critical essay on dracula

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Century of Publication and Critical Response

Dracula’s place within the literary culture of the 1890s is as problematic and at times as contradictory as its text. The novel presents the allure of the forbidden – a surrender to pleasure, sexual ambiguity, superstition, seduction by the foreign or decadent “other” – only to assert suppression of the forbidden by traditional Victorian masculine morality. However, the victory of that morality is never final: the death of the Count cannot undo the transgressions he has enacted or those enacted by the other characters in response. The novel’s uneasy movement between competing states of being, its different layers of romance and horror, the sexual elements of the plot and its perceived commentaries upon gender, race, and empire, are a part of the appeal to both readers and critics alike. Certainly, the novel’s longevity can be connected directly to the varied receptions and the myriad layers of possible personal and critical interpretation.

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Critical Insights: Dracula

Tags: 1 Volume 352 Pages Essays Offering Analysis by Top Literary Scholars Introductory Essay by the Editor Chronology of Author's Life Complete List of Author's Works Publication Dates of Works Detailed Bio of the Editor General Bibliography General Subject Index

Overview essays examine the literary history of the vampire and the critical reception of Stoker’s most famous work. Other essays examine the use of sacred rituals within the novel and offer a psychological perspective. A final essay combines Marxist, feminist, and post-colonialist readings into a consideration of race, capitalism, and aesthetics.

• A Chronology of Bram Stoker's Life
• Works by Bram Stoker
• Bibliography
• About the Editor
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements

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Additional titles of interest.

September 2016

Critical Insights: Mary Shelley

A great starting point for students seeking an introduction to Mary Shelley and the critical discussions surrounding her work.

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Dracula in Criticism

As evidence for this, one need only consider two statements made almost 40 years apart, by Maurice Richardson in ‘The Psychoanalysis of Ghost Stories’ (1959) and Robert Mighall in ‘Sex, History and the Vampire’ (1998), respectively. Writing at the very beginning of Dracula criticism, Richardson contends that the novel must be read ‘From a Freudian standpoint’ because ‘from no other does the story make any sense’. The vampire, and thus the novel, in other words, represent nothing more than the coded expression of a repressed, unspeakable sexuality. Mighall, no doubt mindful of rhetorical closures such as this, is fully prepared to concede that ‘Modern criticism’ insists upon the presence of ‘some “deeper” sexual secret’ behind the ‘supernatural phenomena’ of Dracula . That ‘“deeper” sexual secret’, though, is for Mighall not Victorian but wholly twentieth century: the preoccupations of post-Freudian criticism, in other words, are being read in the place of anything that the vampire might have meant to a Victorian reader. Perversely, while it seeks to dispel the currency of psychoanalytical or sexual interpretations of Dracula , Mighall’s own rhetoric perpetuates their influence. Simply by naming critics committed to exposing the alleged, coded sexuality vested in the Count, Mighall ironically lends them a semblance of authority, intruding their supposedly anachronistic presence into his critical present, and perpetuating their place in the canon of Dracula criticism. Arguably, a reader in the twenty-first century is as likely to find Richardson and his psychoanalytical successors within a recent critical study of Dracula as he or she is to encounter Mighall and his contemporaries.

To recall but one, very obvious, example, the evocative substance that is blood in Dracula has attracted a phenomenal range of symbolic interpretations. Many of these, of course, are avowedly sexual. Maurice Richardson, for example, is an orthodox Freudian in his suggestion that blood is an unconscious symbolic substitute for semen in Dracula , where Peter Redgrove and Penelope Shuttle’s suggestion, in The Wise Wound: Menstruation and Everywoman (1978), that the fluid subliminally recalls menstrual discharge may be seen as a logical development from the phallocentrism of early psychoanalysis. The influence of Richardson is, not surprisingly, evident in C. F. Bentley’s influential 1972 study ‘The Monster in the Bedroom: Sexual Symbolism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula ’, even though that work’s theoretical orientation veers away from the psychoanalytical dogmatism of ‘The Psychoanalysis of Ghost Stories’. However, even where the literal – rather than symbolic – implications of blood form the focus of analysis, sexual symbolism and critics of sexuality appear to be necessarily invoked as a reference point. In a 1989 article otherwise concerned with the physiological processes of blood transfusion, for example, David Hume Flood seems compelled to acknowledge Bentley. Again, in Beyond Dracula: Bram Stoker’s Fiction and Its Cultural Context (2000), William Hughes acknowledges the sexual interpretations advanced by several other critics in a reading of how blood may function as a signifier of linage, family and race. Neither of these works is preoccupied with sexuality. Thus, as Christopher Craft observes, ‘Modern critical accounts of Dracula . . . almost universally agree that vampirism both expresses and distorts an originally sexual energy’, so that, in the words of Jennifer Wicke, ‘It is not possible to write about Dracula without raising the sexual issue.’

