Matej Mináč

it. Mina and Lucy are very significant to the novel as they are the only female characters, and they are both given very different characteristics, Mina is the ideal Victorian woman, and Lucy is a rebel to society, which leads her to fall under Dracula’s spell. Bram Stoker makes it very clear that the two represent Victorian women, though what makes Mina the ideal one? Firstly, Stroker uses Mina to exemplify his idea of the perfect Victorian woman. In the novel, Van Helsing describes Mina, “She…

The key factor in this novel is the use of the vampire. Both of the female characters, Mina and Lucy, are rebellious and use their vampire forms as a way to express their New Woman behavior. As they transform into vampires this dual side of them can be shown clearly and the male characters begin to see it throughout the novel. For example when Lucy is in her vampire like state she becomes more flirtatious and request Arthur to kiss her.Dr Seward writes:” Arthur oh my love, I am so glad that you…

The Depiction of Sinister Mankind Religion has always brought man great prosperity, or great agony. An example to support such a statement are vampires; vampires balance out the metaphorical scale as they eliminate those who are unfaithful or fall into the temptation of sin but are weak to religious objects. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, mankind’s sin is symbolized by one entity, the vampire.…

In Chapter Three of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster uses examples of novels in order to explain the difference between literal vampirism, such as Dracula, and symbolic vampirism, such as Daisy Miller. Throughout the initial pages of the chapter, Foster keeps a focus on literal vampirism, an extremely cliché concept. An attractive man laced with evil, bites and leaves a mark on a pure woman, taking away her innocence. Literal vampirism is a non-stop cycle of life. One…

Dracula said to Mina “[a]nd you, their best beloved one, are now to me, flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, kin of my kin; my bountiful wine-press for a while; and shall be later on my companion and my helper…[n]ow you shall come to my call,” (Stoker p. 339-340). His language is a bit sexual. How? It’s very intimate. Blood is sacred, as shown when Lucy was given multiple blood transfusions by men whom she did not marry or had no intent to marry. Here, Dracula is binding Mina to him through his…

Transylvania to work for Count Dracula at his castle. He realizes that there is something off about the Count, and eventually finds out that Dracula is of the undead, a vampire. Jonathan eventually escapes the castle to be with his friends and fiance, Mina. Mina’s best friend, Lucy Westenra falls ill, and eventually dies because she was bitten by Count Dracula. She is found to be “alive” in her grave, also as a vampire. Arthur, her fiance is given the task to drive a stake through Lucy’s heart…

Bram Stoker is the author of one of the greatest genre-changing novels of all time, Dracula. Throughout the writing process, there are many factors to take into account that affect an author’s writing style. Bram Stoker chose to follow the genre of gothic horror/ historical fiction in Dracula because of his interests in vampiric mythology. Stoker was born on November 8, 1847 in Dublin, Ireland during the Irish potato famine. He was the third of seven children of his father, whom worked at…

The academy in this novel isn't any ordinary academy. The Academy is filled with different kinds of vampires, such as Strigois. Strigois are vampires who become evil by draining a victim’s blood, causing them to have an extraneous amount of strength. These vampires have the patience of no saint and the temper of a ticking bomb. They live underground, where they are hidden from sunlight and hunters – also known as guardians. Guardians are determined and motivated to exterminate all vampires. They…

well as in the film adaptation of Hammer Films Production Dracula (1958), in which Christopher Lee interprets the role of the Count as an aristocratic attractive vampire. In this way, writers and directors of the twentieth century created vampires that made the audience feel more sympathetic towards them than to those creatures of the folklore and the previous literature. In what concerns to literature, there have been many different representations of the vampiric figure. From the beginning of…

consumption, materialistic production and the rise of the ‘modern’ women in regards to late Victorian advertising. Looking in particular at the introduction of ‘The New Women’, Stoker depicts the separate spheres via Dracula’s “ravenous female consumers”, Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra. Consumption is evident through the vulnerability of the women against the powers of Dracula himself, where Lucy’s “purity” and “sweet” nature turns into “voluptuous wantonness”. Again, not only does Dracula…