Alexander Diaz
Dracula
Final Revised
ERH-205WX-02
Help Received: Dracula / Dracula Annotated Version

The Humanity of A Beast

Love, it is the very basis of our humanity. Love unites us and lets us feel for more than just our own sakes. Without love, without sympathy, without the care for others, what are we but machines built into societies framework. It is our love, our passions, our emotions that keep us grounded, that keep us who we are when everything around us crumbles. In Stokers Dracula we see many examples of this humanity, this love, in various characters throughout the book, even the ones that we as readers think cannot possibly have the ability to love or to be humane. Dracula and the people he turns, his offspring, still possess this level of humanity within them, this certain kind of love hidden behind their vampire sides. We see it in characters like Dracula himself, Lucy, and even in Mina before she was fully turned. Their souls might be blackened by this curse that have befallen them but their hearts still fight for this love they still yearn for. Stoker allows us these hidden glimpses of humanity so that we, as readers, can ponder the significance of these moments and show us a connection between his world that he writes about and the real world that he lives in. Stoker writes this novel for a reason and through Dracula we see firsthand that this reason is to show that humanity still resides within someone even after they are turned because of the powerful love they still posses for something or someone and that this love translates into real life with immigrants coming and being thought evil when all they wanted was to express their love for another.
Dracula is described to us from the very beginning as this tall, dreadful man with pale white skin and lips as red as blood. His touch is as cold as ice and his eyes fill Harker with this overwhelming repulsive feeling that he could not really describe at first. Throughout the chapters, again and again, we see examples of Dracula’s inhumane nature. We have many instances where Stoker persuades us of the evils Dracula can commit. But right when we are on the edge of our seats we see a glimpse of Dracula’s humanity. When Harker listens in on the conversation between Dracula and the three maidens, the reader catches something not seen before. Dracula says to the three maiden after being accused of never loving “Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?” (Stoker 41). This is the first and only time Dracula verbally reveals the love he once had in the past. It is astonishing to us as readers to see these words written out because before this Dracula seems like this heartless, maniacal, evil demon who has no trace of feeling. And then suddenly he expresses compassion? Forty pages before it was almost unthinkable to imagine this beast with any emotion other than anger because we have been told how evil this monster is and yet now we see the humanity that bangs on the bars of corruption begging to be realized. Then it hits us wholly, Dracula may be this beast with powers like none other but he still yearns to be loved like anyone else. We see this in the quote when he talks to the three maidens ending it with a question “Is it not so?”. Here we see that Dracula has indeed loved before and that he tries to prove he is not some emotionless being by asking this question to the three maidens. This basic human desire is what reveals a large part about Dracula, those unsaid words that can only be read between the lines. Dracula saying how he has loved in the past and that he too can love tells us that not only has he loved someone before but that he still has the ability to love again still even as a vampire. Seeing that he has loved before, imagining his pale face express sorrow as he explains his past love, tells us that Dracula is doing things for a reason. Why did he invite Harker to his castle? Why is he moving to England? Why Lucy as his first real offspring? Why let Harker live? The answer to each brings us closer to knowing that Dracula is trying to fill a void. This curse, forced upon him long ago, has made him secluded and alone. He cannot help what he is but he can also no longer live in the shadows alone in an empty castle. Like us all, the mighty Count Dracula, behind his black armor, just wants to be loved. This also ties into Stokers hidden agenda of showing how immigrants who were thought of as invaders and evil really had a heart too. The immigrants, like Dracula, were immediately seen as a threat and incapable of loving. But like anyone else, they too were capable of this basic human trait to love.
The next instance we see of this hidden humanity is in Lucy during her final hours. Once Van Helsing has tracker Lucy down and has caught her in the act of kidnapping a child, Stoker gives us yet another glimpse into the heart of a vampire. He describes Lucy holding the child saying “With a careless motion she flung to the ground, callous as a devil, the child that up to now she had clutched strenuously to her breast” (190). It is right here when we see it, the real Lucy buried behind such a twisted version of herself. This act of affection and her choice in victims shows us that Lucy wanted kids and cared deeply for them. Yes in the same breath Lucy is also described as a devil carelessly throwing the child but this is not the side we are focusing on. What we are focusing on is the humanity that still lurks within and not the evil that has controlled her on the outside. The affection shown within those quick seconds reveals that yes Lucy still has her humanity somewhere inside her and that if not interrupted by the trespassers she would still be clutching the child to her breast like a mother does with her child. It shows us the deep maternal instinct, this natural love for kids, that still resides within Lucy. This is Lucy’s own type of love, it is the same as Dracula’s but affirmed through kids. We see that her humanity and her love cannot be hidden because