Dracula Chapters 1-7
Three sources of superstition in Transylvania:
1. “First there is what may be called the indigenous superstition of the country, the scenery of which is peculiarly adapted to serve as background to all sorts of supernatural beings and monsters”
2. “Secondly, there is imported superstition! that is to say, the old German customs and beliefs brought hither seven hundred years ago by the Saxon colonists from their native lands, and like many other things, preserved here in greater perfection than in the original country.”
3. “Thirdly, there is the wandering superstition of the gypsy tribes, themselves a race of fortune-tellers an witches, whose ambulating caravans cover the country as with a network, and whose less vagrant members fill up the suburbs of towns and villages.” (322)
“But ‘Dracula’ is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these.” (The Daily Mail Review 363)
“In other words, Dracula successfully manages a fantasy which is congruent with a fundamental fantasy shared by many others. Several of the interpretations of Dracula either explicitly or implicitly indicate that the ‘core fantasy’ derives from the Oedipus complex…” (411)
“”Only relations with vampires are sexualized in this novel; indeed, a deliberate attempt is made to make sexuality seems unthinkable in ‘normal relations’ between the sexes.” (414)
2 thoughts on “Dracula Chapters 1-7”
I really appreciate the quotes breaking down the superstition within Dracula and I like the last sentence of it even more, “But ‘Dracula’ is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these.” This gloomy and spookiness of the novel lets its transcend time periods, you don’t need to have education on English history or on the specifics of folklore at this time to get the message and appreciate the novel as it is. Aren’t novels first made to be appreciated and then to be analyzed? I also put in the photo of Whitby in my commonplace, I thought it was nice to see and compare to what my imagination had come up with.
I also commented on the sexual topics of this book, though I used a quote referring to Lucy and her role as the “New Woman,” which was seen by society then, and perhaps Stoker himself, as scandalous. It is interesting what you’ve pointed out about how sexual relations are only seen with the vampires and not mentioned at all in human relationships in the book. What you say about the Oedipus complex is interesting, but how does that relate? So far I haven’t seen anyone desiring to be with their own parent in a romantic way.