Dracula

 Dracula

by Abraham Stoker

                                                      ("I bid you vveeellllcome!")


Listening Time: 16 hours and 31 minutes

Quote: "The dead travel fast."

Link: http://librivox.bookdesign.biz/book/271

Theme: Charity

I like to think that if every vampire book got together and had an ice cream social:

• Carmilla would bring the butterscotch ice cream
• Sir Varney would bring Strawberry
• Reginald Clarke would bring Vanilla
• Edward would bring Sorbet
• Henry Sturges (book version) would bring Chocolate (Thank you Henry! I knew I could count on you!)

And then in walks in Dracula...He's bringing 'a regional dish fvom mien home country':

Paprika Hendl...(it's not an ice cream, it's not even for dessert!)

Get the recipe here: http://askgeorgie.com/healthy-chicken-paprikash/

Didn't this guy get the memo?! Dracula does not behave like vampires are 'sposta act!

(Last time I checked...vampires do not wear straw-bonnets. That just does not fit with the image at all!)

This was really confusing to me at first.

I think popular culture has set up certain expectations for what a vampire (and a vampire story) should be, and Dracula (both the character and the book) is not concerned with conforming to that ideal.

Strictly speaking, the story isn't even about the vampire character. The only times we delve into his identity or motive is through Johnathan, Renfield, or Mina. And although this does paint a compelling portrait, it's not the image of him that's become well known.

Primarily though, the story is concerned with the lives of seven people: Johnathan, Lucy, Mina, Jack, Arthur, Abraham, and Quincy. Their stories start out really mundane (Except for Johnathan's...which starts out super-exciting and then he takes a secondary role in the story). It's about them dealing with life and trying to be the best people they can be. I don't think I fully appreciated these characters or the journey they go through the first time I read it.

Characters:

“All men are mad in some way or another, and inasmuch as you deal discreetly with your madmen, so deal with God's madmen too, the rest of the world.”

I've decided most of the characters should be played by the Studio C gang (except for Mina, Quincy, and Van Helsing).

• Johnathan Harker-

“Despair has its own calms.”

(When I first read the original Dracula story as a teen, my reaction was "What? This isn't about Dracula! This is about some wimpy man-child and his friends!" This guy is the aforementioned "man-child". Although I've really come to love him now...)

Of all the characters, Johnathan's probably the one who's most like me, and (at the start of the story) he's getting to do a lot of the stuff that I'd love to do:

He's traveling for business, and enjoying it; seeing a beautiful new part of the world and experiencing the culture there:

• Meeting new people (Transylvanians are...different...but really nice!) 

• Trying new foods (Paprika is like the most delicious thing ever...I'm thirsty...)

• he's also dreaming ('I wonder if Mina and I will ever get to travel here, together?')

All things I'd love to do while traveling...

So for me, it's like he's basically living the best vacation ever....aaannd then just happens to end up in a living nightmare.

If you only read four chapters of "Dracula" make it the first four. They're so intense and exciting...and (SPOILER ALERT) he doesn't die (END SPOILER)


I used to think it was dumb that he never tells anybody "Hey, guys. Dracula's coming to my hometown, he's a killer we should probably try to do something about that guy..."

But now I think that's just how most people respond: they avoid things, sometimes for years and years, because they're afraid to deal with them.

• Lucy Westerna-

"I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from fears, and we marry him."-Lucy Westerna

I used to really dislike this character. I think part of my dislike stems from the fact that her chapters are really boring at the start, and they come immediately after Johnathan's rollercoaster of danger and suspense.

Compared to that, Lucy's "but-who-will-I-marry?" drama is...well...a bit boring.


I also find her personality a little annoying. (The thing that got me though her first few POV chapters,..when she's at her most annoying...is the fact that they're being read by a male narrator who's doing this delightful impersonation of a "British teenage girl"-voice. And it's pretty far-reking hilarious!)

