Some Preliminary Thoughts on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Horror Genre

 Dracula was published in 1897, and was written by Bram Stoker. Stoker was born in Dublin but spent much of his life in London. We will, of course, be visiting many Stoker sites in both cities on our upcoming trip. See the above links for more information on Stoker's life and works.

  Along with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1817) and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula is one of the most influential horror novels of all time. But what is horror, and, perhaps more to the point, what accounts for its longevity as a genre? What is the aesthetic appeal of a genre so steeped in mayhem, supernatural terror, gruesome death and dismemberment, etc.? The second question that I have raised here is referred to by Carroll as the “paradox of horror”, and is one of the central questions of our course. We will return to it later. The first question has been addressed in a preliminary way in my last post, in that Carroll supplies us with a definition of the horror genre that highlights the centrality of monsters and the emotion of “art-horror.” For Carroll, a work falls into the horror category if, and only if, it features a monster that is both fearsome and disgusting. A “monster” is any entity that is taken not to exist by contemporary science. Some monsters, like those in Jurassic Park once existed but no longer do, others have never existed. As we have seen, not all monsters horrify us, and so not all fictions containing monsters are works of horror. Star Wars, as Carroll points out, is full of monsters but is quite obviously not a horror film.

 

Dracula as a Paradigmatic Horror Novel

 

It is fairly clear that, as an undead being, the Count is more than qualified to be a monster in the broader sense of a being that is not supposed to exist. According to contemporary science, the dead stay dead and are not to be found strolling about in Piccadilly or menacing picnickers on Hampstead Heath. If he exists, Dracula is a monster in the more general sense. In order to qualify as a proper horror monster, Count Dracula must be found to be both threatening and disgusting in addition to being impossible. For Carroll, it is from the attitude of the characters in the work of fiction that we take our cue with respect to the proper attitude toward a given monster. If the characters are afraid and disgusted, then Dracula is a fearsome and disgusting being. Notice that, for Carroll, the reader, or viewer, of Dracula need not herself be disgusted or afraid of the monster; it is enough that it is established in the fictional world of the narrative that Dracula has the relevant properties. Here are a few passages from Dracula that might serve to establish that Count Dracula is indeed fearsome and disgusting from the point of view of the characters who are not themselves monsters or monstrous.

 From Chapter 4: Jonathan Harker is attempting to escape from Castle Dracula and discovers the Count in an indeterminate state, neither alive nor dead, in the vaults of the castle:

 “I shuddered as I bent over to touch him, and every sense in me revolted at the contact.”

 Another example of Dracula being viewed as fearsome and disgusting comes in Chapter 2, in which Harker sees the Count move like “a lizard” down the walls of the castle. Harker reports that he “feels the dread of this horrible place overpowering me.” There are many such references to Dracula’s fearsome and disgusting nature scattered throughout the novel, establishing beyond reasonable doubt that Dracula is a horror monster.

 Plot

 Carroll is going to argue that a large part of the solution to the “paradox of horror” (why do we like being frightened and disgusted by beings like Dracula?) has to do with our interest in the plots of horror narratives. Such narratives, for Carroll, often center on the alleged existence of monsters. We will discuss plot and its role in sustaining our interest in works of horror in greater detail later. For now, try to think of the way that the plot (the order of events in the narrative) helps to engage our interest in the novel. Carroll analyses plot in terms of a question and answer structure. Events that occur early in the story set up questions that are answered by later events. For example, the first chapter puzzles about who or what Dracula is set up the expectation that later events will answer that question.

 

Questions

 

Please respond to my post with some questions and/or observations of your own about Dracula. That way, we can get a discussion going about the novel. I have also posted some links to other websites relevant to our course, or to the trips that we will be taking.