Literary Analysis Dracula Bram Stoker published Dracula in 1897. He wrote Dracula in a series of letters and journal entries, called an epistolary novel (“BookRags”). The main characters wrote journal entries from their unique point of view. This style of writing made the novel a personal experience as it was written in first person from several different characters’ accounts of the story “(SparkNotes”). Dracula is labeled a Gothic novel, and some have called it a Gothic romance (“BookRags”). The setting of the novel, Transylvania, and its landscape play into the theme and the tone of the story. The castle is large, and dark and overwhelming. Gothic novels often have heroes that are put into dangerous situations that they need to escape. Several times in the novel, this technique is used. For example, when Jonathan realizes he is in danger at the castle and he attempts to escape by jumping over the castle wall. Stoker used imagery in Dracula to convey the tone of the novel. He described in detail the experiences of the characters. For example, when Jonathan Harker is beginning his travels he describes the peasants “with short jackets and round hats and homemade trousers; but others were very picturesque” and the Slovaks “who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cowboy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails” (Stoker 3). Analyses of the main themes in Dracula have been typically around good versus evil. However, an underlying theme is love over life. For