All of these critical studies, to a greater or lesser degree, deploy a common range of incidents as evidence, as indeed do many others less concerned with the symbolics of blood. There is a tendency in Dracula criticism, in other words, to reinterpret the same material from the novel rather than to develop new focuses for criticism – and Dracula criticism will be richer when critics consider at length and without prejudice the minor characters and less-explored scenarios of Stoker’s work. For the moment, the only satisfactory way to adequately demonstrate the variety and breadth of critical commentary upon Dracula is to take the scenes customarily regarded as being central to criticism and view them in all their critical plurality. These central scenes are, in order of their appearance in the novel: the depiction of face of Count Dracula, as observed by Jonathan Harker (chapter 2); the attempted ‘seduction’ of Harker by the three female vampires (chapter 3); the staking and ‘death’ of Lucy Westenra (chapter 16); the Count’s attack upon Mina Harker (chapter 21); and – more disparate, in that it is scattered across the extent of the novel – the cohesion of the coalition against Count Dracula. Though often cited and quoted, these scenes do not exist in isolation. Rather, in criticism they have become the central reference points for other events intimately related to their implications, perceived symbolism and narrative consequences. Thus, Jonathan Harker’s account of Count Dracula’s face is intimate to Mina Harker’s ‘scientific’ reading of the vampire’s character in chapter 25, just as Lucy’s trance existence, before and after her conversion to vampirism, is relevant to the Count’s attack upon Mina. These four specific scenes, and the concept of the alliance against the vampire, are, as it were, the staples of Dracula ’s critical repertoire – and the pre-existing foundations upon which new interpretations have so often been raised.

Jenny Tighe

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Dracula Bram Stoker

Dracula is a book written by Bram Stoker. The Dracula literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Dracula.

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Dracula Essays

A warning against rationalism: bram stoker's "dracula" and the soul of 19th century england anonymous college.

The British Empire entered the age of modernity at the turn of the 20th century on the heels of the industrious Victorian Era (1837-1901), which had been a time of rapid technological advancement. By the end of the 19th century there was...

The Paradox of the Other in 'Dracula' and 'Let the Right One In' Anonymous 12th Grade

The Other is often used to mean the hostile, the dangerous, the deadly. However, the term itself makes no mention of this, it can just as easily refer to the inexplicable or simply taboo, something that humans are notorious for attempting to...

How Waters and Stoker Use Narrative Point of View in 'The Little Stranger' and 'Dracula' Anonymous 12th Grade

Both Waters and Stoker use narrative point of view to enhance their novels. This is achieved by the use of striking openings, the inevitable elements of unreliable narration in both novels, and how this links to themes of uncertainty as well as...

Dracula as Social Fusion Jeremy Zorn

In periods of cultural insecurity, when there are fears of regression and degeneration, the longing for strict border controls around the definition of gender, as well as race, class, and nationality, becomes especially intense. If the different...

Dracula as Feminine Anonymous

The title character in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is a sexually perplexing figure. Nietzche wrote of a creative being called the "berman", or "superman". Men who overcome their handicaps and identify with God are potential supermen; as models of this...

Dracula: The Self-Aware Mass of Typewriting Sara Liss

The era of industrialization ushered in new ways of disseminating and creating art. Along with technological innovation come the anxious reservations of aesthetic purists. These reservations stem from wariness about the dehumanizing effect of...

Social Class and Bram Stoker's Dracula Anonymous

The issue of social class and its effects upon society in Victorian-era Europe is a theme central to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. On the surface, the novel seems to be a story of a battle between good and evil; upon further analysis, it could be...

The Fantastic in Dracula Sujoy Ghosh

The fantastic [...] lasts only as long as a certain hesitation: a hesitation common to reader and character, who must decide whether or not what they perceive derives from "reality" as it exists in the common opinion. At the story's end, the...

Considering in detail one or two passages, discuss ways in which Stoker's descriptions of settings contribute to the effectiveness of Dracula Alex Edmiston

Bram Stoker's use of setting to establish some of the key gothic elements to the novel Dracula proves to be crucial in developing both suspense and intrigue. This can be studied particularly closely with reference to Jonathan Harker's narrative of...

The Absence of Amsterdam: Confounding Principles of Presentness in Stoker's Dracula Micah Neely

The Absence of Amsterdam: Confounding Principles of Presentness in Stoker’s Dracula

Doctor Abraham Van Helsing is an intriguing and somewhat problematic character on several levels. According to critic Martin Willis the introduction of Van Helsing...

Dracula and Cognitive Dissonance Samantha Thomas

In his novel Dracula, Bram Stoker’s characters are deeply disturbed by the existence of the vampire. The notion of a creature that is both living and dead challenges their sanity by forcing them to question those things which they had previously...

Vampire as Christ: Antithesis and Religion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula Katrina Barnett

Within the pages of Bram Stoker’s <i>Dracula</i>, the author explores concepts of love, darkness, and sexuality as well as the theme of good versus evil. The most powerful theme surrounding the infamous vampire, however, is that of...

“The Same Vague Terror”-Dracula’s Methods of Gaining Control and Establishing Dominance Mary Margaret Beith 12th Grade

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the title character is omnipresent. To the protagonists of the novel, the difficulty of escaping his power and ultimately defeating him is often overwhelming because he is always with them in some way, shape, or form....

