The Role of Characters in Dracula and Carmilla - 1574 Words

The Role Of Characters In Dracula and Carmilla February 16th, 2009 EN-102-69 Professor Kaplan Essay 1 – Final Draft Acknowledgements This paper would not have been possible without the help of many people. Firstly, I would like to thank my classmates for all of their inputs and perspectives, in class discussions, thread discussions and their papers, which helped me gain a complete understanding of the two stories. I would also like to thank my peer edit partners Joey and Michele who provided me with constructive criticism that guided me in writing my final draft. Thank you to Professor Kaplan who guided our class discussions and played the â€Å"devil’s advocate† to get me thinking about the opposing side of the argument more thoroughly.†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬â€œ to destroy this monster; but it is not part for a woman† (Stoker 250). By doing so they were actually putting her directly in the way of danger. As the men rush in to find Mina one night they are surprised to see Dracula had beat them to her, â€Å"With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them a way with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom† (Stoker 300). In response to this passage Mara Model wrote, â€Å"I believe that when Stoker read in ‘Carmilla’ the unnecessary need for men, he wanted to prove a point, and see what it would be like if he made the Count have a female quality. If Laura could penetrate like a man, then Dracula could breastfeed like a woman. To me, it was a way to show the ridiculousness of the idea LeFanu wrote about† (3). I completely agree with Mara as I also believe that Dracula is mocking the motherly characteristic that Mina possesses by making her drink his blood from his bosom like a nursing child would drink milk from their mother’s bosom. By having a character mock the idea of the switching of gender roles, Stoker indirectly mocks LaFanu’s Carmilla. While it is true that Stoker wanted to point out the power and control that men were supposed to have over women, it does not necessarily mean that they were completely successful in doing so. Mara Model concludes that Mina â€Å"†¦was once a strong, independent woman, but after her attack, asShow MoreRelated Intertextual Exchange in Carmilla, Dracula and the Historian1639 Words   |  7 Pagesby other writers or generic conventions, but vary aspects of it in significant ways† (Friedman 155). Sheridan Le Fanu’s, Carmilla, Bram Stoker’s, Dracula and Elizabeth Kostova’s, The Historian, clearly engage in this intertextual exchange, as evidenced by their use of narrative structure and striking character parallels. Published in 1872, Le Fanu relates the story of Carmilla from a first person point of view, through four distinct perspectives. The first narrator, an unnamed assistant to DoctorRead MoreCarmilla and Dracula1362 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscuss the two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wrote Carmilla. It was first published in 1872 as part of the collection of short stories titles ‘In a Glass Darkly.’ Carmilla predates the publishing of Dracula by 25 years. Laura, whoRead MoreDracula And The Female Sexuallity As Disease2438 Words   |  10 PagesDracula and Carmilla Female Sexuallity as Disease In the two classic gothic vampire tales, Carmilla and Dracula, both novels have similarities through their displays of sexuality. Sexuallity isn’t just displaying sexual intentions towards other people. The two novels explore how vampirism represents female sexuality as a disease through different means. In Carmilla, the character of Carmilla’s vampirism is linked with disease because she has bitten Laura, one of her many victims, and fed off of herRead MoreThe Extent to which You Think the Gothic Novel Represents Recognisably Modern Anxieties2868 Words   |  12 Pagesthe period of time in which it was written. The strong image of the vampire is a strong metaphor for communicating the zeitgeist of the time. By analysing Bram Stoker’s, Dracula (1897) and Sheridan Le Fanu’s, Carmilla (1872), as both novels are very important as they both helped mainstream vampire literature and created characters that have remained popular for over a century. An examinatio n into these texts and the significance of the vampire on modern anxieties and anxieties of the time can be understoodRead More The New Woman in Fanu’s Carmilla, Stoker’s Dracula, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer2496 Words   |  10 PagesThe New Woman in Fanu’s Carmilla, Stoker’s Dracula, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer The correlation between the vampire, a figure that is usually regarded as the subject of social ostracism, and the New Woman, the advent of which was feared by the majority of the British Victorian patriarchy, was a prominent aspect of much mid-to-late Victorian era literature. Supplementary evidence to support the compelling Victorian era literary connection between the vampire and the New Woman can be extrapolatedRead MoreAnalysis Of The Monk 849 Words   |  4 Pagesrape, and murder. In Radcliffe and Lewis we can visualize the dichotomy of the Gothic novel, which allowed women writers to express themselves independently and in the most horrific manners, but still relied on negative representations of female characters in order to fully unveil and critique the decay of society. Surprisingly — or perhaps not so —, in the midst of such a degenerative dichotomy it was from the overt, friendly competition between Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and PolidoriRead MoreThe Brave Gentlemen And Men Of Science967 Words   |  4 Pagesfight the alien threat of the vampire Dracula and his army of infected humans. However, the group’s shared need for masculinity transforms women into commodities, because men’s anxieties are also directed towards homosocial desires, which they fear will develop into a morally corruptive homosexual performance. Signorotti states: â€Å"The only way to eliminate the homosexual threat between men is to include a woman in the relationship† (Signorotti 608). Thus, in Dracula the emphasis on male prowess is inherentlyRead MoreAbraham Stoker and Theater1231 Words   |  5 Pagesproductions in the City of Dublin (â€Å"Bram Stoker†). An interesting sidelight to this â€Å"job† was Stokerâ₠¬â„¢s acquaintance with sheridan le fanu, joint-owner of the evening mail. Le Fanu was a popular writer of honor tales. One of his more famous stories, â€Å"Carmilla† told of a six year old girl who was bitten by a vampire. Stoker enjoyed Le Fanu’s gripping tales of nightmares, ghosts, haunted, houses, and supernaturalism (Whitelaw 22). After nearly 10 years in civil service, Stoker left his position at DublinRead MoreEnglish Source Doc.7581 Words   |  31 PagesTitle: Dracula: Stoker s Response to the New Woman Author(s): Carol A. Senf Publication Details: Victorian Studies 26.1 (Autumn 1982): p33-49. Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 156. Detroit: Gale, 2006. From Literature Resource Center. Document Type: Critical essay Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning Full Text:   [(essay date autumn 1982) In the following essay, Senf contends that, contraryRead MoreThe Mystery Of Vampires From Folklore Tales1622 Words   |  7 Pages Ideas, beliefs, and theories of monsters have been a part of culture since the dawn of mankind. Over time, these gothic entities transformed into specific characters with names, features, and appearances. One particular monster that sustained themselves over time have been vampires. In fact, stories of vampires have been with civilization for centuries. The exact origin of vampires is unknown and there have been many speculations and theories of these monsters’ origins. Many scholars believe