While thought of as an improvement to human society, science also makes humans more close-minded. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, technology plays an important role in the Victorian society. There are trains, phonographs, typewriters, and telegraphs. Trains are the main use of travel and telegraphs allow the characters to send each other short messages. In fact, the story itself has diary entries made by Mina’s typewriter or Dr. Seward’s phonograph that records his voice in wax cylinders. Also, the new medical concept of blood transfusions play an important aspect in the story. With these advancement of technology, the Victorian mindset leans more towards science and logic. This conflicts with Dracula who symbolizes the ancient mindset of humans: …show more content…
In the article by Glennis Byron, “Bram Stoker’s Gothic and the Resources of Science” he states that, “In Dracula it is not just Harker’s shorthand journal that is ‘nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance’. Telegraphs, typewriters, telephones, phonographs, and kodaks are all drawn upon in the fight against the vampire” (Byron). However, there are a few instances where technology fails to help the heroes. In one instance, a telegram from Van Helsing to Dr. Seward arrives late because of a glitch in the telegraph. This leads to Dr. Seward arriving too late at Lucy’s home to help her on the night that Lucy’s mother dies of shock and Lucy teeters on the edge of death after a wolf jumps into their room. Furthermore, the steamboat that Arthur and Jonathan use to travel upstream got in an accident in the river, delaying their chase for the gypsies and Dracula. Dr. Seward records the incident in his diary entry and states, “I fear that the boat is not any better for the accident; the peasantry tell us that after she got upon smooth water again, she kept stopping every now and again so long as she in sight” (391). Even though the steamboat has more speed and power than rafts, with it relying on intricate engines as it travels up a rapid river shows to be more difficult than the old-fashioned way of traveling on
Is the main message of Dracula, by Bram Stoker really about the exploitation of powers and how they affect Victorian People’s lives?
Dracula is the scientist character who uses technology as a tool for control in the novel. What enables him to have control is through the power of sound and can be seen in the novel, “Somewhere high overhead, probably on the tower, I heard the voice of the Count calling in his harsh, metallic whisper. His call seemed to be answered from far and wide by the howling of wolves.”(Stoker 61). The words “harsh” and “metallic” stand out from this passage due to the machine like characteristics given to Dracula. This gives an image that Dracula itself is a technological remediation. From the quote the power can be seen in various manners, such as the ability to communicate long distance through mediums or to experience what the mediums are going through, which can be done at any time. Jonathan Harker description of Dracula’s voice presents him as a tool of technology. Stoker portrays Dracula as a metallic machine similar to the phonograph to indicate the possible manipulation that could be done by humans who possess advance technology. One can make a comparison between Dracula, if seen as a machine, and the Phonograph. The purpose of phonograph is to aid humanity while Dracula’s is the complete opposite since it wants to manipulate its human counterpart. Their similarity lies in their ultimate objective, the preservation of their immortality. The way
Bram Stoker’s Dracula includes themes of death, love, and sex. Stoker’s use of empiricism utilizes the idea that everything is happening “now”. The book offers clear insight into who is evil without explicitly saying it. Stoker’s interest in empiricism uses British womanhood as a way to distinguish between good and evil.
It is precisely the point that Hollywood distorts and corrupts serious literature for the entertainment pleasures of a mass audience. In the task of comparing and contrasting the novel of "Dracula" to film extracts of "Bram Stoker’s Dracula", values, meaning and context discovered lie between discrepancy and similarity. The change from differing mediums, novel and film, reveal characteristics and possibilities of narratives. Through the advancement of technology, modern writers have gained a cinematic approach to their writing. However Dracula, written in 1987 by Abraham Stoker, where the introduction of technology was gradual, forging inventions such as the typewriter and phonograph, made reference to in the novel, had no anticipation of what technology would have an effect on such writings. With society’s fascination with the supernatural, and love of technology, Dracula’s many adaptations, film, stage, have ensured its survival through the passage of time.
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” came to print in 1897, at the height of nineteenth century Victorian life in Europe, a progressively modern era that saw much medical and technological advancement. This era brought with it the contentious idea of an empowered woman, the “New Woman,” a woman who aspires to be educated as well as sexually and economically independent. Stoker gives a contrasting view of this notion in “Dracula.” While the main characters, Lucy and Mina, are clearly opposite in personality, they are both portrayed as unequal, defenseless objects that are to be protected and desired. However, one woman’s fate is determined by her weakness, while the other is determined by her strength.
