How Wilde and Stoker create fear in their respective texts
Gothic elements
Doubling - idea of morality explored through doppelgangers and mirrors
● Van Helsing and Dracula act as doubles, with one representing salvation and all that
is good, and the other representing corruption. Also suggests Van Helsing is the ideal
candidate to defeat Dracula because they’re so similar. Creates fear because it
suggests even in the presence of extreme virtue (VH) evil still parallels this
○ Both engage with supernatural: violence and absurdity of “I want to cut off her
head and take out her heart” parallels Dracula’s own physical violation of the
novel’s women.
■ Both enact their own agenda through Lucy’s body - creates fear
because it suggests the battle between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foreigner
will be fought over and through English women
○ Both foreign: Van Helsing came “all the way from Holland”
○ Van Helsing is messenger of God (“There are darknesses in life, and there
are lights; you are one of the lights” - he organises and gathers Crew of Light,
suggests he has an inherent knowledge of goodness). Dracula is seen as
antichrist
■ Furthered by his name: Abraham was the first of the Biblical
patriarchs. Implies VH is beginning of extended tradition of Christianity
(perhaps the male members of Crew of Light can be read as his sons)
■ Dracula: “demons of the pit” and “flames of hell-fire”
● Dorian and his portrait act as other double: “It was from within, apparently, that the
foulness and horror had come” “Each of us has a Heaven and Hell in him”
○ Fear - uses supernatural element, emphasised by Faustian pact (“I would
give my soul for that!”). Even natural duality of Good and Evil can be
manipulated by supernatural forces.
○ Social fear of upper class hiding secret depravity
● Contrast: double in Dracula allows for good to vanquish evil, which reinforces didactic
and moral tale. Conversely, the fact the double is embodied within the same person
in Dorian (and that when he defeats his evil doppelganger - the portrait - he too dies)
suggests good cannot exist without evil - more dualistic, perhaps pessimistic
approach to morality
Idea Dracula Dorian Comparison
Trope of the Antisemitic portrayal of “aquiline, Lord Henry is ultimate villain, Lord Henry prays on evil
monster with high bridge of the thin nose and prelapsarian setting of “the that is already there
peculiarly arched nostrils” and garden” where he opens Dorian to (therefore more terrifying
animalistic “peculiarly sharp white “fiery-coloured” life - “fiery” because his villainy
, teeth”. suggests Hellishness, which is reveals more about the
Dehumanising him creates a scarier reinforced through his evil of humanity than of
monster that relies on Victorian fear classification as the Snake in his own)
of devolution and reverse Eden - ultimate threat to morality,
colonialism (predatory presentation upper class society, and humanity
suggests he has the power to defeat (fixation with knowledge - “you
Western humanity) know less than you want to know”
Proximity of Mental and literal invasion: he Two supposedly antithetical sides Ever present evil in
evil physically invades Whitby (reverse of London: “the black web of some Dorian reinforces
colonialism) and mentally controls sprawling spider” contrasts with ambiguous ending where
Mina, Lucy, Renfield (most Dorian’s “oak panelled hall of evil is not defeated -
vulnerable members of soc) - “You entrance” and “Selby Royal supports dualistic
shall cross land or sea to do my property”. East End is populated reading. Stoker’s
bidding” by aristocrats engaging in suggests that when the
transgression - suggestion that Crew leave the East they
the two sides are different is leave evil behind - moral
disproven by the active sin in tale
both. Suggests evil is already
present and near in all classes
Use of appearance to build fear
Corrupted innocence
Lucy’s seen to be corrupted and deserving of her fate through her appearance
● “Carnal and unspiritual appearance”
○ Sexual language shows that in Victorian era, the worst villainy imaginable for
a woman was a rejection of maternal ideals and an acceptance of sexuality.
Her ungodliness paints the men as saviours/Crusaders; allows her body to
become a battleground for moral battle.
● Mythical allusion of “Medusa’s coils” links her evil to her sexuality
○ Male perspective and patriarchal society condemns her for sexuality and yet
feminist perspective argues for reclamation of sexuality - indeed, she is
punished for transgression after experiencing violation by Dracula
■ And punished with ritualistic/symbolic rape of stake - phallic symbol
○ Thus parallels to Medusa could actually convey her victimhood
● Also is intended to scare sexually transgressive women - displays to them a
hyperbolic example of a “New Woman” in order to encourage them to remain within
Victorian morality
Contrasts with Hetty’s persisting innocent appearance (because she’s left uncorrupted)
● “leave her as flower-like as I had found her”, “her white face at the window, like a
spray of jasmine”
○ Natural imagery suggests that her purity will fade over time. Repeated floral
objectification also suggests that her purpose in life, like flowers, is to be
beautiful
Gothic elements
Doubling - idea of morality explored through doppelgangers and mirrors
● Van Helsing and Dracula act as doubles, with one representing salvation and all that
is good, and the other representing corruption. Also suggests Van Helsing is the ideal
candidate to defeat Dracula because they’re so similar. Creates fear because it
suggests even in the presence of extreme virtue (VH) evil still parallels this
○ Both engage with supernatural: violence and absurdity of “I want to cut off her
head and take out her heart” parallels Dracula’s own physical violation of the
novel’s women.
