Bram Stokers Dracula (1897): A Modern Novel of its Time - Essay Example

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897 A ‘Modern’ Novel of its Time The novel Dracula (1897) by Bram Stokerbecame highly influential as a piece of literature for film and novels in the 20th century. The character of Dracula became an engaged member of the contemporary society from the time period in which the novel was written. However, his character is developed through a sense of ’otherness’ which means that he is outside of the human condition, not only for his affliction of vampirism, but for his nature for being foreign. His accent, his customs, and his cultural influences position him as a threat. Stylistically, the novel is written as a ‘report’, taking as evidence the writings of active members of the story and creating a picture of what happened through a consolidation of the ‘evidence’. While Dracula is seen as a monster, his motivations become relevant to the negotiations on how to handle what they know about his activities and he is tracked down in order to bring an end to his crimes. Bram Stoker wrote a novel that was set within the contemporary framework of his time period, bringing a legendary monster into the modern day world in order to examine how people would manage to address the nature of Dracula’s monstrosity. Dracula can be equated to a criminal, his actions deliberately undertaken and not defined by an instinctual nature as might a monster, such as Grendal from Beowulf or the Kraken from Greek mythology. Dracula embodies sexuality, deviance, and cognition of his actions. His motivations are based upon personal greed and the need to get what he wants at whatever the cost. He is an infection that spreads, much like that of sexual desire, making him an immediate threat to the men within the book as his power to awaken the female sexuality takes its toll on their own interpersonal relationships with women. Dracula takes the virgin and makes her lascivious, busting through the perceived notions of the female figure, especially from the perspective of the 19th century, as the novel expresses the idea that the virtue of women could only be stolen through the criminal act of a monster. Byron discusses the character of Dracula through the Foucault’s ideas of sexuality, suggesting that “the stimulation of bodies, the incitement to discourse, the formation of special knowledge, the strengthening of controls and resistances are linked to one another in accordance with a few major strategies of knowledge and power” (175). In relationship with this definition, Byron states that the novel of Dracula “is the discursive arena in which identity is constructed as sexual identity; the novel transforms metaphors of otherness into technologies of sex, into machine texts, in other words, that produce perverse identities” (175). The power of Dracula is in the transformative nature of his curse, the infection that it produces as he spreads it to others and in the changes within those he infects as they display their sexuality as the primary state of their existence. He brings forth the lascivious nature of women and this is his power and the great threat that he poses. The death that he creates is nothing compared to the sexuality that his actions erupt within the otherwise honorable and docile nature of the women he imposes his power upon. This is his crime and as the men in the novel seek to track him down and destroy him, they are seeking to take back their masculinity and power as their position within the male to female dynamic has been ripped apart and they have been tossed aside. The beliefs of Havelock Ellis prove to be a framework from which to discuss the idea of the perceived threat that men feel in regard to ‘otherness’. Ellis states in his paper “The Results of the Criminal Anthropology” that “If we are wise we shall be very tender in rousing our indignation against the social habits of lower races, even these involve such an act as parricide” (Rafter 184). It is clear that there was a distinct prejudice that affected the way in which crime was viewed by Ellis. His point of view on ‘otherness’ was subject to his beliefs that some races were not equal to his own, that their morals and ethics were a product of lesser evolved states, as if they were a different species of human. The fear of ‘otherness’ had a great effect on the way in which the concept of the ‘criminal’ was defined by Ellis. Ellis stated that “the close connection between criminality and epilepsy and general paralysis has often been shown” (187). In addition, he makes the correlation between criminality and insanity, thus continuing his dialogue as he confuses, at least by modern standards, illness and criminal behaviors. It is the concept of socially accepted ideals of behavior, as they are associated with sexuality, insanity, and ’otherness’, which in the example of Ellis can also mean those afflicted with illnesses and conditions that affect their behavior, that imposes a set of standards that are within conflict with the actions of Dracula. His actions appear to have the context of the idea of criminality as much as they content of criminality. His demeanor and his nature suggest that something about his existence is not right, thus leading the story forward into his representative acts that prove the theory. Ellis’ view on prostitution gives an interesting insight into the discussion about the nature of sexual repression in the 19th century and the concept of the prostitute. Ellis believed that there is “ a complex causation which drives women to prostitution…our dull mechanical regulated life hampers the development of self which creates an impulse in some women to crave excitement, gaiety, nightlife, luxury, and to abandon themselves to sexual whirlpools” (Narain 382). The effect that Dracula has on Lucy and Mina suggests that something of this theory is being explored. The sexuality of the two women is being awakened, their nature infused with raw sexual energy that emanates from them while under the influence of the vampire. Vampirism is a metaphor for the emergence of the sexual identity, and in this the criminality of what Dracula does is defined. He releases social constraints and evokes the hidden desires that men fear most in women. In contrast to the modern beliefs of Durkheim about the nature of morality in modern society, the nature of the novel espouses an end to