History Literature / Dracula

* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Van Helsing does this to Seward on a few occasions. When Seward is sleeping on the couch in Lucy's spare room, Van Helsing wakes him with a hand on his head. Another time, he playfully pulls Seward's ear. When describing the secrecy in which they must work, he advises Seward to keep knowledge "here, and here," tapping him on the heart and forehead. On each occasion it serves as a reminder of how close they are, as the others do not tend to be so free with physical contact.

* FoundFootageFilms: The original novel is a collection of journals, transcripts, letters, and newspaper clippings. Making it possibly the original found footage story.

* ScrapbookStory: The book is presented as a collection of letters, ship's logs, and diary entries, compiled by Mina.

* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: A RareMaleExample with Lucy’s suitors. Arthur (beauty, the sensitive, romantic aristocrat), Jack (brains, the doctor and omnidisciplinarian scientist), Quincy (brawn, the guntotting American cowboy).

For its '''many''' media adaptions, see the {{Dracula}} page.

* ComboPlatterPowers: [[OurVampiresAreDifferent This vampire]] can [[WallCrawl scale walls]] like Franchise/SpiderMan, [[WeatherManipulation control the weather]], control wolves and rats, turn into a wolf and [[SuperSmoke a cloud of dust]] in addition to a bat, and has SuperStrength.

* BatmanGambit: The Count's master plan to infiltrate England and spread his vampire curse is only foiled by the DeusExMachina of asylum doctor John Seward just happening to be the former student of Professor Van Helsing, the only person who'd recognise a vampire attack and know exactly what to do. Dracula's meticulous setup and coverup of his lairs and his later manipulation of Mina as a weapon against his pursuers is only matched by Van Helsing's counter-plan of hypnotising her to deduce the Count's location.

* DaylightHorror: Dracula walks freely during the day. This is a staple of the Victorian vampire fiction. The idea of vampires dying in sunlight only became prevalent in the early 20th century thanks to ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''.

* TheGenericGuy: Jonathan Harker doesn't have an interest in science like Van Helsing or Seward, tragedy like Lucy and Arthur, madness like Renfield, or a HeroicSacrifice like Quincey Morris, so he's historically been written off as merely a generic handsome guy who serves as the Count's [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] in the first part of the book and a SatelliteLoveInterest to Mina after the Count becomes obsessed with her. Many adaptations either condense his part or remove him completely.

* ExtremelyDustyHome: Appears all the time, notably in the old wing of Castle Dracula and in his purchased mansion.

* FangsAreEvil: Well, sort of; while there's no mention of fangs as such (that came later with the Film/{{Hammer|Horror}} movies), Dracula is described as having "peculiarly sharp white teeth".

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* FangsAreEvil: The better to drink your blood.

* UnreliableNarrator: Within the context of the novel, the story exists as a series of ''transcriptions'' of letters and newspaper clippings about the eponymous vampire; about midway through the novel, Dracula destroys the originals by tossing them into a fireplace in order to discredit the protagonists should they ever wish to make their story public. The transcriptions are kept by Mina Harker, a trained secretary, who foresees the usefulness in keeping backups. However, Mina herself undergoes some pretty severe trauma throughout the course of the novel; apart from the whole vampire-hunting thing, her best friend is turned by Dracula (and then staked by her friends), and she very narrowly escapes being ''turned into a vampire herself'', which brings her mental state and her reliability as a recordkeeper into question.

* HypocriticalHumor: Mina mocks the "New Woman" a few times in her journal. For those that don't know, "New Woman" at the time was when females were starting their movement for independence and becoming more assertive which was a big deal at the time. The reason it's ironic is because Mina becomes assertive after her encounter with Dracula and is both able to resist his influence (with some help) and coming up with the idea to use her newfound psychic link with Dracula to lead the hunters to him.

* {{Omniglot}}: When semi-delirious and first approached by the three women, Harker can fully understand their language, as they speak to each other, and the Count's furious rebukes. Harker is said explicitly to know good German, but no mention of him knowing either literary Romanian or Hungarian, leave alone an ancient dialect spoken between themselves by beings undead for 400 years. Also when Mina is approached in the forest by the same women calling her "sister", both she and Dr. van Helsing understand their speech with no effort.

* KnightOfCerebus: The first section of the novel, narrated by Jonathan, is already very dark - but the reader is at least sure who the good guy is. Then we're introduced to our other male narrator - Seward, a ''much'' darker and more antiheroic figure. Although he tries hard to be a good person, and we're encouraged to sympathise with him, he is also a budding MadScientist who is tempted by the idea of performing seriously unethical experiments.

* CovertPervert: Implied to be the case with Dr. Seward. While he's never anything but courteous and gentlemanly in his behaviour towards women, there are clues that he's kinkier than he lets on; he seems to be turned on by having his blood drawn and watching it enter the body of his love interest, Lucy.

* YouAreACreditToYourRace: Van Helsing, after being surprised by Mina's intellect, tells her that she's a woman with a brain like a man.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In her first letter to Lucy, Mina says that it must be ''so'' fun for Jonathan to see other parts of the world, and wistfully wonders if the two of them will ever get to travel to a foreign country together. Presumably a quest to kill a vampire that's killed her best friend and has tried to kill both her and Jonathan isn't what she had in mind.