Course Blog

Although Bram Stoker’s Dracula has an overtone that speaks to fears of the supernatural, it also contains an undertone that speaks to the Victorian fear of the foreign and channels these fears into the portrayal of foreign women. In Jonathan Harker’s narration of his time in Transylvania, he makes sure to make it apparent how odd everything was in this land. Besides the offhand remarks referring to Slovak people as “barbaric” (Stoker 9), the depiction of foreign women struck me as particularly interesting. When Harker was visited by the three women in Dracula’s castle, the women’s “dark” skin and “high aquiline noses” (Stoker 44) added to their dangerously sensual spell over Harker. He says how their exotic spell over him compromised him morally, and that, “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear.”(Stoker 45) While their features are similar to those of Count Dracula, rather than making them monstrously fearful, the women’s exotic features make them dangerous in a sexual way. This fetishization of women is also seen in  Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which depicts the treacherous journey of an Englishman and his crew through the Congo River in Africa. Once again, the depiction of the foreign lands and its people are shown as odd and barbaric in the eyes of a Victorian-era man. The women are the exclusion of this barbaric depiction with a fetishized one in exchange.  In this story, the portrayal of a black woman with her exotic beauty and sensuality serves as a source of danger for the Victorian man. In both, women are used to demonstrate the primal nature that these foreign lands and people incite in otherwise honorable British men. The irony of these fears lies in the cruel colonization on the British front to said foreigners. Perhaps these fear steamed from the realizations of how harshly the British treated those they colonized, leading the Victorians to be fearful of the same sort of “colonization” of their lands and culture.

 

            At first glance, it doesn’t seem likely to have a lot in common with a vampire; however, Dracula by Bram Stoker has created a parallel between Lucy, a human, and Count Dracula, a vampire.

            Firstly, the number three is connected to both characters, which creates a parallel. Lucy has three suitors anxious to marry her. She asks Mina in a letter, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” (Stoker, 67) in response to the three proposals she received in one day. Similarly, as revealed in Johnathon Harker’s journal Dracula has “three young women, ladies by their dress and manner” (Stoker, 44).

            Additionally, both Lucy and Dracula rely on blood to survive. Dracula depends on drinking blood, which leads him to Lucy as his next victim. As a result, Lucy then must receive the “transfusion of blood at once” (Stoker, 131) in order to survive. This idea that “the blood is the life! The blood is the life!” (Stoker, 152) is repeated by Renfield, Dr. Seward’s patient, later on in the text.

            Ultimately, these parallels prompt a deeper meaning in the novel. Considering the parallels are drawn between a human and a vampire, perhaps it shows that anyone is capable of being a monster. As mentioned before, the women connected to Dracula appear as beautiful ladies. Johnathon “somehow [knew] her face” yet, “there was something about them that made me uneasy” (Stoker, 44-45). These women have no problem passing as human beings. Despite the fact that “all three had brilliant white teeth” (Stoker, 45) they otherwise had ordinary outward appearances.

            Likewise, Lucy can arguable been seen as a monster, but in a different way. Lucy received “three proposals in one day!” (Stoker, 64). Yet, she can only marry one of her three suitors. Therefore, she becomes a monster in the sense that she must break the hearts of two well-deserving men. Lucy even admits to her immoral behavior stating, “here was I almost making fun of this great-hearted, true gentleman” (Stoker, 67). While Lucy’s actions aren’t as life-threatening as Dracula and his fellow vampires, her refusal still causes “a man like that [to] be made unhappy” (Stoker, 68) because of her decision.

            In the end, what I’m really try to say here is that these parallels reveal that the supernatural is not so far removed from humanity.

If several people witness a car accident–or anything really–they will all come away with slightly different accounts, with stories that are the truth as that person sees it.

 

The story of Dracula is told in so many different voices and modes that it comes across like the aftermath of a tragedy, like a compilation of evidence. There is something forensic about the storytelling, as if the writer is trying to construct a story from what was left behind after this series of climactic events.

This approach allows exposition to enter the story even though each specific single character could not learn the whole story.

 

The vast number of narrators telling the story distances the reader. The first part, when Jonathan alone is narrating, is more traditional–a first person narrative told in the diary style. After that, there are many limited-perspective narrators whose stories, taken all together, combine to tell a full story. However, the reader can never get attached to one character because the story jumps around. Interestingly, like in Lady Audley’s Secret, the only character we don’t really get to see into the mind of is the villain, which keeps that villain mysterious and foreboding.

