Dracula

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Dracula

• Bram Stokers

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Bram Stoker

• Abraham Stoker
• Born in 1847 in Dublin, Ireland
• 1897 Dracula Published
• 1922 First movie based on Dracula ("Nosferatu")
  released in Germany

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Dracula The Myth

• Vampires had existed in folklore and legend for
  hundreds of years, back to ancient times.

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Misconceptions about Dracula

• Count Dracula is destroyed by having a stake
  driven through his heart.
• Count Dracula cannot go out in the sunlight.
• Stoker's inspiration for the character of Count
  Dracula was Vlad the Impaler.

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Conflicts in Dracula
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Technology vs. Superstition

• Dracula a romantic figure and Renaissance
  nobleman is pitted against representatives of
  modern law and medicine. These representatives
  fight him with modern technology.

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THEMES
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• Humanities fear of things that cannot be
  explained scientifically or rationally.
• A warning against blindly yielding to the wiles
  of sex. Threat of female sexual expression

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• The Consequences of Modernity
• The Promise of Christian Salvation

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Motifs

• Blood
• It is the source of Draculas life
• Sexual intercourse (mingling of bodily fluids )
• Science and Superstition
• Modernity vs. Old ways
• Christian Iconography
• Saved by all things religious

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Symbols

• The Weird Sisters
• Stake
• The Czarina Catherine

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Johnathon Harker

• English solicitor.
• Trapped in Draculas Castle
• Love interest of Mina.

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Mina Murray

• Fiancé of Johnathon.
• Represents the ideal Victorian woman

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Count Dracula

• Mysterious Nobleman
• Transforms into animals to disguise himself

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Dr. Seward

• Head of mental hospital
• Lucys former suitor.

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Dr. Van Helsing

• Represents Good.
• Takes care of Lucy.
• Brillant doctor.

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Reinfield

• Obsessed with Dracula
• Patient of Dr. Sewards.
• Crazy
• Methodical

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Lucy

• Minas best friend
• Rich (represents the new woman)
• Bitten and becomes a vampire

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Arthur

• Lucys fiancé
• A Lord
• Rich
• Heroic
• Helps no matter what the danger

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Quincy

• Texan
• Lucys suitor
• Stays friends with Arthur
• Courageous