Dracula is an 1987 novel written by Bram Stoker, an Irish novelist.
The novel has been attributed to many literary genres, including horror fiction, vampire literature and most prominently as the gothic literature.
The story is written as first person and basically reflects on the journals of Jonathan Harker. The recrods chosen for the journals appear to be contemporary, given from the stand points and within the range of knowledge of those who made them.
Chapter one and two basically resembles the introductory part of the novel, where the Journalist i.e. Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified Englsih solicitor, describes about his journey from where he had begun. He generaly talks about his experienes, the scenes and places and the people he had come across whilst on the way to Castle Dracula.
The story begins on 1st of may, at 8:35 am, when he leaves Munich and arrives at Vienna journying by train.
The details of the places and the time are very precisely described.
The place addressed as Bistritz appears in the beginning of the opening sentence of the story, which directly opens the doorway to mystery and horror as Bistritz is a town in Transylvania, which means "the Land Beyond The Forest" and which refers to a high plateau region in central and nortwest Romania.
The place, by the writer, is described to be in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three estates, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.
The writer also talks about how he had difficulty in pointing out the place whilst studying the maps he had bought along with. There wasn't a clear evidence of where the Castle Dracula really was.
Then, he also reveals us tht Bistritz was the post town named by Count Dracula and tht it was a fairly well known place amongst the locals, and even mentions about the colossal loss of human lives that had taken place in the past.
Since the beginning of the story, i could sense the coldness and darkness going on somewhere in the story, as the places described sounded peculiar to me.
The name "Castle Dracula", didn't seem to be quite right for a normal kind of story.
Hence, from the beginning of the story, we, the readers are able to taste that flavour of gothicism within the novel.
The writer talks about all sorts of queer dreams that he had, his restless nights throughout the journey, however, he also describes the antique sort of beauty of the towns, places and the people he sees and about how he appreciated them somehow.
As Jonathan arrives to Bistritz, he directly goes to Golden Krone Hotel as told by the Count Dracula.
This is when the story gets started. As he reads the letter from Count Dracula, people around him gets shocked.
They don't quite show up the reson for acting hysterical towards him but then offer blessings and wishes to him and gift him with crosses ( to proect against the evil).
Moreover, an old lady begs him not to go to the place where he has intended to go.
The novel has been attributed to many literary genres, including horror fiction, vampire literature and most prominently as the gothic literature.
The story is written as first person and basically reflects on the journals of Jonathan Harker. The recrods chosen for the journals appear to be contemporary, given from the stand points and within the range of knowledge of those who made them.
Chapter one and two basically resembles the introductory part of the novel, where the Journalist i.e. Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified Englsih solicitor, describes about his journey from where he had begun. He generaly talks about his experienes, the scenes and places and the people he had come across whilst on the way to Castle Dracula.
The story begins on 1st of may, at 8:35 am, when he leaves Munich and arrives at Vienna journying by train.
The details of the places and the time are very precisely described.
The place addressed as Bistritz appears in the beginning of the opening sentence of the story, which directly opens the doorway to mystery and horror as Bistritz is a town in Transylvania, which means "the Land Beyond The Forest" and which refers to a high plateau region in central and nortwest Romania.
The place, by the writer, is described to be in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three estates, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.
The writer also talks about how he had difficulty in pointing out the place whilst studying the maps he had bought along with. There wasn't a clear evidence of where the Castle Dracula really was.
Then, he also reveals us tht Bistritz was the post town named by Count Dracula and tht it was a fairly well known place amongst the locals, and even mentions about the colossal loss of human lives that had taken place in the past.
Since the beginning of the story, i could sense the coldness and darkness going on somewhere in the story, as the places described sounded peculiar to me.
The name "Castle Dracula", didn't seem to be quite right for a normal kind of story.
Hence, from the beginning of the story, we, the readers are able to taste that flavour of gothicism within the novel.
The writer talks about all sorts of queer dreams that he had, his restless nights throughout the journey, however, he also describes the antique sort of beauty of the towns, places and the people he sees and about how he appreciated them somehow.
As Jonathan arrives to Bistritz, he directly goes to Golden Krone Hotel as told by the Count Dracula.
