The Function Of The Other In Dracula

Bram Stoker’s Dracula introduces readers to a novel which closely examines the function of the ‘Other.’ In this particular novel, the immoral ‘Other’, positioned at the root of the disruptions in a progressing British society, is constructed as being physically and mentally diseased as well as essentially dangerous. Among the several ‘Othered’ characters, Renfield-the ‘unusual lunatic,’ emerges as an extremely interesting but often overlooked character. He is presented through the observations of Dr. Seward, and is carefully crafted as an unsettling blend of the British and human ‘Self’ with a diseased and decadent ‘Other’. This essay will therefore focus on how Renfield is constructed as the ‘Other’ within the ‘Self’, digressing from the psychological,

physical and societal British norms.
Renfield is introduced to us as a psychologically diseased character that is excluded from society and placed in an asylum even before Dracula’s invasion on the British soil.

He is constructed through the gaze of the psychologist Dr. Seward, who describes him as a complex lunatic who has “a method in his madness,” rationality behind his irrationality. He is the irrational ‘Other’ in a rational society, and the complex ‘Other’ among the ‘usual lunatic.’ Renfield’s ‘otherness’ is thus constructed through his unstable mind, making him the most vulnerable to Dracula’s influence. He is therefore the epitome of the ‘Other’ embodying the “late-nineteenth-century fear that human beings are soulless machines motivated solely by psychological factors.” (A. Stiles, 2006) In the case of Renfield, the latter disconnects himself from the human world by rejecting Dr. Seward and following Dracula when he says, “I don’t want to talk to you. You don’t count now. The master is at hand.” Here, we can see how unlike Mina, Van Helsing or Dr. Seward, Renfield backs off from the humane ‘Holy duty’ of destroying the immoral Count consequently living as an experimental vessel influenced by an exterior force. The irony however, lies in the fact that it is Dracula himself that kills Renfield. This shows how the mentally unstable ‘Other’ is not only rejected by the rational British society but is also rejected by Dracula as he is just an unsteady ‘’soulless machine’’ whose blood, life or abilities are

seen as being unworthy.
Though Renfield is not physically different as Dracula with hairs on the palm of his hands, he does possess a diseased body.

His unhealthy body is characterised by the same element which makes Dracula and Lucy degenerates, the intake of blood. He is thus constructed as the ‘Other’ with an unquenching thirst and need for “red blood, with years of life in it.” Renfield’s desire for blood moves towards a sole purpose, to become stronger, thereby experiencing an evolution. Dollimore explores how the “idea of evolutionary degeneration” is an “extreme catastrophic unbinding of civilisation,” that is, when trying to experience an evolution the individual cuts lose from civilisation and his humanity altogether. In Renfield’s case, by trying to experience similar evolution as Lucy and Dracula, Renfield commits an even greater misdeed, as unlike vampires; he decides to consume blood by choice, and not by

obligation.
The diseased body is not only characterised by an evolution through blood, but also by a relapse of the ‘Self’ into primitiveness. Renfield is the only character without an element of the fantastic when it comes to the manifestation of the “primitive past within the civilised present.” (J. Dollimore, 1998) This reversion to primitiveness is highlighted by Stoker when he associates Jonathan during his stay at Dracula’s castle and Renfield as “rat” and “dog” respectively, reducing them to an animalistic state. The primitiveness of Renfield is also fascinatingly portrayed through his body’s reaction to the presence of Dracula. Unlike Mina, or Lucy who after being contaminated experience paleness and loss of blood, and Jonathan who undergoes a brief experience of madness, the diseased body on the other hand, reacts differently.
…urban degenerates are on one hand regarded as enfeebled and unhealthy, on the other as capable of great powers and adaptability and survival. (J.Dollimore, Death, desire, and loss in Western culture, p.143)
Similarly, Renfield goes through a state of excitement, experiences raw force-when he harms Dr. Seward, and adopts a state of dominance by comparing himself to Enoch who “walked with God.” He therefore emerges as an accurate mirror of the degenerate.
Renfield is also constructed as the ‘Other’ who along with Dracula disrupts the social hierarchy of the British Society. (Croley L.S, 1995) He is a character who does not belong to the rational society, nor does he belong to Dracula’s world of the undead and neither does he belong to the asylum as he is unlike the usual lunatic. In Dr. Seward’s words, Renfield is a “pet lunatic […] talking elemental philosophy and with the manner of a polished gentleman.” He thus remains a singular irregularity with no belongingness to any group, emerging as an unknown which is disconnected from the class hierarchy of the British society. This suggests that Renfield is indeed the unwanted disruption in a well-ordered society and is thus excluded not only from the British space, but also from the plot itself by being killed off in a pitiable manner in a battle with Dracula left to be narrated as a “misadventure in falling from bed.”
In a nutshell, Renfield emerges as a prominent example of the complex and undesired ‘Other’ within the ‘Self’. Unlike the Draculian self which remains in spite of everything, an imaginary construction of the mind; Renfield is the assemblage of the undesired characteristics in an individual that remains close to the early nineteenth century reality. He is constructed as an unstable and unpredictable diseased mind that ignores his duty of protecting his society, assembled as the primitive body which seeks evolution- a progress demonised by the author, and tagged as a disruption to the social harmony of the British society.