A Study of the Role of Women in Bram Stoker’s Dracula Mary Margaret Beith 12th Grade

In the first fifteen chapters of Bram Stoker’s Dracula the author examines and subtly comments on the role of women in Victorian England through the actions and words of Mina and Lucy. In particular, evidence from the passage that appears on pages...

The Representation of the Castle in The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Anonymous 12th Grade

Gothic architecture thrived during the high and late medieval period. The upper echelons of the feudal system were so impressed by the looming cathedrals that they had their castles built in the same Gothic style. These castles are striking yet,...

Linked Imagery in 'Dracula' and 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' Daniel A. Speight 12th Grade

Throughout the Gothic novel Dracula , Stoker uses symbology and imagery to reveal social anxieties and fears of the late Victorian era, for example the use of animalistic description and blood. Wilde, in his own Gothic novel The Picture of Dorian...

Good vs. Evil in 'Dracula' Daniel A. Speight 12th Grade

In the Gothic novel Dracula , Bram Stoker largely presents good and evil in stark contrast in a very simple manner. This perhaps mirrors Victorian views of good and evil as opposed yet inextricable, a strict view of right and wrong in a religious...

Dracula: The Unjust War for Feminine Thought Linus Landucci College

“Mere “modernity” cannot kill.” The year is 1897, and European culture is changing. Skepticism about both Christianity and the introduction of Darwinism into common thought is current, and the concept of what we now call “feminism” is planting its...

A Challenge of Victorian Sexuality Juliette Singarella College

The Victorian Era produced a community organized strictly into stratified classes and social positions. Men dominated this cultural structure, with women acting as their inferior counterparts. Women were bound to an expectation of servitude,...

Significance of Blood in Dracula Anonymous College

The rise of British Imperialism during the 1800’s created a new sense empowerment among English citizens and redefined British culture in the Victorian Era. During this time, British imperialists valued personal lineage and emphasized the...

Gothic Themes in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Stoker’s Dracula, and Poe’s poetry Harriet Mather Lamb 12th Grade

The presentation of the Gothic has spanned the centuries, gripping each and every reader with its dastardly plot and unsuspecting victims. The Castle of Otranto, written in 1764 by Horace Walpole, ‘is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel’...

Gothic Tropes in Dracula: Novel and Film Amy Allison 11th Grade

This chapter from the novel ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker includes an abundance of conventions typical of the Gothic genre, primarily employed here through Stoker’s characterisation of Johnathan Harker, Count Dracula and the three seductive women....

Relatable Monstrosities: Dracula and The Purple Cloud Riley Steppe College

In the novels Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel, the conscious efforts by characters to preserve their humanity and align themselves with others act as barriers to their pursuit of personal fulfillment. Indeed, our lives...

Transformation and Transgression in Gothic Literature: Analyzing Stoker and Carter Felix Morrison 11th Grade

The Gothic is undeniably intertwined with transformative states, both literally, such as with the presentation of supernatural beings that lie between life and death, and also thematically, with the idea of transitional time periods and settings....

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Essays on Dracula

What makes a good dracula essay topic.

When it comes to writing an essay on Dracula, it's important to choose a topic that is both interesting and relevant. A good Dracula essay topic should be thought-provoking, engaging, and offer the opportunity for in-depth analysis. Here are some recommendations on how to brainstorm and choose a strong essay topic:

First, consider the themes and motifs present in the novel. Dracula is rich with themes such as the battle between good and evil, the fear of the unknown, and the struggle for power. Choose a topic that allows you to explore these themes in depth.

Next, think about the characters in the novel. There are complex and multi-dimensional characters in Dracula, from the eponymous vampire to the brave vampire hunters. Consider how you can analyze and interpret these characters in your essay.

Finally, consider the historical and cultural context of the novel. Dracula was written in the late 19th century, a time of significant social and technological change. How does the novel reflect the anxieties and fears of this period? Choose a topic that allows you to explore these historical and cultural aspects of the novel.

In general, a good Dracula essay topic should be specific, focused, and offer the opportunity for original analysis and interpretation. It should also be relevant to the themes and motifs present in the novel, as well as the historical and cultural context in which it was written.

Best Dracula Essay Topics

When it comes to choosing a Dracula essay topic, it's important to think outside the box and choose a topic that is unique and engaging. Here are some creative and thought-provoking Dracula essay topics to consider:

• The role of gender in Dracula: How does the novel challenge traditional gender roles and expectations?
• The use of symbolism in Dracula: Analyze the use of symbols such as blood, the cross, and the stake in the novel.
• Dracula as a commentary on colonialism: How does the novel reflect the anxieties and fears surrounding the British Empire?
• The portrayal of mental illness in Dracula: Analyze the representation of madness and sanity in the novel.
• Dracula and the fear of the Other: How does the novel explore the fear of the unknown and the Other?

These prompts are designed to inspire creativity and originality, and to encourage you to think critically and imaginatively about the novel. Have fun with them, and let your imagination run wild!

