PROJECT WORK

Legacy of the Damned Late-Victorian Ideas of Religious and Racial Degeneration in Bram Stoker's

Dracula

Erik Fredriksson

Bachelor of Arts English

Luleå University of Technology Department of Arts, Communication and Education Table of Contents Introduction...... 1 Chapter one: Historical Background...... 3 Chapter two: Purity of Faith...... 14 Chapter Three: Race...... 27 Conclusion ...... 32 Works Cited ...... 34

1

Introduction

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a novel that brings up many issues that were relevant at the time of its writing. During the story of a group of friends who come into contact with a Transylvanian vampire, Stoker weaves in contemporary issues and developments in late-Victorian England. The book is a period piece in the horror genre. It deals with science, religion, feminism and technology and several related issues that caused anxiety in a number of people, notably in intellectual circles.

This essay will argue that Dracula expresses a late-Victorian fear of impurity and degeneration and serves as a warning; and to a lesser extent that this warning has gone unheeded. The areas in which this warning, or warnings, are explored will here be those of faith and race.

The first chapter provides historical background information which is of great use for a proper understanding of the issues in the novel. The chapter is divided into five sections. The first section will briefly present Stoker and Dracula. A plot overview will provide a rudimentary understanding of the events and characters. The second section of this chapter attempts an overview of th intellectual climax of the Victorian period, without going into much detail. It gives an idea of the atmosphere of change and progress in society, and its effect on faith. The third section provides information about the evolution of eugenic ideas in Britain, and how they caused some racist anxiety towards the end of the Victorian period. The fourth section outlines Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism because Dracula follows that discourse and it will be of consequence in this essay when racism is in focus. There is lastly a fifth section which deals with vampire lore. It will show much of what Stoker chose to include of the real historical beliefs about vampires, and also how he picks out the ideas and images he likes best and suit his motives.

The second chapter deals with purity of faith, or how purity of faith is eroded in the Victorian era. It is divided into two sections, the first dealing with Christianity. Vampirism is examined as a debased version of Christianity which has reverted to a savage state of near paganism because, presumably, the religion has roots in ancient superstitions, and Methodism is pointed out as a subject of allegory, based on the work of Christopher Herbert. The apparently 2 contradictory Christian symbolism is also analyzed here. The second section deals with occultism and considers the possibility that both the vampires and the vampire hunters in the story represent occult secret societies that practice ritual magic, again with credit to Herbert.

The third chapter deals with race. The fact that racism was commonplace in Victorian England is apparent in the Orientalism it produced. With eugenicist theories being fueled by the theory of evolution, racial purity became a matter of considerable importance. The fear was that racial impurity could make the civilized Englishmen devolve and become more degenerate and less human if primitive foreign races were allowed to spread their blood. Criminals were considered to be more primitive by nature. This chapter argues that Dracula expresses a fear of racial impurity, with the danger coming in the form of the foreign vampire. Furthermore, the ideas surrounding vampires in the book seem to echo disturbing genocidal and eugenicist ideas circulating Europe at the time. A race war can be inferred if we see the vampire hunters as fighting against vampirism as racial impurity, but which may also be interpreted to take a less violent form, by incorporating the classic interpretation that the novel deals with sexuality.

These chapters are complemented with comparisons to society today and how the issues are viewed now, something which serves to gauge how the warnings on each front have been received, which is to say, how they have been ignored. Victorian society had a different mentality, and their anxieties are now obsolete. This shows that Stoker’s warnings, or shall we say “predictions”, were accurate, even if we would not share any anxiety the Victorians felt considering them. 3

Chapter one: Historical Background

Stoker and Dracula

According to the biographical introduction in the Penguin Popular Classics edition of Bram Stoker was born in 1847 in Dublin where at sixteen he attended Trinity College. It also states that he there studied pure mathematics and became the president of the Philosophical Society, and that he also developed an interest in the theatre which led him to write dramatic criticism and short stories. Furthermore, his admiration of the actor Henry Irving, whose performance sparked his interest in theatre in the first place, landed him a job as business manager at London’s Lyceum Theatre, the biography states. It, additionally, says that he traveled to the United States and Canada, and married Florence Balcombe in 1878, “winning her hand from her other suitor” Oscar Wilde. (Some may say by default) His most well known story is Dracula .

Dracula draws upon previous vampire fiction for inspiration, but also folklore through the ages. At the same time, the book also stands as a platform for displaying philosophical, sociological, scientific and religious thought circulating in Britain and Europe in Stoker’s time, and is thus very modern. It is the most well known vampire story in the world today, and the character is a household name. The book has been made into film countless times starting with the unauthorized adaptation Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) in which the count, named Orlok in this version, was played by the aptly named Max Schreck.

The story follows a group of middle class Victorians who save Britain and the world from the Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula. Solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Romania, to finalize the sale of an estate in England to the Count, whom he discovers to be a monster, and in whose castle he is imprisoned by the same. While the vampire journeys to Britain, Harker escapes the castle but disappears. His fiancé miss Mina Murray waits for him at home, and expresses her worries to miss Lucy Westenra, who has three suitors, American Quincy Jones, Dr John Seward, the owner of an insane asylum, and Arthur Holmwood, son of Lord Godalming, the last of whom wins her hand. Miss Lucy becomes mysteriously ill, and Dr Seward enlists the help of his old mentor Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Holland who is learned in several sciences, including medicine. 4

Professor Van Helsing suspects that a vampire is afoot and slowly convinces the men of this. Harker is found with brain fever, and does not believe his nightmarish memories. Lucy dies and stalks the nights drinking the blood of children, and the men finally learn what she is and destroy her to save her soul. This work is done using Christian holy objects and knowledge about superstitions regarding vampires. Mina reads Jonathan’s diary, and all the diaries kept by the group members are examined by them all. They deduce that Dracula is the vampire that killed Lucy and proceed to hunt him. While they do Mina becomes his new victim and is cursed by him. The group also comes to know that the strange lunatic Renfield has a psychic connection with Dracula and regards him as a god. When the group has managed to cleanse the houses where Dracula stayed, by sanctifying the earth in which he must sleep but cannot if it is truly holy, the Count flees the country and the group of friends follows him back to his castle in Transylvania where they destroy him. The world is safe, and things go back to normal.

Victorian England

In order to understand Dracula it is helpful to consider the time period of its publication. The book was written in the 1890s (published in 1897), in the last part of the Victorian period, which ended in 1901. Victorian England was a time and place of great changes. The industrial revolution was ongoing, changing living conditions in the country. Many people were moving to cities while the total population was growing rapidly. The middle class was taking over positions of influence from the aristocracy, and among other things their industry brought pollution and squalor (Barnard 123). Ideally, a woman’s place was in the home creating a refuge for her husband, where she was separated from the public world of industry and commerce by marriage, and she was expected to live up to a high moral standard; an ideology and way of life which saw feminism as a reaction (Lynne n. pag.). Science was making progress forward, as it was becoming more secular and thus was not held back by dogmatic interpretations imposed by the church. Scientific discoveries were beginning to prove that what the Bible says is not necessarily true, and the worldview it purports was coming into question. As Robert Barnard puts it “[r]eligious faith was being undermined by a spirit of sceptical enquiry at the Bible” (123).

While Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859) and discoveries in geology contradicted the story of Creation, it was not too alarming to everyone. According to Aileen 5

Fyfe and John van Wyhe, in an article on The Victorian Web there were already some who saw the Bible as non-literal, but to others it meant that they could not be sure what to believe. Even if those who expressed religious doubt were only “vocal minorities” with political agendas, as Fyfe and van Wyhe call them or in Barnard’s words, an uncomfortable “intellectual vanguard” (123), the uncertainty of faith is manifest in Victorian literature and art even though most people kept their faith. In the beginning of the 19 th century science and religion were not separate arenas, but “professionalizes”, like Thomas H Huxley and John Tyndall, had advocated against the involvement of the church in scientific matters, because they opposed Church authoritarianism, and suggested that the clergy deal with spiritual matters and experts in science, with science (Fyfe and van Wyhe). By the 1870s or 1880s, Fyfe and van Wyhe say, this view of separation had spread though the scientific community. In Dracula science plays a major role, as it is the cause of the scepticism that enables Dracula to sneak right into society without any problems from the people. This is one of the most recognizable warnings in Dracula : if we dismiss vampires as superstition, we are at their mercy.

