Review: Dracula-Bram Stoker

[David Dawson]

Good point about Mina, although the sexual politics of Dracula is a bit of a minefield. I seem to remember the Freudian interpretation that you can apply to all vampire stories being ludicrously easy to see in Dracula. And while Mina might be a rounded, strong character, Lucy is not, and there is a definite vibe of women being punished for having desires etc.

[cheshiregator]

And while Mina might be a rounded, strong character, Lucy is not, and there is a definite vibe of women being punished for having desires etc.

I can certainly see that

[hedda gabler 46]

Has anyone really thought about the socio-political context which is prevalent in Dracula? The Count represents the Eastern Problem ,a political dilemma that was bothering the British at the time and his invasion of London and his 'horrific' eating habits are really the manifestations of the then underlying British fear of the Eastern Europeans invading Britain.The Count seems to me to be somewhat demonized ,actually he's so polite,courteous , from an aristocratic good family and makes his residence in London through perfectly legitimate means ,remaining well within the English Law. It's the so called 'protectors' of London who go about murdering young girls, stealing heaven knows what documents etc and generally rampaging around trying to kill the Count just because he's so attractive to the English women, who swoon at his very touch/bite !! Poor Vlad is the most maligned villain and all he's trying to do is go to bed with a few women and generally play the new rake about town...I think he's really dishy actually...

[David Dawson]

I completely agree Hedda; there's a lot of end of the (nineteenth) century malaise about it, qualms about Britain's place in the world, national insecurity and Dracula represents all that the - small c - conservative Stoker fears, this charming, wealthy foreigner.

[cheshiregator]

I partially disagree. The Count may not have been a complete demon, but he wasn't exactly an innocent person either

[hedda gabler 46]

Ditto Harker,Van Helsing, and all them lot

[David Dawson]

I partially disagree. The Count may not have been a complete demon, but he wasn't exactly an innocent person either

I don't know if this was aimed at Hedda or me, but from my point of view I never intended to suggest he was innocent. Just that he served as a manifestation of Stoker's sexual/ political hang-ups...

[anomalocaris]

It's also a good illustration of how entertainment in general changes as society changes. Victorian society was slow paced, and very repressed, and the literature reflects this. It's easy to forget that what would have been absolutely shocking to Americans even in the 50s would seem so tame as to be tedious today. You can't pick up a book written a hundred years ago, and expect to find the author writing with the same style and pacing as a current author. That author lived in a different world, and he was writing for a vastly different audience. If he'd written like one of today's authors it would have been worse than scandalous. He'd never have been published, and he'd probably have been ostracized to boot.

[cheshiregator]

I won't lie, anomalocaris, for some reason I didn't think about that at all. Wow.

[hedda gabler 46]

we can all interpret Dracula to death and maybe Stoker didn't even intend his novel to be analysed in the light of all the socio-political readings that came afterward.I will say this though,its not a straightforward story,Stoker was Irish and perhaps he was making a dig at the British colonialism metaphorically draining the life out of all that is conquered. Or the Vampyre as Van Helsing calls him, represents the creed of materialism that had become the dominant creed of the times and Stoker was showing the devastation that results from embracing and /or trusting such a parasitic ideology. But the fact that he makes his protagonist Transylvanian,and all the English guys so ineffectual against his extraordinary physical(political?) strength, the sense of negative Other worldliness of Dracula country is unmistakably socio political in my opinion. If you have watched the latest Sky Dracula production (with the dishy Jonathan Rhys as Dracula) you can see how these underlying tropes have been picked up on..Dracula is strong,manly, decisive whereas Harker is just this poor fish who gets talked into all sorts by everyone around him.. yes Dracula kills a lot but only in self defence as in the novel... The other point is that the very overt sexual scene in the novel where Harker is subjugated by the vampire women is good evidence of the sexual politics going on there,I completely agree with David there.Stoker only got away with it because it was very late 19th century but funnily enough,he was not only harshly criticised he was ostracised for quite some time by ranks of society because they read Dracula as a dig at British Colonialism... the sexual themes didnt seem to bother anyone really judging by some of the critical reviews of the time...

-- 13 May 2014, 07:02 --

[David Dawson]

the sexual themes didnt seem to bother anyone really judging by some of the critical reviews of the time... -- 13 May 2014, 07:02 --

To an extent I suspect that this is symptomatic of what a different time it was. That what to us has incredibly blatant sexual undertones (and I'd forgotten about the scene with Harker and the female vampires, but, yes, it is glaringly obvious to a modern reader) might perhaps have slipped under the Victorian radar.

[hedda gabler 46]

Agreed David couldn't have put it better myself

[Alpona]

One of the most well-scripted plots ever!

[Timea]

I read the book, but I don't remember much about it... this happens to me sometimes. The movie was great too, Bela Lugosi did a fantastic job

[mebowers]

I have a love/hate relationship with Dracula. I am not much of a vampire fan, but read the book because I was supposed to teach it while student teaching. After reading it I had mixed feelings. The parts I loved, I absolutely LOVED. However, those parts were far and few between. For example, really the only part that interested me and kept my interest was when Jonathan was in the castle with Dracula. Those scenes were creepy and kept me on edge to see what would happen. However, that was it...and there is much more to the novel! The one thing that really bothered me was how Dracula's death was actually pretty anticlimactic. I mean, this whole book is about finding the count and killing him, but when the time comes, his death is only one sentence! Stoker spent more time describing Seward's death. I thought that it was interesting.