Evil Against Good - Perpetual Conflict in Dracula

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Sexuality in Bram Stoker's Novel Dracula

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The Same Vague Terror - How Dracula Established Control and Began to Dominate

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The Influence of Stoker’s Descriptions of Settings in Dracula

Two new women in bram stoker’s novel, gender in gothic literature, feminine features of count dracula, elements of gothic literature in bram stoker's dracula, the fears of the victorian era that were highlighted in dracula's novel, gender roles and religion culture as the main elements in dracula's novels, the representation of victorian era in dracula's novel, the religious connotations of the novel dracula: vlad tepes, antichrist, vampire, the phenomenon of american xenophobia in dracula, bram stoker's exploration of gender roles in dracula's novel, gender roles as a prominent topic in the novel 'dracula', dracula as an image of the merge in the society, dracula character: numerous binaries throughout the novel, the absenteeism of amsterdam: confounding principles in dracula, the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance of the protagonist in dracula, the issue of meta-textuality within dracula, the display of unreal in dracula, count dracula vs. vlad the impaler , mechanical reproduction in dracula and art in the age of mechanical reproducibility.

26 May 1897, Bram Stoker

Horror, Gothic

Count Dracula, Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, Renfield, Mrs. Westenra

1. Halberstam, J. (1993). Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker's" Dracula". Victorian Studies, 36(3), 333-352. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3828327) 2. Craft, C. (1984). Kiss me with those red lips: Gender and inversion in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Representations, 8, 107-133. (https://online.ucpress.edu/representations/article-abstract/doi/10.2307/2928560/82590/Kiss-Me-with-those-Red-Lips-Gender-and-Inversion?redirectedFrom=PDF) 3. Hughes, W. (2008). Bram Stoker: Dracula. Palgrave Macmillan. (http://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/705/) 4. Hatlen, B. (1980). The return of the repressed/oppressed in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Minnesota Review, 15(1), 80-97. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/427122/summary) 5. Wyman, L. M., & Dionisopoulos, G. N. (2000). Transcending the virgin/whore dichotomy: Telling Mina's story in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Women's Studies in Communication, 23(2), 209-237. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07491409.2000.10162569) 6. Kuzmanovic, D. (2009). Vampiric Seduction and Vicissitudes of Masculine Identity in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Victorian Literature and Culture, 37(2), 411-425. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/victorian-literature-and-culture/article/vampiric-seduction-and-vicissitudes-of-masculine-identity-in-bram-stokers-dracula/8C5957AAE79F1018DA8A089A32F78F88) 7. Almond, B. R. (2007). Monstrous infants and vampyric mothers in Bram Stoker's Dracula. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88(1), 219-235. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1516/0EKX-38DF-QLF0-UQ07) 8. Rosenberg, N. F. (2000). Desire and Loathing in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Journal of Dracula Studies, 2(1), 2. (https://research.library.kutztown.edu/dracula-studies/vol2/iss1/2/)

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Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” Critical Essay

The Phyllis Roth critical essay discusses the themes of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The research focuses on the summary of Phyllis Roth’s critical analysis of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The research centers on giving a critical response to the Roth analysis.

The Roth critical essay on the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel is very entertaining, educational, and touching. In terms of summary, Phyllis Roth emphasized the secrets of Bram Stocker’s Dracula novel. Royce MacGillwray stated “Such a myth lives not merely because it has been skillfully marketed by entrepreneurs but because it expresses something that large numbers of readers feel to be true about their own lives.” (Byron 11).

Maurice Richardson shows Dracula as “a quite blatant demonstration of the Oedipus complex… a kind of incestuous, necrophilous, oral-anal-sadistic all-in-wrestling match” (Byron 11). In addition, Carrol Fry emphasized that the female vampires represent “the fallen women of the 18 th and 19 th century fiction” (Byron 11).

The women vampires are depicted as sexually aggressive who can easily verbally attack. Richardson characterizes the Dracula story as relevant to Freud’s research indicating that the morbid dread character represents repressed sexual desires; Count Dracula is a morbid dread person. Blake Hobby (23) proposed Count Dracula is seen as a person who is characterized as having lustful anticipation of his successful sexual consummation. In addition, Jonathan Harker eagerly anticipates kissing the three sexually aggressive women vampires.

Likewise, the three women vampires fight to be the first to kiss Jonathan. Vampires are depicted as being death, morality, immortality, and aggressive sexual desires. The story discusses the jealous rivalry of the sons and the father for the mother, originally belonging to the son. Likewise, sexual rival ensues among the three suitors, including the rejected Dr. Seward, for hand of Lucy, who eventually turns into a vampire.

Dracula is shown as making love with both Lucy and Mina to the jealous disgust of the two women’s suitors. In fact, Van Helsing reminded Mina, in front of her suitors, “Do you forget that last night he (Count Dracula) banqueted heavily and will sleep late”. The Val Helsing quote reminds Mina of Count Dracula’s sexual intercourse with Mina (Byron 18).

