Dracula

This was the best book by far that we've read for my Gothic Literature class. (Considering that some of the others we read included Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and Edgar Huntly: Memoirs of a Sleepwalker, however, that is not terribly hard to accomplish.)

For only the second time among all the novels we read for the class, a female took on a narrative role–a refreshing change for which I was very appreciative, although the novel should not necessarily be categorized as a feminist work. Stoker's prose is haunting and entertaining, and although many people dislike epistolary novels, I found the format engaging and, considering all of the perspectives that Stoker chose to include, appropriate. Stoker's best scenes are those charged with gristle and sexuality–most often both at the same time–and this is the first book in a long time that has made me look over my shoulder as I walk back to my dorm room from the library at night.

Stoker channels the issues of his time–specifically a fear among the British white male upper-class of the invasion of “foreigners” and the empowerment and sexuality of women–fears that upper-class white conservative men in most developed countries seem to still have today, unfortunately. Dracula is the realization of the possible consequences (as Stoker sees it) of these issues coming to fruition. The foreigner will come to your lands, seduce your women, infiltrate your populace and become one of you! Your women will find themselves in a position of autonomy and turn on you, leaving you helpless to combat their immoral and wanton charms! Ah, yes. How current, no?

Unfortunately for the liberal reader, there is no redemption for the empowered women or the foreigner: they are evils that are vanquished. After the assembly of an Avengers-like team of heroes who band together to overcome evil, Dracula is killed (although ambiguously) and Mina returns to the servile, pure state she occupied before vampiric/evil tendencies took hold, and balance is restored to the main characters' homelands. It is still a satisfying story, in the most basic sense: the ending is complete, the loose ends tied, the protagonists have triumphed after many trials, overcoming a clear-cut evil. The home team wins.

One thing I was interested by was the use of religion in the text. In most Gothic texts, religion is at best a vehicle of corruption and at worst a direct cause of it. (The Monk, anyone?) In Dracula, religion–specifically the oft-maligned-at-the-time-in-Protestant-England Catholicism–is the vehicle for vanquishing evil. It is a return to traditional Christianity that allows the dream team to vanquish their new and foreign enemy. And while as a Catholic I resent the alignment of Catholicism with the goals of destroying foreigners and suppressing women, it was refreshing to see it used as a weapon of good in a Gothic text. (See? I am all confused about it. Damn Gothic texts.)

Anyway, Dracula is a classic, and unlike many books, it is just as easily enjoyed as a casual or a close reader. Read it because you want to be cool enough to have read Dracula, but also read it because it is a wildly entertaining and thought-provoking read. I guarantee that it will be nothing like you thought it would be.