Dracula

For many years, I thought “Dracula” was in my read pile, whereas, it was not! One of the great things about the Great Books book club I am in is reading titles I might not normally pick up OR picking up a title I thought I had!

One of the things that is striking about “Dracula” in book form, versus the various film and stage versions we have seen, is the multitude of unreliable narrators. Every single voice, save, perhaps, the newspaper articles describing the crash of the Demeter at Whitby, is by someone who may or may not be telling the truth because they are being influenced (knowingly, in the case of Mina, or unknowingly, in the case of Lucy). “We want no proofs, we ask none to believe us!” exclaims Van Helsing in Jonathan Harker's postscript seven years after the novels main events. Yet, Mina and Jonathan's son, Quincey, is being told the stories and may the very person who has to believe his parents and parents' friends.

It is also the epistolary form, presented in journal entries, excerpts from diaries kept on phonograph, ship's logs, telegrams, and patient records that we are fed the story of Dracula's ultimate demise. While epistolary novels were nothing new by the late 1800's, the style fits the story particularly well, allowing Bram Stoker to switch points of view and build suspense in a way modern day television and movies do. It also provides a great deal of printed evidence used to analyze and organize the confusing events up to and following Lucy's untimely death.

Here, again,h is a surprise for those familiar with the screen and stage adaptations of “Dracula.” Time and again, technology, logic, and Western innovation are used to trump the Old World, the supernatural, and Eastern Europe. Shorthand, the typewriter, the phonograph, blood transfusions, and investigative techniques one expects from Scotland yard undo Dracula's attempt to take over and dominate London, as well as cutting him off from his ancestral home. Mina Harker, in particular, is lauded by other characters in the book for her incredible use of logic, organization, and mastery of productivity enhancers (shorthand, typewriting). It is only when she is suspected of being pregnant (aka newly married) or a two-way conduit to Dracula that the men keep her out of the investigation.

Fear of contagion must certainly echo the quick-spreading cholera epidemic Bram Stoker's mother described, as well as other plagues that science had not yet found a way to shield humanity from. Once infected, very little but death awaited cholera victims, much like those that either had too much blood drawn from them by vampires or who had drunk the blood of a vampire. Where does contagion come from? It must certainly be foreign and unclean, which may explain why Dracula is from Eastern Europe, an area of Europe that contemporary England found quaint, superstitious, and backwards.

The erotic and sexual overtones to Dracula come through loud and clear, from taking on new vampires both as partners sharing experiences at night in a passionate haze to creating progeny. Related is the idea that Dracula is a rich, willful member of the aristocracy; the extremely wealthy certainly had their way with local peasant women and drained the life out of the people working their lands, although not as literally as sucking blood from their necks.

One of the plot points that irked me was Dracula's behavior on the voyage from Varna to Whitby. If Dracula could endanger his continued existence by the ship crashing during the voyage, why would he kill every member of the Demeter days before landfall? During his trip back to Varna and during other travels, Dracula was able to limit his feasting. While the ship's log and related newspaper articles were thrilling to read, the behavior seemed out of character for a 400-year old who was well-read and a meticulous planner.

After both the group discussion yesterday and a wealth of supplementary materials in the Penguin Classics edition, I find myself quite happy to have finally read Bram Stoker's excellent work and hope others will, as well.

Here are the discussion questions another book club member pulled together:
1. Dracula has become a famous (or should I say infamous) character over the years. Before you read the book, what expectations did you have for Dracula? What have you seen in movies, TV shows, etc. that caused you to think the book would be this way?

2. What are the elements of vampire folklore? For example, what, according to the novel, attracts or repels a vampire? How do you kill a vampire for good? Although Stoker did not invent the mythology of the vampire, his novel firmly established the conventions of vampire fiction. Choose another novel that deals with vampires and compare it with Dracula. (Consider, for example, one of Anne Rice's vampire books or Stepanie Meyer's Twilight series.) In what ways are the novels similar? Different?

3. Like so many novels of this time period, Dracula plays into stereotypical gender roles. Were you at all bothered by the heroine-in-distress part of the plot? Did any of the characters complicate or challenge these “normal” gender roles?

a )Discuss the significance that many of the male protagonists are doctors (Dr. Seward) or men of science (Dr. Van Helsing). Why is this important to the story?

b) Discuss the roles of Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker in the novel. How are the two women similar? Different? What accounts for their differences? To what extent does the novel depend on both of these women to propel the narrative forward?

4. The vampires in Dracula seek beauty and youth as principal objects of conquest. Why do they fixate on these two ideals? Are these twin obsessions specific to the time and place of the novel, or do we still grapple with their hold over us today? Does the author provide any positive examples of aging? In the novel, how do youth and naiveté take a back seat to knowledge and experience?

5. Discuss the role of sexuality in Dracula. What does the novel suggest about sexual behavior in Victorian England?
a)Count Dracula's thirst for blood is closely tied to sexual desire. How does Mina Harker thwart his physical — and psychological — advances? How does Lucy Westenra's vulnerability affect his bodily appetites? How does Jonathan Harker fend off the female vampires who nearly prove his undoing? What conclusions does the book draw about the link between seduction and evil? Sexual purity and innocence? What are the contrasts between love and lust in Dracula? How does passion complicate efforts to hasten Count Dracula's demise?

6. Dracula pits science and reason against superstition and the occult. Are these opposing philosophies ever reconciled? Does the truth of one argue against the existence of the other? How do the two doctors, John Seward and Abraham Van Helsing, approach the matter differently? Is Seward's skepticism ever completely overcome? How does R.M. Renfield contribute to Seward's education? What is the significance of Seward's diagnosis that Renfield tries “to absorb as many lives as he can”?

7. Do you think Dracula is a religious novel? What is the significance of the role played by holy objects in warding off the vampire's damnation? Does the author mean to satirize the piety and superstition of Transylvania town folk, or to strengthen the power of their beliefs?

8. Dracula relies on journal fragments, letters, and newspaper clippings to tell its story. Why might Stoker have chosen to narrate the story in this way? Do letters and journal entries make the story seem more authentic or believable to you?

9. Stoker includes an interesting note at the very end of the book that asks his reader about truth. Although the characters have repeatedly written of the validity of this tale through facts and accurate accounts of events, the reader is now asked to take everything on good faith. Why do you think Stoker chose to end this way? How does this choice affect your trust of the characters and your experience with the book?