What makes Bram Stokers “Dracula” a gothic novel?
Bram Stoker creates a realistic gothic horror story. By writing in diary and journal form, Stoker creates a sense of intimacy with his reader. We feel as if we are reading the story as it happens and share in the horror of the various characters. Since diaries and journals are private writings, usually meant to be read only by the writer, we feel as if we are being told a dark secret. Stoker uses gothic imagery and bizarre characters in these various journals to add to the feeling of horror naturally inherent in a story about blood sucking vampires. Stoker like many of his contemporary writers is criticizing the puritanical ways of Victorian England and it oppressive views of both sex and woman. Lucy tells Arthur that she wants to go to bed with him and that suggests both the gothic image of death, and a sexual hunger, a sexual taboo. Bram Stoker’s Dracula has all of the classic elements of a Gothic novel. The setting of the novel is a dark crumbling castle, the tone is mysterious, the