there is no way for her to suppress such feelings. Her victims are kids because through her own demented eyes that is the only way she can show her love for them. This child that she “clutched strenuously to her breast” is the symbol of her love and whatever humanity remains. Her humanity may not always shine but at this very instance when she holds the child closely to her breast, for just a second, Lucy is human again. She is a woman, a mother, feeling the warm embrace of a child, a child she probably wished was her own, sorrowed over the monster she knew she had become. A vampire would not feel as such, they would not care for such weak fragile things. On page 194 we see further proof of this as Arthur drives in the stake into Lucy’s heart, ultimately killing the beast that resides within her along with Lucy herself. Stoker describes her saying “There in the coffin lay no longer the foul thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate the work of her destruction, but Lucy as we had seen her in life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity”(194). It is almost as if Stoker is showing us that Lucy still had her humane side, it was just hidden behind the twisted corruption of that wicked curse. Stoker also shows in Lucy another problem that immigration caused. The women who did have relations with these evil immigrants might have also been seen as corrupted or slutty. In Lucy Stoker shows that a problem during his time was not only immigrants being thought of as evil but the women who had relations with them were also thought as corrupted and evil as well.
Finally we come to Dracula’s last victim, Mina. Although Mina never actually turned into a full vampire like Lucy or Dracula, we still saw a different perspective on these black hearted vampires we have come to know. Mina gives us this inside look from the other side of the fence that sees Dracula as the one that should be shown sorrow in this story instead of hating him for what he is. This is because Mina slowly being turned into one makes her realize that this curse is not something someone would want but something that is forced upon them. We can inference this because on page 269 Mina sympathizes with Dracula saying how he not only has this curse upon him but is hated for it by everyone even though it was not his choice. Usually Dracula is described as this hell spawn with fiery eyes and an ugly complexion only feeding on the innocent for his evil ways, but Mina is the first to finally see the truth. Stoker explains how Mina, after knowing what she is, sympathizes with Dracula instead of hating him for what he has done. She says “That poor soul who is wrought all this misery is the saddest case of all… You must be pitiful to him too.. Just think one day I too may need such pity.. and that some other like you may deny it to me” (269). Mina knows he is nothing more than a victim, like her, and that he does what he needs to do to survive. We know this because in the quote she says “Just think one day I too might need such pity and some other like you may deny it to me”. This tells us that Mina realizes that she is a victim of Dracula and that Dracula too might have been a victim of someone else but yet no one pity’s him because of his actions. Dracula is a victim of his own circumstance and somewhere deep inside Mina knows that Dracula was once too a human just like everyone else. She feels his humanity somewhere deep inside and connects with him on a spiritual level. Mina is our conduit into what it is like to be a creature of the night. We see, through her caring and her love, that humanity is not lost within the change into such a thing, it is just unseen by those who only see the blood sucking creatures they are. Stoker also, through Mina’s character, allows us to see what it was like to be sympathetic to immigrants during his time. In the story Mina is infected by Dracula and in turn she realizes that this evil isn’t the real him which could be Stoker’s way of saying that some people felt that immigrants weren’t evil and that they were people us like us. But this way of thinking was frowned upon and thought of as participating in the immigrants evil ways making people not like them such as how Mina might not be shown pity from someone else if she were to fully turn into a vampire.
The last question we must ask ourselves as readers is the what in this scenario. What is the reason Stoker had for writing his book and his characters in such a way? For me I think it was that during those times we saw an influx of immigrants into England. Obviously these immigrants came to prosper, expand, and make families of their own. I could easily see a problem with someone of a foreign nature falling in love or wanting to be with an English woman. This idea that these foreigners not only invaded their land but also took their woman could have influenced Stoker’s writings. Especially since it was looked down upon for having relations with these invaders. Dracula depicts the foreigner who continuously tries to steal peoples women but is only a victim of his own circumstance. He cannot help being a foreigner but he still searches for love. Lucy depicts a pure bread English woman who has fallen in love with a foreigner so now people view her as dirty or loose when all she really wants is love and her children. Mina represents a more progressive viewpoint on the matter giving a reflection on the people of England who thought it was not so bad for the two to mix. Stokers book, Dracula, has influenced society for decades. I’m sure that seeking the humanity in these vampires was only one way Stoker raised topics that occurred during his time. All in all, though, we can all agree that humanity, or more specifically the love we all share, will always outshine the evils of the world in the end.
Works Cited
Stoker, Bram, Nina Auerbach, and David J. Skal. Dracula: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Reviews and Reactions, Dramatic and Film Variations, Criticism. Print.

