Dracula
The first novel I read over the summer was Dracula. This follows the stories, through journal entries, of many characters trying to put an end to Dracula before Mina Harker becomes one of the Vampires.The first character we meet is Jonathan Harker sent to do business with a client who wishes to come to England. But From the very start of the novel we get a sense that something isn’t right about Count Dracula through the villagers superstition and fear of him and this sets the tone for the whole story. Once in Dracula’s castle his true colours are shown and Dracula’s intentions soon become clear. He intends to create a race of Vampires to rule the world. Such an idea would place the Human race second in the food chain, instead of being on top of it. So he goes to England in search of Fresh Blood and people. But Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing and a few others set out to stop him and put an end to him. This is revenge for Lucy who died because of him and to save Mina before she becomes one of them.
Dracula is repeatedly described as having ’eyes, which seemed red’ ‘hard-looking mouth, with very red lips’ and ‘sharp looking teeth’. This description of the character fits perfectly into the Gothic because we see a character with very un-human like qualities and appearances that makes him seem monster like or out of this world. Also because Dracula only comes out at night when it is dark it makes him seem evil and there he can hid in the dark and capture innocent people. Whereas light would promote a sense of heaven and a good person. The settings in this novel are very Gothic also with places like castles, old run down houses and graveyards all commonly used to play on your sense of fear and it adds to the suspense throughout the book because anything can happen here.
I found this Novel very enjoyable because it kept my interest and made me want to find out if they find and capture him or not before Mina becomes a vampire like him. This is because the book has the perfect balance of suspense and tension and this is all comes from Dracula’s character because you don’t know who or where he will strike next. Along with that Dracula is also the perfect villain in this story being of super strength, out of this world characteristics and the fact he preys on innocent people to keep himself alive. This Book is basically Good vs evil, Heaven vs Hell and is based around the Victorian ideal that Good will always triumph no matter what.
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