There was debate in the streets, however, about the literal truth of the Bible, and what was at stake was “the sober, earnest, somewhat repressive temper of the times that the Evangelicals had built up in the first half of the century” (Barnard 132) and Christian morality was coming under question, as could be expected when the Bible’s authority is waning. According to Barnard the Victorians have the image of “respectability, church-going, prudishness” (110). This, perhaps largely because they saw themselves as such, but the image is contrasted by the behaviour and attitudes spreading among Victorians towards the end of the period. They contested sexual norms, and “[n]ovelty in sexual behaviour became a form of protest against the tyranny of the Victorian family unit” (Barnard 133). However, “homosexual offences” were made illegal for males in the era (Barnard 134), so the sexual liberation was clearly not accepted by the mainstream. Still, with Christian doctrine losing credibility, people who started to doubt found other beliefs of the spiritual and moral kind. To some, social politics or spiritualism could fill the void. Suitalbly, in a time of the Neo-gothic, or Gothic Revival which was popular in the nineteenth century (Wyatt et al.), séances became popular and also occult secret societies had an alluring mystique about them which sparked interest.

Stoker seems to issue a warning that these changes can go too far if left unchecked, and if one considers what happens in the next century, one gets the impression that the warning was not heeded. It is noteworthy that early Victorian England was not unlike what some would call 6

“traditional” America, with free market capitalism and industry, conformism, strong family values, proud nationalism and self-confidence. England, in the second half of the 19 th century experienced something comparable to what America experienced in the second half of the 20 th . Women had been expected to stay at home and had restricted career opportunities. This resulted in feminism taking a place in the social upheaval in both eras. There was also a sexual revolution to speak of in both times, and the unfavourable conditions for the working class sparked some socialistic feelings. Furthermore, both times saw an increased interest in alternative religions and magical practices. These outbursts of rebellion seem to have similar motivations and forms, even if the hippie movement was much bigger and more extreme. Perhaps the late Victorian intellectual upheaval was the precursor.

In Dracula , the story seems to argue that Victorian society lost touch with God, and the reaction is that the Devil enters in the form of immoral behaviour and spiritual confusion. Stoker is warning us against this development, and suggests that we return to Christian traditions that have been dismissed as “poppycock” by scientists and compromised away by the Church of England. The relevance of what happens in the next century is that it can be seen as an evaluation of how his message has been received by the world. Apparently, the lesson was not learned, and the warning seems to have been accurate, because society has changed in the western world, in ways that Christians of old would definitely describe as degenerate, perhaps to a more extreme degree than Stoker himself imagined was possible. There is even a Church of Satan, established in 1966 (Church of Satan website), only 69 years after Dracula was first published. Dracula includes many references to the ideas, emerging in the late-Victorian period, for better or for worse. It shows, at least, that Stoker “had his finger on the pulse” of Victorian society.

Eugenics

Eugenics is a line of thought that focuses on “the selection of desired heritable characteristics in order to improve future generations, typically in reference to humans.” (“eugenics.” Encyclopædia Britannica ) The term was coined by Francis Galton in 1883 (“eugenics.” Encyclopædia Britannica ). Although he is often credited as the father of Eugenics, John C. Waller’s Ideas of Heredity, Reproduction and Eugenics in Britain. 1800-1875 reveals that Galton’s ideas were only part of a growing interest in heredity and mounting anxieties regarding national health, particularly regarding inherited mental illness, in the Victorian period. 7

The later eugenicists expanded on ideas regarding spousal selection to protect one’s family line from hereditary disease, to protecting the nation from degeneration. In the earlier parts of the nineteenth century and before, ideas of hereditary deficiencies were usually applied to considerations of reproduction, and it became common to “investigate prospective spouses for signs of hereditary abnormality.” (Waller 466) Towards the late-Victorian period the scientific work regarding heredity of “insanity and moral debasement” (which were considered to be related) constituted a base which could be “frame-shifted to the level of national fitness” (Waller 463).

The idea of regulating human reproduction was not new even then. For instance, John Galton wrote in 1765 that “’by proper attention we can preserve and improve the breed of horses, dogs, cattle … [y]et it is amazing this observation was never transferred to the human species’” (qtd. in Waller 468). In the early nineteenth century other examples occurred. William Lawrence wrote in 1822 of creating a “superior breed of human beings” by “selection and exclusion” (Waller 469). Also, in 1828, Thomas Rowe Edmonds wrote of “selecting for propagation those people who excel in the more useful qualities of mind” and “not permitting ideots or madmen” to reproduce (qtd. in Waller 469). Selective breeding was thus already being proposed.

Later, criminologists expanded on these thoughts and proposed measures to prevent reproduction amongst the hereditarily inferior. Luke Owen Pike recommended in 1876 “permanent incarceration of habitual criminals to prevent their propagation” and “the eminent Victorian statistician and hygienist William Farr” recommended the same in 1866 (Waller 473). Farr also preceded Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso in considering criminals to be “a ‘degenerate human type’” (Waller 473). Lombroso’s ideas appear in Dracula.

We can establish that eugenics was a mode of thinking that existed throughout the Victorian period, and grew in intensity towards the end of the nineteenth century. It clearly influenced Dracula as will be shown in chapter three, in which we see that the novel warns us of the influence of vampire blood which, if unchecked, can turn the whole world into degenerates.

Orientalism

Another important aspect of Victorian England is that it was a colonial power, and this meant that the English had to relate to the countries and peoples they colonized. Edward W. Said wrote Orientalism in 1978, and the book argues that the way the West has represented the 8

East in literature (particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), reveals a way of thinking that involves an “unequal dichotomy” which legitimizes the colonial projects (McLeod 41). The basic assumption is that there is a clear distinction between the Western world and the Orient, and the Orient is that which the West, or Occident, is not. By defining the Orient, which is done in negative terms, the West defines itself as the opposite. Said argues that “[t]he West comes to know itself by proclaiming via Orientalism everything it believes it is not ” and that it “gained strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient” (McLeod 41). This is done by making generalizations, which are “a western fantasy” (McLeod 41).

These generalizations form stereotypes, which will vary from time to time, probably because Western society changes and needs to project different negative images on their “other”. Said speaks of ‘latent’ and ‘manifest’ Orientalism, by which he means to say that representations of the Orient might vary on the surface, but there is an underlying system of assumptions (McLeod 43). Some common assumptions about the Orient are that it is timeless, and does not progress like the West does (McLeod 44); that is it strange and sometimes bizarre and people do things that do not make sense, while the West is normal and people do things rationally and sensibly (McLeod 44). Some common stereotypes concerning Orientals include negative racial stereotypes such as “the murderous and violent Arab, the lazy Indian and the inscrutable Chinaman” (McLeod 44) which make Westerners feel “inherently superior and civil” (45). Also, gender stereotypes, which portray Oriental men as “effeminate” and “insufficiently ‘manly’” and Oriental women as “immodest, active creature[s] of sexual pleasure” (McLeod 45), which makes Oriental men and women both fail to live up to Western ideals of femininity and masculinity by inverting expectations. Orientals are also portrayed as degenerate and without virtues (McLeod 46).

It is interesting to note that stereotypes regarding Oriental women are today quite different from what they were in the Victorian era. In the past they were the promiscuous “exotic Oriental female” (McLeod 45), contrasting the “passive, moral, chaste” western woman (45). Nowadays it is more common to assume Oriental women to be the victims of repression by a patriarchal theocratic society that imposes a strict moral code, contrasting the liberated modern western woman; indeed, today westerners often assume that Orientals, in particular Muslims, deem western women to be the promiscuous and immodest ones. One could say that the stereotypical Oriental society was once regarded as too “liberal”, but now too conservative. In both cases it fails to be “progressive” and “enlightened” and is to the West, 9 inferior. This is an example showing latent and manifest Orientalism. On this note, the fact that the perceived faults of the Orient have moved from “too little religious piety” to “too much religious fundamentalism” shows that western society has changed and today promotes a secular, permissive morality which could be considered anathema to the morality of mainstream Victorian society, even though the second half of the 19 th century saw the beginning of this development. Being that Dracula warns us of this development, and urges us to resist it, the fact that it continued despite the book is another nail in the coffin for the warnings within it.