Austen, Jane, and Patricia Meyer. Spacks. Persuasion: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, and Contexts Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. Print.

I found the second source to be more useful to me because it gave me a deeper understanding of Austen’s interpretation of Anne. What I liked most was Weisman saying that Anne was the one good person is the midst of her evil father and sisters (besides Wentworth of course). She even goes as far as saying Anne is a “Cinderella figure dominated by a vain and unloving parent and two selfish sisters” (Weisman 281). This linked a great connection for me because we all know the tale of Cinderella and looking for similarities between that and Persuasion has given me a better understanding of the novel. It also helps with my research because it puts into laypeople terms what can be hard to say about the complex ideal of classism. It shows people how this idea of different ranks among one another not only puts us against each other but makes us scheme for power and money for our own selfish endevours.

The first primary source can easily be summarized as a battle for the old maid against the widow. The orator speaks about how the old maid gives genuine love, effection, and care for her husband while the widow only seeks wealth and power and will be on to the next one as soon as she has gotten what she wanted from her current husband. It also speaks of why the old maid is so terribly bad at getting a husband (because she acts like a clingy 15 year old girl who has her first boyfriend) while the widow already has experience in luring in men and waiting patiently to strike.

The second source was a recount of Jane Austen herself and the many ways her style and thoughts influenced her writing. We found out how religious she really was and how her knowledge of history and Belles Lettres style influenced how she wrote and formed her artist sentences that painted such vivid pictures of that time.

The last source moreso talks about Jane’s work as a whole and what her writing achieved for the reader. It also spoke about how superior her novel were to those of her time and how it rivaled other male authors. It tells us how her novel gives us a vivid description of common life during those times but also instructs us of the many customs of our time.

Out of these three I would definitely use the first primary source about the old maid and the widow because it fits into my theme of classism. It gives vivd examples of how widows will literally have mulitple husbands just for power or status and corrupt the holy communion of marriage, while tainting the very ideal of love, just to get the pleasures of the upper class.

These primary sources have given me a little brackground not only into the mind and character of Austen but of the different ways of thinking that lead to the creation of her story. For example at the end of the first primary source we see a divide between widows and old maids. It says “the man who marries  widow has great cause to apprehend unreasonable expectations, unpleasant comparisons, and variable affection; while he, who marries an old maid, may with confidence prepare to meet unexacting tenderness, increasing gratitude, and perpetual endearments” (Hayley 197). This gives us not only a summarization of the source but also a look at a diferent thought of a widow. In the story we see Mrs. Smith as someone we should pitty but this description leads us to believe that all widows are just manipulative and hungry for power and wealth. This varying thought helps with my theme that classism does indeed turn people into something different, something maniacle and scheming. The next primary source helped me with Jane’s certain style. It said “Her reading was very exstensive in history and belles lettres” (Austen 206). Belles lettres being the movement where writing became more of an art form than of simple intruction for the public. This explained why her story was so slow to read through and why the reasoning behind it did not appear so clearly at first. It was because you cannot rush art, you must embrace every word and see the true meaning behind her words. In the last primary source there is a line that states “a novel, which makes good its pretentions of giving a perfectly correct picture of common life, becomes a far more Instructive work than one of equal or superir merit of the other class; it guides the judgement and supplies a kinf of artificial experience” (Whateley 209). I think this statement of her work perfectly describes what Jane wanted to express in this story. It not only immersed us in the times but made us feel like we lived it. It gives the reader a good idea of the life of the upper class while also guiding us into the rights and wrongs of the class system during that time. It does indeed instruct us as if it is trying to make us “cultured”. And through this novel we see a glimpse into the life she lived.

