Bram Stoker Report Essays - Golders Green Crematorium, Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker Report Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 8th, 1847. His father was a civil servant in Dublin Castle, and his mother, Charlotte, was a womens lib advocate. They had seven children in nine years; the third of which was Bram. The first seven years of his life he was bedridden with an undiagnosed disease which may have been anything from rheumatic fever, asthma or a form of nonparalytic polio. During these first years of his life as he laid in his bed he listened to stories his mother told him of the cholera epidemic of 1832; people buried alive, and entire families dying in a matter of days. At the age of 12 Bram left his home to attend school at Dublins Rutland Square under Reverend William Wood. During these years he made up for his childhood sickness by becoming involved in athletics and became an endurance walker. Following his older brothers lead in 1863, at the age of 17, he entered Trinity College in Dublin. Only ten years after he took his first steps he was now six foot two and 175 pounds. He joined several clubs and groups; he became president of the Philosophical Society, auditor of the Historical Society, he played soccer, was unbeatable in his walking marathons, and after two years he became the athletics champion of Trinity. In 1866 Bram took a one year leave of absence from Trinity to work as a clerk in the Registrar of Petty Sessions at Dublin Castle. Later in the year he saw the play The Rivals playing the lead, Captain Absolute, was the British actor Henry Irving, a person who would play a major role in Brams life. He was so impressed by Irvings performance he wrote: What I saw, to my amazement and delight , was a patrician figure as real as the person of ones dreams, and endowed with the same poetic grace. A young soldier, handsome, distinguished, self-dependent; compact of grace and slumberous energy. A man of quality who stood out from his surroundings on the stage as a being of another social world. A figure full of dash and fine irony, and whose ridicule seemed to bite; buoyant with the joy of life; self-conscious; an offensive egoist envy in his love-making; of supreme and unsurpassable insolence, veiled and shrouded in his fine quality of manner. He returned to Trinity after his absence and graduated in 1871 with a degree in science, he then stayed on to earn his masters degree in pure mathematics. After graduation he assumed a position as the unpaid drama critic for the Evening Mail, he also wrote short stories on the side. A year later, in 1872, The London Society published his short story The Crystal Cup, and in 1875 his four part serial The Chain of Destiny this was Brams first horror story. At about this same time he quit his job at the Evening Mail to take a job as drama critic at the Dublin Mail. Three years later he became editor of The Halfpenny Press, but quit after four months. In 1876 Henry Irving returned to Dublin, Stoker went to see Irving in the play Hamlet. Stoker praised the actor in his newspaper column when he wrote; In his fits of passion there is a realism that no one but a genius can ever effect. Irving read this the next morning and asked the manager of the theater to introduce him to Bram, they met that night for dinner at the Shelbourne Hotel. Stoker saw Irving in Hamlet two more time hoping to find some flaw in the performance. Stoker and Irving met often and soon discovered they had much in common and became quick friends. On December 11th, 1876 Irving was awarded two honors from Trinity College, the first was an address drafted by Stoker, the second was a performance of Hamlet starring Irving himself. After Irving left Stoker continued his job as a clerk at Dublin Castle. In 1878 he was promoted to Inspector of Petty Sessions, he received a pay raise but this also required him to travel for weeks at a time. Because of this he missed opening nights, so he resigned his job as drama critic of the Dublin Mail. In 1978 Bram wrote his first book entitled The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, this book outlined how clerks were to carry out their various responsibilities from how to deal with lunatics to how to license dogs. Irving returned several times to Dublin