Dracula Analysis Log

8/3/2019 Dracula Analysis Log

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Section A: Theme Statements/Truisms

1. The alienation of a person can lead to the loss of their sanity.

2. The power of evil can easily overcome the unknowing good.

3. Knowledge can be the solution to life's most difficult problems.

4. Rejection hurts most from what is closest to us.

5. Unlikely salvation can be found within the Christian faith.

Section B

Chapters 1-5

a) The alienation of a person can lead to the loss of their santity.

b) "When I found that I was a prisoner a sort of wild feeling cameover me. I rushed up and down the stairs, trying every door

and peering out of every window I could find; but after a little

the conviction of my helplessness overpowered all other

feelings. When I look back after the few hours I think I must

have been mad for the time, for I behaved much as a rat does in a trap."

c) Johnathan Harker was locked away in Dracula's castle, a place

very much separate from the rest of society. There, when

Johnathan discovered he was being kept "prisoner", he went

mad for some period of time, having no one to confide his fears

with.

Chapters 6-10

a) The power of evil can easily overcome the unknowing

good.

b) " 'I have had a great shock, and when I try to think of what

it is I feel my head spin round, and I do not know if it

was all real of the dreaming of a madman. You know I

have had brain fever, and that is to be mad. The secret is

here, and I do not want to know it...Are you willing, Willhelmina, toshare my ignorance?' "

c) Johnathan would rather neither he or Mina know of what is

written in his journal, even it means that all the evil he

is confused about really is lurking about still. Dracula

can, without much effort, become more powerful and

steal the lives of many others if the good people, like Mina and


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Johnathan, still have no knowledge of his existence.

Chapters 11-15

a) Knowledge can be the solution to life's most difficult

problems.

b) "I have read your husband's so wonderful diary. You may

sleep without doubt. Strange and terrible as it is, it is

true! I will pledge my life on it."

c) Mina had told Van Helsing of her doubts about the truth of

what Johnathan's journal contained, and here in Van

Helsing's letter to her, Mina's doubts could be gone. Mina

was fearing the unknown, because she hadn't a clue as to

what she really had to worry about, but now that Mina knew exactly

what she was dealing with, they could all now plan

accordingly.

Chapters 16-21

a) Unlikely salvation can be found within the Christian faith.

b) "But by this time the Professor had gained his feet, and was

holding towards him the envelope which contained the

Sacred Wafer. The Count suddenly stopped, just as poor

Lucy had done outside the tomb, and cowered back. Further

and further back he cowered, as we, lifting our

crucifixes, advanced."

c) To save Mina from being hurt by Dracula any further, the men

use the Sacred Wafer and crucifixes to repel Dracula. These

religious articles are able to keep evil away because God always

triumphs over the devil.

Chapters 22-27

a) Rejection hurts most from what is closest to us.

b) "As he had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had

seared it...she wailed out: 'Unclean! Unclean! Even the

Almightly shuns my polluted flesh! I must bear this mark of

shame upon my forehead until Judgement Day.' "

c) We know Mina is a strong Christian because she is very

much offended that a Sacred Wafer, which was

supposed to have healing powers, had literally burned


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her. Mina felt rejected by God, and cried out in her pain, both

emotional and physical.

Section C: Literary Elements

The Weird Sisters

a) "All three had brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls

against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was

something about them that made me uneasy, some longing

and at the same time deadly fear."

b) The three women are compared to the three witches from

Macbeth, who were said to bring about a bad omen.

a) "The phantom shapes, which were becomin gradually

materialized from the moonbeams, were those of the three

ghastly women to whom I was doomed."

b) These women made Johnathan fear for his life, because he

knew that they too were vampires and had a thirst for

blood, just as Dracula did.

