Scholarly Review of Why Dracula Won’t Die Dracula is one of the single most iconic characters in 20th century literature. Dracula by Bram Stoker has launched a vampiric empire into modern day culture. Now there are movies and TV shows and Halloween costumes all inspired by one book about a vampire. This story has been studied for generations in schools and classes in many countries around the world, because it is one of the greatest pieces of literature ever created. The article Why Won’t Dracula Die by Mathias Clasen is an in depth look into the inspiration behind Dracula and writing styles used to perfect Bram Stoker’s masterpiece. Clasen uses direct quotations from the book to support his analysis of the contextual structure and biocultural significance of Dracula. I plan on examining this article as a reader as well as a writer to provide an opinion and criticism on the topic. This article gives an explanation into how Dracula hows shaped modern literature and its historical and biocultural significance. Clasen also gives insight into how Stoker used unnatural theories to create the character of Dracula and the problems with the idea of an undead presence. Clasen draws on many other articles to provide information about the psychoanalytical background of Dracula. He explains the sexual and evolved experiences that Stoker uses to draw in readers and keep them interested. Clasen uses points of counter intuitiveness in Stoker’s novel to convey the human and unnatural attributes that the Count displays. He also uses points of drinking blood to symbolize a sexual act that vampires use to demonstrate dominance over their prey. Clasen notes that blood is related to life and how drinking blood for vampires is the equivalent to having sex in its regards to life. Clasen cites authors such as Ernest Jones who associates blood to semen supporting the sexual nature of drinking blood. Clasen uses many inter-textual sources to support his thesis coming in his second point of the article about cognitive stimulation and how Stoker conveys the mystery and terror of Dracula.
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He also goes into massive amounts of detail on how this particular novel has shaped literature and its contextual importance. This article supports the importance this novel has on the way literature from this era is conveyed in modern times and how it has been a major factor for others writing Gothic style novels. One of the weaknesses of this article is the language the author uses is at sometimes difficult to follow and would be almost impossible to read for someone with a lower reading level. I see the beginning of Clasen’s third point “Biocultural Importance of Dracula” to be too analytical and dissecting of Dracula’s unnatural abilities instead of appreciating the brilliance of such a character. The strengths of this article are its intriguing points into Dracula’s history and lineage of how the vampire came into existence. Personally I find this article fascinating and provides a different view into how a reader interprets Stoker’s novel. It provides background information in how Dracula was created and interesting points in how Stoker originally intended the vampire to be perceived. I found the section on counter intuition especially interesting because of how it explains all of the unnatural characteristics that Dracula possesses, it goes in depth into how Stoker dialed back on the uncanny abilities to keep the reader invested on how this creature could go undetected in society. I did find terminology of the article a little too analytical and would be easier to follow as a reader if it lacked some of the vocabulary in the article. Also the section of the article labeled “Contagion” was uninteresting and unneeded in the article. I thought that this point was unnecessary and had little importance to Stoker’s novel. The section called “Egalitarian Politics” was very boring and was not necessary to the article and provided no information other than how reader’s react to the characters in other Victorian novels. As a reader I found this article extremely informative and interesting, especially the sections about the history of Dracula and where the inspiration of the story came from. I learned about how Stoker initially wanted to depict the vampire in his story and how he decided to dial back on the
He also goes into massive amounts of detail on how this particular novel has shaped literature and its contextual importance. This article supports the importance this novel has on the way literature from this era is conveyed in modern times and how it has been a major factor for others writing Gothic style novels. One of the weaknesses of this article is the language the author uses is at sometimes difficult to follow and would be almost impossible to read for someone with a lower reading level. I see the beginning of Clasen’s third point “Biocultural Importance of Dracula” to be too analytical and dissecting of Dracula’s unnatural abilities instead of appreciating the brilliance of such a character. The strengths of this article are its intriguing points into Dracula’s history and lineage of how the vampire came into existence. Personally I find this article fascinating and provides a different view into how a reader interprets Stoker’s novel. It provides background information in how Dracula was created and interesting points in how Stoker originally intended the vampire to be perceived. I found the section on counter intuition especially interesting because of how it explains all of the unnatural characteristics that Dracula possesses, it goes in depth into how Stoker dialed back on the uncanny abilities to keep the reader invested on how this creature could go undetected in society. I did find terminology of the article a little too analytical and would be easier to follow as a reader if it lacked some of the vocabulary in the article. Also the section of the article labeled “Contagion” was uninteresting and unneeded in the article. I thought that this point was unnecessary and had little importance to Stoker’s novel. The section called “Egalitarian Politics” was very boring and was not necessary to the article and provided no information other than how reader’s react to the characters in other Victorian novels. As a reader I found this article extremely informative and interesting, especially the sections about the history of Dracula and where the inspiration of the story came from. I learned about how Stoker initially wanted to depict the vampire in his story and how he decided to dial back on the