	One of the most convincing pieces of evidence as to Dracula’s ambiguous nature is Stoker’s use of the unreliable narrator throughout the novel. The novel opens with excerpts from Jonathan Harker’s novel, but as the novel progresses it begins to include the written works of Mina Murray (Harker), Lucy Westenra, Dr. Seward, and Van Helsing—along with the correspondence between these characters from time to time. Given this, the reader is presented not with an unbiased and uninvolved narrative, but with the accounts given by several different characters, each with their own biases and narrative style. Harker himself comments to Van Helsing, “We could hardly ask anyone, even did we wish to, to accept these as proofs of so wild a story”. As thorough as these narrators have tried to be in re-telling their tale, there still exists an element of human error in each character’s account. As rudimentary as it sounds, the novel never tells Dracula’s side of the story. Instead, readers are left to make educated guesses at Dracula’s personality and thought processes based on his actions alone. And yet the most intriguing aspect of Stoker’s narrative is the symbolic meaning hidden within the text, modeling Dracula as a metaphorical character rather than a literal one. In a summary of one interpretation of the text, David Seed explains, “[Dracula] represents a reversion to a feudal aristocracy that imperiously claims allegiance independently of checks and balances.” The story of Count Dracula’s invasion of England, as told by its natives, forces the reader to consider Dracula as a somewhat typical literary villain. In other words, the characters within the novel are unable to discern other characters as symbolic of other forces or archetypes. 
That being said, it can be a mistake for readers to assume the same views as the novel’s characters. Dracula’s image in popular cultures shrouds the judgment of many readers who inadvertently accept the role of the Count as an evil villain. Seed further explains, “The progression of events [in Harker’s journal] is remorselessly toward confronting Dracula’s own vampirism, confronting the very thing that Harker’s rationalism is unwilling to accept”. The novel opens with the journey to Count Dracula’s castle as Harker notices various strange occurrences—all while attempting to rationalize or “normalize” all that made him uncomfortable. Portions of Harker’s journal also detail his attempts to make sense of what he has witnessed during his stay at the castle. Along with Seward and Mina, Harker “decides to record events in as much detail as possible in the anxious hope the circumstantiality can counter strangeness.” Somewhere along the way, however, Harker blends the line between what he experiences firsthand and what his rational mind perceives to have happened. Harker writes down these details in shorthand, while trying to evade the attention of Dracula himself, and his entries end at a point followed by Harker’s mental and physical collapse. 
It is a well-known fact that Stoker was acquaintances with fellow writer Oscar Wilde, having attended school together. When the novel was released in 1897, Wilde was finishing his term in prison after being charged with sodomy and gross indecency. It is entirely likely, then, that Wilde’s ordeal had at least some impact on Stoker’s writing of Dracula, perhaps lending to a theme of repressed sexual identity. Dracula, the “odd-man out” of sorts, can be interpreted as a representation of some facet of Wilde’s sexuality, if not of the man himself. His influence on Lucy, for example, leads Van Helsing to have her “killed” (so to speak, as she was already dead by medical standards), since he and the other characters perceive her transformation as a fate worse than death. Just as likely, however, is that Dracula’s blood sucking and “indecent” relationship with his three “brides.” This relationship, in itself, can be seen as an indictment of polygyny on the part of society—though Stoker’s views aren’t immediately clear. The Count’s presence in England is the basis of the novel’s central conflict, and the purpose to which the main characters have dedicated themselves to resolving. Eric Yu explains, “Dracula’s invasion of London…is a nightmarish incident of ‘reverse colonization.’” When the Count “invades” London, he is effectively exacerbating the existing political turmoil sweeping across England in the 19th century. The exception to these anxieties within the novel is Abraham Van Helsing, who travels from Amsterdam to assist Dr. Seward with Lucy’s care. Unlike Count Dracula, Van Helsing is not “invading;” he was invited to England by an Englishman. The fear of invasion is the bias of the English main characters and the basis of their fear of Dracula—not the man himself. After all, Jonathan Harker is the only character to have witnessed Dracula’s behavior firsthand, and he has already been established as an unreliable narrator. 