 

The main voices belong to Jonathan and Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra, and Dr. John Seward, with many additions by other characters, some of which remain nameless, such as the authors of newspaper articles. Although the voices of each narrator are not very different, there are noticeable variations. This story is told via clippings from different types of media. Dr. Seward keeps a phonograph diary. Mina and Lucy’s perspectives are told through a combination of their diaries and letters, while Jonathan keeps only a diary. There are other unique narrators: letters between more minor characters, such as Arthur and Quincey, and newspaper clippings, for example.

 

This is not to say that the story is told dispassionately. Collections of evidence will include facts, yes, but they also include very emotional accounts. Jonathan, in the initial chapters, talks about his emotions a lot. In later chapters, Seward (a doctor) takes somewhat of a logical approach (as with his patient Renfield), but he reacts utterly irrationally when faced with the prospect of decapitating Lucy. Van Helsing is the most logic-based narrator, despite being viewed by John Seward as crazy. Seward, it must be pointed out,  seems logical but really is driven by his emotions in most situations–which we see when he breaks the Hippocratic oath by sharing information about Lucy with Quincey . “As he spoke the poor fellow looked terribly anxious.He was in a torture of suspense regarding the woman he loved, and his utter ignorance of the terribly mystery that seemed to surround her which intensified his pain. His very heart was bleeding, and it took all the man-hood of him — and there was a royal lot of it, too — to keep him from breaking down. I paused before answering, for I felt that I must not betray anything which the Professor wished kept secret; but already he knew so much, and guessed so much, that there could be no reason for not answering, so I answered in the same phrase: ‘That’s so’” (162-3). Van Helsing seems to be the one character who can think with his head and nothing else. This may even be why Seward views him as insane: in a world where evil is made flesh, logic seems madness.

The fragmenting of the story into a variety of narrators also illustrates Dracula’s spreading influence. While in his castle, only one narrator was needed. Once he is in England, the evil spreads, and there is a resulting cacophony of voices.

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, themes such as colonial domination, and classism are omnipresent in the attitude of the novel’s titular character, Count Dracula.  As a nobleman in Transylvania, Dracula prides himself on his family’s history and the effect that it has had on the country as a whole as, “ In his speaking of things and people, and especially of battles, he spoke as if he had been present at them all. . . [the] pride of his house and name is his own pride, that their glory is his glory, that their fate is his fate (Stoker, 35).”  By presenting his family and himself as being integral to the national fate of Romania, Dracula is attempting to prove to Harker (an Englishman) that he is deserving of his noble blood and, therefore, respect.  

Dracula wants to immigrate from an impoverished, uninfluential nation (Romania) to the world’s most powerful country (England).  This shows that even though Dracula is powerful among his own people, he is unsatisfied with it, as seen when Dracula tells about his fellow country men. He says that the “peasant is at heart a coward and a fool!” (Stoker, 32).  To be able to subjugate the people of the world’s most powerful country would finally prove that Dracula is deserving of his ancestor’s bloodline (as a Boyar, he explains that he is descended from Attila the Hun which may help explain his desire to conquer other lands/peoples, another reason for him to leave Romania for England).

Dracula also feels superior to commoners which shows his classist tendencies.  For example, when Harker is explaining to Dracula that the estate in England is secluded and that there is an old chapel nearby, Dracula comments, “We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie amongst the common dead (Stoker, 30).”  Dracula’s disdain for commoners is so great that even after death, (if Dracula ever does dies) he is comforted by the notion that his bones will not be in the same vicinity as the bones of commoners.  This class based disdain is also seen in the manner he treats the common woman whose baby he steals. Rather than sucking her blood, he lets the wolves eat her, as if to suggest that her common blood would taint his own noble blood.  Later in the novel, Count Dracula sucks the blood of Lucy, who is not a commoner as she is to marry the aristocrat Arthur Holmwood.  Through Count Dracula’s statements and actions, it is apparent that he does not want to be associated with, or interact with people who have common blood.

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, sanity versus insanity is a prominently discussed topic among the characters in the book. The constant use of ‘insanity’ in the text shields and misleads the characters from the monstrous world that exists. The characters that speak of the unnatural and behave in odd ways are declared insane or simply unwell in some capacity, but are not often to be believed. The theme of insanity in the text serves to keep the characters from believing in the unnatural.

Although insanity itself was a taboo and alarming topic by itself, to the characters in this book, it is far more comfortable of a thought than that of the supernatural. When Johnathan speaks to Dr. Seward about the Count, and says, “the Master is at hand,” (p. 111) Dr. Seward attributes this and his other abnormalities to “religious mania.” (p. 111) Dr. Seward does not see any other reason than some sort of insanity for Johnathan’s behaviors. Again, when Dr. Seward read’s Lucy’s account of the night her mother died, Dr. Seward says, “in God’s name, what does it all mean? Was she, or is she, mad; or what sort of horrible danger is it? I was so bewildered that did not know what to say more.” (p. 161) Dr. Seward again goes quickly to the thought that Lucy may have been “mad.” Because what he’s read is so hard for him to understand, he can only think that she might have had some insanity, or that if not, there is some great danger. Here, Dr. Seward begins to think that there may be another possibility.