the past and embracing the modern. The character Dracula represents an old world, his aesthetics and accoutrement defined by the past and his connection to it through his long life. According to Herman, Durkheim believes that “Commercial and industrial society is structured to supply man’s physical and material needs but far from serving moral progress, it is in the great industrial centers that crimes and suicides are most numerous” (82). In the novel, modern society is characterized by civility, with the crime appearing from the more barbarous nature of the past, the insinuation that humanity has evolved from a space of violence and chaos to a place of order and reason. The way in which a person looks, according to Ellis, is germane to assessing criminality. In his book The Criminal he discusses traits that indicate a criminal nature. A prominent brow is one of those traits as Ellis states “there is a marked exaggeration of orbital arches and frontal sinuses which may be related”, although this is more often associated by Ellis via Lombroso’s work to thieves (51). He also associates eyebrows that grow together with idiocy, but often existing in the less intelligent that commit crimes. Excessive body hair represents another quality of the criminal (53). The nature of the discussion taken up by Ellis basically suggests that anything that mares classic beauty can be construed as the mark of criminality. The description that Jonathan Harper makes of Dracula can be seen to emulate this belief system. He states “His face was strong - a very strong - aquiline, with the high bridge of the thin nose and the peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily around the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion“ (Stoker 22). The nature of the experience of polite society coming into collision with the monster is framed by the ’sociological’ musings of Ellis as he tries to determine the correlation of looks and the appearance of normalcy in relationship to criminal behavior. Ellis repeatedly states that while some criminals look a certain way, those traits can be seen in those who are not criminals (51), yet still he believes in his line of inquiry about the nature of how the exterior is formed having a relationship to criminal behavior. This type of social thinking appears to have influenced Stoker as he framed the character that was his monster. The beauty of the women and the men in the story are in contrast to the unnatural looks of Dracula, a social system of identifying characters in literature that has not necessarily been abandoned, but as a social construct is no longer used to identify the criminal element. This type of inquiry can be viewed from the perspective if Ellis’ belief of eugenics. Eugenics is a system of selection that is intended to increase the positive aspects of the human species through deliberate choices in procreation. Ellis wrote created his argument for eugenics in stating that “a social order, with in the sphere of procreation could not be reached or maintained except by the systematic control of offspring” (Franks 30). In other words, social order cannot occur unless children were designed through the procreative efforts of the ’right type’ of people. This can be seen as an extension of his ’anthropological’ research on what creates a criminal. In this framework, people with too much hair would not be allowed to procreate. What is interesting is that in passing his affliction, it might be seen that Dracula was baring children to himself, murdering and sexual deviants to follow in his footsteps. The nature of Dracula was passed to others as he infected them with his affliction, but they had to go through the process of death first. From a literary and spiritual standpoint, death is often seen as a conduit to rebirth, thus Dracula was passing his criminality to his children. What Stoker did within the novel was bring the idea of the vampire into modern society, creating a frightening concept that placed the threat of the vampire within the social context of contemporary society. The novel is presented with ’evidence’ of the existence of Dracula through writings from the various characters, thus presenting a ’case’ which can be associated with criminal investigation (Hoppenstand and Browne 81). The way in which the male characters create a group to track down the vampire and kill him, is through modern concepts of investigation, combined with the knowledge of Van Helsing who acts as a bridge between the past and the present, as well as between the supernatural world and the world of reason. The modern setting provides a framework for the ’modern’ ideas of Ellis as they have presented ’evidence’ of modes of thought on criminality. The nature of Dracula is to take what he needs and what he wants, immaterial to the morality of his nature. The main threat that he presents is through his ability to subvert the nature of women so that they begin to embrace a more raw sexuality that men cannot control, nor can they manage to oppress. The ‘otherness’ that Dracula represents extends his nature to the belief systems of Ellis as he attempted to associate criminality with race and looks, the nature of the criminal defined by elements of his physical appearance. These ideas were fairly modern when Stoker wrote his novel, just as he was attempting to bring the concept of the monster into his modern world. Through the collision of the ancient and the modern, Stoker reflects many of the theories of his day and provides a discourse on sexuality and fear. Works Cited Byron, Glennis. Dracula: Bram Stoker; Contemporary Critical Essays]. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999. Print. Ellis, Havelock. The Criminal. London: W. Scott, 1890. Print. Franks, Angela. Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Legacy: The Control of Female Fertility. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2005. Print. Herman, Arthur. The Idea of Decline in Western History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. Print. Hoppenstand, Gary, and Ray B. Browne. The Gothic World of Anne Rice. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1996. Print. Narain, Dhirendra. Research in Sociology: Abstracts of M.a. and Ph. D. Dissertations Completed in the Department of Sociology, University of Bombay. New Delhi: Concept Pub. Co, 1989. Print. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print. Read More