I don't think there is anything wrong with being good looking, or playing the field in dating, or knowing what you want in a man (especially now that I'm acclimated to the "Jane Austen School of Courtship" line of thinking..."You work that field, Lucy!").

Even being a bit self-deprecating and "dumb blond" isn't horrible as far as personality traits go. I think it's because she is presented as everyone's romantic, feminine ideal. And I'm a heterosexual woman so I'm like, "Um...guys? She's not that cool..."

Maybe that's jealousy on my part; she does get to chose between three really great guys (A doctor, an aristocrat, and a cowboy) all of them completely respect her as a person and never try to pressure her into doing something she doesn't want to do. 

(Lucy is one lucky woman...)


It's an interesting, and sad, subtext to the story that a lot of the personal traits that make her alluring and desirable to the "good men" (her openness, her "spunk", and her amity) so make her an ideal victim to "predatory men".

This next part probably shouldn't bug me, but it does: The fact that people only make a stand against Dracula after the lovely Lucy is victimized (NOT when an impoverished mother, child, prostitute, or mental health inmate is victimized).

She's becomes, like, the poster child for the anti-vampirism movement:

"Don't suck, not even once."

(In more ways than one)

• Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray-Harker

“The world seems full of good men--even if there are monsters in it.”

I really love that, at the beginning of the story, you think of her as Jonathan's sweetheart...but by the end the book, the situation is reversed. Mina has taken center-stage in the story: she's the primary hero and Jonathan is her husband.

She's a pretty assertive and take-charge type of person, and I think it's unfortunate that most adaptions take that away from her.

By the way, these Johnathan and Mina do have a pretty epic romance. One tumblr person captured my thoughts on it perfectly: http://mormonhippie.tumblr.com/post/128293434593/general-sleepy-theres-one-thing-about-dracula

(It's a little long, but I think it's really sweet!)

That's the kind of love that deserves celebrating!

• Abraham Van Helsing-

"It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play."

Van Helsing is the oldest of the group. You'd think he'd be the responsible adult but he's actually kind of a weirdo.

 As a character I admire him because he defies stereotypes.  A lot of depictions paint him as superstitious, eccentric, or as a hardcore crucifix-wielding vampire hunter. And his backstory is really tragic.

But he doesn't let any of that define him. He's seen a lot in life, and he's learned a lot. Even though he does feel sad sometimes, he always focuses on the positive and if there is any humor at all to be found in a situation he WILL exploit it (even if it's not exactly appropriate...).

(He's a weirdo, but like a really smooth weirdo.)

He's also (I think) the most 'pure of heart' of all the characters. Unlike most of them, he's not avenging anything, he just genuinely wants to do good and help people and he considers it a call to duty when he knows he can help.

• Dr John "Jack" Seward-

"Is it possible that love is all subjective, or all objective?"

He's introduced as your friendly, neighborhood Insane Asylum Doctor. He's probably my favorite POV character because most of the time he acts as the straight-man and the "voice of reason" to everybody else's crazy.

He's also the most cynical:

"I felt all the dogged argumentativeness of my nature awake within me as I answered him:

(Dr Seward) :"I am satisfied that Lucy's body is not in that coffin; but that only proves one thing."

(Van Helsing) :"And what is that, friend John?"

(Dr Seward) : "That...it is not there..."'

(^^Classic...classic Dr Seward!)

I have two favorite moments with this Dr Seward:

1) When he's with Van Helsing, leading up to the big vampire reveal. For some reason I imagine Van Helsing ringing Jack about the neck and pulling his ears and smacking his head to make him pay proper attention!

2) Is when he meets Mina Harker for the first time. The only know of each other thought mutual friends but they instantly make a connection and end up exchanging diaries.  "We need have no secrets among us; working together with absolute trust, we can surely be stronger than if some of us were in the dark." (It's such a lovely bromance!)

• Renfield The Lunatic-

Dr Seward: "The man is an underdeveloped homicidal maniac."