In a world with ghosts, monsters, demons, and ghouls, there is one being that resonates in everyone’s mind. The idea of these creatures can be found in almost every culture on the planet in one form or another. They prey on the weak and they feast on the blood of their victims. They are compared to a fox for being quick and cunning, but also rather seductive in their nature. With their unholy existence one can only describe them as almost demonic. So what is this horrid creature? Well it is none other than the vampire, a creature as old as time itself. Throughout history there have been many different variations of the vampire, each with their own unique abilities. But one cannot help but mention
A noticeable difference in the way movies have changed over the years is evident when comparing and contrasting two films of different eras which belong to the same genre and contain the same subject matter. Two vampire movies, Dracula and Bram Stoker's Dracula, present an interesting example of this type of study.
Podonsky, Amanda . "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society." RSS. Student Pulse: The International Student Journal, 1 Jan. 2010. Web. 6 May 2014. .
As it has been established by Mighall, Jonathan’s sexual and perverse writings of his experience in Dracula’s castle are to compensate for and explain the high level of anxiety as well as to contain it one place: “eroticizes the monstrous to contain it or explain it? Writing up his accounts of how he thinks monsters should be represented. He dwells on the sexual, transforming the supernatural into ‘an erotic spectacle’” (Mighall 228-9). Dracula represents larger political and social issues such as the fear and anxiety of reverse colonialism as well as the collapse of the British Empire. He further symbolises the collapse of patriarchal society with the New Woman idea. Count Dracula serves “as a reminder to Britain of the undesirable “diversity” of Eastern nations” (Gelder 11). Stoker presents Britain’s view on the foreign and unknown through Jonathan Harker’s perspective. At the beginning of the text, he notes in his journal: “It seems to me that the further east you go to the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?” (Stoker 2). However, it could be argued that Dracula views the modern world as monstrous and perverse. This is evident as Van Helsing and his group are trying to destroy his existence with the help of new technologies. Therefore, technology is monstrous as it is taking over the person as well as outsmarts
Through the gothic writing of Stoker, there was a huge intimidation of Dracula coming forth from it. “Stoker spared no effort to present his demonic vampire as dramatically as possible” (Leatherdale 105-17). With this sinister presence of death, people start to panic. As a vampire hunter, it was Helsing’s job to help notify people on how to rid themselves of this demon. Stoker portrays survival in the form of teamwork between the men and women of the novel. These characters soon take survival into their own hands. “‘We must trace each of those boxes; and when we are ready, we must either capture or kill this monster in his lair; or we must, so to speak, sterilize the earth, so that no more he can seek safety in it’” (Stoker 373). At this point in the novel, the characters know about the existence of vampires. The consequences are also put on top priority. The men know of the consequences, yet still want to go after this demon. “By chasing Dracula, the men risk being sentenced to an immortal life as a vampire. This immortality is endless time lived in physical form” (Poquette 35). Knowing the risks of hunting a vampire, the characters ignore them to protect their loved ones. A vampire hunter is an important factor in the novel because without one, the other characters wouldn’t know what to do. Stoker chose right in including
In Senf’s essay she points out that modern readers of Stokers novel are more likely to be surprised by this version of Dracula. In Stokers novel most of the action occurs in nineteenth-century London. Senf also shines a light on the fact that Stoker has made it so he cannot comment directly on his characters’ failures in judgment, or their lack of self knowledge with the type of narration selection he has chosen, Dracula as well is never allowed a voice in this novel.
show the audience that the film is in this style, such as the mise en
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre;
to make us see how it would feel like, if there was a blood thirsty
Indispensable to understanding the complexity of the problem of technology, in both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer, is the historical context in which the two were written. Whereas Frankenstein was written in a period of dramatic change - that of the Industrial revolution, in Neuromancer, Gibson echoes the opinion of economists who believe that we are currently experiencing the beginning of a profound economic revolution, due to the breakthroughs in information and communication technology, and which some believe is equal in magnitude to the industrial revolution. The second leitmotif of my research is that of nature in reference to technology. Here I describe the relation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to technology and some of the crucial issues co...