Dracula Literary Analysis

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Dracula is a household name; however, the actual meaning is not as well known. The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker contains a unique story, one which due to the structure of the book there are multiple main characters. The book is written in the form of letters, allowing the focus to be on many different people and viewpoints. Dracula starts out with Jonathan Harker an, Englishman, who takes a trip to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula. On his way to the castle he is warned of the dangers of Dracula, however, Jonathan chooses to persist. Once he arrives at the castle he meets the count. Jonathan is told of Dracula’s longing to live in England. After Jonathan left the castle, Dracula, with Jonathan's help moved to England. Dracula’s arrival was …show more content…

After Jonathan Harker has been in Dracula’s castle for a while he begins to abhor the count. In his journal, he writes about one of his encounters, one in? which he finds Dracula in his place of rest. Jonathan sees the count laying, slightly bloated with a mocking smile. It was at this moment when he realized what he was doing, and the damage he was going to cause to his country. “This was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless” (Stoker 34). Dracula is coming to England due to the opportunity. He is in search for blood and he dreams of a large city such as London to be his feeding ground. This longing for increased opportunity is one of the major catalysts for immigration. This is the reason many people moved England in the late 19th century. In the late 19th century many Eastern European Jewish people were moving to out of their countries and into new ones (Jewish History). Many of these immigrants were coming from Russia which was caused by the “May Laws” that were put in place by Alexander III in 1882. According to the laws “Jews were banished from all rural areas and towns of less than ten thousand people” (Jewish History). In addition to this, there were strict quotas placed on higher education. The laws were specifically designed to force most of the Jewish population out of the country. The count’s story is a parallel of actual immigration occurring at the time the story was written. Dracula was from Eastern Europe specifically Transylvania, which is a historical region in modern day Romania. The people of Transylvania did not like Dracula, many of them feared him. People did not take the massive amounts of Jewish people coming into their country very