Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Dracula

by Bram Stoker

Completed: October 1, 2022

Format: Paperback

ISBN: ISBN 978-0-375-75670-2

Rating (X/10): 9.6

- SPOILERS INCLUDED -

*Note: I will not include a summary of Dracula. This review assumes that the reader has finished the book. I would also note that The Modern Library Classics edition of Dracula (ISBN 978-0-375-75670-2) includes a thorough and intelligent introduction by Peter Straub, who coincidentally passed away a few weeks ago.

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The first few chapters of Dracula are very strong, with the first chapter being the most beautiful prose of the entire novel. To this point I would add that beyond the first chapter, Stoker offers few details about the environments surrounding the characters. Even during the final act when the characters are traversing mountains, sleeping under the stars, battling blizzards, and navigating river rapids, Stoker wastes almost no time in describing the environment. At the end of the book, the Harkers travel back to Transyvania for vacation and basically say, “It was beautiful.” Dracula is character and plot driven, but it would have been nice to have more details about the environments.

I would also say that the descriptions of the characters were either brief or non-existent. We are given brief descriptions of Dracula and Van Helsing, but they are eccentric characters thus describing them in heightened detail is necessary to the plot. When Lucy turned to a vampire and was walking through the graveyard, I remember thinking to myself, “I guess I will just create my own image of her, as I have no idea what she looks like.” I found it quite odd to not know what a main character looks like. Similarly, at the end of the book, Mina’s skin is growing more and more pale while being wrapped in a fur during a blizzard. I was thinking, “Her pale skin and white snow must contrast so beautifully with the fur and her dark hair. Wait…does Mina have dark hair? I don’t think a basic description was offered at any point in the novel.” Jonathan, Quincy, and Arthur are treated similarly in regards to lacking description. It seems like a 400 page novel could spare a paragraph or two about the main characters’ physical features, but this is not the case

Sex is a major theme in Dracula. Stoker does not blatantly include sex scenes, but there are quite a few implications of sex, cheating, cucking, and homosexuality. The most shocking example of implied sex is the homosexual mutual masturbation scene with Dr. Seward and his patient, Renfield. “’I shall be patient, Master! It is coming-coming-coming!’ So I took the hint and came too.” Lucy and Mina described themselves as sisters, but they were clearly having sex and sleeping in the same bed every night. Arthur and Quincy tried to hide their relationship, despite being inseparable after Lucy’s death. “So I woke Quincy, or rather called to him as he was still asleep.” No, you rolled over and woke him up. When Lucy lulls almost permanently into a hypnotic state caused by the Count, her bedroom becomes a revolving door for old men who keep watch over her alone all night. Mina is treated the same way. Mina is married to Jonathan, but it is clear that all the male characters lust for her, and she for them.. In the closing chapters, Mina is obviously having sex with Van Helsing. It is implied that he is cuddling with her in the furs while she is unconscious, but then she has moments of lucid behavior when she lays awake gazing into Van Helsing’s eyes. Mina is subservient to Van Helsing and makes several comments about wanting to please him. Poor, Jonathan!

No, not poor Jonathan. Jonathan survived a harrowing imprisonment by the Count, and he showed valor and bravery for escaping, but that was the end of my positive feelings towards Jonathan. The remained of the book, Jonathan is a cuck who ignores his wife and ignores all of the lustful actions the other men display. Only with the Count is Jonathan jealous, and he hurts Mina’s feeling several times by complaining about her interactions with the Count. Victim blaming at its finest. Jonathan is so enraged by the Count “having carnal knowledge” of Mina that he spends the rest of the book doing everything other than spending time with Mina. I think Stoker intended Jonathan to have a redemptive arc (following his hospitalization), but I found him to be unbearable. I truly felt heartbroken for Mina that she picked the wrong husband.

I think if we inverse feminism, we end up with anti-patriarchy. I certainly understand why this book inflames feminists. It is a Victorian novel, and that should not be forgotten, but the treatment of Lucy and Mina is puzzling. At times, the men put the ladies on pedestals, calling them such names as “brilliant,” but at other times, Lucy and Mina are relegated to being children in adult bodies. I swear that the girls are labeled as “little girl” twenty times each, yet Mina is the hero and true main character of the novel. Mina is referred to several times as having a "man brain." Yes, it is the Victorian era, but 150 years is not that long ago. To blindly operate with the assumption that all men are more intelligent than all women, and any deviation from this is a fluke, is wildly irrational and ignorant. Men and women tend to be excel at different skills, and that's fine, but to reduce a person's overall intelligence to a vagina or penis strikes me as woefully daft. What incredible ignorance and irony is there in Jonathan dismissing Mina from dinner and sending her to bed so that the men can talk, thus leaving her alone and unguarded in her room and subsequently attacked by the Count. At other times, Mina and Lucy seem almost laughably worldly beyond their years and experiences as young women who have never left England. I enjoyed both characters, but I found their wildly fluctuating qualities and treatment to be jarring and disruptive to the narrative.

An interesting distinction between Lucy and Mina is the way each handled the realization that they had been attacked by the Count. Lucy remained soft and sweet, and she died softly and sweetly. Mina changed. Mina became cold and determined, and even spurred the men to take risks and follow the Count to Transylvania. Mina actually laughs at Van Helsing when he suggests that he needs to protect her from the vampire sisters, and she replies that it is not she who needs protection, but him. Her willingness to dig deep, to suffer, to battle the cold, and to stand up against the men is what led to her survival. The men killed the Count, but it was on behalf of and because of Mina’s subtle leadership and coldness.

Feeling down? Brandy. Can’t sleep? Brandy. Sniffles? Brandy. Broken neck? Just give him some brandy! Surgeon cuts a hole in your skull to relieve pressure? Just put a little brandy on it.

The irony of Renfield is that he seemed to have a prior knowledge of Mina before meeting her for the first time. The Count either told Renfield about her or introduced them while in a trace at some point. Renfield tries to bargain a secret for his release but is denied by Dr. Seward. The irony being that Renfield professes his love and adoration for Mina but sacrifices her safety for his own. Of course, he dies at the Count’s hands regardless, and Mina is attacked regardless, but Renfield could have at least warned the doctor.

By the end of the book, it was clear to me that Van Helsing was trying to isolate Mina and spend time alone with her. They spent weeks alone together in the wilderness, and for much of that time Mina was unconscious or in a trance-like state. I’m not suggesting that Van Helsing plotted this outcome for the entire novel, but it certainly seemed to be a motivating factor in the closing chapters. By the final scene, Mina was more subservient to Van Helsing than even to Dracula himself!



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