Vampire Lore

To cover the history of vampires, in folklore and fiction, would be an interesting project in its own right; in fact it is one which has been undertaken by many. However, for the purposes of the current essay this section will concentrate mostly on the vampires of European folklore, though not entirely. Because Stoker’s representation of vampires is eclectic, he creates something like a collage of beliefs about them. Therefore, the portrayal of vampires in Dracula will be compared to folkloric beliefs to show that this is so. In some respects, Stoker follows the superstitions in folklore, and in other respects he goes his own way. It seems as though he chooses the elements he likes from all the available folklore, and use them for his own purposes.

The beliefs about vampires throughout Europe have varied depending on the time and place, and mythical creatures are described that have some attributes associated with vampires as they are portrayed today, and some that are completely different. In ancient times, creatures with vampire like traits were demons or other supernatural creatures, but later the blood drinking monsters became more physical, sometimes in the form of witches, werewolves, and the form most familiar to us, the revenant. (A revenant is someone who returns from the dead, often as a ghost, but sometimes also as a reanimated corpse.) For the undead body to stay “alive”, it is apparently necessary to feed on the living, by eating them or drinking their blood. There are many variations on the themes, and a “vampire”, in the sense of “bloodsucker”, is not necessarily the same as an “undead” in the sense “living corpse”. Some myths seem to describe what we today would call “zombies”, except that modern zombies seem to reflect modern anxieties about “mindless masses” and epidemics, while the undead of folklore seem to reflect fears of not properly entering the afterlife. In Dracula, however, the vampire represents the fear of degeneration. 10

Throughout time burial rituals have often appeared to include measures to prevent corpses from rising again. In fact, that could be argued to be the whole point of the ritual – to finalize a person’s death. The prehistoric people known as the Natufians would sometimes bury a dead one with a huge river stone on the body (“Daily Bread” Stories from the Stone Age ). One can only imagine why. In ancient Greece, coins were places in the mouth or on the eyes of the dead, so that they could pay the boatman to take them over the river Styx. If they could not pay the fare, they could not enter Hades, the land of the dead. It seems to be a rather universal sentiment that the dead should be dead, and much effort is spent to keep it that way.

The fear of living corpses is apparently something in and of itself, but it has been combined with the fear of blood drinking demons. The vampire of fiction has enjoyed a prominent place in horror, but it is not as scary as it used to be. Vampires today tend to be less monstrous, beginning with John Polidori’s The Vampire (1819) “that established the archetype of [the] charismatic and sophisticated vampire” (Silver and Ursini 37-38). Since this type of vampire became the norm, vampires have become less monstrous, and nowadays increasingly tame. In the television series True Blood, vampires are accepted as a minority and drink synthetic blood. The vampire might be losing its place as the object of the original fear of the walking undead in fiction, and the place may well be taken up by the horrid monstrous zombie.

Though Dracula seems to take its inspiration from the relatively modern belief in the blood sucking revenant, there is also a connection to ancient beliefs in demons and witches, which widens the scope of available attributes for Stoker’s vampires. The Babylonian and Assyrian tales of “Lilitu” which became “Lilith” in Hebrew demonology depicted her as “subsisting on the blood of babies” (Hurwitz). Greek and Roman mythologies also involve demons and witches drinking the blood of young men after seducing them (Graves 189-90), and feasting on and drinking the blood of children (Oliphant 133-49). Among their other names, such as “Lamia”, “striges” and “strix” stand out because of their similarity to the Romanian “strigoi” which is a creature that has been equated with vampires. The relevance of the ancient myths is that the female vampires in Dracula all victimize children and they are described as seductive. If this is meant to evoke the ancient demons and monsters, it adds a sense of timelessness to the vampire phenomenon. Professor Van Helsing actually spells it out for us, when saying that “the vampire . . . is known everywhere that men have been” including “in old Greece, in old Rome” (Stoker 285). Thus, we cannot limit our expectations on Stoker’s vampires to modern beliefs, but have to accept that they may show attributes from different belief systems. 11

Returning to the revenant, a somewhat disturbing part of vampire-superstition that shows up in Dracula , which is not common in vampire-fiction today, concerns the appearance of the vampire who has recently been feeding as it rests in its coffin. When Jonathan Harker finds Dracula in his coffin, the Count looks rejuvenated: his colour is different, his cheeks are fuller (Stoker 67). The signs of him filling up with blood are there, as he is redder, with “gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of his mouth”, and “even the deep, burning eyes seemed set against swollen flesh” (Stoker 67). Harker remarks that “[i]t seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood.” (Stoker 67) This vivid description is based on one of the ways in which vampires were identified by superstitious Europeans. Dead bodies were often exhumed and examined, and if they did not appear to have decomposed properly, they were believed to be vampires. Signs of vampirism that are often repeated include fingernails, hair and teeth appearing to have grown as the surrounding tissues decompose. What is not repeated as frequently is the fact that bloating was also misinterpreted. When a corpse putrefies gasses build up which results in a plumper appearance. The gas also enters the blood cells which changes the skin colour (though usually through green to purple and finally black) (Beresford 29). Furthermore, blood and other bodily fluids can seep out through the mouth and nose from the internal pressure (Barber 1-4). For those who do not know that these are normal signs of decomposition, the impression can be that there has been little or no decomposition at all, and the person may look more “healthy” than they did in life, and with blood oozing from the mouth it might look like a vampire that has been feeding (Barber 114-15). Moreover, when a stake punctures the body and releases the gasses, there will be deflation which might be accompanied by sounds that resemble a voice, or flatulence (Barber), which furthers the illusion of life. As in Dracula , when the vampire is destroyed its body will change to the appropriate state of decomposition it has so unnaturally eluded, all at once; when a bloated corpse releases its gas, it deflates and the illusion that no decomposition has taken place goes away in what would appear to be an accelerated rate of decomposition, even if the effect is not necessarily instantaneous. The image of Count Dracula having filled himself up on so much blood at once that he swells up “like a filthy leech” (Stoker 67) seems almost comical, if grotesque, because it evokes an image of gluttony. It is difficult to be shocked by it without knowing where it comes from. The mere fact that images of swollen corpses were a reality to people at one time, and dead bodies were actually staked and/or decapitated, among other things, which is a much more disturbing image because it is real, lends to the image of the bloated Count Dracula that very disturbing quality. The thought of such bloated corpses actually stalking through the night to 12 feed on humans must have been a terrible strain on the minds of people who believed in it. Since Dracula is a horror story, adding this reference to the anthropological reality of what these beliefs actually entail, is a way to add to the shock value. Bringing the putrefaction- process into mind can also connect bodily decay with spiritual decay.

When it comes to weapons that can be used against vampires Dracula includes several from folklore. Garlic was used to battle vampires. Garlic or other items such as pebbles or incense would be put in its mouth to chew on in its grave. In Romania, on certain dates when protection was needed, garlic was rubbed on windows and put over entrances to the building, because it has the power to ward off evil spirits (Beresford 66). This is just what is done in Dracula to protect Lucy, and garlic is used heavily as an apotropaic (something used to avert evil). Also, according to Jenni Mappin branch of wild rose is supposed to harm vampires (50). In Dracula it is used to keep the vampire from leaving its resting place. Interestingly, it is not uncommon today to place roses on the coffin of a dead one, which one could suspect to be a continuation of the superstition, only occurring, much like how Stoker warns us, without us realizing what it is.

Naturally, Christian sacred items have been believed to protect against vampires; such as crucifixes, rosaries, and holy water. Stoker includes crucifixes in the arsenal used by Van Helsing and his friends, but not holy water. Perhaps this is because the holy liquid would be too reminiscent of the communion wine, which is also omitted, probably, as we shall see in the next chapter, because it represents the drinking of blood.

