Dracula Rhetorical Analysis

It seems that the primary purpose of Dracula’s speech was to inform Harker of his lineage and how proud he is of the Dracula name. He goes into great depth about the different races of people that he defeated and how he always came out on top of every battle and conflict of the past. His role as speaker has a lot to do with the message he was trying to convey to Harker. His role was to portray the Dracula name in a very prideful manner by explaining the accomplishments of his bloodline. His intended audience is only Jonathan Harker, and Dracula seems to have prepared this elaborate speech to give Harker the story that he’s been looking for. The genre of his speech is somewhat complicated, but it seems to be a first-person historical retelling of events. It also seems to include some principles of mythology, as Dracula mentions gods in his speech, and there are certain elements that sound quite fanciful.

Up until this point, Dracula has not been very generous with information and has kept his guest in the dark about a lot of things. Dracula knows that Harker is interested in Transylvania and Dracula’s stories, and Dracula now has quite an explanation ready for him. There is a long and interconnected list of international wars which he speaks of as if he had been there, and Harker is highly analytical of the way Dracula explained these stories. Dracula uses the pronoun “we” when referring to the accomplishments of his apparent ancestors, and speaks very passionately about all of these battles as if he had been a part of them himself. Harker also discusses the mannerisms of Dracula as he was giving his speech. He spoke and walked around very profoundly, likely to flaunt his strength and abilities. In this way, Dracula also establishes his dominance over Harker, as he consistently implies his dominance over everything. It is clear that he thinks very highly of himself, and by delivering this story to Harker in such a powerful way, this is just another layer of the threats that Dracula poses to him.