This is when the story gets started. As he reads the letter from Count Dracula, people around him gets shocked.
They don't quite show up the reson for acting hysterical towards him but then offer blessings and wishes to him and gift him with crosses ( to proect against the evil).
Moreover, an old lady begs him not to go to the place where he has intended to go.
This surprises Jonathan and makes him confused. He gets overwhelmed to see how she wanted him to avoid the journey.
However, despites these interferance, he sets his mind to set off his journey because staying without any sorts of reasonable information and backing off from an assigned job would be kind of foolishness.
Chapter one and two, in short is generally about people whom Jonathan meets on his way, about how they react towards him after knowing his purposes and the confusions that he had regarding all those people he had met.
It is quite mysterius and kind of hysterical to see all the people showing cross symbols in front of him, offering him blessings and wishes and talking about evilness, devil and darkness in different languages by different people.
The description of the arousing of the fear in people's expressions as the name "Count Dracula" is mentioned, makes us confidently obvious that the fear has something to do with the place where Jonathan is heading i.e. "Castle Dracula".
Hence, it is obvious that the role of the Count Dracula is predominant throughout the story as an antagonist and that the journalist i.e. Jonathan Harker has been slowly getting himself into something that is not going to be nice.
The howls of the wolves, the cries and the screams in d darkest of nights and the horses trying their best to escape from there, the people, these all make the writer finally feel what others had expected from him after knowing the truth.
It seems like he has noticed that he had entered in the place of death, where even the beauty of the wild seemed to be scaring his breathe away from him, he regrets for dwelling in that very land and wishes to return back as soon as possible.
He talks about the fear seen in the eyes of the horses from the beasts that were scaring him away.
For awhile, everything seems to be doom, a terrible nightmare, he even pinches himself to see if that was a dream he never wanted to have.
But to his bitter truth, that was the reality he had been facing.
He describes the Count Dracula looking lifeless, and cold and almost dead.
However, he is impressed by the friendly gestures and warm welcome that the dracula offers until when he becomes unable to see the reflection of Dracula in the glass while the other presence are visible, and discovers that the castle was a veritable prison and he as the prisoner.
"The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree-tops, with occasssionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.
But i am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no placesave from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit."
However, despites these interferance, he sets his mind to set off his journey because staying without any sorts of reasonable information and backing off from an assigned job would be kind of foolishness.
Chapter one and two, in short is generally about people whom Jonathan meets on his way, about how they react towards him after knowing his purposes and the confusions that he had regarding all those people he had met.
It is quite mysterius and kind of hysterical to see all the people showing cross symbols in front of him, offering him blessings and wishes and talking about evilness, devil and darkness in different languages by different people.
The description of the arousing of the fear in people's expressions as the name "Count Dracula" is mentioned, makes us confidently obvious that the fear has something to do with the place where Jonathan is heading i.e. "Castle Dracula".
Hence, it is obvious that the role of the Count Dracula is predominant throughout the story as an antagonist and that the journalist i.e. Jonathan Harker has been slowly getting himself into something that is not going to be nice.
The howls of the wolves, the cries and the screams in d darkest of nights and the horses trying their best to escape from there, the people, these all make the writer finally feel what others had expected from him after knowing the truth.
It seems like he has noticed that he had entered in the place of death, where even the beauty of the wild seemed to be scaring his breathe away from him, he regrets for dwelling in that very land and wishes to return back as soon as possible.
He talks about the fear seen in the eyes of the horses from the beasts that were scaring him away.
For awhile, everything seems to be doom, a terrible nightmare, he even pinches himself to see if that was a dream he never wanted to have.
But to his bitter truth, that was the reality he had been facing.
He describes the Count Dracula looking lifeless, and cold and almost dead.
However, he is impressed by the friendly gestures and warm welcome that the dracula offers until when he becomes unable to see the reflection of Dracula in the glass while the other presence are visible, and discovers that the castle was a veritable prison and he as the prisoner.
"The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree-tops, with occasssionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.
But i am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no placesave from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit."
Interesting observations! A great quotation to end upon too. Don't feel that you have to summarise too much - but instead, as you do in the second half - write about the effects created and predictions you may have. A good start though!
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