Dracula also includes rules regarding where and how vampires can travel. In Transylvanian folklore, spirits such as the ”strigele”, which is the spirit of a witch, “can be seen as little specks of light floating in the air” (Beresford 55). Similarly, in Dracula the vampires are able to travel “on moonlight rays as elemental dust” (Stoker 286). The restrictions on where vampires can go, in folklore, include such rules as “vampires cannot cross running water” (Burkhardt 221). Likewise, Dracula “can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide (Stoker 287). Also, a vampire cannot enter a house without being invited, but can come and go as it pleases afterwards; a rule which bears importance for the interpretation of Dracula’s corruption of Mina in the novel. In addition, vampires cannot walk on consecrated ground, “such as those of churches of temples” (Burkhardt 221). This rule is outright broken in Dracula in that the vampires can live in chapels and graveyards, and Dracula actually 13 needs consecrated earth from his own chapel. However, when the earth is “sanctified” by the protagonists through use of communion wafers, he can no longer touch it.

The folkloric methods of destroying vampires and other precautions varied from place to place. The most well known method is to drive a stake through the heart; though in some Russian and Germany the mouth was targeted (Löwenstimm 99). Staking was the most common in southern Slavic countries (Barber 73). This bears resemblance to other precautions, namely spiking or pinning the head, body or clothes to the earth to prevent the vampire from rising (Barber 157). To fasten the corpse in this way also brings to mind crucifixion. In Germany and western Slavic countries, the preferred method was decapitation (Barber 73). In Romania garlic could be placed in the mouth (Bunson 154). To destroy the vampire Lucy, Van Helsing employs staking, decapitation and placing garlic in her mouth. Given that this is the vampire hunters’ first time, and they do not know exactly what works, using all these techniques at once is probably done “for good measure”. Even though sunlight is a classic killer of vampires in fiction, it was not generally so in folklore (Silver and Ursini 25). Dracula seems to follow the folkloric pattern, in which vampires choose to be active mostly at night, but are not killed by sunlight. If anything, we can surmise that Stoker extracts what he likes best to serve his purposes. 14

Chapter two: Purity of Faith

Christianity

When it comes to religion, Dracula depicts a struggle between good and evil. Count Dracula is the devil, who infiltrates England and begins corrupting people there. He manages to enter England, and to go about his business there, because nobody recognizes what he is or understands what is happening; not until Professor Abraham Van Helsing becomes involved, and convinces his friends that what has been dismissed as superstition is actually real. It seems as though the society Stoker describes has stopped believing in the devil, and can only be saved from degenerating into one of vampires (which is the real danger) by rediscovering the methods of warding off the devil, which the less modern people in other parts of Europe have not yet lost. This is a clear indictment of modernity, and serves as a warning that society is moving away from God and will degenerate if the course is not changed.

This interpretation is only the easiest view of the spiritual warning in the novel, and it lacks depth. However, the whole range of symbols and religious images is quite complex, and Stoker appears to have collected some favourites, and put them together even if they sometimes contradict each other. Whether an internal logic is intended, or religious symbols are used selectively in specific scenes without consideration for the whole, is unclear; but what is very clear is that the symbols are used. The text also seems to operate on several discursive levels at once, so that Dracula can play the role of the devil, the antichrist, a devil worshiping magician, a pagan, immorality itself, or(, as will be argued,) a Methodist at the same time. Furthermore, it is difficult to firmly establish who, if anyone, is the “Jesus character” in the story, and even Dracula has traits that make him a candidate. Many images suggest that vampirism may be a bastardization of Christianity, or possibly a blood drinking cult which could represent the spiritualism or occultism that came with the Victorian faith crisis. By excluding the restriction that vampires cannot tread on hallowed ground, and by retaining staking, which reminds us of crucifixion, vampirism can represent at least some kind of Christianity-like faith, albeit a thoroughly debased one.

Professor Van Helsing also seems to become something of a cult leader. Thus, there may be many warnings in the same vein, which point out specific examples of spiritual degeneration. 15

This section will explore how Dracula describes a struggle between faiths, in which different kinds of Christianity are pitted against each other. The Methodists’ thirst for the life giving blood of Christ, and Catholic or Orthodox idolatry will be in focus. At the same time, the roots of Christianity in the very superstition it decries will be exposed.

Turning first to the different branches Christianities, it may be stated that Victorian England was abound with different varieties. Catholicism had lost much support to Protestantism, and evangelical varieties had sprung up. These and others varieties were practised, even if the Church of England had a protestant history, but tried to be a middle way between Catholicism and Puritanism (Cody). The Anglican Church had problems, and grew “both politically and spiritually weaker” which made it “unprepared for the serious spiritual challenge which was implicit in the appearance of Methodism” in the late 18 th century (Cody). We can find tensions between versions of Christianity represented in Dracula .

The first indication of religious tension in Dracula is that Jonathan Harker is uncomfortable accepting a crucifix from the old lady of the Golden Krone Hotel. His reaction is this: “I did not know what to do, for, as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous” (Stoker 13). Already here we are presented with one of the main problems with Victorian society, according to the text. Harker’s aversion to crucifixes is a part of the dismantling of Christianity that allows the devil to creep in. As will be seen, the crucifix is a powerful holy object that effectively keeps the devil at bay. The objection from the Church of England that venerating holy objects is idolatry is directly contested in the book and is part of the main warning not to forget the ways and means to keep the devil away. There is clearly a contest between faiths, and Dracula is apparently on the side of the “older” versions of Christianity that include emphases on holy objects.

The focus on holy objects in Dracula is fairly obvious, but the idea that there is a battle of faiths becomes interesting when we take into account vampirism. Christopher Herbert has argued that vampirism in Dracula represents the part of Christianity that reveals the religion’s roots in ancient superstition. The drinking of sacramental wine which represents the blood of Christ is a strange ritual which sounds pagan. Herbert refers to a contemporary of Stoker’s named James Frazer, who has written about blood drinking rituals in other cultures (and other rituals as well). In his 1890 work The Golden Bough Frazer describes “priestly figures” who would “gain inspiration” by “sucking the fresh blood of a sacrificed victim”, and the “devil dancer of Southern India” who drinks blood directly from the throat of a sacrificed goat, and 16 is afterwards worshipped as a God (Herbert 112). Also, Herbert says, Frazer believed that originally, these rituals involved human sacrifice (112). In addition, there is a description of a “baptism of blood”, which is a phrase that is used in Dracula several times to refer to Dracula’s defiling of Mina by making her drink his blood. Herbert believes Frazer’s work influenced Stoker; it is hard to disagree.

It is not hard to see the similarities between such rituals as described by Frazer and vampirism as it appears in the novel. The blood drinking Count Dracula is worshipped as a God by the lunatic Renfield and can thus fill the robes of the “priestly figure” who becomes a God. Therefore, Dracula can be argued to represent the reawakening of superstitious thought in England and Vampirism can be seen a cult phenomenon. However, the form of the cult is similar to Christianity in some ways, and vampirism may also be said to represent a perversion of religion. In either case, it is presented as a very bad development in the novel and thus it serves to warn that faith is being corrupted.

It can be argued that superstition is able to take the place of “true religion” because it bears similarities to Christianity, but modernity helps to erode faith and makes people more vulnerable to spiritual confusion. The deity worshipped by Renfield is one who has become undead. Much like Jesus Christ, Dracula has risen from the grave, and he promises eternal life to his followers. According to some versions of Christianity such eternal life in transmitted to them by drinking His blood, and eating His flesh. Dracula does not so much ask his victims to eat his flesh, and he consumes their blood, usually. Still, he professes that there is a communion between himself and his victims. He tells Mina that she is “flesh of my flesh; blood of my blood” (Stoker 343) which seems like a reversal of Christian communion, considering that he drank her blood. However, the “baptism of blood” in Dracula does involve drinking his blood, and perhaps this is the way to become a vampire. Up until its occurrence, Dracula considers Mina to have been his “bountiful wine-press” but through the baptism of blood, she will become his “companion and helper” (Stoker 343). After this event, she has the same weakness to holy objects as vampires do. What is more, both the vampires and Christians (of the Communion-wine drinking variety) become blood drinkers as part of their religious practice. Herbert argues that Dracula does not so much oppose modernity and scientism because of its waning of religious beliefs, but actually opposes superstition, because of its “dangerous” similarity to religion (102). What vampirism can represent then is still superstition, but with the added reflection that superstition is similar to religion, because vampirism is similar to Christianity. Herbert does not reflect, however, that it is the modernity 17 and scientism that eroded “true religion” in the first place and enabled superstition to take its place. It is safe to say that both are criticized in the novel.

