Dracula themes information Flashcards
Gender
Harker:
-By being exposed to Dracula and all these new ideas of gender and sexuality starts to emasculate Harker and uses more feminine language which suggests he is crossing boundaries in terms of sexuality
How the male characters are perceived:
-The novel conveys fairly stereotypical roles as the male characters have an element of control and power over the female characters
-Dracula uses his manipulative power and immoral values to control women
-Characters such as Arthur and Morris are portrayed as masculine, while Dracula and Jonathan have some femininity
Feminism in Dracula:
-The overall novel is typical for its time because it reinforces the patriarchal structure and discourages equality among the sexes
-Ideas presented of the ‘new woman’ which is highlighted through Mina but is supressed by the men in the novel
Homosexuality:
-Dracula is advertently portrayed as Stoker’s supressed homosexual identity but at times he is also represented as a dominant, forceful male heterosexual
The ‘new woman’:
-This was a reaction towards the increasing move towards emancipation and economic dependence for women
-Middle class women who had ambitions beyond marriage, domesticity and children were ridiculed and portrayed as either promiscuous or deluded
The three female vampires:
-When Harker encounters the women, he immediately compares them to Mina who is his exemplar of womanhood
-The sexualised, powerful and dangerous female vampires have lost their feminine virtues defined by the 19th century - Harker in this chapter reflects the Victorian era sensibility
Science and Modernity
Relationship with the modern world:
-Mina and Harker are both trained in the art of stenograph or shorthand writing and Mina travels with a portable typewriter
-The age of steam and railway expansion -All these are used to help stop Dracula
Science, faith and modernity:
-Published in 1859, Darwin’s on the origin of species and its theory of evolution inspired fierce debate in the second half of the century
-The assumption that institutionalised medical care was the best way to address mental illness was a distinctively 19th century idea
-Dr Seward’s ‘private lunatic asylum’ proves to be a hallmark of the modernity in which the novel struggles to come to terms
-Dr Seward is a mind guided by entirely scientific rationalism
-Ironically right next door to Seward’s asylum is the Carfax chapel and estate
-When Dracula attacks Mina when she is confined to the asylum, this can be read as an assault on the philosophies of modern science that the asylum represents
-Dracula into the asylum further proves this modern institution is powerless against old world supernatural forces
East vs West:
-Seward embraces the modern world and rejects at the beginning any ideas associated with tradition or supernatural forces - presents the strength of the British Empire
-Van Helsing is very much associated with these old traditional ways and concepts and believe science and logic cannot help them to defeat Dracula
Blood:
-First transfusion was in 1818 - Van Helsing is performing very new modernised scientific, medical treatment
Marriage
Lucy:
-She has a very naive view on marriage which shows he innocence and immaturity
-She believes that women should be able to marry more than one man, oblivious to the ideas she is suggesting
Mina and Harker’s relationship:
-Although they believe their marriage remains strong, they do not have equal roles within their marriage and neither values communication with one another
Blood:
-Arthur believes that the sharing of blood is a symbol of marriage while Lucy shared her blood with three other men
-This suggests her idea of lust and her wants to marry three men have been granted
-Dracula also believes it is a symbol of marriage but it is very forceful and manipulative as he takes blood against her own wishes
-Dracula admires Mina’s intelligence and wishes to have her by his side
Religion and the supernatural
Gothic genre:
-Gothic tales typically use the super natural that require superstitious beliefs and pushes against the norms of nature and beyond the limits of accepted beliefs eg- the blue flames
Religion:
-Dracula is portrayed as a satanic figure, with his bloodthirstiness being a perversion of Christian ritual and Stoker stimulates Dracula as the Anti-Christian morals
-The Harker’s are observant protestants and god fearing people - their love is made permanent in the eyes of God through their speedy marriage
-Dr Seward professes an orthodox understanding of God’s goodness and all characters typically end their conversations by saying that the groups success is in God’s hands
-Van Helsing is a Christian but also gains superstitious beliefs and practices from central Europe
Stoker:
-He has a protestant family background and an upbringing in Ireland
Catholic:
-They use Catholic scared objects and practices to protect themselves against eg- crosses and garlic and Dracula’s power can be weakened by the crucifix
Supernatural:
-Dracula’s supernatural powers include transformation into mist and animals and also unbelievable amounts of strength
-His connections with wolfs and dogs shows Dracula’s connection with animals and how it relates to the style of gothic literature
-his supernatural abilities present the social anxiety of the Victorian Era and how he is a a threat to the British Empire
Law and civilisation
East vs West:
-While the east were more traditional, the west were providing ground breaking ideas in both religion like evolution and science
-The British Empire was the strongest force on the planet and you could argue that Dracula feared this modernising industry that would understate his power
The British Empire:
-They had a fear of foreign diseases or anything that would threaten the empire, an example would be vampirism
-There was also a lot of xenophobia towards people in foreign countries as the British Empire was highly valued as very powerful
Geographics:
-Dracula bases his whereabouts in London which is the centre of the British Empire, he does not take the blood of the locals in Transylvania suggesting the area is corrupt making London a valuable location for him
Victorian society:
-At this time Victorian society is very strict and there is little social freedom especially for women - the ‘new woman’ but in this novel, the values and idea of the women are still supressed by the middle class males
Madness
Renfield:
-He is the the figure in the novel which has reached far beyond the levels of sanity
-His obsession of animals and blood and life links some of his ambitions to Dracula
-His madness is also enhanced by Dracula’s whereabouts
-It could be suggested that Renfield is a subversion of Dracula but in the form of madness as a human
Sleep:
-This is a key concept as it links most of the characters together and resembles a state of unconsciousness
-This could also present a new dynamic in boundaries but for some characters is a threat
Lunatic asylum:
-The exploration of madness and dreaming is a conventional feature of the gothic genre
-The treatment of mental disorder and the developing notion of mental health care where 19th century advances in medicine
-Dr Seward’s mental asylum is an example of the Victorian increasingly better attitude towards mental wellbeing
-Psychology was also being further explored by the leadership of Sigmund Freud
Deception
Gothic genre:
-It would usually be in this genre, the capturing of a female heroine, instead its a younger male lawyer which subverts the typical gothic genre conventions
Dracula’s letters:
-Through Dracula’s letters, he creates a fake persona to lull specifically Harker into a false sense of security
-He creates a sense of loyalty towards Harker to portray himself as a ‘normal aristocratic man’ within society
Letters (general):
-The use of letters convey a sense of deception towards the readers as it uses an epistolary form to make the character’s sound real
-Letters also are open to interpretation, as people can create a different identity and persona which could deceive the reader
Dracula and Renfield (physical and mental):
-Renfield is a subversion of Dracula and is willing to put himself in dangerous positions which represents how far he’s crossed the boundaries of insanity
-This makes him unpredictable as he has the abilities to change personality quickly making him deceiving
-In the 1900s, mental asylum’s were a new concept as well as a further discovery into psychological experiments carried out by people like Freud
-Renfield can also be contrasted with Malvolio
Dracula’s homosexuality:
-Dracula uses his deceitfulness to supress his homosexuality as his violent acts presents him as a heterosexual
-Dracula’s homosexuality is specifically shown towards Harker
-Dracula’s vampirism as a whole was also seen as a disease/contamination that was feared by Victorian society which also related to how there was xenophobia among society