Ancient fangirl saying: "He may be a minor character in the story, but he's a major character in my heart"...

I love this guy!

For one thing, without him, we really wouldn't know what Dracula's endgame is. We get a glimpse of Dracula's plans and motives thought Renfield's seemingly insane actions:

"What he desires is to absorb as many lives as he can, and he as laid himself out to achieve it in a cumulative way."

(^^That's why Dracula is making more vampire fledglings! This vampire invasion could be of apocalyptic proportions if someone doesn't do something fast!)

I also think he's got most compelling character arc. When I first read "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, my favorite character was Gollum, and Renfield is that kind of a character in this story:

In The Lord of The Rings, Gollum shows us what it means to be master of The One Ring (It really means being a slave).

In Dracula, Renfield shows us what it means to be a vampire: It's not empowering, it's not sexy, it's not desirable.

It's repulsive. Unlike Gollum though, he's able to realize this and make a stand against it before the end.

***

I'd really like to know if Renfield is his first name or last name. In that 1931 movie, Dracula calls him Mr Renfield but they changed the story so he takes a lot of Jonathan's role in that movie, so I'm not sure. :(

• Quincy Morris-

Van Helsing: "If america can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power indeed."

Quincy is kind of my dashing hero ideal...

He's a cowboy. He's chivalrous, but not overbearing. He consistently finds positive outlets for his angst.

He gets rejected romantically, and then arranges a bachelor party for the guy Lucy accepted because he doesn't want any hurt feelings between the friends.

I. Like. This. Guy!

 (I'm really glad Lucy didn't choose him, because he's mine!)

***

Someone speculated that, because he's the only character besides Van Helsing who seems to be familiar with vampires, that maybe he's hunted them before. I like that idea! I think that would be a cool spin off: An american vampire hunter...(I wonder if he's met Henry Sturges? ;))

• Arthur Holmwood (aka. "Lord Godalming.")

Most of the time, I see him as this:

But other times, when something serious is happening, he's suddenly transformed into this:

Dr Seward: "Arthur , who, poor fellow, was speaking of his part in the operation where his blood had been transfused to his Lucy's veins [...] he felt since then as if they two had been really married, and that she was his wife in the sight of God.  None of us said anything about the other two operations [blood transfusions], and none of us ever shall."

(^^ I can't explain how funny I find this. It's sad, and also hilarious...As Van Helsing would say: King Laugh, he come)

Aside from Lucy, he's probably the most tragic of the main characters. Not only does he lose his fiance, but his dad also dies in the middle of the story. Van Helsing kind of takes him in as a son-figure, because he looks so much like a child of his own that he lost.

(It's very sad)

_______________

• Charity

The main characters consistently seek to cultivate positive relationships with each other, even in the midst of conflict. They have goodwill towards each other and are generous. It stands in contrast to my conception of vamprism and all that the vampire Dracula has come to represent. I've decided to refer to this 'opposite of vamprism' (displayed by the main characters) as charity.

(I'm referring to the biblical conception of charity: which is the love that God plants in your heart for everything He created. If you cultivate it, it grows and grows until you can't contain it anymore and you have to share it with the people around you! Charity makes you want to be a better person, it entices you to be generous, compassionate, and full of goodwill. It motivates you to do and create beautiful things...Have you ever felt that way before? It's a beautiful feeling!)

If vamprism is about taking something that someone else has, charity is about giving of self. A vampire will entice you or seduce you; but s/he only wants you if you have something to offer. The whole focus of Van Helsing's team (as an individuals and as a group) is to offer all they can to others.

This attitude is not just directed towards the people you like; ultimately it's for your enemies, too. And surprisingly enough, this story makes a point to demonstrate that.

______________

• Count Dracula-

"I have been so long master that I would be master still-or at least that none other should be master of me."

(^^I don't even know if this is entirely true. 