Count Dracula fumes with jealousy when he discovers Jonathan in the same room as his three women vampires. Dracula furiously states to the three women vampires “How dare you touch him, any of you?”(Byron 19). The story ends up with Dracula destroyed and Van Helsing saved. Likewise, Lucy is destroyed and Mina is saved.

In terms of response, the manner and style of writing of Roth’s critical analysis of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel was written in exceptional manner and style. The author uses quotes from the original Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel.

The writer uses the quotes to show proof of the author’s understanding of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The author gathers many evidences to prove that the entire Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel is grounded on sexual aggressiveness. The novel depicts the women as sexually aggressive. The Roth discussion ends with a big bang. She closes by stating who survived in the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The author also ends by mentioning who perished in the same novel.

The author finally closes the curtain on the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel by majestically mentioning Van Helsing’s quoted line “We want no proofs; we ask non to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows here sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare so much for here sake” (Byron 21).

Further, Christoph Haeberlein (11) stated that the author’s effect on the mind is very thought enlightening. Before the reading the book, one would generally predicate the theme of the author’s writing is based on fear. However, as one reads the Roth writing, fear is set to the sidelines.

Sexual desire and family are the major themes of the Roth critical analysis. The author vividly shows the vampire women as persons hungry to dive into bed with a male partner. In crystal-clear manner, the author describes Count Dracula as a pleasing lover. The same author points to Count Dracula as a jealous person.

Dracula is shown as both a person who needs love as well as gives love. Just like human beings, Count Dracula does not want his sexual objects of desire to be grabbed by other males. The author creatively metamorphoses the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel from a horror novel to a love story environment. Furthermore, Carol Davison (166) proposed the Roth critical analysis affects the readers’ emotions.

The readers are emotionally entertained by Roth’s unique interpretation of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The emotion of happiness will crop up as the readers realize that the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel is not a horror story. The viewers of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel will understand that the novel is filled with love conquests. The story includes emphasis on the women vampires as person needing love and willing to give love to any person who comes to their path.

Likewise, the Roth critical analysis of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel specifically describes the vampires, including Count Dracula, have similar preferences to both fall in love and to need love in return. The readers of the Roth critical analysis will eagerly comprehend the author’s message of love and family life. The author clearly discusses Dracula’s failures. Just like other regular persons, Count Dracula has the same problem of resolving failures in life.

In fact, Dracula’s failure is very evident. Count Dracula succumbs to defeat at the end of the story. Count Dracula fails to prevent Jonathan from entering and having love intentions on his three female vampires. In turn, Count Dracula instructs the three females to replace their attention from Jonathan to another child. In addition, the Roth critical analysis painstakingly discusses Count Dracula as a good father of the family.

The average father will do whatever is necessary to protect and care for one’s family members. In addition, the typical father does not want his children to violate any of his instructions. Doing so would be a violation of the children’s respect for their father, Count Dracula. As a father, Count Dracula, only means the best for his wife, Mina, and his children.

Likewise, the Roth critical analysis of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel influences the readers’ character. The readers will learn that one’s character is important. The readers are persuaded to put love and family above all else. The same author invites the readers to defend one’s territory, market segment, property, love interest and ownership from intruders.

The author of the Roth critical analysis understandably impresses on the readers to create and defend one’s character at all times, even to the point of endangering one’s life. Count Dracula died trying to protect his territory, market segment, property, love interest and ownership from all intruding parties. Lastly, the Roth critical analysis explains that Count Dracula was successful in some of his characteristic endeavors.

Just like ordinary human beings, Count Dracula was not as successful in other character challenges. The tragic end of Count Dracula clearly shows that the head vampire is just like other human beings. Normally, human beings either win or loss in their characteristic ventures. The author clearly shows that the most important factor is not the winning or the losing in one’s everyday struggles.

On the other hand, the author puts priority to the theory that all persons, including the vampires of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, must prioritize taking a stand on every issue. Winning or losing the struggle to defend one’s side of the struggle is secondary to standing for one’s beliefs and convictions. Based on the above discussion, the Phyllis Roth critical essay discusses the arguments of the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The summary of the Roth critical analysis focuses on love and family life, just like normal human beings.

The critical response to the Roth critical analysis shows that Count Dracula, the three woman vampires, Jonathan, Lucy, Mina, and the other characters need to both give love and receive love, just like other human beings. Indeed, the Roth critical essay on the Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel is exceptionally entertaining, exceedingly educational, and superbly touching. In terms of recommendation, the readers should treasure and implement the many critical teachings of the Roth critical analysis.

The readers must understand that love and family are what drives every person, including the vampires, to live. The author of the Roth critical analysis strongly states that the average person, especially Count Dracula, will go out of one’s way to protect and care for one’s family and love interest. Lastly, death is nothing when compared to fighting for one’s market segment, property, love interest and ownership from all encroachers.

Works Cited

Davison, Carol. Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Sucking Through the Century. New York: Dundun Press, 1997.

Haeberlein, Chriistoph. Issues of Sexuality in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. New York: Grin Press, 2009.

Hobby, Blake. Bloom’s Literary Themes. New York: Infobase Press, 2010.