Something that represents modern science failing where less modern science prevails is that Dr Seward keeps a journal on a phonograph which is top modern equipment, but this technology lacks a way to label entries. He says “Although I have kept the diary for months past, it never once struck me how I was going to find any particular part of it in case I wanted to look it up” so Mina offers to copy it out for him on her typewriter (Stoker 264). The less modern equipment is proven to be more practical than the new. Furthermore, the lack of an ability to look up older entries mirrors how modern society has forgotten old knowledge that may be useful in the fight against evil.

Returning to the different kinds of Christianity we can, against this background, look at the Methodists with the kind of eye that English Churchmen, like Jonathan Harker, might have had. One thing that is striking about the Methodists is their preoccupation with the blood of Jesus Christ. Herbert gives many examples of “the Wesleayans’ near obsessive fixation on the Eucharist” (Herbert 116) by quoting their hymns.

From Thy blest wounds our life we draw; Thy all-atoning blood Daily we drink with trembling awe Thy flesh our daily food. ([hymn] no. 85) (qtd. in Herbert 116)

Drinking blood directly from the wound of the sacrificed Christ, whom we shall remember is also called the Lamb of God, brings to mind the “devil dancer” described by Frazer and the “baptism of blood” in Dracula. Also, the blood is equated with life. This idea is repeated by Renfield as he explains why he attacked Dr. Seward:

The Doctor here will bear me out that on one occasion I tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by the assimilation with my own body of his life through the medium of his blood – relying, of course upon the Scriptural phrase, ‘for the blood is the life.’ Though, indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has vulgarized the truism to the very point of contempt. (Stoker 280) 18

The vagueness of the last line opens it up to interpretation. Perhaps Stoker is hinting that a certain religious order has vulgarized the Eucharist by turning it into some kind of blood drinking frenzy. It is very easy to point the finger at the Methodists.

The line “[t]he altar flows with sacred blood, / And all the Temple flames with God” in hymn no. 89 (qtd. in Herbert 117) highlights the aspect of sacrifice in Jesus’ death, which as we know is meant to save mankind. Curiously, Jesus was not sacrificed in a temple, or on an altar. Then again the ritual of the Eucharist is like a revisiting of the Last Supper, whence the Eucharist comes, and revisiting it in the Temple, or Church, the slaughtering of Jesus is also revisited in that setting because the ritual evokes the blood:

Still the wounds are open wide, The blood doth freely flow As when first His sacred side Received the deadly blow: Still, O God, the blood is warm, Cover’d with the blood we are. (no. 122) (qtd. in Herbert 117)

This hymn is meant to take the participant of the ritual back to the time of the sacrifice, but what kind of sacrifice was is intended? It is so close to ritual sacrifice in the mind, that making, for instance, a real lamb take the place of the Lamb of God on the altar is not unthinkable; it would actually make sense. If society were to deteriorate into “savagery”, as Dracula seems to warn us of, could a form of Christianity “go back to” performing sacrifices? It is not outside the realm of Judeo/Christian tradition to sacrifice animals. In Israel, some Orthodox Jews have taken up the old tradition of sacrificing a lamb at Passover (“Jewish Group to Slaughter Lamb in Passover Sacrifice Rehearsal.” Israeltoday.co.il ). That is, they “sacrifice the lamb” at the time of Easter. From a non-religious perspective, the story of Jesus Christ can easily be imagined to be a legend offshoot of this tradition.

Is Dracula warning us of a spiritual deterioration into paganism? In the Old Testament, animal sacrifice is common, and even human sacrifice occurs. The most notable example is that of Abraham, who was told to sacrifice his son. It was only a test of his faith and he did not have to go through with it, but all the same, he had to sacrifice a ram instead. Considering the Old Testament as a basis of religion and the New Testament being all about one specific human sacrifice, it would make perfect sense if Christianity involved sacrificing a sheep on certain dates to commemorate their saviour. Instead, they drink wine and eat bread, a custom 19 adopted from Greco/Roman worship of the god of wine Dionysus/Bacchus, as if it is less pagan than animal sacrifice. Dracula may be warning us that a kind of development towards paganism is occurring within some Christian churches.

Stoker probably did not believe that the English would start performing blood rituals. But he might have observed that something passed for Christianity, which he considered to be similarly savage, even if only in its imagination. To support the idea that Vampirism is supposed to be a debased version of Christianity, or something that pretends to be Christianity, we can consider Dracula’s similarities to Christ, and add to it that he seems attached to chapels. He has one in his own castle, and he has one at his estate in England. He also needs to sleep in the earth from his own chapel, which is “sacred of holy memories” (Stoker 355). Professor Van Helsing explains: “’He has chosen this earth because it has been holy. Thus we defeat him with his own weapon, for we make it more holy still. It was sanctified to such use of man, now we sanctify it to God.’” (Stoker 355) Whatever Dracula represents, it depends on something which is somewhat holy, but is hurt by something “truly” holy. Could it be a system of superstition which constitutes a form of “proto-religion”? It certainly seems possible, and perhaps this superstition creeps in through those churches that pervert the word of God.

If Dracula is a false Christ, or even an anti-Christ, then is there a true Christ in the novel? As mentioned above, it is difficult to firmly establish whether one specific character fits the role. Arthur Holmwood is a candidate, because he is the “only son of Lord Godalming” (Stoker 91). Godalming “is a town and civil parish in the Waverly district of the county of Surrey, England.” (“Godalming.” The Free Dictionary ) But the description sounds something like “the only begotten son of the LORD GOD almighty”. Before long, he takes over the title of his father, and thus he is both the Lord, and the son of the Lord in the book, so he embodies two thirds of the holy trinity. With such symbolic naming, one would expect Arthur to be the leader of the group of friends but the leader is Van Helsing, whose first name is Abraham, just like the aforementioned Biblical character who is considered to be the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. On the opposite side of good and evil, Dracula uses the alias “Count de Ville” during his retreat back to Transylvania (Stoker 326). These names serve to identify the groups of vampires and vampire hunters as being on the sides of the Christian God and the Devil, and are perhaps not meant to do more than that. Dracula is elsewhere suggested to have been a student of the Devil, and not the beast himself. The Christian imagery is not consistent with the naming. The character Quincy Morris receives a “Christological wound in the side” 20

(Herbert 100) by the knife of a gypsy as he fights his way through a group of them to get to Dracula, whom he subsequently stabs in the heart and in this way sacrifices himself to save the world (Stoker 447).

The collection of religious images and the mishmash of beliefs with unclear internal logic could be said to reflect the situation for religion in Victorian England, where many versions of Christianity competed. The uncertainty of faith is apparent, and the conflict between different varieties is represented in the novel. If Stoker took the side of any particular church it was one which emphasized holy objects. The notion that new versions of Christianity may be false, and maybe even ancient paganism in dusguise is mirrored in Van Helsing’s words: “We see around us every day the growth of new beliefs, which think themselves new; and which are yet but the old, which pretend to be young – like the fine ladies at the opera.” (Stoker 229) Though he is talking about science, he is also describing the situation regarding spiritual beliefs in late Victorian England.

Considering the similarities between vampirism, ancient pagan rituals and Christianity, Dracula appears to warn us that there are subversive elements that masquerade as true Christianity and are degenerating faith. The danger is not only to be the victim of a vampire, but to be infected with vampirism, and thus to be damned. Therefore, the warning is to not be fooled into accepting a false faith.

Occultism

If vampires in Dracula seem to resemble some kind of debased version of Christianity, and a false belief system with pagan overtones, we are in the realm of spiritual confusion. If atavistic, false and unchristian beliefs are warned against in the novel, and reflect society in some way, then there are other worries besides incorrect versions of Christianity. This section will explore the possibility that both the Vampires and Professor Van Helsing and his friends form secret societies which practise ritual magic.

