What was Bram Stoker’s Dracula like to read today in 2015?
First off, the book was written in 1897 so of course the English language was much different and was written in a different style from what you would see today. When I first started reading the book the language was a bit difficult to understand, but I found that the more I read the easier it got because I became used to the way they speak. I’m not sure if this was just Bram Stoker’s style of writing or if this is how it was in his time, but I found that throughout the book there was tons of detail and long climaxes leading up to many events. When it finally got up to the point of these events happening it would pass very quickly and not much detail was given. Where the writer could have made it much more exciting, he made it kind of boring and bland, and made me feel bored to continue reading such a long book, in my opinion anyways. However, nearing the end around after Lucy had died, I got more interested again trying to predict on how the story would end.
Another observation from this book, which was written in 1897, was how differently woman were viewed back then. It was made quite obvious through the writing, and it has changed very much since then. This book was in the Victorian Era,when women didn’t have suffrage rights, the right to sue, or to own property. At this time women were expected to be the classic “Victorian woman”, and most were. The model Victorian woman would provide a clean home to her husband, have food on the table, and to raise their children. When becoming married she would become her husband’s property. This all gave men much more power and made women seem like “delicate flowers” who could only handle work around the house. This is portrayed in the book right away when Dracula only goes after and wants to be in control of women. Why else would they make both characters who get very sick and weak female? Also, nearing the end when they were planning to kill Dracula they always left Mina (who was well again at this point) out of it. She felt like she could have helped them out a lot in their quest, however all the men thought of her to be too weak to handle it.
To me, the plot of the book wasn’t the best and it seemed that many got bored with reading it. I can say that I’m glad that I read it because I do have an interest in the myths and stories of Dracula. However, it’s not a book I would think to suggest to friends to read. It’s too bad that the book wasn’t written better because a I feel like this story line has the potential to be a really exciting, action/drama, book to read. But again, I’m not sure, in the time the book was written it was maybe considered a very good book.
