{"id":2615,"date":"2023-10-27T11:16:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T15:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2023-10-27T11:16:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T15:16:43","slug":"the-british-fear-of-vampirism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2023\/10\/27\/the-british-fear-of-vampirism\/","title":{"rendered":"The British Fear of Vampirism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout this novel, Dracula and vampirism are created to portray the influences that are not within moral values held by Christians in England. Stoker uses Dracula to embody these foreign and dangerous values that are beginning to make their way into Western culture. Dracula begins his reign of terror in Romania, which is in Eastern Europe, and slowly begins to infiltrate British society. Johnathan\u2019s first interaction with Count Dracula is in a place that he is largely unfamiliar with. As he prepares to depart for the Count\u2019s castle, he is met with warnings from the locals, as they say \u201cIt is the eve of St. George\u2019s Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?\u201d (Ch. 1). In response to this warning, Jonathan attempts to comfort her and state that \u201cit was all very ridiculous, but I did not feel comfortable\u201d (Ch. 1). The townsfolk are aware of the dangerous aspects of their nation, but Jonathan does not know enough to take caution. His dismissal of the local warnings displays the depiction of the superiority of British society, as Jonathan has never had to concern himself with such dangers in England. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stoker\u2019s use of vampirism as a symbol of non-British influence is further seen when Mina decides to read through Jonathan\u2019s diary. As she read through his accounts of his experiences in the castle, she sees that the Count has plans to come to England. Upon reading this, she writes that \u201cThat fearful Count was come to London… If it should be, and he came to London, with his teeming millions… There may be solemn duty to; and if it come we must not shrink from it\u201d (Ch. 14). This is a call to action for those in Britain. Van Helsing notes that once vampirism infects one individual, they pass it on to others. This illustrates the fear of foreign influences that were present at the time. Once these dangerous people and ideologies make their way in, they upset the status quo and prove difficult to stifle. Mina makes the decision to take action in the fight against vampirism and is praised by Van Helsing for doing so. He describes her as \u201cone of the lights\u201d of the world. Mina is a textbook example of a British patriot and Stoker portrays her as an angel because of this.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout this novel, Dracula and vampirism are created to portray the influences that are not within moral values held by Christians in England. Stoker uses Dracula to embody these foreign and dangerous values that are beginning to make their way into Western culture. Dracula begins his reign of terror in Romania, which is in Eastern … Continue reading The British Fear of Vampirism<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4885,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2615","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\/2615","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\/4885"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}