{"id":674,"date":"2018-10-01T13:16:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=674"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:16:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:16:52","slug":"dracula-as-a-cultural-predator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2018\/10\/01\/dracula-as-a-cultural-predator\/","title":{"rendered":"Dracula as a Cultural Predator"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their \u201cIntroduction: Reading the \u2018Fin de Si\u00e8cle,\u2019\u201d Ledger and Luckhurst assert that \u201c[p]opular culture of the time was fascinated by exotic, imperial terrors,\u201d which is directly seen through the composition of Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em> (xvi).\u00a0 Characterized as a bestial \u2018other\u2019 from old money, Count Dracula embodies the role of a predatory upper-class individual that profits off of the suffering of the helpless lower class.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Harker describes Count Dracula as having \u201cpeculiarly sharp white teeth,\u201d \u201cears [that are] pale and at the tops extremely pointed,\u201d \u201cbroad\u2026 squat fingers\u201d with \u201chairs in the centre of the palm,\u201d and \u201cnails [that are] long and fine, and cut to a sharp point\u201d (24-25).\u00a0 In noting features that are \u201csharp,\u201d \u201cextremely pointed,\u201d and \u201ccut to a sharp point,\u201d Stoker emphasizes the innate danger that Dracula\u2019s image holds. His ability to incite fear in Harker, in the forms of a \u201cshudder\u201d that cannot be \u201crepress[ed]\u201d and a \u201chorrible feeling of nausea,\u201d with only physical proximity demonstrates his predatory aura and appearance (25). Not only does the Count have a dangerous aura, he also embodies the mystery and danger associated with foreign individuals during the fin de si\u00e8cle. Ledger and Luckhurst note that the alluring \u201cexotic, imperial terrors\u201d of the time included \u201cfantasies of reverse invasion by the French or Germans\u201d (xvi). In Dracula<\/em>, the Count fulfills this fantasy because of his Transylvanian heritage and his transfer from Transylvania to England.\u00a0 As an Eastern European individual, Dracula would have been considered an outsider in terms of language, culture, and race.<\/p>\n

Count Dracula\u2019s characterization as a predatory creature rings true through his victimization of the innocent. To appease the three female vampires who try to \u201ckiss\u201d Jonathan Harker, Dracula gifts them a bag which produces a \u201cgasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child\u201d (47). Lucy, Dracula\u2019s other notable victim, also fulfills this ideal of innocence. In the throws of fighting her fate of transforming into a vampire herself, Lucy\u2019s \u201cbreast heaved softly, and her breath came and went like a tired child\u2019s\u201d (171). In describing Count Dracula\u2019s victims as innocent children, Stoker makes him more villainous, as only a monster would prey on children.<\/p>\n

Aside from being a dangerous predator, Count Dracula is also exceptionally wealthy. He is a count, owns a castle, is buying another property in England, and has literal old money in his room. Harker describes in his diary that<\/p>\n

\u201c[t]he only thing [he] found was a great heap of gold in one corner \u2013 gold of all kinds, Roman, and British, and Austrian, and Hungarian, and Greek and Turkish money, covered with a film of dust, as though it had lain long in the ground. None of it that [he] had noticed was less than three hundred years old. There were also chains and ornaments, some jeweled, but all of them old and stained\u201d (55).<\/p>\n

This extreme amount of gold and his nobility ranks Count Dracula above all of the other characters in class and wealth.<\/p>\n

Ledger and Luckhurst provide a framework to map Dracula\u2019s relationships with the other characters in Stoker\u2019s novel. The \u201coften unsympathetic accounts of working-class city dwellers\u201d Ledger and Luckhurst write about is mimicked by Dracula\u2019s predation of the innocent individuals that are of lower classes than him. As a wealthy, upper-class individual, Dracula\u2019s infiltration of England and of Lucy\u2019s life, as the catalyst of her change, marks him as a controlling figure who profits off of the suffering of others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their \u201cIntroduction: Reading the \u2018Fin de Si\u00e8cle,\u2019\u201d Ledger and Luckhurst assert that \u201c[p]opular culture of the time was fascinated by exotic, imperial terrors,\u201d which is directly seen through the composition of Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula (xvi).\u00a0 Characterized as a bestial \u2018other\u2019 from old money, Count Dracula embodies the role of a predatory upper-class individual that … Continue reading Dracula as a Cultural Predator<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3613,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-674","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\/674","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\/3613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}