Violence and Power Within Dracula's Grasp.
Throughout many types of literature, violence exists to enhance the readers interest in order to add a sense of excitement or conflict to a novel. This statement withholds much truthfulness due to the fact that without violence in a piece of literature such as Dracula by Bram Stoker, the plot would not have the same impact if it was lacking violence. Dracula's power and evilness led to the violent happenings which began with the conflict of Jonathan's inner struggle, as compared to the conflict which blossomed later on with good versus evil.
One case of violence that had occurred, not just for its own sake, happened in chapter seven, where it stated in the log of the "Demeter", "On 14 July was somewhat anxious about crew. Men all steady fellows, who sailed with me before. Mate could not make out what was wrong; they only told him there was something, and crossed themselves. Mate lost temper with one of them that day and struck him. Expected fierce quarrel, but all was quiet"(pg.87). Therefore, this type of violence rarely ever occurred before; thus, this action was foreshadowing evil. Eventually, this evil took place when poor old Mr. Swales was found dead with his neck broken. Mina Murry wrote in her journal about the incident, ".poor old Mr. Swales was found dead this morning on our seat, his neck being broken. He had evidently, as the doctor said, fallen back in the seat in some sort of fright, for there was a look of fear and horror on his face that men said made them shudder.Perhaps he had seen Death with his dying eyes!"(pg.92-93). As far fetched as the idea of a man being scared to death may seem, the old man most likely could have been traumatized to this extent in relation to how Mina noted in her journal about "Death", capitalizing the "D" in significance to that of some supernatural or higher power. We as readers start to believe that this "Death" the old man had seen, could very well be Dracula himself.
