3) Stoker: Keep Calm and Write It into the Diary
Stoker's Dracula is an epistolary novel, which means the story of the Count unfolds itself through the diaries and the letters of the people involved in it. This genre is of a unique character.
First, we can see the events in the first person. How else could we know what a person feels after being bitten by a vampire? This gives the author an immense number of possibilities for blood-chilling descriptions, although sometimes an obsession with writing everything down seems unfit for certain situations, as, for example, we can hardly imagine Lucy writing down her feelings instead of crying for help when the vampire approaches.
Apart from the advantage of insight, epistolary genre adds vivacity to such a long piece of writing. With the point of view also changes the style, and the reader is never tired of monotonous descriptions. However, this advantage is not fully exploited by Stoker, as, apart from the writings of Van Helsing, which are few, all the heroes write pretty much in the same manner.
The most important characteristic of this genre is, however, its subjectivity and incompleteness. We will never know how Renfield became an adept of Dracula or what Dracula’s real plans for coming to London were. The most striking example is the fortune question. Why world a mother leave all her money for a man who is not yet her daughter's husband, however she trusted him? And all this very much in time for recently titled Lord Godalming. What a coincidence! However, we are not allowed to look suspiciously into the matter, as none of the heroes does, and as so many horrible things are at hand.
In the case of Dracula, form adds to the meaning of the novel, and the reader must always keep in mind, that it is only a distorted and reflected author's viewpoint that he is allowed to observe.
Works cited:
1) Dracula, by Bram Stoker