In Victorian England séances became popular, and more than a few people believed in ghosts. There were also secret societies, as there are still, in which people believed in and practiced ritual magic. George P. Landow claims that“[t]he [occult] movement's emphasis upon ‘exercise of the will’ distinguished magic and the occult of the 1880s and '90s from mid- century spiritualism, which featured passive, often female, mediums.” (in “Late-Victorian Occultism” The Victorian Web ) In addition, some of the secret societies practised sex magic. 21

According to Dina Birch “Sex magic acquired a popularity that was hard to control, and here the secrecy of magical orders could become a baleful mask for exploitation.” (qtd. in Landow) These societies broke not only the established moral code, but were also heretical, so they were highly controversial.

Herbert talks about the vampires in Dracula as a kind of cult which performs blood drinking rituals. In tune with Neo-Gothic gloom, such a cult of would-be vampires might have seemed intriguing to some Victorians, perhaps as a morbid trend among decadent aristocrats, or seekers in general. To modern day “Goths”, vampires are very popular and there are actual vampire-cults of various kinds. That, if anything, should be a testament to how completely the world has ignored the warnings in Dracula .

The view of Stoker’s vampires as a cult is relatively easy to accept. Dracula himself would be the central leader, who is seen as a god. He uses mind control on his followers whom he can easily manipulate. The beliefs of the cult echo Christian beliefs, which encourages a religious, ritual interpretation of their blood drinking. The fact that they literally drink blood makes them appear to be some kind of freakish sect, rather than a “normal crowd”. We could choose to interpret the blood drinking figuratively, and the popular interpretation is that it represents sexual activity. For instance, this interpretation enables us to view the vampires as a cult that practises sex magic. In addition to this, the fact that Dracula is also a representative of the devil in the narrative, if not the devil himself, or a follower thereof post his attendance at Scholomance, which “was fabled to be a legendary school of black magic run by the Devil situated in the mountains of Romania” (“Scholomance” The Free Dictionary ) puts this cult in the category of devil-worshipers. In other words, they look like a satanic cult.

However, it is also possible to interpret the protagonists of the story as making up a cult of their own. To begin, the group dynamics are interesting. Professor Van Helsing is the unquestionable leader. Everyone looks up to him because he is a wise, learned and charming old man. He is very charismatic. At the same time, he is sneaky and manipulative. Instead of saying from the beginning that he suspects that they are dealing with a vampire he keeps that information to himself and only reveals what needs to be revealed in order for his friends to follow his lead. It is not until they see for themselves that Lucy is undead that they are fully initiated into the vampire hunter society.

Van Helsing also resembles a kind of priest and teacher of the esoteric. The others are very modern and try to think scientifically, but he often talks about God. About vampires he says 22 they are “a blot in the face of God’s sunshine; an arrow in the side of Him who died for man” (Stoker 284). This makes the vampire problem a matter of fighting the enemies of God. That is not to say that Van Helsing does not think scientifically, he does so to a great extent, but he has learned to be open minded. In a bewildering rant Van Helsing teaches Dr. Seward that science does not have all the answers. He says: “Ah, it is the fault of science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.” (Stoker 229) He asks Dr. Seward if he believes in “corporeal transference”, “materialization”, “astral bodies” or “hypnotism” (Stoker 232). Then, after listing many strange facts (many of which we would today recognize as false) he instructs Dr. Seward not to let “a small truth check the rush of a big truth” (Stoker 232), which he understands to mean that “you want me not to let some previous conviction injure the receptivity of my mind with regard to some strange matter.” (Stoker 232) Van Helsing is trying to open Dr Seward’s mind to the notion that science does not have all the answers.

Not only does this rant convey what occultists in the late-Victorian period, some of whom were scientists, believed, namely that they were not immersed in “alternative versions of the supernatural” but “enlarging the boundaries of the natural” (Landow n. pag.); it also resembles some form of indoctrination or mind control technique. Dr. Seward notes in his diary that during Van Helsing’s rant he was “getting bewildered; he so crowded on my mind his list of nature’s eccentricities and possible impossibilities that my imagination was getting fired.” (Stoker 231) Furthermore, he notes that he “had a dim idea that he was teaching me some lesson”, but without telling him what it is, “yet, I wanted to follow him” (Stoker 231). This could be interpreted as a manipulative technique that lets the subject come to the desired conclusion himself. As hypnosis is mentioned in the rant, one might suspect that Van Helsing is hypnotizing Dr. Seward. He later hypnotizes Mina, so it is confirmed that he has the ability. At least, his harangue is meant to condition Dr. Seward’s mind to “believe things that [he] cannot” (Stoker 232). In other words, he is breaking down old patterns of thought, to make Dr Seward receptive to indoctrination into a new belief system.

Another cultish aspect of Van Helsing’s group can be derived from the interpretation of vampirism having to do with sex. Though the group is actively trying to destroy the vampires, their own actions bear symbolic similarity to vampirism, and can be interpreted sexually in their own right. The cultish aspect comes partly from analogy with the vampire cult, and also from ritual and occult imagery associated with the destruction of Lucy. 23

On a general level, vampirism is interpreted sexually because of the suggestive language, and also symbolically because blood is associated with procreation, and puncturing the throat is a form of penetration. The analogy in vampire hunting is the staking of the body which is an even clearer case of penetration. Hence, just like the vampires, the vampire hunters’ defining activity can be interpreted as sexual intercourse.

On a more specific level, the group engages in symbolic coitus with Lucy while she is alive, again by analogy with vampirism. As Lucy is missing blood, she is given transfusions by all the men who have proposed to her, and also the Professor. Transfusion involves needles that penetrate, the blood, and even pumping. Her husband considers his own transfusion to her, which is the only one he knows about, to “make her truly his bride” (Stoker 211) as some kind of consummation of their marriage. Van Helsing finds it hilarious that this logic makes “this so sweet maid” a “polyandrist” and himself a bigamist (Stoker 212). Why Van Helsing would demand secrecy around the transfusions is really a good question, unless one presumes some kind of sexual undertone to them. Does this suggest a form of sex magic rituals? Perhaps not as it has been described so far because no ritualistic aspect is included, but it might be the case anyway. Another question that is left open is: what ought one to read into the fact that all the blood they gave was eventually consumed by Count Dracula?

Ritual comes into the picture when the time comes to destroy Lucy the vampire. Leading up to the scene, Dr. Seward and Van Helsing make a nightly investigation at the Westenra Tomb. It sets the atmosphere for the place, which is very gothic and eerie. Curiously, there is some focus on degraded metals; “rusty, dank iron” “tarnished brass” and “clouded silver-plating” (Stoker 236). Also, Lucy’s coffin has a “casing of lead” under the lid (Stoker 236). The degraded metals in the tomb reflect not only the decay of dead bodies, but also the degraded soul of the occupant.

The scene also includes this strange passage: “Van Helsing went about his work systematically. Holding his candle so that he could read the coffin plates, and so holding it that the sperm dropped in white patches which congealed as they touched the metal, he made assurance of Lucy’s coffin.” (Stoker 236) The language strongly encourages a sexual interpretation. The reader is further prompted to interpret the scene as sexual by what follows. When the lid is opened by Professor Van Helsing, though Lucy is still hidden beneath the lead casing, Dr. Seward reacts strangely: “The sight was almost too much for me. It seemed to be as much an affront to the dead as it would have been to have stripped off her clothing in her 24 sleep whilst living” (Stoker 236) Is this sexual analogy of his warranted? Should we also interpret the event so? It continues: “Striking the turnscrew though the lead with a swift downward stab, which made me wince, he made a small hole.” (Stoker 236) Again, penetration occurs, and if the leaden barrier is somehow to be interpreted as some part of Lucy’s naked body as Dr. Seward implies, is it perhaps the “so sweet maid[’s]” (Stoker 212) hymen?

Now that one is “somewhat disturbed” by Van Helsing’s behaviour (or perhaps anyone who would read it this way) one may ask why he would do this. If the analysis of him as a cult leader holds up, it is easy to attribute the whole thing to ritual sex magic, and for Dr. John Seward, an initiation ritual, because before the night is through his doubts are gone. Considering that the vampire hunter fellowship is a group of a few chosen initiates who act in utmost secrecy, and believe that they are saving the world in the name of God through their practises, which are based on ancient knowledge, unknown to the modern world, they bear a strong resemblance to an occult secret society.

