{"id":672,"date":"2018-10-01T11:29:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T15:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=672"},"modified":"2018-10-01T11:29:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T15:29:02","slug":"jonathan-is-kinky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2018\/10\/01\/jonathan-is-kinky\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan is kinky!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sigmund Freud\u2019s article \u201cCreative Writers and Day Dreaming\u201d explores the concept that \u201cmental activity is directed toward inventing a situation in which unsatisfied wishes will be fulfilled\u201d (419). Freud argues that as children become adults, their imaginative play gets replaced with phantasies. While children do not conceal their play, the adult on the other hand strives to conceal their phantasies. As stated by Freud, \u201cthe adult is ashamed of his phantasies, and hides them from other people\u201d (422). Freud\u2019s ideas about phantasies and shame complicate the scene on pages 44-47 in Dracula<\/em> where the three women try to suck Jonathan Harker\u2019s blood. Upon seeing the women for the first time, Jonathan states his reaction as: \u201cThere was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips\u201d (45). Throughout the passage Jonathan seems torn between \u201cthrill and repulsion\u201d (45). The very things that he is repulsed by, like the woman\u2019s animalistic tendencies, are the same things that he finds himself desiring. Interestingly, Jonathan begins this scene by writing that the encounter with these women might have been a dream. According to Freud\u2019s argument, it makes perfect sense for Jonathan to suggest the scene is a dream because he is ashamed of his desires. The sexual things happening in the scene are not at all the traditional desires that a heterosexual man about to be married during the fin de si\u00e8cle should be having. Some of the exotic things that happen in this scene are a sexual encounter with multiple women, biting, enjoying pain, seeing the repulsive as attractive, and enjoying fear. While these sexual desires were definitely shared by many during the fin de si\u00e8cle, it was not common to discuss them or admit to having them. According to Freud, a man \u201cwould rather confess his misdeeds than tell anyone his phantasies\u201d (422). I believe that because it was so taboo to discuss phantasies openly, many of the novels written during the fin de si\u00e8cle engage in these \u201ckinky\u201d sexual desires as a way for writers and readers to gain comfort in identifying with the \u201cweird\u201d.<\/p>\n

Freud\u2019s arguments from \u201cCreative Writers and Day Dreaming\u201d give a clear reason as to why Jonathan would write this specific scene as a dream. By claiming he might have been asleep, Jonathan can write about the unusual sexual desires he is having without having to feel ashamed. This concept of Freud\u2019s does not always seem plausible in all of the dream scenes mentioned in Dracula<\/em> however. On page 19, Jonathan also begins his telling of a scene by stating, \u201cI think I must have fallen asleep\u201d. The scene encompasses Jonathan\u2019s trip to Dracula\u2019s house, where the driver repeatedly stops and investigates blue flames. If we were to read this scene according to Freud, Jonathan would state that the scene is a dream so he could hide hidden desires. However, I believe there is a totally different reason that Jonathan suggests he was dreaming at this moment. In many of the novels that were written during the fin de si\u00e8cle, there is an emphasis from the narrator that what they are writing is the truth. By Jonathan suggesting this scene could have been a dream, he is essentially telling the readers \u201cThis scene seems unbelievable, and because I am striving to be as truthful as possible in my telling of this story, it is feasible I could have been asleep.\u201d In this moment in the text, Jonathan\u2019s use of the dream is not stemming from the shame of sexual desire, but is a way for him to tell a very implausible part of the story while still seeming like a trustworthy narrator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sigmund Freud\u2019s article \u201cCreative Writers and Day Dreaming\u201d explores the concept that \u201cmental activity is directed toward inventing a situation in which unsatisfied wishes will be fulfilled\u201d (419). Freud argues that as children become adults, their imaginative play gets replaced with phantasies. While children do not conceal their play, the adult on the other hand … Continue reading Jonathan is kinky!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3296,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672","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\/3296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}