2. How can we use Freud's model of the mind in our reading of this story? Provide textual examples.
3. What view on sexuality and death are depicted in the story?
4. Why is this story sooooo fantastic? - Objectively speaking(!)
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1)It is set in a medieval-type setting with gloomy and very strong architecture.
ReplyDeleteDracula is an evil, controlling, dominating, lustful villain (often the lust is perverse) who has the power as lord of the manor. Supernatural events occur that are not infrequently explained later by science.
Unexplainable visions - The 3 women. Evokes terror through the depiction of physical or psychological violence.
Dracula has skin & white hands and the women have white teeth with red lips - more modern gothic (Siouxie & the banshees!)
Other horror patterns -The main character is alone in a foreign place - unknown to him - isolation from other people. Locked behind a door, lots of things happen at night in a dream/trance like state.
2) Do I really have to? It is a very long story! Hope we don't get one that long in the exam!
Pg 78 line 7: " I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina's eyes & cause her pain; but it is the truth".
Hi Id is his burning desire for the women to kiss him - a primary process, which comes from his libido. His ego is aware of reality and realises that his actions have consequences. His superego contains his morals("it is not good to note this down..."), which counteract the ID,
3) Sexuality is depicted by the 3 women. Sex is a natural primitive urge:Page 78-" There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling(ID) and repulsive(Guilt?,Superego?), as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal" Arching of her neck & licking of lips depicts an animal going in for the kill, the neccesity to survive.
He is afraid of dying and the worst thing is the anticipation. He can actually forsee when he is going to die. Fear of death and no-one knowing that he has been killed.
4) It is written like a diary and from his point of view as the victim. There are alot of unexplainable things happening which you can leave to your imagination.
The gothic style is divided in three main genres: The Scientist, the Vampire and the Demon and the Psychopath. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is obviously dealing with the subject of vampires and demons. The environments, the characters and the whole atmosphere are imbued with the supernatural universe of vampires.
ReplyDeleteThe first person narrator in Dracula is a lot of times confused if he is awake or if he is sleeping/dreaming. He moves around in a dark, dreamlike nightmare, also when he is not sleeping. So in Freud’s model of the mind, he is experiencing the dark sides of his own unconscious self, the ID. These dark sides are very much connected with his own sexuality and his fear of death:
”The fair girl advanced and bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath upon me. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet, and sent the same tingling through the nerves as her voice, but with a bitter underlying the sweet, a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood.”
“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,…”
Martin
Hm, Martin. I guess the answer to question 4 is actually incorporated into your comments ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to some more comments on the questions above. Furthermore, I would like to hear what you think regarding the reliability of the narrator.
1) The environment is cold. It is typical gothic style with arches, heavy doors and rattling chains. Small rooms like the octagonal room, which is a bit spooky and not something you will find in any castle. It gives you chills just thinking about this.
ReplyDeleteThe surroundings together with the way Count Dracula is dressed all in black, just confirms to the reader that this is a horror story.
2) Page 78, line 36 “I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the supersensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed my eyes in languorous ecstacy and waited – waited with beating heart.” Mr. Harker’s ID wants the girl to continue what she is doing, he is waiting for it. He is attacted to her. All over page 78, we see that Mr. Harker feels lust towards the three girls.
Page 81, line 7 “I must watch for proof”. EGO Mr. Harker is convinced that something is happening, that his mind is repressing. This conscience makes him look for proof that something is going on that he is not fully aware of.
Page 86. SUPER EGO, he figures out how he is going to escape.
3) Mr. Harker feels attracted towards the three women/vampires. Count Dracula is drawn towards Mr. Harker, we know this when Count Dracula yells at the women.
Mr. Harker is afraid of dying. He finally figures out that he would rather have a quick death instead of a slow one.
4) This story is great because it sets the stage in the beginning. It describes the surroundings so you feel the way the narrator does. That the castle is cold. It is mysterious from the beginning, because the narrator doesn’t know if the driver and the count is the same person? The story is physical and psychological, Mr. Harker feels that the count is strong, and sees it. He knows that against him he will not stand a change. When he is waiting to die, we get inside the narrators head, and his paranoia.
The narrator makes it a bit hard to believe the story as something that could have happened. Often he is dreaming, or unconscious (like he is drugged).
1. Characterize the environment with a focus on gothic elements (look up the characteristics if you are in doubt)
ReplyDeleteDracula is a gothic novel which generally has focus on Horror and mystery.
The settings are dark and gloomy. “It all seemed like a horrible nightmare”. The unexplainable visions - 3 women. Supernatural events occur both when he is sleeping and when he is awake.
2. How can we use Freud's model of the mind in our reading of this story? Provide textual examples.
If you see it in the Freudian manner you may consider the uncanny as the return of repressed complexes. I am not quite sure how to find an example, but I like the one Dave found.
