Dracula short summary & analysis

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Dracula Analysis

Dracula is one the works in the classic goth literature, and it was also adapted to movies in different ways from 1972.

Dracula Short Summary

Dracula tells Harker that he should stay in the castle for a month in a polite but clear way. He also asked him to write and prepare three letters for his friends, respectively, on the basis of the unreliability of the postal service, which included the information that his work on 12 June was almost over, and that he would leave after a few days on June 19, and that he had left the castle on June 29 and reached Bistrata. Harker found out his remaining life thanks to this and he starts to find a way out from there. He finds a room at the top of the stairs, he forces the door for a bit to open. He falls into a state of slumber and he sees that Count saved the 3 sisters from sucking his blood. In the morning, Harker finds himself in his room. Count, in order to prove to him that, what he saw was all a dream, put Harker in his own bed and put his things as he would. Another night, Harker sees Dracula leaving, like a lizard, walking on the wall which is looking to the cliff.

Days were passing, there is very little time left to June 29. When Harker was looking for a way out, he finds an old chapel in the castle, and sees Dracula sleeping in a crate which was filled with dirt.

On June 30, Count leaves Transylvania to go to Whitby in a crate with a Russian Demeter ship and leaves Harker with 3 sisters. Harker’s only way out is to walk the walls like Count did.

Mina did not get any news from Jonathan for months. Her friend Lucy got engaged to Arthur Holmwood and they are very happy but the sleepwalking is making Mina worried. Dr. John Seward is the manager of the mental hospital which is located in the property that Dracula bought in Whitby, he notices some differences in his 59-year-old patient R. M. Renfield. The man is saying that his master is coming in an arrogant way.

At August 9, Demeter, lands at Tate Hill Dock at Whitby. The captain’s body was bonded to the rudder of the ship, a cross in his hand, scares the people. The only one alive in the ship is the Dracula, disguised as a dog. Dracula settles into his house with the help from Renfield and hypnotize Lucy and feed from her blood. Dr. Seward could not treat Lucy who was getting weaker every day. He asks for help from the Dutch Professor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing understood the situation but it was too late. Lucy left this world as an immortal, vampire. The only thing to do is to stab Lucy’s heart with a stake with pray, cut of her head and to fill her mouth with garlic. Van Helsing, learnt from his Turcologist friend Arminius Vámbéry, that Dracula was in fact the III. Vlad the Impaler and was alive nearly 400 years.

After a while, Dracula picks Mina as his food source. In order to save Mina and to save others from Dracula, Jonathan, Mina, Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, Holmwood and his Texan friend Quincy P. Morris get together.

This book was written as a diary and is very important for being the source of the popular vampire myth. Also Stoker, included scientific and technological developments (the concept of euthanasia, inventor of the first camera and photographic film Kodak, invention of typewriter, studies from Doctor Cesare Lombrosse, Max Nordau, Burdon Sanderson and David Ferrier), political developments (Texas’ merger to the USA), religious books (quotes from Torah and the Bible), mythology, English literature (works from W. Shakespeare, George Gordon Byron, Thomas Hood, Felicia Hemans, Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge). The other subject that he mentioned on these books are, the perspective of the women in Victoria Era and the concept of “A New Women”, the relationship between Ottoman-Hungary, and the Honfoglalas’ 1000th year, when the book was written.

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