In times of cultural insecurity, where there is a fear of regression and degeneration, the desire for strict border controls around the definition of gender, as well as race, class and nationality, becomes particularly intense. If the different races can be kept in their places, if the different classes can be organized in their respective quarters of the city, and if men and women can be fixed in their separate spheres, many hope that the apocalypse can be averted. and that we can preserve the planet. a comforting sense of identity and permanence in the face of this relentless specter of millennial change. (Showalter 4)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay In the first chapter of her book Sexual Anarachy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle, Elaine Showalter describes the social circumstances around the world Western society as the year 1900 approached. She argues that the fin de siècle mentality, so-called "endism", aggravated racial and class struggles, leading to fierce negative reactions from from supporters of the status quo. Fearing that the end of the century would mark the last stage of a progressive process of decivilization which blurred the demarcations between social castes, these people loudly demanded a “return” to a more ordered society. Gender roles had to be firmly established, classes and races were hierarchically separated. Although often considered a simple horror novel, Bram Stoker's Dracula, written during this period, can be read as a representation of this struggle between the "heroic" forces of humanity. order and the evil entities who hope to overthrow it. To use Noel Carroll’s term, Dracula is a “fusion monster,” a creature that “transgresses categorical distinctions” (Carroll 43). Literally, he inspires fear in all because he is a combination of life and death, but, more profoundly for the novel's Victorian audience, because he blurs the lines between the sexes and between the Orient and the West. To oppose him, Stoker proposes five men - Jonathan Harker, Quincey Morris, Arthur Holmwood, John Seward and Abraham Van Helsing - who all subscribe to the chivalric ideal of masculinity, and one woman - Mina Harker - who embodies the purity of masculinity. Victorian woman. The quest of these six protagonists to destroy Dracula obviously works in a literal sense; they fear for their lives and those of others. But more importantly, their pursuit and eradication of the vampire represents a move away from the “social fusion” embodied by Dracula, toward a well-ordered society. As the 20th century approached, Patrick Brantlinger states in his Rule of Darkness, that the British became increasingly concerned about the state of their society, no longer considering the triumphs of imperialism as absolute successes. He writes: “After the mid-Victorian years, the British found it increasingly difficult to see themselves as inevitably progressive; rather, they began to worry about the degeneration of their institutions, their culture, their racial “stock”” (Brantlinger 230). The most powerful nation of the 19th century, England saw it as a reflection of the collapse of great empires of the past, such as the Romans and Greeks. Previously, the country's imperialist attitude and activity had "functioned as a partial substitute for... a declining confidence in Britain's future" (Brantlinger, 228), but when society appeared to continue its disintegration, imperialist pride quickly turned into fear of the effectsinteriors of foreign powers. , lesser influences. Brantlinger suggests that this apprehension was manifested in the literature of the period: The three main themes of Imperial Gothic are individual regression or becoming indigenous; an invasion of civilization by the forces of barbarism or demonism; and diminishing opportunities for adventure and heroism in the modern world. (Brantlinger 230) Indeed, Dracula can be read as a tale of the second type, where the commercial imperialism of Jonathan Harker's enterprise provides an opening for the Count's entry into British society and his eventual destruction. In his description of Harker's journey to Transylvania, Stoker foreshadows the coming racial conflict between the Eastern Dracula and the Western protagonists. First, through the writings of Harker – Stoker's representative of the West meets the East – he contrasts the rampant superstition of the East with the scientific disposition of the West: "All the known superstitions in the world are gathered in the horseshoe of the Carpathians” (Driver 2). Similarly, when a townswoman gives Harker a crucifix after learning of her intention to visit Dracula's castle, he reacts with skepticism: "As an English clergyman, I was taught to consider such things as in some measure idolaters” (Stoker 5). Coming from a scientifically advanced British society, he views Eastern superstitions with condescension. Even Stoker's descriptions of the eastern countryside evoke the supernatural. He points out, through Harker, "great masses of grayness, which...produced a particularly strange and solemn effect" and "ghostly clouds which, among the Carpathians, seem to meander incessantly through the valleys » (Stoker 8). As the coach crosses a pass through the mountain range, Harker notes, "It seemed as if the mountain range had separated two atmospheres and now we had entered that of thunder" (Stoker 9). Obviously, his current environment is a far cry from his civilized and orderly homeland. Indeed, when his train leaves the station late, Harker remarks ethnocentrically: “It seems to me that the further east you go, the more the trains are not punctual” (Stoker 2). Very explicitly, Stoker demonstrates through Harker an extreme feeling of Western superiority; Harker plays the role of a trade missionary of sorts, traveling East in order to bring the advanced trading