Dracula is an example of Gothic fiction. Its being a sample of Gothic tradition is highly related to the gloomy, gothic atmosphere present in the novel as well as the existence of supernatural elements such as the vampires.
The vampire legend exemplified in the novel dates back to the ancient times and in almost all cultures from Egypt to China stories and tales about vampires exist. It is quite obvious in the novel that Stoker read much on the Eastern European folklore related to the vampires.
However, his vampires differ from those of others as Count Dracula was not depicted like a zombie just sucking blood. Instead, he knows foreign languages and is a man of noble origin displaying aristocratic manners. In this respect, Stoker’s creation of the vampire gave a new meaning to the depiction of the vampires and influenced many other descriptions in the modern literature. In the novel, Van Helsing talks about the Eastern European vampire legends on which the novel is based. Even the superstitions that exist in the Eastern literature are the ones that guide the protagonists in their understanding of and quest for Count Dracula.
The term ‘vampire’ referring to the supernatural creatures sucking human blood was not mentioned to in the very first chapters. It is after Van Helsing comes to a conclusion about Lucy’s condition that the term ‘vampire’ is used. For the vampire-like creatures in the novel, Stoker invented a term called the ‘UnDead’. This term did not exist in the literature before, but after Stoker’s descriptions of the vampires as UnDead, this term became part of the It’s Your Turn! 1
• Think of films and novels that you think are inspired by Stoker’s masterpiece Dracula.
In what ways they are similar to and different from Dracula?
• Bram Stoker believed in the censorship of the immoral content in fiction. Do you think Dracula itself involves sexual implications?
UnDead sleep at home,” as he spoke he made a comprehensive sweep of his arm to designate what to a vampire was ‘home’, “their face show what they are, but this so sweet that was when she not UnDead she go back to the nothings of the common dead.”
Later on, Van Helsing talks about how they can defeat the UnDead based on some Eastern superstitions. It is quite interesting that although the tools of science such as the telegram, phonograph, blood transfusion, steamboats help them in their quest for the evil, they can only defeat the UnDead based on the superstitious knowledge. Van Helsing talks about this in Chapter XIX as:
“My friends, we are going into a terrible danger, and we need arms of many kinds. Our enemy is not merely spiritual. Remember that he has the strength of twenty men, and that, though our necks or our windpipes are of the common kind, and therefore breakable or crushable, his are not amenable to mere strength. A stronger man, or a body of men more strong in all than him, can at certain times hold him, but they cannot hurt him as we can be hurt by him. We must, therefore, guard ourselves from his touch.
Keep this near your heart.” As he spoke he lifted a little silver crucifix and held it out to me, I being nearest to him, “put these flowers round your neck,” here he handed to me a wreath of withered garlic blossoms, “for other enemies more mundane, this revolver and this knife, and for aid in all, these so small electric lamps, which you can fasten to your breast, and for all, and above all at the last, this, which we must not desecrate needless.” This was a portion of Sacred Wafer, which he put in an envelope and handed to me.”
The excerpt above shows that Stoker researched the vampire legends a great deal and attributed some characteristics to the ones in the novel based on this knowledge.
Other than Eastern European folklore, the novel also reflects some historical realities, which in turn adds a realistic air to the documents presented. The Dracula family in the novel was based on the historical characters who lived in the 15thcentury. Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, was a 15thcentury nobleman who was notorious for impaling people and terrorizing his enemies in horrific ways. He fought against the Turks and was known for his cruelty. It was told that in a battle he impaled thousands of soldiers, and the corpses he left behind looked like a forest of dead bodies. Stoker in Dracula based his vampire character Count Dracula on this legend. Jonathan Harker records Count’s historical background in his diary in Chapter III as:
“Who was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his own ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that his own unworthy brother, when he had fallen, sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula, indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over the great river into Turkeyland, who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though he had to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he
184
-knew that he alone could ultimately triumph! They said that he thought only of himself.
Bah! What good are peasants without a leader? Where ends the war without a brain and heart to conduct it? Again, when, after the battle of Mohacs, we threw off the Hungarian yoke, we of the Dracula blood were amongst their leaders, for our spirit would not brook that we were not free.”
As can be seen from the excerpt above, Count Dracula considers himself coming from noble blood. He even connects his bloodline to Attila the Hun. All these records make it quite clear why Count has aristocratic manners and knows a lot about history. Apart from the historical facts, the novel also displays common fears of the people living in the 19th century England.
The British Empire invaded many lands and it was at the peak of its power. Hence, people especially in London feared that one day the people from the invaded lands would come to England and invade it with fury. In the 19th century, there was immigration to England;
hence, English people feared from these immigrants and labeled them as ‘foreign’ others.
This foreignness is present in the novel, as the Count is a foreigner in London and causes much fear to the local inhabitants. He is also labeled as an ‘invader’ which highlights the general tendency of the fear of invasion in that era. As a result, Stoker does not limit the gothic elements to the gloomy castle of Dracula and atmosphere of Transylvania; rather he moves the gothic elements to the center of the London. This shows the deepest fears of the Londoners as well.
In addition to the fear of the outsiders, the fears of the man inside his mind are given much importance in the novel. The 19thcentury witnessed an interest in modern psychology and psychiatry. Freud and others used techniques like hypnosis and trance and investigated the unconscious mind of the human. All these concerns about the human mind are reflected in the novel. Dr. Seward is a psychiatrist running a mental asylum and he has a patient called Renfield. He observes him and tries to understand his intentions and mental status behind his actions. What is more, Van Helsing is also a scientist and he practices hypnosis on Mina.
With the help of this, Van Helsing tries to follow Count Dracula as Mina is connected to the Count. All these display the interest in human mind and its capabilities in the 19thcentury.
It was also the era that embraced scientific and rational thoughts against the religious beliefs.
Darwin’s ideas dominated the era and are reflected especially in Jonathan Harker and Dr.
Seward’s characters, people thought in rational ways rejecting the spiritual beliefs. In the opening chapters, although the evidence was clear for Count’s being a supernatural creature,
One important point about Dracula is the depiction of women sexuality. The characters like Lucy (before she became a vampire) and Mina are depicted as pure and moral whereas the three weird sisters at Dracula’s castle are depicted as sexually immoral creatures. This shows Stoker’s concerns for sexual morality of the era. Stoker favored censorship of the immoral content in fiction. After, Lucy becomes a vampire she looses her purity and becomes a sexually seductive character. She acts in lust. Such sexual attributions were not proper for a Victorian lady; hence, she had to be killed in order to be remembered as a moral and pure lady again.
All in all, Dracula is beyond a novel about supernatural creatures like vampires. It also reflects the way of thinking in the Victorian society. The analysis of the novel by considering these aspects will help you to build an insight in how the plot develops and what the characters think.