Bram Stokers Dracula Essay Example For Students

Bram Stokers Dracula Essay Film today can be very powerful as a means of expression and communication. Often the most diminutive detail can have a tremendous i8mpact on an audience encompassing all ages. These details often come from a range of media devices. They have a profound affect on how the director attempts to express a scene. One of the most recurrent themes since the launch of film has to be the element of Good and Evil. A prime example of this is Bram Strokers Dracula. The film is based on a book written by Abraham Stoker in the 1800s. During this time England was fascinated by the Gothic. Darwin had brought up the theory of evolution, giving the idea that man evolved from prime apes. This all built up to eventually influence Bram Stroker to write the amazing Dracula. In this essay I will be conducting an analysis on the contrasts between the element of Good and Evil. I will be studying how they are both portrayed in the film. Extreme polarities between good and evil are an additional Gothic element Stoker applies to produce a mysterious tone. When characters are heading into Lucys tomb, the setting is very dark and gloomy. This contrasts greatly with the picture given of the setting once they exit Lucys tomb. Seward describes it as fresh and pure in the night air p. 220. This change in the atmosphere makes the reader associate an eerie feeling with Lucys tomb, which causes them to feel anxious whenever the characters venture into the tomb. The reader also feels anxious because of foreshadowing which Stoker uses while the characters are at Lucys tomb. The night is explained as dark with occasional gleams of moonlight between the rents of the heavy clouds that scudded across the sky p. 219. This explanation foreshadows that something frightening is about to occur. This creates an apprehensive feeling in the reader, and increases suspense in the book. Another time when Stoker includes foreshadowing is when Seward comments, Never did tombs look so ghastly white; never did cypress, or yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funeral gloom p. 222. This illustration leads the reader to believe something strange will happen soon, and forces them to keep reading. Stoker uses many Gothic elements when describing Lucys tomb to enforce the tone of the scene. This is necessary because once the reader feels what the tone of the setting is, it enhances their understanding of the scene.