Similarities Between Frankenstein And Dracula

Jerrold E. Hogle claimed “the longevity and power of Gothic fiction unquestionably stem from the way it helps us address and disguise some of the most important desires, quandaries and sources of anxiety” implying that the relevance of Gothic novels to modern and contemporary subject matters allows them to be timeless classics and provoke different reactions from different eras. This is due to the substance of the Gothic novels, and how the authors were often not afraid to address societal dilemmas. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker are two examples of this.

Mary Shelly uses Frankenstein’s monster as a metaphorical figure to demonstrate the treatment of the marginalised. This is clarified through the Monster’s declarative

“All men hate the wretched;” referring to the fact that his physical appearance has caused everyone in society to reject him – including his creator, Frankenstein. This could be an allusion to the treatment of women during the time, implying that men often shun and disregard women who are unappealing, similar to how Frankenstein’s monster is hated by Frankenstein, and Felix, Safie and Agatha, people who Frankenstein’s monster just wanted to be friends with, when they see his outer appearance. Anthropomorphism is used, as the monster is not necessarily human, but human attributes are being assigned to it to reflect societal views of womankind. During the 18th century, if you were an unattractive woman, you were viewed as less than other women who were conventionally beautiful, and treated poorly as a result of this. Both a Victorian woman’s unattractiveness and Frankenstein’s monster’s is viewed as the defining feature of their self-worth, and the reason for the melancholy lives they live. Therefore, Shelley includes didacticism in Frankenstein to reflect morality.
Despite the unlikelihood of the character of Count Dracula being a metaphor for any oppressed group, both Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula are established to be ‘the Other’ – meaning they cannot adapt to society and are constantly segregated by those with xenophobic views that brand them as sub-human, which was the popular mind-set of the time towards people who did not fit into the white, male and rich category. However, Count Dracula is illustrated as a villain and the antagonist of Dracula, who the characters are terrified of, whereas Frankenstein’s monster is more of a ‘tortured soul’, meaning Shelley inflicts a moral dilemma on the readers due to the unclear idea of whether Frankenstein’s monster is the antagonist or protagonist. Due to this, the characters individual treatments as the ‘Other’ conflict each other. Dracula is treated far better due to his dominance over other characters and how his physical/mental abnormalities allow him to just be exceedingly powerful.
The female characters in Dracula and Frankenstein illustrate the societal expectations of women during the Victorian era. The main culprit is Mina Harker, as she seems to be an incarnation of the quintessential woman during the Victorian era. After she marries Jonathan she becomes attentive to his every need. In one of Mina’s letters to Lucy, she proclaims “I must stop, for Jonathan is waking—I must attend to my husband!” The anaphoric repetition of the imperative ‘I must’ illustrates how Mina believes it is imperative to fit into societal norms for women – during the Victorian era, it is expected of women to be the ‘angel of the house’- someone that cooks and cleans but never is seen nor heard, and excessively polite. This included tending to your husbands every need, as demonstrated through the exclamative ‘I must attend to my husband!” Mina is consistently caring and always puts Jonathan first, fulfilling her gender role perfectly. However, despite not being independent from a man, Mina is certainly unconventional when it comes to intelligence - she is much smarter than women were supposed to be, so intelligent that Van Helsing describes her as having a “man’s brain” but this metaphor is much more demeaning to a modern audience than a contemporary audience, as despite it being necessarily a compliment, a modern audience would view it as degrading towards women, due to the suggestion that only men can be intelligent, and if you were an intelligent woman you weren’t actually a ‘woman’, illustrating that despite the fact Mina is admired for her intellect, this was not a general representation of the female population.
Despite Mina’s complexity, Lucy and Mina illustrate the Madonna-whore dichotomy accurately – Mina’s maternal and motherly nature juxtaposes Lucy’s natural sexuality.

For example, Lucy does not mind being controversial for a woman from the Victorian era – she even suggests to Mina that women shouldn’t be constrained by monogamy stating “Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” This rhetorical question demonstrates Lucy's aversion to the standards Victorian society put on women - in which they must always be submissive to men; illustrated through Mina's relationship with Jonathan. Lucy's suggestion that she would like to marry more than one man may result in the characters labelling her as a ‘whore’, similar to how a male contemporary audience would, as women were to marry one person for their whole life - marrying with more than one person suggests that you are going to have more than one sexual partner, which could result in comparisons of her to a prostitute. Despite our ever changing society in which more and more is becoming socially acceptable; Lucy's comment may even be shocking to a modern audience, as polygamy is still shunned upon and illegal in most countries today - as it does not align with a 'traditional' marriage. Yet, people – especially women are likely to agree with Lucy due to the fact that in a modern society men are still allowed to be more sexually liberated than women, even if it is less so than the

18th century. This refers back to Hogle's quote; the character of Lucy is timeless, as she is still questioned upon her actions and beliefs today - not just in the Victorian era when Dracula was written. Many more conservative readers are likely to criticise Lucy’s mind-set, whereas liberal readers would be satisfied with her ahead of her time approach. The fact that Dracula can still cause debate today suggests that it does reveal a lot about humanity, not just myths of vampires.
During the 18th century, a revolutionary philosophy was beginning to be explored throughout many different countries - this being the Enlightenment, otherwise known as the 'age of reason'.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' was released, and many people believe that the novel would not be what it is today without the Enlightenment - because of the concept of science. Alternately, Dracula was written in the Victorian era, meaning that science was structured into society. Despite this, Dracula challenges science and just what its extent is. This is ironic, as Frankenstein seems far more ahead of its time then Dracula, despite Dracula being written almost a century after Frankenstein. The majority of Frankenstein’s initial plot consists of Victor Frankenstein discussing his obsession with the idea of science and the origins of life, stating that "it was the secrets of heaven and earth that (he) desired to learn". This declarative illustrates how Victor's mind-set aligned with other peoples during the Enlightenment, as he wants to discover the secrets of the world and the answers behind everything, rather than obeying the religious dogma that was present during the time in which you were not to question anything - it was all down to

God.
The syndetic pair "heaven and earth" however, juxtaposes a theory and fact - the earth has been proven to exist, whereas heaven hasn't, mirroring Frankenstein's conflict between his father’s viewpoint and traditional views and his own desire for information. His father was not interested in science, demonstrated when Frankenstein states hyperbolically "my father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness". The metaphor 'a child's blindness is a microcosm of the dogmatic structure of society, in which you didn't know anything about the world and it's origin - almost as if you were 'blind' and couldn't see anything. The view of science and discovery is highly distorted, however, in Dracula, due to the presence of a vampire - Count Dracula, which allowed the characters to believe in something that completely disproved many scientific facts. For example, Dr Van Helsing, who is not only a Doctor but also a believer in the existence of vampires, begins to question science, through statements such as "a year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, matter-of-fact nineteenth century?" This rhetorical question alludes to the Enlightenment and how science was now seen as the answer to life’s questions and mysteries, rather than the word of the bible - but one big occurrence can change everyone’s perception of science and just what the extent of it is - how much it can prove. Despite this, a modern audience may not react well to this portrayal of science - as fictional folklore beings such as Vampires have not been proven to exist, whereas science has kept developing and more and more has been discovered.