Finally, after Lucy’s “death,” Dr. Van Helsing explains to Dr. Seward the reason that he did not say directly what wait ailing Lucy. Dr. Seward is surprised at this, as he begins to understand more about what danger might be happening around him. Dr. Van Helsing says, “Mad? Would I were! Madness were easy to bear compared with truth like this….why take so long to tell you so simple a thing? My friend, it was because I wished to be gentle in the breaking to you, for I know you have loved that so sweet lady. But even yet, I do not expect you to believe. It is so hard to accept at once any abstract truth…when we have always believed the ‘no’ of it.” (p. 207) In this quote, Dr. Van Helsing explains to Dr. Seward that because the truth is shocking, confusing, and heartbreaking, that Dr. Van Helsing kept it from him. The doctor knows and explains that the truth is hard to believe for many reasons. The truth is so hard for Dr. Seward to believe, especially under these circumstances, that he continues to think, “surely there must be some rational explanation for all these things.” (p. 217) However, in these passages, we see Dr. Seward’s slowly growing inclination to believe the truth.

In Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, the appearance of Dracula in London disrupts Victorian English culture thus revealing the repression and lack of freedom of romantic relationships in the Victorian era. Prior to Dracula’s appearance, Lucy receives three proposals in only one day making her the most sought after girl in the novel. In a letter to Mina, Lucy says, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it” (67). This quote reveals that deep down, Lucy does not approve of monogamy, and that she does not understand why society says she can only be with one man. However, because Lucy is too afraid of the social norms, and does not want to commit “heresy” she does not take the idea any farther than that.

After Lucy is bitten by Dracula she needs blood to stay alive, and as a result each of her three suiters and Van Helsing give Lucy blood through a transfusion. Though in reality this is not a sexual relationship, there is something romantic about giving a part of themselves to Lucy. Dr. Seward says that “no man knows till he experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves” (138). Dr. Seward’s description reveals how giving Lucy his blood made him feel closer and more connected to her. However, Dr. Seward would have never been able to feel closer to Lucy if Dracula had never come to London because of the strict social norms in Victorian society. Arthur compares this connection the blood transfusion creates as something akin to marriage. Arthur says after Lucy’s death, “that he [Arthur] felt since then as if the two had been really married, and that she was his wife in the sight of God” (185). Arthur thinks that through the blood transfusion he and Lucy were married, however Arthur does not know that the other three men also provided blood for Lucy, and by that logic is also married to the other three men. Thus, making Lucy a polygamist, and completely undoing the Victorian idea of what a romantic relationship should be. Though Dracula’s appearance in London is detrimental it allows for Lucy to be with multiple men thus allowing her to “save all the trouble” (67).

In chapter two, I ran into a familiar feeling that I have experienced in movies before, a cold loneliness. This feeling is prevalent in the archetype of psychological horror films called atmospheric horror. In order for a film to fall into this category, it must contain a few important attributes. It must be set in a desolate or closed off location with very limited access or egress, it must have poor weather with limited to no sunlight, and finally it must contain a mysterious antagonist who keeps his or her intentions away from both the protagonist and the viewers/readers. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the oldest instance of a novel or film I have seen that holds all these attributes, and it is the first atmospheric horror novel I have read.

On pg.33 we are presented with a description of Dracula’s castle by Johnathan Harker. Within this description are the attributes that give Dracula it’s atmospheric horror feeling. The first attribute is the altitude of the castle “fall a thousand feet without touching anything.” This implies very limited access or egress in and out of the castle, so escape would be difficult and probably deadly. The second is the location of the castle in the Carpathian with green tree tops “as far as the eye can reach.” This implies an isolated location, without much nearby civilization to run to for help or seek refuge if escape from the castle was needed. Therefore, if one was somehow able to make it down the walls of the castle alive, they would certainly die of starvation or exposure trekking through the woods. The third and final attribute is the suspicious nature of Johnathan’s host as a result of “doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted.” Keeping all the doors locked creates a sense of mystery to both us the readers and Johnathan as we wonder why Dracula has those doors locked.

All of these elements combined create that cold lonely feeling that one experiences when they encounter an atmospheric horror film. The Shining directed by Stanley Kubrick and Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland are both films that I feel capture atmospheric horror perfectly and share many similar characteristics with Bram Stokers Dracula. However, what sets Dracula apart for me at least, is that you create the creepy and disturbing atmosphere in your own head, which I feel makes it even scarier.

