{"id":842,"date":"2018-11-19T14:41:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T19:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=842"},"modified":"2018-11-19T14:41:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T19:41:50","slug":"la-gioconda-and-dracula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2018\/11\/19\/la-gioconda-and-dracula\/","title":{"rendered":"“La Gioconda” and Dracula"},"content":{"rendered":"

HISTORIC, side-long, implicating eyes ;\u00a0<\/span>
\nA\u00a0smile\u00a0of velvet’s lustre on the cheek ;\u00a0<\/span>
\nCalm lips the smile leads upward ;\u00a0hand\u00a0that lies\u00a0<\/span>
\nGlowing and soft, the patience in its rest\u00a0<\/span>
\nOf cruelty that waits and doth not seek\u00a0<\/span>
\nFor prey ; a dusky forehead and a breast\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhere twilight touches ripeness amorously :\u00a0<\/span>
\nBehind her, crystal rocks, a sea and skies\u00a0<\/span>
\nOf evanescent blue on cloud and creek ;\u00a0<\/span>
\nLandscape that shines suppressive of its zest\u00a0<\/span>
\nFor those\u00a0vicissitudes\u00a0by which men\u00a0die.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLa Gioconda\u201d is a poem written by Michael Field (a pseudonym for Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper) that was published in the volume \u201cSight and Song\u201d. This poem is about Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s painting, Mona Lisa. The annotation over the final word \u201cdie\u201d reads, \u201cPater likens Mona Lisa to a vampire: \u2018She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave\u2019\u201d. This mention of Mona Lisa as a vampire made me think back to Dracula<\/em>, to compare Mona Lisa to the female vampires Jonathan Harker encounters on pages 44-47. One connection that Mona Lisa has to these women is that Bram Stoker puts great emphasis on the lips and mouth of these vampires, while the lips, mouth, and smile of the Mona Lisa is one of the most commonly discussed part of the painting. In \u201cLa Gioconda\u201d, Michael Field mentiones her smile in the second line: \u201cA smile of velvet\u2019s lustre on the cheek\u201d. He then mentions her lips in the next line stating, \u201cCalm lips the smile leads upward.\u201d In Dracula, Jonathan Harker takes note of the \u201cruby of [the female vampire\u2019s] voluptuous lips\u201d (45 Stoker) and later mentions that they are \u201cscarlet\u201d (45 Stoker). He is attracted to the lips of the female vampire, declaring \u201cI felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips\u201d (45 Stoker). In the short scene where these women try to suck Jonathan\u2019s blood, their lips get mentioned eight times. As stated in one of my previous posts \u201cFear of the New Woman<\/a>\u201d, these female vampires are incredibly sexualized and can be seen as examples of the type of fear that existed during the fin de si\u00e8cle (for example- Lucy feeding on<\/em> the baby instead of feeding the baby is representative of the fear of the abandonment of motherhood). The last line of \u201cLa Gioconda\u201d: \u201cLandscape that shines suppressive of its zest\/ For those vicissitudes by which men die\u201d can also be related to the idea of the New Woman. The OED definition of vicissitude mentioned in the annotation is: \u201cThe fact of change or mutation taking place in a particular thing or within a certain sphere.\u201d The change \u201cby which men die\u201d could be the changing role of the woman as they turn away from motherhood and marriage, start gaining ownership over their own property\/money, and gain new opportunities for jobs\/education. Perhaps the Mona Lisa can be seen as an example of the New Woman.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HISTORIC, side-long, implicating eyes ;\u00a0 A\u00a0smile\u00a0of velvet’s lustre on the cheek ;\u00a0 Calm lips the smile leads upward ;\u00a0hand\u00a0that lies\u00a0 Glowing and soft, the patience in its rest\u00a0 Of cruelty that waits and doth not seek\u00a0 For prey ; a dusky forehead and a breast\u00a0 Where twilight touches ripeness amorously :\u00a0 Behind her, crystal rocks, … Continue reading “La Gioconda” and Dracula<\/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-842","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\/842","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=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}