenstein is a well established title because it gives a hint of the theme. In the novel, the monster is identified by words such as "creature," "monster", "fiend", "wretch", "vile insect","being", and "it", but speaking to Dr. Frankenstein, the monster refers to himself as "the Adam of your labors", and elsewhere as someone who "would have" been "your Adam", but is instead your "fallen angel."
Sometimes we need to wait until the right moment or until we actually have access to the things that will fulfill our needs. In fact, the sexuality of Bram Stoker’s Dracula proves Sigmund Freud’s theory that all human behavior is motivated by either the sex drive, or some sexual impulse. To properly analyze this book, a certain “approach” needs to be applied to the book. The most interesting of these “lenses” is the Psychological Approach. When analyzing a book through the psychological lens, you must juxtapose the book itself with Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Id, the Ego, and the Super-ego.
Twilight has integrated itself as a part of modern teen culture in a way that could only be rivalled by the likes of Buffy. This is largely due to it’s relatable, yet aspirational characters and twisting love story. Audiences have such an affiliation with the character’s in Twilight, they have split into two rival camps; ‘Team Edward’ and ‘Team Jacob’. Based on the Twilight love triangle and the traditional rivalry between vampires and werewolves, fans separate between themselves into these teams often by wearing clothing offered by fansites, with phrases like “TEAM EDWARD (except when Jacob is shirtless)”. The Vampire Diaries website has a merchandise store, from which you can buy the full boxset of DVDs, mugs and t shirts with The Vampire Diaries logos and characters on.