practices of the British to less civilized regions. Reflecting the British fear of an "invasion of civilization by the forces of barbarism", as Brantlinger proposed. , the protagonists see Dracula as attempting to reverse the arrow of influence. A prisoner in Dracula's castle, Harker makes his way into the Count's bedroom, where he discovers a freshly fed bloated and ginger Dracula. Harker reacted with horror: This was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he could, among his millions, satisfy his bloodlust and create a new ever-widening circle of semi-humans. -demons to attack the powerless. The mere thought was driving me crazy. A terrible desire came to me to rid the world of such a monster. (Stoker 50) This idea of ​​Dracula spreading the vampire “disease” throughout bustling London reflects “end of the century fears…of racial mixing, outcrossing, and intermarriage” (Showalter 5). The Count's supernatural essence reflects the "uncivilized" and inferior superstition of his homeland; The fact that he was able to spread this unnatural state of being throughout the civilized Western world gives Harker the impetus to fightagainst him. Interestingly, protecting the purity – the order – of the British homeland, as well as British blood, seems to be the priority. sole motivating factor in the protagonists' quest to destroy Dracula. By placing a host in forty-nine of the fifty coffins that Dracula brought back from Transylvania, thus making them uninhabitable for him, the heroes expel him from England. It should indeed be noted that the coffins were filled with oriental earth; by infusing them with communion wafers, the heroes effectively remove their oriental and demonic quality, essentially "Englishizing" them, leaving Dracula without an oriental refuge in the midst of the West. Lacking his “army” of viable coffins, Dracula must withdraw from England, an invasion attempt foiled. One might think, however, that the proper course of action for a group of heroes would be to pursue Dracula, so that his evil can be entirely eliminated from the world. After the infected Mina states under hypnosis that Dracula is returning to the East, she asks, "Why do we need to look for him any more, when he is gone from us?" (Driver 302). Professor Van Helsing responds that only through the destruction of Dracula can Mina's soul and body be purified of the vampire "virus". Thus, even if the protagonists pursue the vampire in order to destroy him, they completely ignore his crimes in the East, only caring about his attempt to perpetrate them in the West, on civilized Western women. Dracula's threat, then, is not that he is fundamentally evil (even if he and what he represents are both seen as evil in the eyes of the order-seeking protagonists), but only that his evil has begun to encroach on the tranquility of the West. The heroes only seek a well-ordered society in their own country and, having pushed it back to the East, achieve it; their next task is to pursue it in order to restore an order similar to Western gender roles, as exemplified by Mina. We have seen that Dracula's presence in London represents the invasion and subsequent degeneration of the West by less civilized countries; similarly, the blurred gender lines in Dracula's sphere of influence demonstrate another end-of-the-century British fear, that of the deterioration of traditional gender roles. In his article, Showalter quotes Stoker who writes, “The ideal man is entirely or almost entirely masculine and the ideal woman is entirely or almost entirely feminine” (Showalter 8). Clearly, he had a conservative view of gender roles, unlike the "new woman" of the time, who "was determined to oppose restrictions and injustices in politics, education, economics and sexuality in order to to achieve equality. with men” (Beckson 129). This paranoia manifests itself in the text of Dracula. In Dracula's Castle, each gender is imbued with the traditional characteristics of the other. Harker, through whose eyes we view this part of the tale, becomes the typical damsel in distress figure of popular fairy tales, writing: "This castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner! » (Driver 25). Later, when he stumbles upon a room containing three beautiful female vampires, they become the sexual predators and Harker the prey, reversing the usual pattern of aggressive male and resistant female. Even when he escapes the castle, the psychological wounds caused by his experiences there leave him ill and bedridden, falling into the traditional and stereotypical role of the weak-bodied woman. Mina writes: "All the resolution has disappeared from her dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was on herface has disappeared” (100). However, as he spends months outside the castle, his illness subsides and his masculinity returns, reaffirming Dracula's influence as the cause of this subversion of traditional gender roles. The Count himself, with his quasi-homosexual desire for Harker's blood, represents one of the most feared degenerative agents of the fin de siècle. Showalter writes, “The nascent homosexual subculture that had begun to develop in England in the 1870s and early 1880s was both identified and banned” (Showalter 14). At a time when definitions of the respective sexes were in flux, adding a new category – men who desired men – could only exacerbate the already existing paranoia that traditional gender roles were not long for the world. Dracula's homoerotic urges are demonstrated by Stoker in his almost orgasmic desire for his prisoner's blood. When Harker cuts himself while shaving, "the earl's eyes burn with a kind of demonic fury" (Stoker 24). This word – “demonic” – reflects the Victorian designation of homosexuality as sinful and impure. Later, Dracula reacts with jealousy to the three women's sexual advances on Harker. He