■ Both enact their own agenda through Lucy’s body - creates fear
because it suggests the battle between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foreigner
will be fought over and through English women
○ Both foreign: Van Helsing came “all the way from Holland”
○ Van Helsing is messenger of God (“There are darknesses in life, and there
are lights; you are one of the lights” - he organises and gathers Crew of Light,
suggests he has an inherent knowledge of goodness). Dracula is seen as
antichrist
■ Furthered by his name: Abraham was the first of the Biblical
patriarchs. Implies VH is beginning of extended tradition of Christianity
(perhaps the male members of Crew of Light can be read as his sons)
■ Dracula: “demons of the pit” and “flames of hell-fire”
● Dorian and his portrait act as other double: “It was from within, apparently, that the
foulness and horror had come” “Each of us has a Heaven and Hell in him”
○ Fear - uses supernatural element, emphasised by Faustian pact (“I would
give my soul for that!”). Even natural duality of Good and Evil can be
manipulated by supernatural forces.
○ Social fear of upper class hiding secret depravity
● Contrast: double in Dracula allows for good to vanquish evil, which reinforces didactic
and moral tale. Conversely, the fact the double is embodied within the same person
in Dorian (and that when he defeats his evil doppelganger - the portrait - he too dies)
suggests good cannot exist without evil - more dualistic, perhaps pessimistic
approach to morality
Idea Dracula Dorian Comparison
Trope of the Antisemitic portrayal of “aquiline, Lord Henry is ultimate villain, Lord Henry prays on evil
monster with high bridge of the thin nose and prelapsarian setting of “the that is already there
peculiarly arched nostrils” and garden” where he opens Dorian to (therefore more terrifying
animalistic “peculiarly sharp white “fiery-coloured” life - “fiery” because his villainy
, teeth”. suggests Hellishness, which is reveals more about the
Dehumanising him creates a scarier reinforced through his evil of humanity than of
monster that relies on Victorian fear classification as the Snake in his own)
of devolution and reverse Eden - ultimate threat to morality,
colonialism (predatory presentation upper class society, and humanity
suggests he has the power to defeat (fixation with knowledge - “you
Western humanity) know less than you want to know”
Proximity of Mental and literal invasion: he Two supposedly antithetical sides Ever present evil in
evil physically invades Whitby (reverse of London: “the black web of some Dorian reinforces
colonialism) and mentally controls sprawling spider” contrasts with ambiguous ending where
Mina, Lucy, Renfield (most Dorian’s “oak panelled hall of evil is not defeated -
vulnerable members of soc) - “You entrance” and “Selby Royal supports dualistic
shall cross land or sea to do my property”. East End is populated reading. Stoker’s
bidding” by aristocrats engaging in suggests that when the
transgression - suggestion that Crew leave the East they
the two sides are different is leave evil behind - moral
disproven by the active sin in tale
both. Suggests evil is already
present and near in all classes
Use of appearance to build fear
Corrupted innocence
Lucy’s seen to be corrupted and deserving of her fate through her appearance
● “Carnal and unspiritual appearance”
○ Sexual language shows that in Victorian era, the worst villainy imaginable for
a woman was a rejection of maternal ideals and an acceptance of sexuality.
Her ungodliness paints the men as saviours/Crusaders; allows her body to
become a battleground for moral battle.
● Mythical allusion of “Medusa’s coils” links her evil to her sexuality
○ Male perspective and patriarchal society condemns her for sexuality and yet
feminist perspective argues for reclamation of sexuality - indeed, she is
punished for transgression after experiencing violation by Dracula
■ And punished with ritualistic/symbolic rape of stake - phallic symbol
○ Thus parallels to Medusa could actually convey her victimhood
● Also is intended to scare sexually transgressive women - displays to them a
hyperbolic example of a “New Woman” in order to encourage them to remain within
Victorian morality
Contrasts with Hetty’s persisting innocent appearance (because she’s left uncorrupted)
● “leave her as flower-like as I had found her”, “her white face at the window, like a
spray of jasmine”
○ Natural imagery suggests that her purity will fade over time. Repeated floral
objectification also suggests that her purpose in life, like flowers, is to be
beautiful
