It is now October and thoughts have turned fully to autumn and all that belongs to it. The colors of the changing leaves, the cooler days and frosty nights, and the countdown to All Hallows Eve when children wear disguises and swarm the neighborhood streets seeking candy from neighbors and strangers alike.
Autumn has always been my favorite season. I enjoy all of the aforementioned delights except for the Halloween ritual. The dressing up and going door to door for treats was never a part of my childhood. My family had other traditions involving a large bowl of candy, all the good kind, and I never felt deprived. I still do not.
In recent years, I have formed a new tradition for myself. October has now become the month in which I devote my reading to Dracula by Bram Stoker. I first picked up this classic work in an attempt to cure my irrational fear of vampires. I have no idea where this fear originated, but the fanged creatures of the night plagued my nightmares and I reached a point where it was necessary to put them in their place and let them know who was actually in charge.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Taking my usual studious approach to things, I began my cure by a bit of research into vampire lore. Where did it come from and why? I knew about Vlad Tepes and his horrible moniker, the Impaler (I don’t know precisely how I knew about this, but I frequently know things without any obvious origin). All this led inevitably to Bram Stoker and his epistolary novel, Dracula. I procured a copy and began to read.
I would consider myself to be an avid reader and certainly broad in my tastes. I have read many books that impacted me and there are several that I have read multiple times. Pride and Prejudice is one of them, as are Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Cliché though it may be, I also read A Christmas Carol every Yuletide season.
Other than Charles Dickens’ classic, Dracula is the only book that has captured my imagination in such a way as to make it almost a necessity to read it once a year. October is as natural to Dracula as December is to the other. Judge me how you will, these hallowed practices shall not be soon altered by myself.
But why?
It would be natural for anyone who has never read the original story to wonder what it is about Dracula that captures my imagination. Those who have known me all of my life will wonder all the more. I was not what one would call a brave child. There is a backstory for this, but that piece of my history will have to wait for another time. As for the task at hand, let me see if I can explain just how much of a literary treasure Bram Stoker’s novel is and why it is among my favorite works of all time.
My first reason is that despite being easily frightened as a child, and susceptible to terrible nightmares, I have always rather enjoyed the thrill of that creepy feeling as it tingles up your spine. There is something about the anticipation of seeing the ghostly figure that you know will appear any moment… just around that corner… right……..NOW! (Ahhhhhh!) I cannot articulate why this type of thrill is appealing, but I know I am not alone in my delight from it. Ghost stories have been a part of human culture for centuries and the horror genre of books and film have always been extremely popular. While I could possibly write a doctoral thesis about every film adaptation of Dracula and why they all deserve to be burned and erased from existence, the original book has plenty of moments to properly chill the blood in one’s veins and none of them rely on gallons of red food coloring and corn syrup.
My second reason for devotion to this work is that I am always amazed at how much I discover with each read. For a story I know so well, it hardly seems likely that I would gain new insight into a character or a better understanding of the overall structure. I have found, however, that a new set of dots is connected or a new layer to a character is revealed every time.
My big discovery last year was found in one of the chapters with the madman, Renfield. He has always been my favorite character and one that every movie does the worst injustice to. During one of his scenes, he discloses some information, which on the very first reading would not be noticed at all, but should have stood out immediately on the next read after that. Once you know the following events, Renfield’s comments should be clear as day, but I am forced to confess that it was lost on me many times.
“I had heard that madmen have unnatural strength; and as I knew I was a madman-at times anyhow-I resolved to use my power.” – Renfield
My third reason for being captivated by Dracula is Renfield himself. He is a lunatic in an asylum. We do not know more than that. We never learn where he came from or how he came to be in the asylum. When we are at last introduced to this complex character, he has become of special interest to the resident psychologist, Dr. Seward. Through Dr. Seward’s dictation on his phonograph, we learn little bits of Renfield’s delusions and we become familiar with his odd behaviors. Bram Stoker crafted the mind of Renfield so well that you are never fully convinced that he is truly mad, but neither can you be certain that he is sane. Each entry provided about Renfield draws you in until you cannot help but eagerly await the next visit with the patient.
I shall end with my fourth reason for loving this book as much as I do, though it is by no means the last. I truly love Mr. Stoker’s treatment of his female characters and Mina Harker in particular. I have no doubt that many contemporary readers would scoff at the portrayal of women because they would seem to exemplify the very reasons the women’s liberation movement started and continues today. However, I think that it could only be a superficial look at the female characters that would judge them to be subjugated and treated as lesser beings.
Naturally, as the story primarily takes place in Victorian England, there are accurate portrayals of the period, for good or ill. It is a fact that at that time women did not have the same advantages as men nor were they given the same opportunities. It is also a fact that this time was at the very beginnings of the suffrage movement which began to address these concerns. That being said, I feel that anyone concluding that the characters of Lucy and Mina are portrayed as weak and helpless are incapable of seeing portrayals of women prior to the twentieth century as anything else. That is their personal problem which I am not qualified to solve.
“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. ” Proverbs 31: 10 KJV
Mina Murray (later Mina Harker) is the perfect embodiment of what every woman should strive to be. She is intelligent, industrious, faithful, lovingly devoted to her husband and appropriately submissive as his wife and helper. She is her own person, but she delights in her self-sacrifice for his sake. Mina is loyal, courageous, selfless, kind, self-assured, gracious, and loving. Though few of us, if any, have the capability to exhibit these traits to perfection in reality, Mina presents the ideal to strive for. Every woman should strive to be of such character.
While it is not improperly considered a tale of horror, Dracula is far more than that. It is a tale of duty and honor among friends. It is a classic tale of good overcoming evil. It is a beautiful and genuine romance. It is a tale of sadness and suffering. It is a tale of conviction and faith. Popular culture has, in my opinion, robbed Bram Stoker’s masterpiece of its greater due as a literary work. There is always so much focus on the vampire himself and the consuming of blood. When these things are not needed onstage, the focus shifts to the sensual aspects of the story, which our overly sexualized society exploits to the fullest extent. Choose nearly any adaptation of Dracula and you will see enough female flesh to satisfy any Playboy magazine cover. What these adaptations fail to convey, however, is the evil of the vampire that contaminates everything. Pure and chaste love is twisted into lustful seduction that seeks to entice the unwary to their destruction. This moral you will only find in the book.
I hope that the sharing of my reasons has piqued your interest. I hope that this year you might decide to pick up a copy of Dracula from your local bookstore or library and give it a fair trial. It is not for everyone and I can accept that, as much as it also hurts, but I stand by my recommendation all the same. I would like to leave you with two last pieces of advice. First, if you are possessed of a vivid imagination, I do not recommend reading this story before bedtime. I did make that mistake my first time through. I had to read something fluffy to get back to sleep and I kept the light on. Second, if you are curious about Bram Stoker’s other works and think it might be nice to read one of them, I can only say there is a reason Dracula is the author’s only well-known work. From here on, you are on your own. Happy reading!
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