Count Dracula is a monster in Stoker’s
novel Dracula that incorporates many
different aspects of his monstrosity. He is described as a monster that
is nothing more than an evil entity. Evil is often represented as an “individual”
with inhuman capabilities and sinister objective; these qualities are strongly
associated to being a monster that brings out central conflict in the story. He
is a vampire in England who sucks the blood out of his female victims who
eventually become vampires themselves, ‘passing on’ his monstrosity to other
people. The vampire does possess a lot of human-like characteristics in terms
of looks, and feelings, when Count Dracula admits his loneliness by saying “loneliness
will sit over out roofs with brooding wings” (pg. 200). Despite that, he is a
well-defined instance of a monster due to his inhuman abilities, and malicious
acts toward people.
However,
a monster does not have to resemble a beastly-related figure. A monster can also be
a man, corrupted by greed or ill intentions, which take over their lives. The acts of causing
death and destruction to many people can be achievable by people in this world today,
and that makes them no less of a monster. The disregard for human survival is a
factor that adds horrific elements to their monstrosity.
Another instance of Count Dracula’s monstrous behavior is
when he presents alluring, seducing vampires to John Harker. He appears to lose
all control, and willpower as he submits to the sexual intentions of the
vampires. At that point, Harker is vulnerable to any ill-intentions Count Dracula
wishes, but not through his violent acts, but by using the body of other female
vampires. This unique aspect of monstrosity is similar to Zemeckis 2007 film Beowulf and how Grendel's mother was sexualized herself to seduce the male character and get what she wanted. Not only
does Count Dracula use sexualized female vampires as his weapon, but also turns
female victims into the anti-mother in that society – by eating children. This possibly
shows Count Dracula’s most repulsive acts as not even children are spared.
Claiming that Dracula is not a monster at this point after committing such despicable
acts would be absurd.
A more terrifying
aspect is his ability to possess other humans as they submit to his powers. He
uses is mind-controlling capabilities are used for showing his supremacy over
others. A good example is Renfield, the madman from the asylum, showing his allegiance
by saying "I am here to do
Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and You will reward me."
(pg. 95) However, later in the novel it is shown that Dracula in fact
possessed him this whole time, and admits to him being controlled by the
vampire. He also has Harker’s wife, Mina, under a trance and ultimately makes
her drink his blood. Both instances show his manipulative intentions for power
and malice.
It
becomes very evident of Dracula’s cruel intentions deeper into the novel. What I feel is the most scariest form of monstrosity is turning people who were sane to the "dark side" as he did with Lucy. This comparison reminded me of the movie Narnia where the evil witch-queen tempted Edmund to eat turkish delight only if he did what she wanted, not to mention her mind-controlling powers. Moreover, along
with Count Dracula's inhuman abilities of animal shape-shifting, his contempt for the human
race, and his gruesome behavior toward humanity support his many different
aspects of his monstrosity.
I agree that Dracula is a much more malevolent character than what later adaptations would portray him as. His horrific actions against the Van Helsing group and the general public show that while Dracula may have some redeeming qualities, he is still a monster who assaulted and psychologically tortured regular people simply on a whim. For example, he could have traveled to London without having to massacre those sailors but he instead chose to slowly pick off the crew members until only the captain remained. He probably didn't need to kill any of the sailors, as his ability to manipulate minds or his personal wealth would have possibly allowed him to put the crew into his service.
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