3. What view on sexuality and death are depicted in the story? He is afraid of dying. He sees in a vision that he is going to die. He has a fear of death. The female vampires – the 3 women, are seductive creatures made to lure men to them. Sex is an urge everyone has.
4. Why is this story sooooo fantastic? - Objectively speaking(!)
It is a LONG story but a good on because it captures you, and you will have to use your imagination when the unexplainable things are happening.
I came up with the same answers as the others, so I'm just gonna keep it short.
ReplyDeleteCharacterize the environment with a focus on gothic elements (look up the characteristics if you are in doubt)
The environment is cold, dark and gloomy.
Gothic elements are great round arches, frowning walls and dark window openings, great doors. Great winding stairs.....
2. How can we use Freud's model of the mind in our reading of this story? Provide textual examples.
Freud
P78: I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips (ID)
It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain (superego)
But it is the truth
3. What view on sexuality and death are depicted in the story?
There's his sexual attraction towards the three women and his fear of death.
4. Why is this story sooooo fantastic? - Objectively speaking(!)
Because it leaves a lot to the reader's imagination.
Furthermore, I would like to hear what you think regarding the reliability of the narrator.
The story is written from a first person's point of view. So we only read the things he sees and the way he experiences them.
p. 77 : 'Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, he added:-' Here the narrator tries to describe a feeling/thought of the count, but he can't really, and therefore uses 'I suppose'.
p. 80: If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child. Shows that he is not 100% sure whether it is a child.
I came up with the same answers as the others, so I'm just gonna keep it short.
ReplyDeleteCharacterize the environment with a focus on gothic elements (look up the characteristics if you are in doubt)
The environment is cold, dark and gloomy.
Gothic elements are great round arches, frowning walls and dark window openings, great doors. Great winding stairs.....
2. How can we use Freud's model of the mind in our reading of this story? Provide textual examples.
Freud
P78: I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips (ID)
It is not good to note this down, lest some day it should meet Mina's eyes and cause her pain (superego)
But it is the truth
3. What view on sexuality and death are depicted in the story?
There's his sexual attraction towards the three women and his fear of death.
4. Why is this story sooooo fantastic? - Objectively speaking(!)
Because it leaves a lot to the reader's imagination.
Furthermore, I would like to hear what you think regarding the reliability of the narrator.
The story is written from a first person's point of view. So we only read the things he sees and the way he experiences them.
p. 77 : 'Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, he added:-' Here the narrator tries to describe a feeling/thought of the count, but he can't really, and therefore uses 'I suppose'.
p. 80: If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child. Shows that he is not 100% sure whether it is a child.
What about the count then - could he be seen as representing the narrator? Are we dealing with a "Fight Club"-plot here?
ReplyDeletePlease continue this discussion and the one on Frankenstein - they provide excellent perspectives on the whole theme - especially due to your clever comments!
That is a good point and yes I think it could be. The man has bought a castle in Transylvania and Dracula represents his dark side. He can become a new man in a new setting and can explore his darkest fantasies.
ReplyDeleteHi there.
ReplyDeleteI cant come up with other comments or answers than the others. I agree with everything that has been written. I know that I am a bit late but famely problems comes first, sorry.
Hallo Chanett..
ReplyDeletewhere can I upload my written exercise??
And who can i get on this blok?
-Sara
Hi. Written assignment to ck@randershfvuc.dk
ReplyDeleteHm perhaps - or perhaps he has NOT bought a castle in Transylvania...
ReplyDeleteWhat do we know about stories set in places and times far removed??? Think back on our fairy tales.
I agree with a lot for the good comments, so I do not think it is necessary for me to repeat it again.
ReplyDeleteBut as an answer to Chanett, I do not think the narrator is reliable. Very often he is not aware if he is asleep/dreaming or if he is awake. In the very beginning of chapter 3 it says: “I suppose I must have fallen asleep; I hope, but I fear, for all that followed was startlingly real…” Mr. Harker is so emotional impact that he cannot distinguish between reality and dream. It makes him very unreliable as a narrator and his story gets more incredible. Another quote that shows he is not sure about the reality is on page 80, the beginning of chapter 4: “I awoke in my own bed. If it be that I had not dreamt...”
I am not sure that the count can be seen as representing the narrator, though it would be interesting to hear the story told by him. But perhaps I do not understand the question. Would someone deepen what a “Fight-Club”-plot means?
I believe it is a fantastic story because the reader does not know more than Mr. Harker. When he is locked inside his room and hears strange sounds coming from the outside, but does not know what it is or where it is coming from, the reader is locked up with him and it is only our imagination that stops us from creating a horror scene.
Basically, what I mean is: Could we interpret the character of the count as being a figment of the narrator's imagination? In other words: Could he be symbolic of the narrator's id, in freudian terms? Are all the events in the story really taking place in the mind of one individual and thus depicting his oppressed sexuality?
ReplyDeleteIf this is the case, how should we interpret the story and the values presented by the author?
Ps. If you haven't seen the film "Fight Club" you should! I will not spoil the plot for you then ;)