“Dracula” by Bram Stoker.
An Irish novelist, Abraham Stoker, writes an important epistolary novel, “Dracula.” It follows horror and Gothic elements, and interestingly it was first published on 26th of May, 1897. The book follows Jonathan Harker’s encounter with Count Dracula in Transylvania. As Dracula arrives in England, the story unfolds through the journal entries, letters, and newspaper articles that are revealing the battle between Dracula and a group led by Professor, Abraham Van Helsing. The novel explores, “vampirism, superstition, and the clash between modernity and ancient evil.” “Dracula” is set largely in England, but Stoker was born in Ireland. Which was at that time part of the British Empire, and he lives there for the first 30 years of his life.
Published by Archibald Constable and Company (UK), It was written chiefly in the form of diaries and journals kept by the principal characters, Jonathan Harker. Furthermore, Stoker likely found the name Dracula in Whitby’s public library while holidaying there with his wife and son in 1880. According to Bierman, “Stoker always intended to write an epistolary novel, but originally set it in Styria instead of Transylvania.” Dracula becomes the subject of critical interest into Irish fiction during the early 1990s. The novel is an example of the Urban Gothic subgenre. [© Created by Keshab Kumar Gayen]
At the beginning of the novel, Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, visits Count Dracula at his castle in the Carpathian Mountains. Harker wanders the castle at night, and encounters three women vampire. Harker escapes and ends up delirious in a Budapest hospital. Harker shows, “Of one thing I am now satisfied: that all the boxes which arrived at Whitby from Varna in the Demeter were safely deposited in the old chapel at Carfax.” On the other hand, Lucy Westenra’s letter to her best friend, Harker’s fiancée Mina Murray, describes her marriage proposals about Mr. Homewood. Mina receives a letter about her missing fiancé’s illness, and goes to Budapest to nurse him.
Lucy’s another confidant, John Seward and his old teacher, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, determines the nature of Lucy’s condition. Van helsing has, “filled the room with the pungent odour of garlic, placed a circle of the same strong smelling flowers round the bed, and hung one large bunch at the head of the bed.” While Seward and Van Helsing are absent, Lucy and her mother are terrified by a wolf, and Mrs. Westenra dies of a heart attack; Lucy dies shortly thereafter. Jonathan Harker and his now-wife Mina have returned, and they join the campaign against Dracula.
Van Helsing finally reveals that vampires can only rest on the earth from their homeland. Dracula communicates with Seward’s patient, Renfield, an insane man who eats vermin to absorb their life force. From Mina’s diary, “…I know now that he [Dracula] intends to attack me here in this very house, where all my friends are gathered round me!” As the men find Dracula’s properties, they discover many earth boxes within. The vampire hunters open each of the boxes and seal wafers of sacramental bread inside them, and renders them useless to Dracula.
They learn that Dracula is fleeing to his castle in Transylvania with his last box. Mina has a faint psychic connection to Dracula, which Van Helsing exploits via hypnosis to track Dracula’s movements. In Galatz, Romania, Van Helsing and Mina go to Dracula’s castle, where the professor destroys the vampire women. After Dracula’s box is finally loaded onto a wagon by Romani men, the hunters converge and attack it. After routing the Romani, Harker decapitates Dracula as Quincey stabs him in the heart. Dracula crumbles to dust, freeing Mina from her vampiric curse. A note by Jonathan Harker seven years later states that the Harkers have a son, named Quincey.
Throughout the novel, this duality reflects the Victorian anxieties about the repressed darkness within, and the thin line between civilized veneer and primal urges. Calvin W. Keogh writes that Harker’s voyage into Eastern Europe “bears comparison with the Celtic fringe to the west”, and highlights them both as “othered” spaces. The novel explores the ethical and philosophical implications of defying mortality, and prompting us to consider what it truly means to be human and the value of our limited time on earth.
To conclude, Stoker’s novel, “Dracula” pits a rational and scientific minds like Professor Van Helsing against the supernatural forces embodied by Dracula. This reflects Victorian struggle between faith and reason, as well as the clash between scientific progress and traditional beliefs. Dracula’s immortality is both alluring and horrifying. He represents the human desire to cheat death, but his existence also comes at a terrible cost. His presence disrupts the established order which is challenging traditional notions of femininity and unleashing desires deemed forbidden. The ending also offers a bittersweet sense of renewal. Mina and Harker find solace in their love and family, while Seward and Arthur navigate their own paths to happiness.
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”__ Dr. Seuss
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