Dracula; Bram Stoker

This was my second time reading this book and since I read it for a class this time I got a lot more out of it. I was interested in one small sentence in the book from Seward's journel 'He is safe now at any rate. Jack Sheppard himself couldn't get free from the strait' Jack Sheppard was a real person that excaped jail multiple times and seems to be the actual "Renfield" of the story " the devil that comes in person" and assists Dracula. Bram Stocker wrote Dracula in the epistolary form in order to build suspense and pace the novel. Stoker had to compete with other gothic novels of the day and needed to make his memorable by being scarier and more horrific. He chose to play with the delivery of the story by telling it through multiple documents written by several characters. The reader has to comb through the documents, provided out of order and told in different tenses, to make linear sense of the story. Each document has a different tone creating a choppy narrative style. Stocker also played with the story by the narrator choice. Jonathan Harker is a lawyer who we expect will keep a calm head and stick to the facts, which make the scary parts even more powerful being told through the voice of reason. The dread builds from the unknown since only bits and pieces of the story are revealed at a time. It is not immediately clear why Harker is making this journey, which adds to the suspense. The story is told out of order to create in the reader a sort of confusion that the characters feel when trying to figure out the Count's intentions. Mina and Lucy are emotional narrators whose naivety and hysterics build the story in ways that Harker cannot. For example, Lucy takes the time to write a memorandum while her mother is lying dead on the floor. Dr. Seward, a man of learning believes in the science of ailments and is a foil for Van Helsing. He believes Lucy's ailments are mental while Van Helsing believes in the folk tales. Both are men of learning, but have very different views and voices in building the story. Together they are able to tell a story that appeals to any reader since they have a character to relate to and tell it in a way that makes it mysterious and sensational. notes:Idea of little death- Dracula gives to mina and lucy, 3 “wives” go after Johnathon Harker they visit in the night like lovers- in French sex means “little death Lucy has the liquids of 4 men by the end- 3 suitors blood transfusion and Van Helsing. Mina needs the men to help her find Dracula- they all confess their love for her. Funny puns- “isn’t there more at stake for him then us?” van helsing “ whiley, while” speech. Why write like this for self- diary entries? Asks us what it is to believe what is written- faith/ folk lore vrs science “Vampyre” goes back to a word meaning witch- wise woman, -being a “vamp”- charming a male w/ sexuality D. Defoe, The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard (1724). Defoe's accounts are regarded as the principle source on Sheppard. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14065/14065-h/14065-h.htm