said: "How dare you touch him, any of you?... This man belongs to me!... I promise you that when I am finished with him, you will kiss him on your as you please” (Stoker 37). The fusion of the sexual impulse and the vampire's appetite for blood in these two scenes shows yet another way in which Dracula perverts. the natural and virtuous order of human society; there are not only homoerotic overtones in these highly sexual scenes, but also an aspect of sadism that cannot be reconciled with Victorian sensibilities. On the other hand, the protagonists, when not under the influence of Dracula, fit perfectly into traditional gender roles. The conventional male role is highlighted by the sense of chivalry and honor, as well as the definition of manhood, upheld by the five men after Lucy, Arthur Holmwood's fiancée, is infected with the disease vampires. , she loses her natural life to become an undead creature, preying on the children of London. Professor Van Helsing knows that to save her, the men must drive a stake through her corpse's heart, and he chooses Holmwood to do it. thus, on the basis of his formidable virility, which he had noted earlier in the novel: "As [Van Helsing] became aware of his robust proportions and recognized the strong youthful virility which seemed to emanate from him, his eyes shone. Convincing Holmwood to continue the grisly act committed against his beloved, Van Helsing declares: "You are a man, and it is a man we want." . ...you are better than us, old or young, who work much in the world of thought" (Stoker 117-8). Certainly, a physically robust man is needed for this act, which requires bodily strength, but the way in which Van Helsing refers to the physically robust man as "the goodest", the most like a real man, says a lot about Stoker's ideal of masculinity at the end of the century. Later, Quincey Morris. echoes this definition of manhood, in contrast to the Victorian ideal: Madam Mina You are too precious to us to take such a risk, but you must be our star and. our hope, and we will act all the more freely because you are not in danger, as we are (Stoker 232-3) This corresponds to the typical male-female dynamic, where men confront each other. dangers of the outside world, encouraged to do so byknowledge of their intact and virtuous women. at home. At least before her infection by Dracula, Mina willingly adapts this role of sweet and innocent woman to a T-shirt. At the beginning of the novel, in a letter to her friend Lucy Westenra, she writes: "When we are married, I can be useful to Jonathan, and if I can write shorthand well enough, I can write down what he wants to say" (Chauffeur 52). Here she proposes a male-female relationship similar to that of Quincey Morris later in the novel; all quests for the outside world must be undertaken by the man, and the woman must support him in these efforts as best she can, without interfering too much. In her diary later in the novel, Mina refers specifically to the ideal of the "New Woman" which was just beginning to flourish at the end of the century, but separates herself from it in order to show her affection for demarcated gender roles of the past. I think we should have shocked the “New Woman” with our appetites. Men are more tolerant, bless them!. . Some “New Women” authors will one day float the idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But I suppose that the New Woman will not deign to accept in the future; she will make the proposal herself. And she will do a great job too! (Stoker 86-7) Mina describes the emerging concept of femininity with a playful tone, and although she does not condemn it, she seems to regard it as fictitious, as if it were an imaginary game that would actually be played . feminine women rather than a new social order in the making. Lucy's story demonstrates Dracula's blurred influence on these traditional Western gender roles, as well as the eventual repulsion of this influence from law enforcement. At the beginning of the novel, Lucy fits the societal mold of woman: attractive to several men through her gentleness and physical beauty, but devoted to only one, Holmwood, considered by Van Helsing to be the most masculine. Showalter quotes Stoker: “The most masculine man draws the most feminine woman, and vice versa” (Showalter 8). Applying this pattern to his own novel, then, we see Stoker's suggestion that, in the beginning, Lucy is the more (traditionally) feminine woman. However, upon her infection by Dracula, Lucy's femininity rapidly diminishes as she acquires the voracious appetite of the vampire, matching the sexual appetite of the male. She tries to seduce Holmwood: "Oh my love, I'm so glad you came! Kiss me!" (Stoker 154), but Van Helsing prevents him from fulfilling his desire; at this point, the virtuous Lucy returns for the last time, thanking the professor: "My true friend and his!" Oh, keep it and give me peace! (Driver 155). Here, the traditionally feminine part of Lucy recognizes the burgeoning sexuality and vampirism within her, as well as the danger she poses to her fiancé and the social order he represents. At that point, she dies and the undead vampire within her takes control of her body and her virtuous character. In order to restore traditional gender roles in this individual case, the protagonists are forced to drive a stake through the heart of Lucy's corpse, thereby defeating her. sexual, vampiric component and leaving only the original innocent component. To do this, Holmwood must once again resist her attempts at seduction. She implores: "Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come! " (Driver 204-5). Once again, the fiancé is fascinated and avoids succumbing to temptation thanks to Van Helsing's intervention. When they finally succeed in expelling the vampire virus from Lucy's corpse, she once again becomes the figure of, 1988.