MM Sept 29

Today in class we went over the introduction of Dracula, written by Bram Stoker. Stoker (1847-1912), was born in Dublin, Ireland. In his early thirties, Stoker became an acting manager at the Lyceum theater, which was run by Henry Irving. Many critics believe that Stoker’s depiction of Dracula was influenced by his relationship with Irving. In 1897, Stoker published his fourth novel, Dracula, a Victorian Gothic piece of literature.

Dracula’s origins come from Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes and St. George and the Dragon. Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes is a Romanian story about Vlad Drakulya who is “son of the dragon”. From this story, we get “Dracul” which mean dragon, but also may mean offspring of the dragon or the devil. St. George and the Dragon is a eastern tale about St.George rescuing the people of Silene, Libya by conquering a dragon. St. George’s day is also referred to by the Old Lady right before Jonathan leaves; she says to him, “It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway.” This shows that Stoker was indeed influenced by this tale enough to include it in his own novel.

After going over the introduction of the novel, we did a written exercise. After looking over pages 12-14, we went over the question: “What does the presence of these elements tell us about the kind of story we are about to read?” In the beginning of the story, is is very evident that no one wants to explain to Jonathan what is at the count’s castle or anything about the castle or the Count. The natural elements that exposed the pieces gothic tone, were the howling of the wolves, the blue flame, the mysterious driver, rolling clouds, and thunder. The people who surround Jonathan on his journey to the Count’s castle, make it very evident that they are terrified and uncomfortable with the Count. Stoker uses these elements to set the tone of the novel as an eerie and creepy.

We also discussed the characteristics of Dracula in the text, on pages 18-25. There are many characteristics of Dracula, which we do associated today, with the vampire character. This includes, his pointy teeth which hang over his red lips, his pale and cold skin, he never eats, food, finds blood tempting, sleeps during the day and at night sleeps in a coffin, and is very suave, an image of old European aristocracy. However, Dracula is also described in ways that we do not consider normal vampire descriptions including point ears, and is compared to a lizard when he crawls down the castle walls. These pages, set the initial ideas that we today consider what are Vampire characteristics. Lastly, we discussed the encounter between Jonathan and the three vampiric women. In this scene that the women provide sexual desire, which in a way, may be why they are so scary. Jonathan anticipates the women touching him, but at the same time he is terrified for his life. The women and Dracula seem very different. Dracula is what a man is thought be during the victorian time: very educated, smooth, and wealthy. Whereas the women are very sexual, which is opposite from the stereotype of women during the victorian period. This scene is a turning point for Jonathan; before this, he was calm and rational, but after he becomes almost a new person, he hits Dracula, tried to escape, and deviates plans. Jonathan’s change of character is Jonathan’s way of trying to coax Dracula out of his shell so we can see if he really is indeed a vampire.