Summing Up The Monsters

Throughout this course, we have covered different types of monsters. We have looked at Grendel and his mother, Dracula and his vampiresses, and the Dead Until Dark vampires from various pieces of literature. All of these monsters can fall under the categories of either being "overt" or being "subtle" monsters. Overt monsters are clearly monstrous in their actions, personality, appearance, or any combination of the three. Zombies, ogres, wyverns, cockatrices, and griffins are typical examples of overt monsters as the treat they pose is direct and confrontational. Subtle monsters have their true nature hidden by some mechanism such as a charismatic nature or supernatural ability. Creatures like vampires, hone-onna, werewolves, sirens, and changelings are all subtle monsters because their modus operandi or their powers have them remain hidden from humans. The monsters we have looked at in our class all fall under one or both of these categories.

From Beowulf, we have Grendel and Grendel's mother. Grendel is very clearly an overt monster. He invades Heirot multiple times without much regard to stealth and kills many of the inhabitants of Hrothgar's lands. He additionally lacks any ability to change what the humans perception of him is, therefore making him unqualified for being a subtle monster. His mother differs from him in this regard, as she displays the qualities of both overt and subtle monsters. She is capable of nearly overpowering Beowulf and does not use any sort of supernatural ability to combat him, qualifying her for being an overt monster. However, she utilizes stealth in order to infiltrate Heirot, so she also can be considered a subtle monster. This dual-nature she has can also be seen in the vampires we read about.

Vampires, while primarily subtle, can be simultaneously considered as overt monsters depending on the individual. Dracula, for instance, is both overt and subtle as he is capable of feats of superhuman strength and physically attack the Van Helsing group while also suddenly disappearing and reappearing through various means and influencing the minds of humans. These abilities also are shown by the other vampires in the novel. Dracula himself displays an interesting shift throughout the titular novel as he starts out being an overt monster and then shifts into a mix of an over and a subtle monster when he arrives in England, which is followed by him becoming a subtle monster as he is fleeing back to his castle only to revert into being a mix during his final hours. In contrast, the vampires of the Dead Until Dark universe are primarily subtle, as their "glamour" ability allows them to manipulate the minds of people and that they are virtually physically indistinguishable from humans. There are instances were these vampires are overt, as seen with various instances of superhuman feats from characters like Bill, but these instances are only situational.

While there are monsters that are explicitly in either the overt or subtle categories, there are also certain monsters and individuals that fall into both categories. This ambivalence reflects the duality of the monstrous characters we have viewed, as it follows the "There are two sides to every coin" idiom.

Interpretation of Dracula's Powers

The titular character of Bram Stoker's Dracula shows various superhuman abilities throughout the novel. Some of his more supernatural abilities include being able to transform into certain animals, affect the minds of others, seemingly disappear in darkness, manipulate weather phenomenon, and infect others with vampirism. These supernatural abilities, along with his near-immortal life and enhancement of basic human capabilities, emphasize the themes we discussed in class about how vampirism represents and emphasizes a threat to the social standards of Great Britain during the Victorian era, specifically the societal and biological roles of women. Dracula's powers are representative of the futility of forcefully applying rigid social standards, the enforcement and usurpation of male dominance, and parental roles being swapped between mother and father. His ability to shape-shift into a bat and a wolf, both of which are predatory animals, illustrates his role as a dangerous threat and his own predatory nature. This symbolically represents the submissive role that women had to withstand in the Victorian era while men were allowed to hold dominance over them. The ability to disappear and reappear draws further attention to how dangerous he and what he represents is to Victorian society, as it symbolizes how ideas that do not comply with the societal norms can appear anywhere and any time. What point is there in attempting to suppress and remove nonconformist behavior if it will still show up again? The conflict between natural order and societal order comes through Dracula's ability to manipulate the weather. In this case, his ability to influence his surroundings illustrates the dominance that societal and cultural standards exerts over the natural order of the world. The concept of dominance appears again with his ability to to affect the psyche of others, such as in the cases of Renfield and Mina. Dracula's influence over Renfield can be likened to an alpha male in an animal pack assuming dominance over the beta and omega pack members. The case of Mina represents the Victorian norm of men being dominant over women. An inverted example of this comes up during Jonathan's interactions with the three vampiresses in Dracula's castle, as his is forced into a submissive role while the trio assert dominance over him. Later in the novel, Dracula shows an inversion of the maternal role when he has Mina drink his blood from his chest in order to infect her with vampirism. This scene mirrors a mother breastfeeding her child. Both scenarios involve the transition of empowering fluid being transferred between a parent and child, but the milk is swapped for blood in the vampiric situation. Dracula force-feeding Mina his blood is supposed to be a corruption of the caretaker role that women are generally pushed towards by society, as now it is a man who is giving the newborn child, a metaphor for Mina, the nourishment that they require. Lucy's behavior as a vampire, however, averts the concept of swapped parental roles. The only people Lucy specifically targets are children, implying that this corruption does not occur when it is a vampiress that assumes the role of the parent.