{"id":258,"date":"2016-03-11T13:19:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T13:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=258"},"modified":"2018-09-02T22:05:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T22:05:55","slug":"sherlock-the-vampire-or-the-vampire-hunter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2016\/03\/11\/sherlock-the-vampire-or-the-vampire-hunter\/","title":{"rendered":"Sherlock the Vampire…or the Vampire Hunter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at Sherlock Holmes through the lens of Dracula<\/em>, he shares quite a few characteristics with the immortal blood-drinker.<\/p>\n

At the very beginning of the first Sherlock Holmes story, his deductions are compared to supernatural powers: \u201cYou would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago,\u201d Watson declares (Doyle, 2). Immediately Sherlock is associated with the supernatural, his powers of deduction considered magical and witchlike. Dracula too is associated with the supernatural from the very beginning of the book (when he controls the wolves).<\/p>\n

Doyle also makes a point of pointing out Sherlock\u2019s more childish habits, such as when he \u201cchuckled and wriggled on his chair, as was his habit when in high spirits\u201d (22). This description is reminiscent of a few-month-old child wriggling on a high chair, or an excitable toddler who can\u2019t sit still. In the BBC Sherlock TV show, you often see Sherlock throwing temper tantrums (such as this one<\/a>\u00a0or this one<\/a>).\u00a0Dracula is often compared to a child as well, with Dr. Van Helsing commenting \u201cin some faculties of mind he has been, and is, an only child\u201d (Stoker, 322) and often referring to Dracula\u2019s \u201cchild-brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson describes his time spent with Sherlock as one that \u201cutterly submerged my mind\u201d (Doyle, 91). His time as Sherlock\u2019s companion consumed him, consumed his time and his thoughts almost completely \u2013 for all that he is married and should have a life outside of his adventures with Sherlock, his stories of Sherlock almost completely eclipse that part of his life\u00a0and minimize\u00a0any mention of his married life. In a similar fashion, Dracula can control the mind and actions of Mina when she is under his thrall; Dracula is described as a \u201ccontrolling force subduing or restraining her, or inciting her to action\u201d (Stoker, 350).<\/p>\n

Despite the hopeless ending of \u201cThe Final Problem,\u201d confirming Sherlock\u2019s death, the release of the story \u201cThe Empty House\u201d revived the detective, in a way granting him immortality. Even after his \u201cdeath,\u201d Sherlock Holmes never died in the minds and hearts of his fans \u2013 the publication of \u201cThe Empty House\u201d simply made it official. The idea of Sherlock Holmes has never died, with countless reincarnations from print to movies to TV shows, from the 1800\u2019s to the future. Dracula is an immortal being, as long as he continues to drink blood and avoids stakes to the heart, decapitation and sunlight. And he too, enjoys the immortality of multiple reincarnations across time and media.<\/p>\n

Eating is not usually a priority for Sherlock, with work taking precedence: \u201cWe shall have time for a mouthful of dinner before we go\u201d (Doyle, 95). This lack of eating is even more obvious in the BBC Sherlock (like when John and Sherlock are on their not-date and Sherlock puts aside the menu<\/a>).\u00a0Jonathan Harker notes that Dracula has a similar habit of not eating: \u201cIt is strange that as yet I have not seen the Count eat or drink\u201d (Stoker, 33). Of course, the Count doesn\u2019t eat or drink because he survives on blood; Sherlock doesn\u2019t eat because \u201cdigestion slows [him] down<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson describes Holmes as springing \u201clike a tiger\u201d (Doyle, 102), similarly to how Van Helsing describes Dracula: \u201c\u2018But will not the Count take his rebuff wisely? Since he has been driven from England, will he not avoid it, as a tiger does the village from which he has been hunted?\u2019\u2026 \u2018This that we hunt from our village is a tiger, too, a man-eater, and he [will] never cease to prowl\u2019 (Stoker, 341).<\/p>\n

Sherlock himself, however, refers to himself as a tiger hunter and the criminal he is chasing as a tiger (Doyle, 103). In this comparison, Sherlock is the Van Helsing character who uses his knowledge and abilities to defend the status quo, rather than disrupt it like the criminals he reveals and punishes.<\/p>\n

Despite his vampiric qualities, overall Sherlock Holmes\u2019 motives align more with Van Helsing \u2013 they are both the bringers of justice, the knowledgeable outsiders who reinstate the status quo. The only reason British society admires and accepts these outsiders is that rather than defy the status quo, as vampires and criminals do, these outsiders focus on how to use their knowledge to defeat these disruptive influences and maintain the status quo \u2013 they are useful, and thus, they are accepted and revered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looking at Sherlock Holmes through the lens of Dracula, he shares quite a few characteristics with the immortal blood-drinker. At the very beginning of the first Sherlock Holmes story, his deductions are compared to supernatural powers: \u201cYou would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago,\u201d Watson declares (Doyle, 2). Immediately Sherlock … Continue reading Sherlock the Vampire…or the Vampire Hunter?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2255,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}