The initiation ritual for the rest of the men is even more fantastic and ritualistic. This occurs when they destroy Lucy. In the same atmospheric tomb, they have trapped the vampire. Already she has been warded off by use of sacred objects; the crucifix, and communion wafers. However, the actual process of destruction does not resemble Christianity as we know it. To add to the gothic atmosphere, Van Helsing places two candles on other coffins. (Stoker 256) It might have looked as if Lucy’s coffin were an altar. After setting up the lighting, he begins the preparation. “First he took out a soldering iron as some plumbing solder, and then a small oil lamp, which gave out . . . gas which burned at a fierce heat with a blue flame” (Stoker 256). This is not quite what one would expect in a simple staking. It is used when they “solder up the leaden coffin” after the deed is done (Stoker 260). By having a place in the narrative before the destruction of the vampire as the first things to be taken out of the bag, and another after as the last part of the process, (being the Alpha and Omega, as it were,) the flame and solder begin and end the entire ritual.

The flame and lead brings into the scene the notion of alchemy. It does take away some of the immersion into the otherwise quite ritualistic atmosphere of the scene to consider the merely practical issue of sealing the coffin. That is, unless one considers the flame and the molten metal to be alchemical symbols, and part of the ritual. The metals; lead, and degraded metals, would have significance to someone interested in alchemy, because alchemists tried to create 25 gold from base metals. However, alchemy was not just a way to gain monetary wealth by turning lead into gold. The ultimate goal (the Great Work, or Magnum Opus) was to create “the philosopher’s stone” which “was thought to be an agent of universal transmutation”, meaning that it could transform anything into anything, and just as it can cure metals of their impurities, it can cure humans of their illnesses (Lewis “Newton the Alchemist.” Nova Online ). Surely, it would be able to cure Lucy of her vampirism and remove the taint, saving her soul, which is the aim of the ritual. As we see, her purity is restored at last, when Van Helsing solders up the lead casing of her coffin.

Lucy’s staking is very ritualistic and brings to mind human sacrifice and sex magic. The lead coffin and soldering are of course not of any interest to anyone who is not interested in alchemy, unless you are an aficionado of English funerary law which has long held that “a coffin for interment above ground should be sealed” which was usually done with lead (“Coffin.” The Free Dictionary ). The striking part of the destruction scene is the actual staking. The visual atmosphere is established, and the scene takes on a ritualistic tone. The one to send Lucy “to the stars” (Stoker 258) is her husband, and the others will say “a prayer for the dead” (Stoker 258) led be Van Helsing who tells Arthur to “strike in God’s name” (Stoker 258). The bloody deed results in screeching, writhing, shaking, quivering, twisting in “wild contortions” and also champing of teeth (Stoker 258-59). The image is clearly reminiscent of a human sacrifice. Actually, the champing of teeth brings to mind animal sacrifice. We are face to face, again, with a mirror of ancient religious practises. What is more, the staking also mirrors vampirism, and it seems that the two groups are both cults engaging in blood rituals. To strengthen this view, the one performing the sacrifice becomes temporarily deified: “He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it:” (Stoker 259) According to Kathleen L. Spencer “most critics discuss this scene as symbolic of sexual intercourse and orgasm, even going so far in one case as to liken it to the ‘painful deflowering of a virgin, which Lucy still is’” (224). This also fits in well with occultism, as it is then simply sex magic. Either way it looks like an occult ritual; and furthermore, the pagan god Thor would be rather out of place in any other context, particularly a Christian context, as it is forbidden to have any other gods before the Lord.

Could this occult explanation mean that Victorian society was so corrupted already, or that the devil is so deceptive that even when you think you are fighting against him, he sneaks in and 26 corrupts your beliefs? In that case it is no wonder that the spiritual warnings in Dracula seem to have gone unheeded. On the whole, spirituality and faith seem to be approached on several levels at once, and thus several points are made at once. By introducing elements from several different areas of religion and superstition, and not following one single system of symbols, Stoker enables us to interpret rather freely. Yet it remains consistent that there is something rotten in society that ought to be taken care of.

It is not enough that vampires are a cult, but the protagonists are a cult too. This warns us not only that a cult of “others” enters society but also that we might degenerate into savage occultism as well without realizing it. The new beliefs that are actually old ones may include the occult in disguise. 27

Chapter Three: Race

It is not only spiritual degeneration through the adoption of superstitious beliefs, with the unchristian morality which accompanies them, that is of concern in the novel. The fear of racial degeneration is also an issue. The Victorians had learned about evolution and it brought up another uncertainty besides the religious question; namely, it “blurred the boundaries between human and animal in not one but two ways: by the famous argument that humans and apes had a common ancest[o]r, but also by the implied hierarchy at the end of [Charles Darwin’s] The Descent of Man which leads from the ape-like ancestors through primitive peoples to civilized Europeans.” (Spencer 204) Darwinism gave fuel to racism because it was automatically assumed that Europeans were more advanced in evolution and other races were primitive and perhaps not as clearly past the boundary that distinguishes humans from animals. Spencer argues that “Nor was this boundary a matter of abstract speculation for civilized Europeans; for if humans could evolve, it was thought they could also devolve or degenerate, both as nations and as individuals.” (Spencer 204) This kind of thinking can easily lead to eugenics.

Building on the theory of evolution and eugenics, Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso theorized that criminality was inherited (“Cesare Lombroso.” The Free Dictionary ), and “habitual criminals were throwbacks to primitive ancestors, with more of the ape than the human about them” (Spencer 204). This same criminal anthropology appears unadulterated in Dracula . Mina declares as Van Helsing humours her to complete his thesis: “’The Count is a criminal and of criminal type. Nordau and Lombroso would so classify him’” (Stoker 406). This portion of the text encourages readers to reason along the lines of hereditary degeneration, and we see that eugenics is an influence.

Eugenics is one thing and racism is another, but racism is also found in Dracula because Orientalism is to be found in it. The Orientalism in the narrative jumps off the page in the first paragraph of the book as Jonathan Harker describes his journey: “The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East” (Stoker 9). He goes on to describe his destination in Transylvania, which is in “the extreme east of the country” (Stoker) and “in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe” 28

(Stoker 10). Already, the East is equated with the wild unknown, and the people there, he continues to say are of “four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the south, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the west, and Szekelys in the east and north. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns” (Stoker 10). Van Helsing later shows contempt for the Huns by referring to them as “the devil-begotten Hun” (Stoker 286) which expresses Orientalism. The Saxons here, lest they are to be identified with, are “mixed” with the others making them impure, and the bloodlines are emphasized. Count Dracula is also a Szekely descended from the Huns, and many other “brave races”, as he calls them in a proud rant, in which he identifies his homeland as “the whirlpool of European races” (Stoker 41). After the rant Harker clearly indicates that his journey to Eastern Europe is to be related to the Orient by noting that “this diary seems horribly like the beginning of the ‘Arabian Nights,’ for everything has to break off at cockcrow” (Stoker 42). To make a judgment of the Orient Jonathan complains about the punctuality of the trains: “It seems to me that the further East you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?” (Stoker 11) From these examples, it is clear that Dracula expresses Orientalism, and has a strong emphasis on race.

The most relevant thing to take away from the Orientalism here is that Transylvania represents what England might become. One might say that Romania is not quite in the Orient, but if so it is still influenced by the Orient. And the racial and cultural mixing constitutes impurities. If Romania can come to be like the Orient, what is to stop England from the same fate? Transylvania is a cautionary example.

So if we follow eugenicist thinking, what can we conclude about Vampires? To point out ways in which a vampire is degenerate is rather like flogging an un-dead horse; it serves no purpose because we have already gotten out of it what we need. As a matter of fact, it is presumed that vampires are degenerate. The issue is, what does their degeneracy mean for us?

Not only does the vampire do evil deeds, but it spreads its evil to those affected. “All that die from the preying of the Un-Dead become themselves Un-Dead, and prey on their kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water,” Van Helsing explains (Stoker 257). In the same go he also fits in that vampires are called nosferatu in Eastern Europe and so reminds us that they are associated with the East. He goes on to say, regarding Lucy’s victims, that “[t]hose children whose blood she suck are not as yet so much 29 the worse” and “if she die in truth, then all cease; the tiny wounds of the throats disappear” (Stoker 257). The curse spreads to the children, but they can be redeemed.

