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Bram Stoker's Dracula The setting of the story begins in 19th century Europe,
in the eerie country of Transylvania. The story begins with a solicitor from
England named Jonathan Harker is sent by a business man to meet with an old
Count named Dracula at his castle located far from civilization. Residents of
Transylvania who become aware of his destination begin crossing themselves and
giving him garlic and blessings. As a result of these gestures, Mr. Harker soon
develops an uneasy feeling about visiting the mysterious Count. He arrives at
Castle Dracula regardless, and makes his acquaintances with Dracula. He soon
realizes that the count is no normal human, but an evil, blood-sucking vampire,
who can command animals and elements with the wave of his hand. Harker escapes
but the Count has devised an intricate plan to move to London and exercise his
evil forces on innocent people there. However, a group of friends, including an
open-minded, but ingenious professor, a psychologist, an American, a rich man,
as well as Jonathan Harker and his wife Mina, learn of the Count's sinister plan
and pledge to destroy him before he can create an army of un-dead vampires. They
systematically destroy his coffins with holy wafers and chase him out of England
back to Castle Dracula. There they carry out an ultimate plan to destroy
Dracula. The Author uses suspense as a storytelling device rather effectively
throughout the story. There are a fair number of parts in which the reader is
left suspended on the edge of seat, eager to find out what is to happen next.
However, there were parts where suspense could be used in a manner that would
enhance the gravity of the plot. Nonetheless, The book is written in a unique
way that allows suspense to be used easily and effectively built up. Dracula is
written in first person like many other novels but then it differs slightly. The
book starts off as a first person Journal of the first character describing his
experiences. But then it switches to someone else's journal, and then to letters
between two characters, and later to a newspaper article. It follows this
pattern roughly throughout the book. At various points, the plot builds up with
one character's journal and then it jumps to another character's journal so that
you must read a ways through it before the exciti conclusion to that particular
event is revealed. At other times deductions must be made on what a character
has written to ascertain what has occurred. There is a good example of this when
the first character, Jonathan Harker, is imprisoned in the castle close to
sunset and knows that the Count will attack him that night. His journal ends as
he describes what he might do to escape. But the success of his escape is not
evident until the first part of his fiancee's journal is completed. This sort of
suspense can be quite frustrating and annoying at times. Thus it's purpose is
often defeated and the plot suffers. But there is also the more prevalent type
of suspense used where the character is on the verge of an important discovery
or he is in a dangerous predicament but the author is slow to divulge what is to
happen. When the suspense was used properly, it proved to be both interesting
and very dramatic. In conclusion, Bram Stoker's Dracula turned out to be a very
exciting and fascinating novel. The plot was well structured and was very
suspenseful. The author used his historical knowledge of Europe, particularly
Hungary and Transylvania, very well in conveying a certain idea in the book. For
example, Count Dracula was described as a noble of the Magyar peoples of eastern
Europe who fought valiantly against invaders during the 14th and 15th centuries.
Full insight was given into the minds and personalities of almost all of the
well developed characters. Initially, the Count remained somewhat mysterious for
a specific reason. This allowed for the main characters to slowly discover who
the Count really was thus developing the character slowly for the reader. The
intrigue built into his character intensified the mystery. Suspense was used
extensively throughout the novel. The book probed deeply into peoples
superstitions, fears, and beliefs of the supernatural, and how others are
skeptic of them are sometimes proved wrong. In all, Dracula is a clever,
exciting, and suspenseful novel that uses a ruthless villain to terrify you but
forces you to read more.
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