I taught the play last year. The play script follows Bram Stokers story, fairly closely, and our year 8s enjoyed it. This year I'll incorporate some of these resources too. Njoku, Israel " Dracula Themes and Analysis 🧛" Book Analysis, https://bookanalysis.com/bram-stoker/dracula/themes-analysis/. Accessed 1 November 2023.

Did you know Bram Stoker mentions the number 3 more than 50 times in the original novel? How many can you spot in the dramatised version? Bram Stoker’s ‘ Dracula‘ was written during the Victorian period, at a time when Charles Darwin’s theory of revolution, as well as recent technological advancements, were leading to less religiosity among people. This sentiment is exemplified in the attitudes of Mina and Dr. Seward who could not solve the mystery of Lucy’s ailments because of a dependence on cold rationalism at the expense of superstitions and spirituality. This allows you to record one of your live performances for your internal archives only. This cannot be streamed. When Bram Stoker sent Dracula to his publisher, he wanted to present it as a true story. The publisher said it would cause panic and refused. It was eventually published on May 26th 1897, which is now #WorldDraculaDay. Further readingThe Vampire Handbook by Robert Curran is a non-fiction book explaining the myths about vampires from around the world, and a guide to protecting yourself, just in case. Library copy available. Sarah Midnight Trilogy by Daniela Sacerdoti is set in Scotland and Poland, with a teenage girl struggling to accept her gift for hunting demons. Library copies available.

We might expect that Mina, who sympathizes with the boldly progressive “New Women” of England, would be doomed to suffer Lucy’s fate as punishment for her progressiveness. But Stoker instead fashions Mina into a goddess of conservative male fantasy. Though resourceful and intelligent enough to conduct the research that leads Van Helsing’s crew to the count, Mina is far from a “New Woman” herself. Rather, she is a dutiful wife and mother, and her successes are always in the service of men. Mina’s moral perfection remains as stainless, in the end, as her forehead. Early in the novel, as Harker becomes uncomfortable with his lodgings and his host at Castle Dracula, he notes that “unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot kill.” Here, Harker voices one of the central concerns of the Victorian era. The end of the nineteenth century brought drastic developments that forced English society to question the systems of belief that had governed it for centuries. Darwin’s theory of evolution, for instance, called the validity of long-held sacred religious doctrines into question. Likewise, the Industrial Revolution brought profound economic and social change to the previously agrarian England. Read more about fear of women’s sexuality in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. The Promise of Christian SalvationThe individuals who united to destroy Dracula were not friends from the start- three of them had competed for the hands of one woman, and two had been saddened by her rejection. Yet there was no feeling of jealousy or resentment at the individual Lucy chose or on Lucy herself. Although they all came as competitors, Arthur, Quincy, and Seward ended up forging an undying bond with themselves, as well as with Harker, Mina, and Van Helsing. Renfield quotes a poem by William Blake called Auguries of Innocence. You can read the whole poem here. Numeracy It is through your support of visiting Book Analysis that we can support charities, such as Teenage Cancer Trust.