Unfortunately I had some issues getting the linked copy of Coppola’s Dracula to work, therefore this post will discuss the nineteenth century themes within Stoker’s novel, with special focus on The Other, and more specifically, “The Fear of the East.”
Like many Gothic texts from the late nineteenth century, the major themes in Dracula were evidently impacted by social and political anxieties of that era. The fear of degeneration, which ultimately refers to anxieties concerning the contamination of British purity by the Other is a recurring theme within Gothic texts and is overtly displayed in Stoker’s novel. As the streets of London became more populated by Eastern European migrants, who had come to escape famine and seek opportunity, generalizations, encouraged by Social Darwinian theories began to circulate. It was commonly feared by the upper and middle classes that “mixing” with the migrants would ensure the eventual contamination of the British people. This anxiety is illustrated overtly in the novel by Count Dracula, who is essentially represents an Eastern threat to “pure” British blood.
As a means of controlling anxieties in a time of British imperialistic and economic decline, the enemy- which essentially represented any threat to the power or purity of the empire- was animalized. We see this in Dracula as the Count is repeatedly described with animalistic or primitive traits before he becomes a “monster” in totality: “Once more I have seen the Count go out in his lizard fashion” (Stoker 29). This descriptions are also employed to describe the “weird sisters” during their visit to the Count’s castle: “There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck, she actually licked her lips like an animal.” To dehumanize the threat is to degrade its authority.
Further, we see how the East is compared to the West in terms of modernity and civility. Transylvania is constantly illustrated as a wild and untamed territory, void of order. Upon his arrival in Transylvania, Harker refers to it as “No-Man’s Land”, “mysterious”, unidentifiable” and “out-of reach” (Stoker 6). The reader is supposed to consider these descriptions in contrast to the civilized, lively, and structured streets of London.
Though these three points certainly do not sum up the theme of the “Eastern Threat” in Stoker’s novel, I hope they might give insight into the racist, sexist, and classist ideologies of the time.