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Cong Le Anh Tu Tran
Devin Mason
ENG3U
April 2, 2018
To Kill a Mockingbird and Dracula
Comparative Essay
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about Scout and her family’s life in Maycomb,
Alabama, in the 1930s, in where her father, Atticus, is a lawyer who defends black man, Tom
Robinson, against a false rape accusation. In comparison, Dracula, a novel by Bram Stoker, tells
the tale of the Harkers and Dr Seward, who enter the castle of Court Dracula, a vampire who
sucks people’s blood to survive. Some may think two works are different, which is true, however
there are also many similarities in all of which They can be found out if one analyses the literary
devices, characters and themes of two works above.
Firstly, there are convergence and divergence between the literary devices in both novels.
To begin, in To Kill a Mockingbird, symbolises is used when the author describes the
mockingbird by Miss Maudie speech, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing…it’s a sin to kill
mockingbird” (Lee 103). It shows that mockingbird is innocent and harmless, like Boo Radley
and Tom Robinson. Both Tom and Robinson are in the judgement that they are guilty and need to
be punished. This can be symbolism that is why it is a sin to kill mockingbird. Similarly, Mr.
Stoker uses symbolism to describe that Renfield “beginning his fly-catching again; and
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beginning it cheerfully and with good grace” (Stoker 79). And after that, he starts eating birds,
the bigger one than flies. This action of Renfield can be symbolized to the sins. The sins start
with small ones and will become bigger and bigger, they keep people in and it become behaviors
to do the sins gradually. Furthermore, Ms. Lee uses irony when Miss Caroline tells Scout to stop
reading at home. Miss Caroline says, “Now you tell your father… how to teach” (Lee 23). This
quote can be described that Miss Caroline is not comfortable while Scout knows everything even
though she did not teach anything. Also, she knows that Mr. Finch is an educated man, so she
ironizes Scout’s reading. Likewise, irony is used when Jonathan Harker makes a comparison
between Dracula and a dead man, “… more than the hand of a dead than living man” (Stoker
22). It is dramatical irony because Jonathan does not know that he is actually a dead man while
comparing Dracula and another dead man. Also, this is Dracula’s castle, the blood sucker’s
castle, it is very dangerous for Jonathan to come there. Lastly, Foreshadowing is also used in
both. In Dracula, it is used when Jonathan starts going to Dracula’s Castle, there is an old lady
told him, “It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that to-night when the clock strikes
midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?” (Stoker 11). However, Mr. Harker
leaves without giving care from the warning. This thing leads the readers to the future events that
Jonathan will face with many dangerous things. Likewise, about To Kill a Mockingbird, when the
Maycombnian blame on a “Negro”, this shows that there is a racist nature in Maycomb and
foreshadows to Tom Robinson, will be blamed for something in the future.
Moreover, characters of both novels are good to be compared and contrasted. In To Kill a
Mockingbird, Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama while in Dracula, Johnathan Harker is a
solicitor from London, England. Their relatives, which are Atticus’s children and Jonathan’s
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wife, are attacked by the bad guy. Unluckily, Mina Harker loses her life because of being
Dracula’s victim. Atticus is also described as a just, respective man, an excellent lawyer and also
a good father. He never has to rethink his position on an issue and always defends for the right
and against the discrimination. Turn to Jonathan, according to Dr. Seward, Mr. Harker is a “quiet,
business-like gentleman”, “uncommonly clever” and “full of energy” (Stoker 239). About
Jonathan, he is known as a brave man because he is the first person who dares to make a stab at
Dracula while seeing his wife being a victim of Dracula. Even though the other men just feel
sorry for Jonathan. Atticus is also similar because he is brave to stand for Tom Robinson, a black
guy who did nothing but be punished because of racism. Atticus also knows that he can’t win in
this case but he is brave to keep the court longer than any else. Last thing is that Jonathan has no
experience about hunting and fighting while Atticus is very good at shooting.
Lastly, Themes is the last important things which have many differences and similarities
in both works. The treat of female sexual in Dracula is exactly the good theme for the whole
novel. It was written in Victorian era, so women’s sexual behavior was force by the society as a
stereotype. If women are either virgins or are wives and mothers, it will be fine for them. But
not, they will be treated as a whore in that society. This is related to the novel that when Dracula
begins to work with his evil magic on Lucy Westenra and the fact that both Lucy and Mina are
chaste, innocent and pure of the evils. However, Dracula threatens to turn their personality into
opposites, to be “voluptuousness”. And Dracula successes when transforming Lucy, about Mina,
the man scared of her because of the social issues. Likewise, turn into To Kill a Mockingbird,
there is a dramatical discrimination between women and the men. When Miss Maudie says,
“Thank you Ma’am. This is, foot-washers think women are sin by definition” (Lee 59) and
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Atticus says, “For one thing, Ms. Maudie can’t serve on the jury because she’s a woman” (Lee
296). This sexism can be described that the novel was written in the 1950’s, so there is a big
distance from woman to pass the equality. Also, Alabama is located in the Southern of America,
in where people is very racism and sexism.
In conclusion, there are similarities and differences between To Kill a Mockingbird and
Dracula, which can be shown by literary devices, characters and themes. First, in term of literary
devices, foreshadowing is both using in two works to foreshadow that both Tom Robinson and
Jonathan Harker will get in danger during the novel. Then, concerning to the characters, Atticus
Finch and also Jonathan Harker are working as lawyers, but the biggest difference between both
of men is that Atticus shoots very well while Jonathan has no experience about this. Lastly,
Sexism against women is both used in two novels to describe the society at these times, when
people in Maycomb, Alabama in To Kill a Mockingbird think that women are the sins and they
can be divided clearly into two parts unless they are whores at Victorian era in Dracula.
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Work Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Collins Publishers, 2010
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Penguin Classic, 1993