Darkness

a) "Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue

flame. The driver saw it at the same moment; he at once

checked the horses and jumping to the ground,

disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less asthe howling of the wolves grew closer..."

b) The mystery and suspense throughout this entire novel is

driven by the lack of light shed on many matters. The

"darkness" is the characters' lack of knowledge of Dracula

and how evil and powerful he can be.

a) "This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I

took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the

darkness."

b) The lack of knowledge towards the beginning of the book

is what creates a misunderstanding as to what is and is not

real, especially in Johnathan's case with his journal and

not knowing whether or not all that he had written in it

had actually occured or if he'd just gone mad.

Blood


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a) "Blood is too precious a thing in these days of

dishonourable peace; and the glories of the great races

are as a tale that is told."

b) Dracula along with all other vamipires view blood as a

precious thing because it is used by them to becomestronger.

a) "The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of

the time; he can flourish when he can fatten on the blood

of the living...he cannot flourish without this diet."

b) Much like the drinking of the wine during Communion is

said to give Christians eternal life, for vampires the drinking

of a living person's blood give them an extended life, though

physical instead of spiritual.

The Czarina Catherine

a) "Until the Czarina Catherine comes into port there will be

no interest for me in anything in the wide world."

b) The Czarina Catherine is the ship Dracula takes in his

journey back to his home.

a) "When the telegram came announcing the arrival [of the

ship] in Galatz, I do not think it was such a shock to any of

us as might have expected. True, we did not know whence,

or how, or when, the bolt would come; but I think we allexpected that something strange would happen."

b) The ship is named after the empress who was known for

her promiscuity, symbolizing the fear that if Dracula is not

caught, that Mina will become much like that of Lucy and

the three women.

Allusion

a) "The blood is the life!"

b) Once Renfield is pulled away by attendants from licking up

Dr. Seward's blood from the floor, he begins to shout

this sentence repeatedly. This is a biblical allusion,

because in Deuteronomy 12: 23, it says this exact line. In the

Christian faith, having the wine at communion is said to give a

person eternal life, and likewise but in a more twisted

manner, the human blood vampires drink extend their own


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physical life.

Flashback

a) "I came up here an hour ago with Lucy...they feel in love

with her on the spot. Even my old man succumbed and

did not contradict her, but gave me double share instead.

I got him on the subject of the legends, and he went off at

once into a sort of sermon. I must try to remember it and put it down..."

b) In Mina's journal, she recalls the conversatiion they had

with the old man who told him of the ancient legends. The

story the man tells is an example of flashback because it is

not occuring at that time; it occured previously.

Point of View

a) "At least God's mercy is better than that of thesemonsters, and the precipice is steem and high. At its

foot a man may sleep - as a man. Goodbye, all! Mina!"

b) In Johnathan Harker's journal, we can understand from his

writting just how much he fears for his life living in Dracula's

castle. He senses death is near, and talks about how he's much

rather die and have the mercy of God than be at the mercy of

Dracula and the three women.

Internal Conflict

a) "Then [Mina] began to rub her lips as though to cleanse

them from pollution."

b) Mina felt disgusting after the Count forced her to drink

some of his blood when he accidently cut himself in the

chest. She felt she was now unchaste and that there was no way

to become pure again.

External Conflict

a) "In the dining-room, which lay at the back of the hall, wefound eight boxes of earth. Eight boxes only out of the nine

which were sought! Our work was not over, and would

never be until we should have found the missing box."

b) They needed destroy all of the boxes in order to have a

chance of getting rid of Dracula, but with one no where

to be found, they had quite an adventure ahead of them.


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Setting

a) "At last I pulled open a heavy door which stood ajar, and

found myself in an old, ruined chapel, which had evidently

been used as a graveyard. The roof was broken, and in

two places were steps leading to vaults, but the ground hadrecently been dug over, and the earth placed in great wooden

boxes, manifestly those which had been brought by the Slovaks.

There was nobody about..."

b) The setting created by Bram Stoker is a rather eerie one,

but also a rather important one because it explains where

the boxes, which end up playing a key element in the story, are put

in the beginning.

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Dracula Analysis Log