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Situational Irony In Dracula

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Despite seemingly unimportant to a novel, irony plays a crucial role in Dracula. This particular novel, however, takes irony a step further and some pieces of irony can even be analyzed so as to be justified through the Victorian values of the respective time period. Although this particular novel was first written and released in 1897, which was a prominently Victorian era and period of history, Dracula has managed to retain its prominence, popularity, and glory over the years. Likewise, the novel has also exponentially grown upon this prominence as well. The most popular example of this would be with similar modern-day adaptations of the novel, namely the Twilight series. Dracula, despite being written so long ago, has also managed to include …show more content…

One explicit example of situational irony would undeniably be when Lucy is in the process of recovery. Lucy’s mother, rather unexpectedly, ends up removing the garlic flowers and ultimately spoiling the recovery process. “I feared the heavy odour would be too much for the dear child...so I took them all away and opened a bit of the window to let in a little fresh air” (Stoker 129). The situational irony in this quote is that Van Helsing had never expected Lucy’s mother to be the one individual who essentially ended up sealing Lucy’s fate, as she was left defenseless without the garlic flowers in the room and the window was left wide open for Count Dracula to enter and attack Lucy. One more example of situational irony would be in regards with the importance of Mina to her male counterparts, as she is heavily undermined and judged throughout the entirety of the novel primarily and solely due to her gender. “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain...and a woman’s heart” (335). Despite being undermined constantly, however, Mina effectively continues about the miniscule amount of tasks she is entrusted with. Eventually, Mina is granted with the ability to come along with her male counterparts, for instance when they are tracking Dracula down, and be fully involved in conversations regarding

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