The Use Of Narrative Style In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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The narrative style of the novel can affect readers' perception of the book. The "narrative style" of any novel is the manner in which the narrator presents his/her story. In Dracula, Bram Stoker employed a multiple first person narrative style. His confusing yet attention grabbing novel is about a story of vamparism in England and Transylvania during the 1890s. Whereas Stephen King took a different approach and uses a single first person narrator and a 3rd person omniscient being to narrate his story. His story, Christine, is the story of love triangle between a man, his car, and a woman. Stephen King's Christine is more effective than Bram Stoker's Dracula in its narrative style because Christine's writing style is more familiar to the audience…show more content…
Stoker's uses of multiple narrators and non linear time line in Dracula is confusing to the readers. The entire book of Dracula is written in epistolary style, narrated by using different journals, letters and diaries written by varies characters within the story. The multiple first person narrative style allows reader to have a better understand of each character's train of thoughts, with details that may take readers deeper into the plot of the story. However, at the same time it confuses readers by diverting their focus into to other character's perspective. Christine on the other hand, is narrated only by Dennis Guilder - Arnie Cunningham's personal best friend - and an omniscient who is a 3rd person narrator of the story. That makes the narration simpler and more direct, which allows reader to read at a constant flow without being puzzled. One example of the Dracula's confusing narrative style shows in Chapter V. The readers are presented with letters between Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray at the beginning of the chapter, then the context changes…show more content…
Stoker's use of epistolary narrative style in Dracula makes it difficult for the readers to fully understand the plot of the story without reading very closely. His use of multiple narrators and non linear time line makes it confusing to read. With the large amount of facts and details, the flow of information also makes Dracula mentally draining to read. Since the readers do not know what information is important to the story, they are forced to pay attention to all the details that were told. Instead of having the story being told to them; like in Christine; readers have to connect all the pieces of facts together and make their own interpretation of the story. In contrast, King's narration style in Christine is direct yet intriguing with the use of modern language and modern settings that are familiar to the general readers. The first person narrator of the story connect readers to the story by telling his personal life story regarding the love triangle and the horror it brings. Together, they create an intimacy between characters and readers because readers can identify the horror with the characters and their environment. The story of Christine is easily understandable allows readers to easily relate to the story, that is what makes Christine more effective in this horror story telling for
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