Dracula

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula‘ is a gothic horror story about a Vampire’s attempts to gain a foothold in England in order to find fresh blood and the attempts of a group of courageous individuals to stop him. It is the book most responsible for catapulting vampiric literature and media onto the top of public consciousness.

Through a fragmentary narrative technique and expert build-up of tension, Bram Stoker created a gripping tale that has lasted in public consciousness ever since it came out. ‘Dracula‘s staying power owed as much to Stoker’s writing as it did to the way in which he was able to capture the full range of Victorian anxieties.

Key Facts about Dracula

• Title: Dracula
• Published: 1897
• Literary Period: Victorian
• Genre: Gothic, Horror
• Point-of-View: Fragmentary
• Setting: England and Transylvania in the Victorian period
• Climax: Dracula’s destruction at the hands of the crew of light
• Antagonist: Count Dracula

Bram Stoker and Dracula

The seeds for ‘Dracula‘ were most probably planted through the numerous horror stories involving the “undead” that Stoker’s mother told him during his long incapacitated and sickly childhood by her side. Stoker was also privy to the so-called vampire scare of 1896, where a Tuberculosis outbreak was mischaracterized as symptoms of vampirism. All these most likely contributed to ‘Dracula,’ as were the sensibilities of the Victorian period in which he lived.

The protagonists in ‘Dracula‘ are all gentlemanly, prudish Western Europeans who were embodiments of Victorian Britain’s standards for proper conduct and character. The antagonists are embodiments of sexual licentiousness, greed, and evil- and they are from Eastern Europe. This also shows Stoker’s awareness of contemporary Britain’s colonialist and racist attitudes, as well as the bad blood between Western Europe on one hand and Russia and its Eastern European neighbors on the other.

While ‘Dracula’ was favorably reviewed upon its publication, it did not bring much financial stability for Stoker. In his time, it was less an achievement for him than his position as Henry Irving’s right-hand man. ‘Dracula‘s reputation would only truly soar years after Stoker’s death.

Books Related to Dracula

In writing ‘Dracula,’ Stoker drew from a plethora of already existing Vampire literature, such as John Polidori’s ‘The Vampyre‘ which, when published in 1819, became the first complete work of vampire literature in English prose, and Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 homoerotic vampire fiction ‘Camilla.’ There was also the anonymously published ‘Varney the Vampire‘ published in 1847. Stoker evidently borrowed elements from these books for use in his own.

Bram Stoker’s work is also similar to other contemporary gothic fiction that utilized a monster, such as Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus‘ which was published in 1818, Robert Louis Stevenson‘s ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde‘ published in 1886, Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey‘ published in 1891 and H.G. Well’s ‘The Invincible Man‘ which came out in 1897.

The Lasting Impact of Dracula