Byron, Glennis. Dracula: Bram Stoker . New York: Palgrave Press, 1999.

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IvyPanda. (2018, October 17). Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker's “Dracula”. https://ivypanda.com/essays/bram-stokers-dracula/

"Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker's “Dracula”." IvyPanda , 17 Oct. 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/bram-stokers-dracula/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker's “Dracula”'. 17 October.

IvyPanda . 2018. "Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker's “Dracula”." October 17, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/bram-stokers-dracula/.

1. IvyPanda . "Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker's “Dracula”." October 17, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/bram-stokers-dracula/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Phyllis Roth on the Themes in Bram Stoker's “Dracula”." October 17, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/bram-stokers-dracula/.

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Bram Stoker

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"Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!"

When solicitor's clerk Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania on business to meet a mysterious Romanian count named Dracula, he little expects the horrors this strange meeting will unleash. Thus Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of blood and passion begins, rapidly accelerating from Harker's nightmarish experiences in Castle Dracula to a full-fledged vampiric assault on late-Victorian London itself. The story, narrated through a collection of documents-primarily journal entries and letters-chronicles the desperate efforts of a band of gentlemen to protect the virtue of their ladies and lay to rest the ancient threat once and for all.

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Often vacillating wildly between the terrible and the comic, Dracula at the same time brings to life a host of compelling themes: tensions between antiquity and modernity; the powers and limitations of technology; the critical importance of feminine virtue; the difference between superstition and religion; the nature of evil; and, perhaps most compellingly, the complex relationship between ancient faith and scientific enlightenment. More vivid than any of its varied film adaptations, and over a century after its first publication, Dracula still retains its sharp bite.

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The Glass Warbler

Analysis of “Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker’s Dracula”

The following essay is a critical analysis of “Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Jack Halberstam, published in Victorian Studies 36:3 (Spring 1992), pages 333-52   (inserted below as PDF document).

Introduction

What makes horror frightening is the way in which it capitalizes on existing human fears, giving palpable and enticing form to what otherwise would lay unrealized or consciously avoided within the mind. There exists a certain deep, existential fear is that we—that is, us and our surrounding society—are monstrous; indeed, there is something unsettling and daunting about our own capacity for exacting harm. Paradoxically, there also exists the fear that we are not monstrous; this renders us vulnerable to a monstrous other’s capacity for exacting harm. It is this latter notion of otherness in monstrosity that Jack Halberstam explores in his critical essay, “Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker’s Dracula .”

Halberstam prefaces the essay with his original speculation that Stoker’s Dracula was a manifestation of modern anti-Semitic sentiment. Dracula’s physical appearance, parasitism, aversion to Christian symbols, blood-sucking, and pecuniary greed parallel anti-Semitic stereotypes from the 19 th century. However, after ruminating on the relationship between Jew and vampire more thoroughly, Halberstam concludes that his linear fixation on the two revealed more about his own projections than Stoker’s actual depiction of monstrosity. Halberstam subsequently revises his speculation, broadening his analysis to the nature of monstrosity in general, which he links to the notion of otherness. Halberstam then explores this notion of otherness through the distinct facets of deviant sexuality, pathology, class, and race—all of which are epitomized by the vampire.

For the purposes of this essay, I will focus on sexuality, which, in both Halberstam’s paper and my own, encompasses sexual orientation, identity, and the general quality of being sexual. While Halberstam’s main claims pertaining to sexuality are compelling and sophisticated, he makes tenuous sub-claims in developing those main points, raising questions and occasionally erring on self-contradiction. I agree with Halberstam’s three main claims—namely, that foreign sexuality threatens many aspects of the status quo, that the novel’s multi-faceted structure parallels the multi-faceted construction of Gothic monstrosity, and that Dracula is feminine—and thus seek to fortify those main points. To this end, I will confute their tenuous sub-claims respectively—namely, that Mina surrenders to Dracula’s sexuality, that fragmented reading and writing are necessarily sexual, and that Dracula’s feminization stems from his lack of phallus—in order to streamline Halberstam’s otherwise strong arguments.

I. Yes, Dracula’s Sexual Corruption of Women Synecdochally Corrupts Other Pillars of 19 th Century English Society (No, Mina Is Not One of Those Women)

The first tenuous sub-claim that I would like to confront is Halberstam’s suggestion that both Lucy and Mina, as opposed to just Lucy, are seduced by Dracula and willingly engage in vampiric activities thereafter. Halberstam makes this overgeneralization early in his essay: “Dracula…threatens the stability and the naturalness of this equation between middle-class womanhood and national pride by seducing both women [Lucy and Mina]” (Halberstam, 335). While I strongly agree with Halberstam’s main claim that a deviant sexual being, Dracula, seducing a bourgeois woman both literally and symbolically threatens the status quo of English nationality, class boundaries, and womanhood, Mina is not seduced in the same way that Lucy is and thus should not be described as such. There are two necessary stages which must be traversed in order for seduction to take place: first, the seducer entices or engages with the target, then, the target gives into that temptation. While both women undergo the first stage, having been bitten by Dracula, they differ in that Lucy engages in the second, while Mina never does.

