DRACULA: THE LURE OF THE NOVEL
One of the many reasons that "Dracula" survives today as a viable form of fiction is that it is a superbly terrifying and suspenseful tale in the tradition of at least one of Stoker's predecessors, i.e., Edgar Alan Poe. Jonathan's journey and his subsequent ordeal at Castle Dracula, told in the first 60 or so pages of the novel, leaves the reader wondering if he does in fact scale down the castle and make his escape. It is only after another 50 or more pages that we do indeed find that Jonathan has in fact made his escape, and, in addition, that he has suffered "grave" psychological trauma. Equally suspenseful is the ending. Will the sun stay up long enough for the party to make their final siege on the carriage that fast approaches Dracula's refuge?
"Dracula" is not only a psychological novel in and of itself. As with all good horror fiction, the psychological makeup of the participant, i.e., the reader's psyche, plays into the tale as the bizarre events of this strange story unfold. "Dracula" is not only suspenseful but terrifying. It is the reader's psychological makeup that makes this novel what it is. Some may find it mildly terrifying, while others may find it more so, even to the extent of causing bad dreams in some readers. The uncertainity of the whereabouts of the loose wolf in Whitby, the opening of Lucy's grave and her consequent impalement, and the constant backdrop of the howling of wolves are but some of the more terrifying aspects of the novel.
To read "Dracula" and perhaps to read all literature of its ilk is to acquiesce to certain otherwordly premises - premises that are peculiar to the world of the literature of terror. In the instance of "Dracula," we have a malevolent life form that attempts to undermine the industrialized, scientific and newly psychoanalytical (Freud had just come on the scene) mindset of late 19th century England.
A final reason for the fascination with Dracula and all vampires stems from the fact that they are immortal - a condition with which man too would like to be endowed, given the chance. As Renfield says many times in the course of the novel "The blood is the life," and it is the blood spilled by humans that keeps the vampire as the sole and everlasting universal life form.
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~arf/
Vida de B. Stoker / Ensayos sobre Drácula/ Drácula
Vida de M. Shelley/ Obras / Frankenstein/ Obra crítica sobre Frankenstein
Introducción / First Paper / Conclusión / Enlaces/ Referencias
Actualizado: 2000, Enrique
Noguero Rodríguez