Dracula is a text that presents several definitions for what it means to be insane. We find traces of unsettling behaviors from the Count himself and early character Jon Harker. What seems to be a case unique to the novel is how in order to be exposed to insanity, it is impossible to use our primary sense of eyesight.

Early in the novel, Jonathan Harker experiences many strange phenomena that lead him to eventually be admitted to the hospital in Budapest. After arriving at the foreboding Transylvanian castle, Harker notices that the Count has no reflection in a mirror. “It amazed me that I had not seen him, since the glass covered the whole room behind me” (p32). Immediately an association of the unnatural and the senses is created, and Jonathan, to reader’s chagrin, continues to play the fool under his eyesight for quite some time. “At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow” (p 41). Though at this point in the novel we are not certain of the cause of Harker’s madness, it is safe to assume his visual experiences at the Count’s manor play a large role, particularly the “dream”.

“I thought at the time I must be dreaming when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them, they had no shadow on the floor” (p 44). This dream presents a time in which Harker is disconnected from his conscious, and therefore his eyesight holds much more reliability than it does when he is fully aware of himself, or how we would typically define “sane”. However, Jonathan remains adamant that he is losing his mind, or asleep, because how could his eyesight, a sense that has never given him cause to feel he cannot rely on it, be mistaken?

Because of how brief yet descriptive Jonathan Harker’s time in the Counts castle is, it is both difficult and simple to unpack how his senses affect his perception of the truth in the novel. However, it is safe to say that in order to be in touch with the insane or unnatural, Jonathan has to step away from what he understands consciousness or sanity to be.

 

Lady Audley’s Secret and The Hound of the Baskervilles are both classic mystery tales that captivate readers by setting up central questions and problems for them to solve.  They share the same themes of death, murder, missing persons, and crime.

A huge difference between the two novels is the involvement of the supernatural in The Hound of the Baskervilles.  Lady Audley’s Secret focuses more on the complexity of humans, what they are capable of,  and what they could be hiding.   When trying to figure out what happened to George or what exactly Lady Audley’s secret was, we turned to and looked at the characters themselves as suspects and to break them down to see if they really are who they say they are.  In The Hound of the Baskervilles, there is also the element of human deception however the book also introduces the idea of the evil hound and the supernatural.  When Watson asks Holmes about the his belief in the possible supernatural explanation of Sir Charles’s death he says “The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not? … Of course, if Dr Mortimer’s surmise should be correct, and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws of Nature, there is an end of our investigation” (29). The introduction of the demonic hound gives a whole new level to the mystery and calls into question the veracity of everything that happens in the story and whether or not we can believe it to be real.

The utilization of the concept of the supernatural is what separates Lady Audley’s Secret and The Hound of the Baskervilles into two different genres.  The idea of the supernatural vs real is a main trope in Gothic literature  whereas family and domestic issues are a part of sensation literature.

There are quite a few similar themes that can be detected out between the novels of The Hound of the Baskervilles and Lady Audley’s Secret. For example, the “bromance” or the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson is undeniable just like in Lady Audley’s Secret with Robert Audley and George. “There is a delightful freshness about you, Watson, which makes it a pleasure to exercise any small powers which I possess at your expense”( Page 28). In this quote, Holmes has predicted where Watson has been for the last three hours. Watson seems to be always surprised on how Holmes always knows exactly where he is. This shows how remarkable Holmes is a detective or simply the close bond he has with Watson. It is quite interesting how Watson takes pleasure in Holmes is sassiness towards him. All friendships have a few unique aspects that make the relationship more special.

     Another concept I saw using the lens between The Hound of the Baskerville and Lady Audley’s Secret is the focus on how much detail is put into the description of the grounds of Baskerville Hall and Audley court. Both these authors could have focused on this topic because it is an essential part of where the mystery unfolds. Both these novels taken place in the Victorian era, they have the similar vibe of being massive in size, yet only a few people live and occupy the space It leads to questions of could there be someone or something lurking in the spaces that aren’t occupied? It is going to be interesting to see in the novel what will be discovered “Beyond, two copses of trees moaned and swung in a rising wind. A half moon broke through the rifts of racing clouds. In its cold light, I saw beyond the trees a broken fringe of rocks and the long, low curve of the melancholy moor” (page 61). This quote gives me the sensation that the hound is sulking around near Baskerville Hall. With all the mysterious sudden deaths and disappearances in both novels, the detectives of these novels are able to shine and show what they are really capable of discovering. Essentially every detail of information plays a huge part in any type of mystery.