{"id":2590,"date":"2023-10-28T02:02:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T06:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=2590"},"modified":"2023-10-28T02:02:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T06:02:44","slug":"noses-nails-and-nosferatu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2023\/10\/28\/noses-nails-and-nosferatu\/","title":{"rendered":"Noses, Nails, and Nosferatu"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

From the moment that British solicitor Jonathan Harker steps foot in Dracula<\/em>\u2019s fictionalized Eastern Europe, he is far out of his depth. He is blindsided at every turn by mysterious and unusual sights and experiences, forewarned by those on his path to not continue, and tossed about until he lands in the hands of one Count Dracula in his Transylvanian castle. The Count himself is a rather peculiar individual and one whose charming looks are often portrayed as part of his appeal\u2013and while later events within the novel provide a basis for this appearance, it is a supposedly hideous and monstrous old man that Jonathan encounters when he first arrives in Transylvania. He details the count\u2019s features, such as his \u201clofty domed forehead\u201d (chapter 2) and hair that \u201c[grew] scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere\u201d (2) and \u201cseemed to curl in its own profusion\u201d (2). Altogether, Stoker illustrates to his readers that Dracula, put simply, does not look like our heroic British protagonists. Furthermore, when this passage is put into conversation with the text\u2019s fixation on physiognomy, I would argue that Stoker\u2019s grotesque description of Dracula\u2019s Eastern European features in relation to his vampirism serves to alienate him from the \u201cgood\u201d British characters he is juxtaposed against. The linkage of Dracula\u2019s non-British appearance to his sinister nature suggests deeper underlying beliefs regarding physiognomy and Britain in the Age of Empire.

Dracula<\/em>\u2019s emphasis on physiognomy makes it impossible to ignore the deliberate word choices employed by Stoker: the Count\u2019s initial features are intentionally not those the remainder of the work associates with beauty. In fact, before this description, Jonathan outwardly claims that his host is of a \u201cmarked physiognomy\u201d (2), establishing that he considers Dracula\u2019s features to be of some importance to his personality and morality. When a man who is by all means a \u201cgood\u201d British citizen is faced with an aquiline nose, curly hair, and coarse hands, the implication of malice or immorality is undeniably present. To Jonathan, Dracula\u2019s appearance is \u201cstrange,\u201d \u201cpeculiar,\u201d and \u201ccruel,\u201d altogether words that are undeniably negative; and when Dracula turns out to be sinister, it is revealed that his appearance has said so all along. A valiant crusade is led against this hideous Eastern European man by brave British men and women, and once more, through Stoker\u2019s narrative, physiognomy is proven justified.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the moment that British solicitor Jonathan Harker steps foot in Dracula\u2019s fictionalized Eastern Europe, he is far out of his depth. He is blindsided at every turn by mysterious and unusual sights and experiences, forewarned by those on his path to not continue, and tossed about until he lands in the hands of one … Continue reading Noses, Nails, and Nosferatu<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5330,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590","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\/5330"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}