Dracula And The Romantic Movement

The Romantic movement, starting in 1798 alongside the industrial revolution, was a time when emotion was emphasized because people wanted to escape modern life; not only in literature, but in architecture and music as well. The reader could go back in time, or visit a world where they would surely die, but then go about their normal lives when they finish reading. When standing in a romantic style building, the person can be taken to another era, where there are mysteries, and ghosts, but then go back home where they do not have to worry about getting hurt. The same happened with music in this time period. The person listening can get drawn into a melody; the chords create another world where everything has a song, every struggle is emphasized

Stoker was an Irish writer who attended the university of Dublin. He then worked as a civil servant, as well as for a local newspaper. The novel that he is most famous for, Dracula, has inspired many films and novels. After writing this, Stoker delighted the public with 19 other novels, all with their own take on the romantic ideals that would take the reader to 19 different places. He was able to take his reader into his story; whether it be Dracula’s castle or the lair of a worm, the reader went with the characters everywhere they went. Stoker was able to bring his reader into the story he was writing because of the details he used and the way he portrayed his characters. For example, the entire novel Dracula is written through letters, from both the main character and his fiance. This gave insight into what the characters were thinking and going through, but also captivated the reader more, since it was as if they were reading someone’s diary and everyone wants to find out more about other people. By writing about “odd happenings and details of the people and events” (Merriman, 1) in his novels, the reader gets sucked into the words. Stoker was able to bring his readers into another world, without them having to get hurt by the monsters he

The novel, about a worm that can change into a woman, was based on the English myth of the Lambton Worm. In The Lair of the White Worm, the main character, Adam Salton, comes to his uncle’s home because he is to become the heir and his uncle wants him to become familiar with all of his family first. In the myth of the Lambton worm, the worm was caught by John Lambton, who thought it was so ugly he had to throw it in a well so that no one could see it. After years, the worm grew and was able to get out of the well. It then terrorized a town until John Lambton came back and was able to kill it; however, a curse was set on the rest of his family because he did not kill the first person he saw after he killed the worm, who was his father. Stoker kept the eeriness of this tall tale throughout his novella. There were moments of “serene and settled calmness]” (Stoker 7), that gave the reader the same break from the mystery as comic relief does in a Shakespeare play. Stoker takes the readers that are willing to read the novel “to a tea-party with an antediluvian monster” (Stoker This novel, although popular, only interests a “select group of readers and horror aficionados” (Warsaw University, 1) because of its use of horror and explicit