In making this sub-claim, Halberstam overlooks the symbolic significance of Mina and Lucy’s dissimilarities in the primary text, namely that they represent disjoint moral pathways. Lucy, due to her promiscuity, follows a pathway slightly tainted and is therefore more susceptible to seduction, sexually and vampirically. Stoker hints at this tainted moral character with Van Helsing’s clever but uncouth remark, “‘this so sweet maid is a polyandrist’” (187) then officiates Lucy’s corruption with the revelation, “‘[The bites] were made by Miss Lucy!’” (206). On the other hand, Mina is overwhelmingly described as a “‘sweet, sweet, good, good woman [with] goodness and purity and faith’” (328). In accordance with this goodness, Mina even requests that “‘before the greater evil is entirely wrought…you will kill me’” (351-352). Stoker thus makes it clear that Mina has not and never will complete that second phase of seduction. Therefore, she is not seduced in the same fashion as Lucy like Halberstam claims. This haphazard grouping peripheralizes the quality which Mina’s character most exemplifies: good intent, specifically unwavering good intent.

Halberstam attempts to recall this sub-claim later on as well, going so far as to equate Mina with Lucy and the three brides of Dracula. Halberstam declares, “[Dracula] transforms pure and virginal women into seductresses, produces sexuality through their willing bodies. The transformations of Lucy and Mina stress an urgent sexual appetite; the three women who ambush Harker in Castle Dracula display similar voracity” (Halbsterstam, 344). As I’ve previously shown, Mina is no “seductress,” nor is she “willing” in any way; she literally would rather die than complete her transformation and prey on other humans (Halberstam, 344). Thus, the collective noun “transformations,” meant in this case to encompass both Lucy and Mina, is improper, since Mina neither completes her transition to nor perpetuates vampirism, while Lucy clearly does both. To her transition, Lucy develops a “bloodstained, voluptuous mouth,” and her “whole carnal and unspiritual appearance [seems] like a devilish mockery of [her] sweet purity” (228). To her perpetuation, Van Helsing remarks that Lucy would have “‘add[ed] new victims and multi[plied] the evils of the world’” if they had not killed her (229). As for the three women, Stoker describes their encounter with Harker as such: “she actually licked her lips like an animal…scarlet lips[,] red tongue…the lips went below the range of my mouth and chin…I could hear the churning sound of her tongue as it licked her teeth and lips…I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips” (45). Given Stoker’s lengthy, borderline-graphic emphasis on the vampire bride’s mouth, Halberstam’s characterization of the vampire’s corruption as both gluttonous and sexually voracious is indeed accurate. There exists no remotely similar description of Mina Harker in this novel. All this to say, there is no “similar voracity” to be spoken of (Halberstam, 344).

I suspect Halberstam extends his argument to include more than just Lucy because this greater relevance could make his argument appear more substantial and applicable to the novel as a whole. However, this generalization in his sub-claim actually weakens his argument because, in sacrificing precision for scale, Halberstam stretches evidence beyond its reasonable limits, clouds his main argument, and weakens his ethos. Had Halberstam only argued for Lucy’s case, his argument would be more logically cohesive, since Lucy is actually (as opposed to ostensibly) corrupted. Likening Mina to the three brides involves an even greater stretch in logic.

II. A Lot of Things Are Sexual…But Not That

The next sub-claim of Halberstam’s that I would like to address is his misdirected insistence on the sexualization of fragmented reading and writing, which he proposes in order to supplement his main claim that the multi-faceted structure of the novel parallels the multi-faceted nature of monstrosity. This sub-claim about sexualization, though interesting, is not adequately supported by the novel itself. I agree with Halberstam’s main claim, but in centering that claim about the sub-claim on sexualization, Halberstam hinders himself from developing other, probably stronger sub-claim. In doing so, he disappoints a strong argument with faulty execution. “There is a marked sexual energy,” Halberstam asserts, “to the reading and writing of all the contributions to the narrative [as] the men and Mina [are united] in a safe and mutual bond of disclosure and confidence” (Halberstam, 335). I disagree with the point that shared confidence is necessarily sexual. If it were, then that would render the bond between the upstanding English men necessarily sexual after Mina tells them to, effectively, keep their secrets from her: “‘Promise me that you will not tell me anything of the plans’” (346). Given that Jonathan is Mina’s husband and that homosexuality is a foreign and therefore monstrous quality (using Halberstam’s definition of foreign sexuality as anything “in opposition to ‘normal’ sexual functions”), it is very unlikely that the English men—who epitomize normalcy and goodness—would share a “sexual” homoerotic “bond of disclosure and confidence” (Halberstam, 335).

