{"id":1878,"date":"2021-10-27T20:25:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T00:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1878"},"modified":"2021-10-27T20:25:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T00:25:29","slug":"watch-out-for-those-foreign-gentlemen-they-have-big-teeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/10\/27\/watch-out-for-those-foreign-gentlemen-they-have-big-teeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch out for those foreign gentlemen, they have big teeth!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s <\/span>Dracula <\/span><\/i>draws upon Victorian fears, asking \u2018what happens to vulnerable women\u2019 when the \u201cforeign\u201d become immersed within society. In laying out this argument, the vulnerability of women is perhaps best captured by Stokers\u2019 depiction of Lucy on the East Cliff; a scene in which Mina is determined to reach her sleepwalking friend (101).<\/span><\/p>\n

Stoker\u2019s utilization of a binary between the \u201cwhite\u201d and \u201cblack\u201d elements within this scene helps to accentuate the stark contrast between the purity and goodness of Lucy and the evil and darkness of an unknown figure (whom unbeknownst to Mina is Dracula) (101). These light and dark elements intersect when the \u201clong and black,\u201d figure of Dracula is depicted \u201cbending over the half-reclining white figure\u201d of Lucy, a moment that may warrant an interpretation suggesting that Lucy\u2019s purity has been corrupted and that some sort of defilement has occurred (101). At this moment, Mina calls out to Lucy and sees the \u201cwhite face and red, gleaming eyes\u201d of the figure that had been standing over her, introducing a secondary purpose of Stoker\u2019s use of the black and white binary (101). Specifically, the contrast between the \u201cblack\u201d and \u201cwhite\u201d used to paint the scene and Dracula\u2019s \u201cred<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/i> eyes makes this moment climactic. Stoker is not only able to justify the \u201cshadowy\u201d figure of Dracula while keeping his \u201cbeastly\u201d features hidden from Mina, but he is also able to elicit a strong sense of fear in the minds of Victorian readers – a fear linked to the threat of things foreign (101).<\/span><\/p>\n

In a time of Imperialism and superiority, the Victorians were afraid of foreign ideas becoming inseparable from their own practices. Dracula\u2019s ideas of normalcy (i.e., sucking the blood out of vulnerable women like Lucy) are likely representative of Stoker\u2019s take on a (hopefully) \u201cforeign\u201d Victorian custom that – through vampirism – has the potential to permeate within Victorian practices. Additionally, Stoker\u2019s choice of Mina as the narrator was likely intentional. Mina moves from first being confused between seeing Dracula\u2019s figure as a \u201cman or beast\u201d (equating beastliness to Dracula\u2019s foreignness) to being primarily concerned with protecting Lucy\u2019s \u201cpoor condition\u201d from being witnessed (101). One may argue that Mina, in attempting to protect Lucy from Dracula, was both looking out for her safety, but as importantly her Victorian virtue and values. Perhaps Dracula finds he cannot be both a \u201cstranger\u201d and a \u201cmaster\u201d after all (27).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula draws upon Victorian fears, asking \u2018what happens to vulnerable women\u2019 when the \u201cforeign\u201d become immersed within society. In laying out this argument, the vulnerability of women is perhaps best captured by Stokers\u2019 depiction of Lucy on the East Cliff; a scene in which Mina is determined to reach her sleepwalking friend (101). … Continue reading Watch out for those foreign gentlemen, they have big teeth!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}