And I hesitate to give Dracula too much sympathy cuz he's still a bad really bad guy

But at the end of the book we're invited to explore his background,

to try and explain why he became the person that he is.)

Towards the end of the story Dracula makes Mina a living vampire and creates a mind link. The mind link seems to work kind of like Legilimency in the Harry Potter books (or, probably a better example would be the mind link that Voldemort and Harry Potter share).

Eventually, the team figures out how to exploit the link to track Dracula's location. However, being inside Dracula's mind and memories also gives Mina (and eventually the rest of the team) a very different perspective on their villain:

"It [killing dracula] is not a work of hate. The poor soul who has wrought all this misery is the saddest case of all."

(^^This is quite a change! It makes me very curious...what exactly did she see in his mind?

She never tells us explicitly, but she does give us a few hints:


We know that she has access to Dracula's past memories; so she saw him when he was a human being. She realizes he had a horrible, horrible life and did unspeakable things (including, possibly, having to kill his own wife and daughters to save them from being raped by an invading army).

She also has a greater understanding of Dracula's psychology. They refer to The Count as having a "Child mind".

This doesn't mean he's childlike or innocent, it means his mind lacks plasticity. He can only see the world in one way, and he can only respond to problems in the same way he's dealt with them in the past. Symbolically, he's already "dead" because he cannot change.

It also seems to give her an idea of how horrible the curse of undead vamprism is, because she makes her husband promise that he will destroy her body if she dies under the curse (so she won't come back as an undead vampire).

By the time they get to the final confrontation with the master vampire, you really feel that it is no longer and act of vengeance or hate. It's about justice: for Dracula's victims, and also for the human soul of the monster.

****

I have to address these fan theories next because they've been stuck in my mind and I've been giving them waaayyy more thought than they deserve:

1) "Was Jonathan Harker seduced by Dracula?"

People...on the internet...be saying things about the "implied" relationship between these two. My reaction was "WHAT? I don't remember that from the book!" So I listened to the first four chapters again. The most suggestive thing I found there is this quote:

"I think strange things which I dare not confess to my own soul."

I know it's very juvenile, but I was chuckling at that quote for, like, 12 hours at work one time.

Really, there isn't any evidence to support that a seduction took place. I think it's something Dracula could have done if he wanted to. I mean, his bite isn't always fatal, and being bitten doesn't necessarily mean you'll die right away or turn into a vampire.

Jonathan is really level with Mina about the whole experience (even if he isn't completely level with everyone else, but Jonathan does have these PTSD-like blackouts. (Who wouldn't if they'd gone through the terror he went through as Dracula's guest?) There are also times he admits that he can't process some of the things that happened to him; so he represses what he's thinking or feeling. Lucy (another of Dracula's victims) seems suffers from amnesia on multiple occasions. So I suppose that the possibility cannot be excluded.

However, the other fan theory...

2) "Was Dracula in love with Jonathan Harker?"

Just needs to die...

Dracula was put into a position where he had to protect and defend Jonathan, not because he liked Jonathan but because Johnathan is Dracula's lawyer and real-estate agent. He needs him so that he can get the house at Carfax Abbey in England.

So if you're looking for a homosexual icon here...just...please don't. It's not about sexuality or sexual orientation, it's about abuse and using sex to hurt people. So yes Dracula would seduce a man, he would torment and victimize a man just like he would a woman.

And yes, men can be victims of sexual violence and feel powerless just as much as women can.

But this story is NOT about glamorizing sexual violence.

You know why we sexualize Dracula? Because he targeted women, and for some reason we find that attractive...

But you know who else he targeted?

Babies.

Yeah, he's atrocious

• Adaptions:

I watched the 1931 version-the best things about it was the actor for Dracula.

It's sad because I see the budding of some very negative stereotypes in the other characters.

This was the best scene in the movie:

(It's soooo creepy!)

I also read at transcript of the play "Dracula" by Liz Lochead.

The best part about it is they gave Renfield a starring role, I really enjoyed his part of the story.