Additionally, the “marked sexual energy” that Halberstam describes seems to point toward a kind of sexual tension or desperation, but the sub-claim that that urgency is sexual ignores the practical aspects of the situation illustrated in the primary text (Halberstam, 335). As Van Helsing notes, “‘Our task is…more difficult than ever, and this…trouble makes every hour of the direst importance’” (343). He makes no sly, suggestive remarks, suggesting that even Van Helsing, who had previously pounced on the opportunity to joke about Lucy’s polyandry (in front of her widower, no less), does not see any potential for innuendo or remotely sexual humor here. There is merit to Halberstam’s main claim that a novel comprised of segments resembles monstrosity in that both are aggregates of distinct components, but the sub-claim about sexualization specifically is not warranted by the primary source, given the un-sexual nature of the characters’ communications. In focusing on sexualization, Halberstam ignores the gravity of the literal situations taking place.

In another attempt to further this main claim through the faulty lens of sexualization, Halberstam makes the sub-claim that writing and reading are a non-sexual alternative to Dracula’s deviant sexuality. If, as Halberstam proposes, “Writing and reading [are an] alternative to the sexuality of the vampire” then they are, by definition of alternative, antithetical to sexuality and therefore non-sexual. (Halberstam, 336). This contradicts his earlier point that writing and reading have a sexuality about them. Yet, at the same time, in describing writing and reading as an “alternative” to sexuality, Halberstam also suggests that writing and reading are functionally appropriate, as opposed to qualitatively similar, substitutes for sexuality. This raises (then does not answer) the question, Does Halberstam view reading and writing as sexual or not?

Given that the characters are not always in the same physical location, the letters which they send to one another are practically essential. The journal entries serve two primary purposes for the characters within the novel: accountability and preservation of information. To the first point, Mina writes, “[if Jonathan should ever think] that I kept anything from him, I still keep my journal as usual. Then if he has feared of my trust I shall show it to him” (273). To the second, Dr. Seward writes, “Jonathan Harker has asked me to note this as he says he is hardly equal to the task, and he wants an exact record kept” (350). Neither of these written accounts seems sexual or in lieu of sexuality in any way.

III. Femininity: A Technology of Monstrosity (Just Not At Masculinity’s Expense)

The third and final sub-claim that I would like to address pertaining to Halberstam’s main claim about deviant sexuality as a technology of monstrosity is Halberstam’s confounded definition of what specifically feminizes and, by extension, criminalizes Dracula’s sexuality. Halberstam lists “[Dracula’s] feminized because non-phallic sexuality” (Halberstam, 343) as a characteristic of his monstrous otherness. While the primary text supports the notion that Dracula’s sexuality is othered through feminization, and Dracula’s sexuality is indeed non-phallic, I disagree with Halberstam’s sub-claim that that feminization is necessarily a result of non-phallic sexuality. In the primary text, Dracula “force[es] [Mina’s] face down on his bosom” as an act of silencing and of power; it is not a reproductive act (300). Thus, the emphasis, in terms of Dracula’s feminization, is on his having a leaking bosom, not his lacking an active phallus. This is to say, his feminization stems from his possession of feminine qualities rather than his lack of masculine ones. Given Halberstam’s own description of Gothic as “always go[ing] both ways” (Halberstam, 339) and his assertion that vampire sexuality is “not [one sexuality]” but, rather, “all of these and more,” (Halberstam, 344), his sub-claim that Dracula’s femininity is necessarily at the expense of his masculinity seems rhetorically inconsistent.

To further refute the tenuous sub-claim, Dracula does, in fact, possess phallic-esque masculinity, though the manifestation of that masculinity is deviant and foreign (this caveat is in accordance with the main claim). In order to prove that Dracula possesses the phallic and dominating qualities essential to a male characterization and refute the sub-claim that Dracula is feminine specifically because he lacks masculinity, I will compare Halberstam’s description of the men’s attacks on Lucy to Stoker’s depiction of Dracula’s attack on Mina. Halberstam reveals his sexual logic in his description of Lucy’s death: “the group takes a certain sexual delight in staking her body, decapitating her, and stuffing her mouth with garlic” (345). His interpretation of this scene as sexual seems to stem from the fact that men penetrate a woman’s body twofold—physically staking her, then filling her by force—and assert their power over her. Given the image of penetration, one could very reasonably describe this scene as phallic. If physically penetrating and asserting dominance over a woman is phallic and therefore masculine, then Dracula’s penetration and assertion of dominance over women is also phallic and masculine. When Dracula attacks Mina, his assertion of power is clear as “his right hand grip[s] her by the back of the neck,” and “from her throat trickle[s] a thin stream of blood,” evidence of her penetration (301). Dracula does not reproduce by means of phallus, but he dominates and violates in the same masculine, penetrative ways as a literally phallic character. Thus, he is feminized and deviant but not without phallic masculinity either.

Ultimately, while Halberstam makes compelling and valid claims about deviant sexuality as a technology of monstrosity, his sub-claims about Mina’s surrender to Dracula’s sexuality, the sexuality of reading and writing, and Dracula’s non-phallic masculinity take away from otherwise strong main arguments. These rhetorical weaknesses stem generally from Halberstam’s neglect of symbols and context from the primary text. Still, Halberstam’s insights into Gothic monstrosity, specifically thinking in terms of aggregates and co-existing qualities (even and especially if certain qualities seem to contradict one another), are rich with nuance and nonetheless engaging.