Persuasion, its more than just a term used to define a process aimed at changing a person’s attitude or behavior toward something, it is a book set in 19th century England one our main character, Anne, who is the middle child of the Elliot’s, a very prominent family during the time. Although Anne is the main character of this story, the plot thrives off a hidden element that was a major factor during the 19th century. This hidden element is the classism that thrived amongst the population of England. In Dracula we saw the beast to be Dracula himself, and everyone in his evil presence changed in some way for the worst just by being around his evil aura. In Persuasion classism acts as this evil aura that twists people into becoming someone they are not and makes them do anything for an ounce of more power. Jane Austen uses classism to also reveal how women were subject to these maniacal games played by men for power and money. This ideal that one person is above another merely for the fact that he/she has a title or more money provides Anne with many difficult situations As we follow Anne through this story we see through her eyes the many people she comes across and how they interact with people based on class.

The most upfront of these examples in this book is Anne’s encounter with Mr. Elliot, her cousin. Mr. Elliot is a character that seems to come out of no where towards the end of the book. At first he is just a random passerby that admires Anne’s beauty, but as we delve deeper into these chapters we see that it was not admiration of Anne that was in Mr. Elliot’s eyes, but the gears of maniacal planning at work towards his new goal for power. Through Mrs. Smith, Anne’s close friend and an extreme gossip, we find out that Mr. Elliot has had plans to claim the title of baronet from Anne’s father and sell Kellynch hall, acquiring him not only his beloved title but also a sizable wealth. Mrs. Smith boldly explains to Anne in this powerful description of Mr. Elliot saying “Mr. Elliot is a man without heart or conscience; a designing, wary, cold-blooded being, who thinks only of himself; whom for his own interest or ease, would be guilty of any cruelty, or any treachery, that could be perpetrated without risk of his general character. He has no feeling for others. Those whom he has been the chief cause of leading into ruin, he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction. He is totally beyond the reach of any sentiment of justice or compassion. Oh! he is black at heart, hollow and black!” (Author PG). From this description of Mr. Elliot we see what classism does to a man and how it turns him into this emotionless being thirsty for power. There is no remorse when climbing the ladder of prestige because classism allows for none. To think that someone would betray and plot behind the backs of their own family is what this ideal of classism spawns. This is what Austen wanted to reveal through her text. She wanted to reveal the evils of the class system and how women were subject to men proposing not for love or want of each other, but for titles, money, and power.

Anne bears a great burden through out the story of Persuasion. Over and over again we see her struggle as not only the middle child of her family but also as the only one that seems to follow her emotions and not let this sense of class and prestige take over herself. Anne, what I believe, someone who doesn’t fit in with her social class or just doesn’t want to be apart of it. She is constantly going against the grain and tries hard to do what she likes and not what society entails. Unfortunately she is constantly held back by her family. For example in chapter four in the third paragraph we see this passage from lady Russel saying “Anne Elliot, with all her claims of birth, beauty, and mind, to throw herself away at nineteen; involve herself at nineteen in an engagement with a young man, who had nothing but himself to recommend him, and no hopes of attaining affluence, but in the chances of a most uncertain profession, and no connections to secure even his farther rise in the profession, would be, indeed, a throwing away, which she grieved to think of!” Here we see Anne’s love for the captain being dismissed and denied just because he is of lower birth and no pay. This chapter goes on telling how Anne was making a big mistake and how she eventually did not marry the captain even after confessing such feelings for him. We learn later that no man compared to her past lover after this. This is a great example of Anne versus her community because it shows the position Anne is in. It shows that sometimes she does not always get her way, and in this case lost versus her community. But she constantly fights against it hoping she will find solace one day.