This could be interpreted as a lesson in racial purity. If we consider the ever so popular interpretation of Dracula , which treats acts of vampirism as sexual acts (with good reason), combined with the novel’s inclusion of Lombroso’s theories and the Orientalism it expresses, then Count Dracula’s interaction with Lucy should logically result in mixed race babies, who would inherit Dracula’s degenerate nature. The vampire infection starts with Dracula who represents the foreign “other” whose blood is mixed with Orientals, tracing his bloodline even to Attila the Hun. The “seed” he “plants” in Lucy will be passed on to her children, and they will spread it further throughout England. This is how the circle will widen, as the blood spreads. The children represent the future generations who are “not as yet so much the worse”, because the Vampire blood can be stopped, and if Lucy does not produce any more children, the damage to the national gene-pool is not so great. That is to say, there is a small influence, but it is a matter of racial mixing and in a few generations, the foreign blood can be bred out of them, as long as the source is removed. Racial purity is thus protected. As horrible as such an interpretation may sound, it concurs with the Victorian fear of racial degeneration.

The way Van Helsing proposes to deal with the vampire amounts to no less that extermination. While he admires Dracula as he was before becoming un-dead describing him as “a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist – which the latter was the highest development of the science-knowledge of his time” (Stoker 359), he sees a great “necessity to utterly stamp him out” (359) to avoid that he become “the father or furtherer of a new order of beings, whose road must lead through Death, not life” (360). In other words, they must stop him from spreading his un-dead blood before the vampires grow too powerful and eventually infect the whole world. What his mission is might be described as the final solution to the vampire problem.

It can be argued that that the racism in Dracula flirts with anti-Semitism. As Herbert points out, Dracula is frequently described as having “’a ‘ook nose’” (Herbert 106), or “aquiline” as Harker puts it, which anti-Semitic cartoonists would have you believe is a characteristic feature of Jews. In dwelling on Dracula, “a repulsively filthy bloodsucking parasite from the East” (Herbert 106) having a hooked nose, Stoker is, as Herbert points out, playing right into the hands of those who at the time, and as of old, spouted the blood libel “(the lunatic claim that Jews murder Christians to draw their blood).” (106) Blood libels accompanied the anti- 30

Semitism that was spreading through continental Europe in the 1890s, though it was not publicly acceptable in England. (Herbert 106) Furthermore, seeing as how Dracula is a degenerate, putting emphasis on his facial features is likely to be due to belief in phrenology, (the study of head-shape to determine mental traits) which accompanied eugenics. Even if this is not an example anti-Semitism specifically, the book displays an idea of Orientalism which entails notions of racism and “white supremacy”, as it were.

Ultimately, a concern about racial purity fits well into the dynamic of vampires and the sexual interpretation. With the sexual interpretation, what are we to make of the fact that Jonathan Harker and Quincy Morris cooperatively stake Dracula in the climax of the novel? Are we to assume that they are homosexuals? Perhaps it is ritual sex magic? Or is the staking of vampires symbolic for spreading white blood? If the vampires spread their foreign blood by having sex with the English, the English fight back by having sex with vampires, spreading their supposedly “superior” blood. The war between the two groups is fought mainly with methods that symbolize the act of procreation, much like the way evolution is mainly about reproductive success. Going by racist thinking, it makes evolutionary sense to dilute the blood of the savages with civilized blood so there is less concentrated barbarity in them. From an Orientalist point of view, you are doing them a favour. By eugenicist logic, the savages are of course not supposed to be allowed to breed, but it is better to introduce good inherited qualities so that they spread in that community than to only have bad qualities circulating there which might one day spread to your community. Lombroso might have predicted that the primitive people would become less primitive and less criminal as a result.

The killing of Lucy can be interpreted in terms of eugenics or evolutionary theory in several ways. Of course, if we do not interpret the staking sexually, but as simply killing, it still performs an evolutionary function by removing the competitor. Another way of removing competitors would be to sterilize them. It is possible to view the destruction of Lucy as sterilization, if we note that Van Helsing, in preparation for the deed took out “operating knives” (Stoker 256), and Dr Seward comments that to him “a doctor’s preparations for work of any kind are stimulating and bracing” (Stoker 256-57). So in the capacity of doctor, he could be preparing for surgery, and later, soldering up the lead casing would represent stitching up the incision. In addition to these interpretations, one can include one based on Pike’s and Farr’s suggestions that degenerates are to be incarcerated permanently. Lucy “is a sleepwalker, a habit traditionally associated with sexual looseness” according to Spencer (210). Her father was also a sleepwalker and we see thus a streak of hereditary moral 31 degeneration. Considering that when Lucy dies, her entire family is also dead, and they are all buried in the Westenra tomb. One could call that a permanent incarceration which prevents them from procreating. Several interpretations amount to the same thing here, Lucy and her infected blood is taken out of the evolutionary game, which would delight eugenicists and racial purists.

It is clear that racial purity is an issue in Dracula and the concerns of national racial degeneration in late-Victorian society are echoed in terms of vampires and hereditary degeneration coupled with racist Orientalism. What is expressed is a warning, telling us to beware of bad blood, lest the blood infect the entire earth, turning it into a world of savages.

32

Conclusion

This essay has put Bram Stoker’s Dracula in perspective against its time. The novel has been shown to express many of the ideas common in the late Victorian period, at least among intellectuals. It is clear that the novel expresses anxieties resulting from science gaining precedence over the church, and that dissolution of faith is perceived as a danger, and Stoker warns that it may have negative consequences. Dracula is a devilish figure who is invited into Victorian society because they have forgotten how to recognize him, and stopped believing in his kind. They are thus helpless to stop him from corrupting people.

Dracula brings spiritual confusion, and a perverted form of Christianity and pagan ritualism. In this way he tears down the purity that has been built up, and people revert to pagan rituals and beliefs, and are damned. It has been argued here that Stoker may have used the Methodists as a prime example of a perverted version of Christianity based on the excessive preoccupation with the blood of Christ. Christianity itself has been argued to be similar to vampirism and ancient pagan ritualism. The warning is that these false beliefs are here, even though they may not be recognized.

It has also been argued that it is possible to interpret the groups of vampires and vampire hunters as occult sects practising ritual magic, with aspects of Alchemy and sex magic represented symbolically. The atmospheric images in the story prompt ritualistic interpretations. Ritual interpretations of the destruction of Lucy have included human sacrifice, sex magic, and alchemy. Furthermore, Van Helsing repeats some occult ideas and resembles a priestly figure which reinforces the interpretation. Because occultism is wildly unchristian, this is another example of the same warning only letting occultism take the place of paganism.

The story also repeats eugenicist ideas such as Lombroso’s criminology involving primitive criminal types and echoes the growing anxieties about racial purity that spawned from theories of hereditary deficiencies and were fuelled by the theory of evolution. Combined with this is racism based on Orientalist ideas. A warning is issued that the influence of the degenerate could spread over the entire world, and Transylvania serves as a cautionary example of what Britain, and the world, may become. Furthermore it has been argued here 33 that suggestions can be inferred in Dracula regarding how to deal with this threat, which include incarceration, sterilization, killing, and simply procreating more than the “others”.

On the whole, the book shows a great concern about purity and fear of degeneration. It seems offer a warning not to let ourselves become debased and permissive of degeneracy, as this poses a great danger to society and the world. The world of the Victorians was truly at stake, and to save it influences such as Dracula must be “utterly stamped out”. The story shows such a crusade, but it did not stop the world from changing. Much of what was warned against in Dracula − loss of Christian morality, loss of Christian faith, mixing of races − are nowadays considered normal. From a modern day perspective these developments do not seem like anything negative. This is because the world did not turn out primitive and atavistic. On the contrary, most modern Westerners would probably consider the prudish and racist ideas of the Victorians to be very outdated and obsolete. They might even be called primitive.

The world seems to have ignored the warnings in Dracula almost completely, and to revel in it. Many have even begun to identify with vampires. Today, vampires are not always portrayed as monsters. Vampirism is often romanticised. Given the choice, who would not want to be immortal and powerful? The world has changed a lot since the nineteenth century. It might be said, disobediently and comically encompassing the issues of racial purity and Christian morals: “Once you go ‘Drac’ you never go back!” 34

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