Gothic Elements In Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'

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Dracula Essay (Topic #4) Novels portrayed by fear, horror, death and mystery are said to be gothic. The genre was originated in the 17th century, but wasn’t popularized until the 18th century when “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley was published in 1818. Another well-known gothic novel is “Dracula” by Bram Stoker. It follows the battle between Dracula,a vampire and a group of men and women trying to stop him from spreading the “un-dead” curse. It’s the ultimate battle between good and evil. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker includes traditional elements such as women in distress, supernatural events and dark, impending settings that occurs in gothic novels. “Dracula” is a gothic novel because it has women in distress under Dracula’s power. One of them…show more content…
The “qualitative analysis” shows that there’s nothing wrong with her, but Seward believes there must be something causing the difficulty breathing and heavy lethargic sleep that comes with nightmares. Thus, he writes to Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, a philosopher and metaphysician asking him to examine poor Lucy. An educated doctor like Seward not being able to diagnose Lucy not only shows the mysteriousness of her illness, but also Dracula’s power: Even medical advancements and science can’t beat his power. After visiting her, Van Helsing says he needs more time to diagnose her but for now, a blood transfusion must do as she’s almost bloodless. Lucy is pale, drained of strength and the bones of her face stood out more than ever. Soon enough, Van Helsing and Dr. Seward starts to notice the difference between the asleep and awake Lucy. Whilst sleeping, she looks “ stronger, although more haggard, and her breathing was softer. Her open mouth showed the pale gums drawn back from the teeth, which looked positively longer and sharper than usual.” (219) Yet when awake, she’s weak and pale. The sharpening of her teeth proves that she’s slowly turning into a vampire. Sequentially, the scars on her neck disappear, which means that death has fallen upon Lucy. As

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