How does Bram Stoker use the conventions of Gothic literature in the Novel 'Dracula'?

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How does Bram Stoker use the conventions of Gothic literature in the Novel 'Dracula'?

Bram Stoker, author of the novel Dracula, published his well-known book at the end of the Victorian era, 1897. Stoker's use of Gothic conventions has created a devilish yet irresistible character. Readers and cinema goers have been thrilled, entertained and petrified across the world with his novel.

Stoker has developed a strong and yet powerful character 'Jonathan Harker' who is the rescuer, the 'Goodie' in this fight against evil. Stoker portrays Harker to save the day, in this case save Mina and Lucy, Mina being his newly wedded wife, and kill the notorious 'Count Dracula'.

In his novel, Stoker begins the story as Harker and his Journal, writing about what he sees and does. Not are they only facts but clues to where he is going, or what is going to be expected for him. Some facts include, nationalities in Transylvania “Saxons in the South” and “Szekelys in the East and North”. Stoker begins with Harker on a train to go meet Dracula who supposedly is just another colleague for Harker to transfer to London from Transylvania.

When Harker is travelling along Transylvania, he describes that “every know superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians”, to where he is going, this  suggest that here there is an evilness that he is being drawn to or awaiting him.

When Harker hears a “dog howling all night under” his “window”, Stoker uses a new frightening suspense which helps build a superstition that he is being watched over or being warned.

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The next morning Harker sees “The strangest figures” who were the “Slovaks” as Harker describes them as “barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore hight boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches.” which indicates strange, unusual and outstanding characters who put in an odd feel in the environment and people of Transylvania. Harker also describes them as “very picturesque” which also indicate that they ...

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