Dracula, Bram Stoker

It’s mainly a fantasy story with some terror details which make it an intriguing tale and it is one of the most- if not the most- famous terror books ever written.

SETTING: 

It takes place around the end of the nineteenth century mainly between Transylvania, where the castle of count Dracula is situated, and England, where the main events occur.

CHARACTERS:

Count Dracula, Jonathan Harker (lawyer and Dracula’s castle guest), John Seward (doctor in a lunatic asylum), Van Helsing (also doctor and Seward’s friend), Mina Murray (Jonathan Harker’s fiancé), Lucy Westenra (Murray’s friend), Arthur Holmwood (Westenra’s fiancé) and Quincey Morris (Holmwood’s friend).

PLOT:

Jonathan Harker is a lawyer who visits Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania to arrange the purchase of a house in England. There, Harker discovers some strange behaviours in his host, as he only appears during the day and he sleeps in a coffin. Moreover, there live three weird women who try to bite him. Little by little, he finds out that Dracula is retaining him in the castle, but finally he manages to escape, as Dracula had left the castle.

There, in England, Mina Murray, the fiancé of Harker, is spending her holidays at the house of her friend Lucy, who, during a night, is attacked and bitten by Dracula. When Harker returns to England, he marries to Mina; but Lucy is starting to feel quite ill, so her fiancé, Arthur Holmwood and another friend, Quincey Morris, ask for help to John Seward, a doctor. But the health of Lucy gets worse, so Seward asks for help to his old friend Van Helsing, who discovers that Lucy is becoming a vampire and drinking the blood of little children, so Van Helsing decides to kill her.

Afterwards, Jonathan discovers that Dracula has moved to England, so he and all his partners (Van Helsing, John Seward, etc) start to look for Dracula and try to kill him.

But one night, Dracula manages to enter in the lunatic asylum where Sewars works and Mina is sleeping, and he makes a blood interchange with her. Because of that, Mina starts to have some dreams about the thoughts of the Count, so they find out that the Count is trying to come back to Transylvania. After a long travel, they manage to catch the Count in his way back and kill him, by putting a stake in his heart and cutting his head.

THEME:

It’s more a fantasy story than anything, but if I had to tell the main idea I would say the importance of overcoming your fears and fighting until the end as hard as it seems a work

CONCLUSION :

I found it very enjoyable most of the time because, although the story can sometimes become a little slow, it keeps you on attention from the beginning to the end.

I would recommend it if you are keen on fantasy and mystery stories, because it won’t disappoint you.

(Written by Noe Ramudo )