Dracula and the Paradox of Horror

Dracula is a really great example to Noel Carroll’s idea of the “paradox of horror.” The “paradox of horror” states what is horror is and why people like it. One of the first items that Carroll mentions on his ideas of the paradox of horror is that this paradox comes from the emotional responses to fictional characters, which generate a paradox and that allows people to respond to what is going on. People generally don’t look for things repulsive or anything that tends to harm them. This is why they turn to books and movies. They do this because it’s other people, not themselves, that are being harmed. Also, audiences start to use the illusionist theory, which states that people think that the story could happen, and because of this people forget what they are watching isn’t real.

There are many parts to the idea of Carroll’s paradox of horror and what makes a horror story art-horror. One of the first aspects of a horror story is that it has to have a monster. In the story of Dracula, Dracula would be considered the monster. The monster is said to be disgusting! The monster has to have characteristics that are not of the norm. These characteristics of the monster include that the monster has to be fearful, threatening, and disgusting to both the natural and social order. Dracula, the character, fits all of these characteristics. The character of Dracula is feared throughout the story of Dracula. These characteristics include Dracula’s looks (dead/undead), his teeth, blood-sucking, transformation, the crawling on the outside walls of the castle, the place where he lives, and the eerie control he had on people. All these aspects made the story horrifying and follows the idea of Carroll’s paradox of horror closely. Dracula is also seen as a threat, because he can take the lives of individuals by biting them and he can even control the mind‘s of people, like he did with Mina near the end of the book.

Carroll also mentions that there are several types of monsters in the horror genre. There are four types of monsters and the book Dracula uses three of them. The first category of being a monster is fission. Fission is “the divid[ing] of characters in time…Here the characters become symbols for categorically distinct or opposed elements” (Carroll 47). In Dracula, Dracula is able to change into many different species and elements. He can change into a bat, a wolf, and mist. He is able to do these things at will, because the gypsies gave him that power.

Another category that the story Dracula has is fusion. Fusion, “contradictory elements are fused or condensed or superimposed in one unified spatiotemporal being whose identity is homogeneous” (Carroll 46), plays a key role in the story Dracula by making the characters think on the idea of Dracula being dead or undead. This is a key concept for the book, because the whole book is trying to determine if Dracula is alive or undead. They have to decide if it is possible that a dead individual can come back to life. The story is all about this concept and this is the whole mystery throughout the book. Finally, the last category that Carroll mentions is masses, which is a large amount of something causing havoc for the world. Some great examples of this would be tons of birds or spiders attacking the world. In Dracula, there is one scene in the book where there is a mass of something terrorizing the characters. The mass was of thousands of rats coming out of Dracula’s house in London, supposedly 138 Piccadilly Circus. Also, if there was a mass of vampires, which could have happened if they didn’t stake Dracula and Lucy, the world would be in chaos and full with vampires.

Dracula also has a very horrifying plot, which Carroll in his "paradox of horror" calls a complex discovery plot. The first part of a complex discovery plot is onset. The onset of a complex discovery plot starts in the beginning of the story where the characters don’t know that there is a “monster out there“, but the audience knows. After the onset occurs one character or characters discover that there is something out of the norm going on (a monster causing a problem). In the story Dracula, Van Helsing discovers that there is a problem going on in London and figures out there are vampires in the world (Lucy and Dracula). The next stage is confirmation, which is where a character tries to confirm their beliefs on others, but some of the characters find the idea of a monster skeptical. Van Helsing, in Dracula, tries to confirm that Lucy is a vampire and that vampires exist. Dr. Sewards, Quincey, and Arthur are skeptical at first because they don’t believe that Lucy could be a vampire (there is no such things as vampires). The next step in the complex discovery plot is confronting the monster. Van Helsing takes the three men who were skeptical to “vampire” Lucy. He was right and because he was, he had to confront Lucy. The four men had to stake her, so she would not be apart of the undead. After confronting this monster they decided that they would do everything they could to make sure that what happened to Lucy, vampirism, never happens again. This leads to all the characters searching for Dracula. The men, with the help of the Harkers, were able to defeat Dracula in the end by staking him. They knew if they staked him it would bring social order back into the world.

In the end, the story of Dracula fits Carroll’s idea of “paradox of horror” very well. The characters, plot, and disgust in Dracula will never be forgotten, but will be remembered because the book is well written, has a great monster, and is a great example of art-horror.