Dracula Analysis
Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, presents readers to possibly the most infamous monster in all of literature. The fictional character Count Dracula, has come to symbolize the periphery between the majority and being an outsider to that group. Dracula’s appeal throughout the years and genres unquestionably stem from his sense of romanticism and monster. Readers no doubt are attracted to his monstrous sensibilities, which provide a sense of looking first at his appearance, personality, and behavior at the beginning of the novel. Readers can easily see Dracula’s blurred outsider status, as he occupies the boundaries of human and monster. Related to this is Dracula’s geographic sense of outsider. The creation of Frankenstein’s Monster experiences this in the Mary Shelley story of the same name, as both characters are truly unable to be defined outside of a physical description which frequently relies on the horrific. For all intents and purposes, Dracula is an immigrant to England, thus placing him further into the realm of outsider. To look at Bram Stoker’s Dracula as solely a monster in the most violent sense of his actions would to be look at a sole aspect of his character, and should be analyzed based on how he interacts with the outside world to genuinely understand him.
The purpose of Dracula’s physical description is to place him against humanity and see how he appears. He has various features which obviously make him a vampire, such as a set of sharp teeth, but there are other peculiarities to his description which mark him as being an outsider. For instance, when Jonathon Harker, and by extension the reader, first meets Dracula, he describes him as being, “a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot” (Stoker 15). At this point, he is a regular looking man, or at least normal enough that nothing elicits a reaction in Jonathon. Later, however, the aberrant constitution of Dracula comes to the forefront, as
The purpose of Dracula’s physical description is to place him against humanity and see how he appears. He has various features which obviously make him a vampire, such as a set of sharp teeth, but there are other peculiarities to his description which mark him as being an outsider. For instance, when Jonathon Harker, and by extension the reader, first meets Dracula, he describes him as being, “a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot” (Stoker 15). At this point, he is a regular looking man, or at least normal enough that nothing elicits a reaction in Jonathon. Later, however, the aberrant constitution of Dracula comes to the forefront, as