Not So Scary Dracula

I know Dracula is supposed to be considered horror but I see it as more of a mystery and not scary at all. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen so many other non-scary versions of Dracula that it has tainted my reading of the original story as I found myself laughing more than being scared.

Dracula wants to teach you how to count!

I wonder why Jonathan Harker is so accepting of the things that start to happen around him when he arrives in town. I mean people are making crosses when they see him, begging him not to go meet Dracula, and giving him rosaries and he still doesn’t put two and two together that people are afraid of Dracula for a reason. And all this happens before he even gets to the Dracula’s castle! Then when he does get to the castle, even stranger things happen and he still doesn’t back out. If I was him and all of that stuff happened I would have told Dracula I wasn’t going to be able to make it from the safety of my home.

What Harker should have done

He finally gets some sense into him only after he feels like he’s a prisoner in Dracula’s castle and then later sees Dracula crawling down a wall with wings. I would say it’s a little too late at that point. It did make me think of how much this Mr. Hawkins knew before he sent Harker down to meet with Dracula. Did he know all along that Dracula was a vampire??

Dracula seems normal enough  upon first impression to Harker but he should have known that there must be a reason why all of the town people are afraid of him. All of that changes once Harker notices all of the creepy things about him. When he intercepted Harker’s letters I thought that was going to be it for Harker and that he was going to drink his blood right there but he didn’t which was surprising. Is he just keeping Harker around to torture him longer before he kills him? 

Then just when I think there’s no chance for Harker to get out of the castle, Dracula just says he can leave! I’m not sure whether or not Harker was correct in assuming it was just a trap set by Dracula but one things for certain, he’s definitely trapped in the castle for the foreseeable future.