Sara Lynne Boland
Ms. Happ-Mendel
19th Century Unlit
19 April 2011
Substance is a Pain in the Neck
Many times, a story’s purpose is hidden so well in plain sight that the reader often overlooks the very depiction the author is trying to convey. In Bram Stoker’s gothic tale of horror, Dracula, lies a meaning not so readily discovered beneath the eloquent jumble of words. There are countless passages throughout the novel that capture the attention of the reader, yet many remain so subtle that it is easy for the reader to neglect the significance it holds between the lines. These indistinct details, such as the characteristics of Dracula, the secret knowledge of Van Helsing, and the peculiar transformation of Mina, become threads that are woven within the text, which lead endless possibilities, thus many mysteries, belonging to different perspectives, remain unsolved and much of the subtlety may be that specific substance to base upon one’s evidence.
Throughout Dracula, one begins to grasp the certain qualities and inequalities a vampire undergoes for a suited, and systematical lifestyle. Night and day is clearly the most prior and evident key to their sustained form of being, but many tend to misperceive that it ties into a much deeper level with Nature, so “[c]an it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at periods which affects certain natures—as at times the moon does others?” (Stoker 126). Nature plays such a significant role within the story, and weather’s cycling wheel helps to maintain a vampire’s life at a balance because the weather is what holds together their center of existence. Without weather, the whole of their existence would gradually die out, not only because it would be systematically off balance, but due to a vampire’s habitual nature as well; for they would not know, instinctively, where or what to look upon for survival, let alone know how to follow a general vampiric lifestyle. Earth acts as the Moon’s magnet, and...