Comparison Of Dracula And The Woman In Black By Bram Stoker

The theme of good against evil is common in gothic fiction, and the

novels Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1897) and The Woman in Black, by Susan

Hill (1983), contain clear examples of this theme.

The novel Dracula contains an obvious example of evil, through the

main character- Count Dracula. Dracula is powerful and tyrannical and,

more interestingly, he is the only male vampire within this novel.

This emphasises his dominance, and the power that he has over the

characters as he alone is terrorising them. His name has evil

connotations; stemming from the Romanian word ‘dracul’ meaning dragon

or devil, this would have evoked fear in some as it suggests a threat.

When describing Dracula, Jonathan, the initial protagonist ‘could not

repress a shudder’.

This suggests that he is looking at something
horrifying, and initially is concerned by Dracula’s appearance.
Imagery is used when he comments on Dracula’s long nails, saying they
are ‘cut to a point’.

This imagery suggests violence and pain, as

though even Dracula’s nails are dangerous. Jonathan describes the

Counts teeth as ‘peculiarly sharp white teeth’. The adjectives used in

this phrase suggest animalistic qualities, as though Jonathan is

already seeing abhuman qualities in the Count.

Religion is also an important element of this novel, as it represents

the force of good that opposes Dracula, and vampirism. The ‘good’

characters within this novel believe that they are carrying out an act

of God, shown in the phrase ‘we are ministers of God’s own wish’. The

collective noun used in this phrase suggests that they are all now

ministers, despite and are willing to die for their cause; this is

shown through the phrase ‘if we fall, we fall in good cause’. The

repetition of ‘fall’ suggests that they doubt whether they will be

able to defeat this evil. When Dracula is finally defeated, he has a

‘look of peace’. This phrase suggests Christian redemption, as Dracula

has been defeated in the name of God, and it is as though with his

death he has been cleansed of his ‘sins’.

The theme of good against evil is not only made apparent through the

characters that oppose Dracula and theme of vampirism but

also
through the way in which women of the novel fall victim to the
exaggerated power of men, and the views of a traditional Victorian
society. Van Helsing uses the superlative phrase ‘A brave man's blood
is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in trouble. You're a
man, and no mistake.’ The repetition of ‘man’ in this phrase is used
to emphasise a man’s power, suggesting that he is the best thing to
help a woman. Van Helsing also describes Mina as ‘one of God's women’.
This suggests perfection and purity, and he follows it with repetition
and asyndetic listing in the phrase ‘so true, so sweet, so noble, so
little an egoist’ to emphasise the traits in Mina that he sees as
positive.
However, it could also be perceived that women were also examples of
evil within this novel, in particular when demonstrating the ideals of
the ‘New Woman’. Lucy’s character in particular, clearly demonstrates
these ideals through her expression of her own sexuality, with the
phrase ‘Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want
her […]?’ This rhetorical phrase suggests that Lucy is advocating
polygamy, which would have received a negative response at this time,
as women were expected to be devoted to their one husband. Lucy goes
on to use the declarative ‘I must not say it’ which emphasises how
scandalous it would be to be polygamous, and how it shouldn’t even be
suggested.
In contrast to Lucy, Mina represents a feminine ideal, through her
devotion to her husband and lack of expression of her sexuality. When
speaking of the female vampires, Jonathan uses the phrase ‘Mina is a
woman, and there is naught in common. They are devils of the Pit’.
This phrase contrasts good and evil, and also suggests imagery of
Hell, and that these female vampires, who are sexually aggressive
towards Jonathan, are incredibly different to Mina, who is virtuous
and pure. Jonathan’s reaction to the female vampires emphasises the
negative attitudes towards women in a Victorian society who are
sexually aggressive and forward.
Setting is used effectively in Dracula, in order to create a sense of
fear and evil, and it is initially narrated to us through the eyes of
Jonathan as he travels through the unfamiliar, foreign Transylvanian
setting. Personification is used in the phrase ‘great, frowning
rocks’. This creates a sense of hostility, setting the tone and
foreshadowing the events to later occur at Castle Dracula. Stoker also
effectively uses the gothic theme of obscurity within the description
of setting, in particular within the phrase ‘I could not see anything
through the darkness’, as the preposition ‘see through’ gives the
darkness a physical presence, as though it is deliberately concealing
something from Jonathan. Personifying the weather is a common element
in gothic literature, and is used in the phrase ‘rising wind, for it
moaned and whistled’. This personification creates a sense of fear as
it has monstrous and dangerous connotations.
Not only would the description of the setting have had created sense
of fear but also at the time the novel was written, the location of
Transylvania would have had dangerous, evil connotations as it
represented a foreign, unknown territory. Dracula, a foreigner from
this country, would have illustrated Victorian anxieties about the
destabilisation of British society, leading to his character receiving
negative reactions before the reader knows about his vampirism.
The Woman in Black also appears to have clear differences between
good and evil, however, as the story goes on it becomes increasingly
evident that the lines between good and evil in this novel have been
blurred, especially in regards to the character Jennet – the ‘Woman in
Black’. Jennet is a victim of the ideals of motherhood in a Victorian
society- as her child was born out of wedlock, ‘pressure was being
exerted upon her to give up the child for adoption’. When writing a
letter to Alice Drablow, her sister who adopted her son Nathaniel,
Jennet frequently used repetition of the possessive ‘mine’ emphasising
how the child is hers, and will never belong to anyone else. Giving
this insight into her past suggests that it isn’t entirely her fault
that she is evil now, which is a clear example of the blurred lines
between good and evil- she feels the need to take revenge as no one
helped her, or saved her child. This is further reinforced when Arthur
later uses the phrase ‘of someone’s evil and also of terrible grief
and distress ’. This makes it seem as though he is beginning to
understand the emotions of the Woman, which in turn allows the reader
to begin to understand the emotions of the Woman as well.
The Woman in Black and Dracula have similar settings, for example
Jonathan Harker and Arthur Kipps both travel on a train, which is
symbolic of their journey into the unknown, into a land they are not
familiar with.

They also both feature deserted houses and graveyards,

as well as the encounters with mysterious strangers. Setting is an

important feature of this novel- Eel Marsh House is almost just as

important a character as Arthur or the Woman herself. It is a

traditionally gothic setting, its isolation and belligerent atmosphere

reflecting perhaps upon the nature of the Woman. The house is

personified; described as ‘rising out of the water’, ‘tall’ and

‘gaunt’. Giving the house human qualities adds suspense to the novel

as it seems like another character that could potentially harm Arthur.

The location is haunting, and causes Arthur to experience an ‘awful

ghostly repetition of the whole event’ or Nathaniel’s death. Imagery

and syndetic listing is used in the phrase ‘then, above it all, and

above the whinnying and struggling of the pony, the child’s cry, that

rose and rose to a scream of terror and was then slowly choked and

drowned; and finally, silence’. This phrase is effective in giving

background to the experiences that caused Jennet’s haunting and

allows
the reader to understand why she is taking her revenge. The lexical
set ‘cry’, ‘scream’ and ‘silence’ is effective as it creates
juxtaposition, and allows the silence to create dramatic effect and
tension as it changes so rapidly from screams.
An interesting point about these novels is the future of the ‘evil’
characters. Dracula is eventually defeated, however in contrast to
this; the Woman in black is not. This perhaps has deeper connotations;
Dracula was not seeking revenge, whereas the Woman was.