Bram Stoker's Dracula - Book Report/Review Example

Dracula and the Explotation of His Own Means of Self-Destruction The Victorian era is ably represented in Bram Stoker's Dracula as consisting mostlyof the middle and upper class. This is the image of the morally upright period most often presented in literature and film that deals with London of the time, but Stoker's prose also indicates the existence of the very real dark foundation upon which the industrial revolution was constructed. That foundation was made of the working class and the classes even below them, a class that the architects of the Victorian legacy preferred to either ignore, present as criminals, or else present as evidence of the efforts toward progression reform in the novels of Dickens. The members of these classes were at best reflections of the thin line that existed between the middle class and a slight shift in birthright or inheritance. The social distinctions of the British class system are on full display in Dracula, though with a unique twist courtesy of the foreign invader who may sleep in dirt, but is nonetheless an exemplar of the noble blood. Dracula's persistent pursuit of his victims at the cost of his own life may be viewed best in strictly Marxist terms that illustrate the process by which the upper class sucks the blood out of the lower class in order to survive, while missing the paradox that they are ensuring themselves as the ultimate victim. The method by which the middle class English and American men in the novel respond to reality of the existence of vampires is a symbolic iteration of the Marxian concept of false consciousness. Content in the assurance that they were collectively a force for good even if individually they were capable of little more than meaningless flights of self-centered egoism, Van Helsing and his gang view themselves as the means by to improve the lot of those unfortunate enough to be born beneath their own stations, while at the same time ensuring the division of class continues to exist. From this perspective, Stoker writes a horror novel that is actually about the horror of what would happen were no one in the lower classes ever to recognize the danger of the economic system that assaults them. Dracula is not just a foreigner, but a nobleman. In fact, he is a true aristocrat, equipped with title and foreboding castle. It is the merging of the aristocracy with the middle class that will create the conflict that urges the hunting down and destruction of the vampire. There is a starkly defined demarcation that exists between the classes and one of the aspects of this division has always been that which separates superstition from the scientific approach. The classes who enjoy the privilege of education associated with being born to wealth tend toward the skeptical, while those on the bottom rung are suspicious of the tools of science. The fearless vampire slayers are overwhelmed with the latest in 19th century cutting edge technology, including a phonograph machine and typewriter. And yet, Dr. Van Helsing marvels that Seward, despite all the technology at his disposal, still manages to lack even the most basic of an imagination: "Do you mean to tell me, friend John, that you have no suspicion as to what poor Lucy died of; not after all the hints given, not only by events, but by me"(203). Is Van Helsing, then, really that much different from the woman at Dracula's castle who nervous slips a crucifix into the hand of Harker at the inn Van Helsing is clearly not just an uneducated man given to sheer superstitious beliefs, but does he not use wafers and his own crucifixes in his battles with the vampires Count Dracula enters the story as a symbol of the combination of both old word superstitions and modern economic metaphor. If it is true that capitalism can reproduce itself only as long as it has a supply of workers and consumers, then it is also true that killing off workers will put a quick end to the success enjoyed by the ownership class. The workers must therefore be kept alive through the transfusion of consumerism and that is an apt metaphor for how Dracula uses his vampire powers; after nearly killing his supply, he must bring them back to life as vampires themselves, but in order for him to survive he needs to continually restock his supply. Palpably existing beneath the veneer of normalcy, therefore, is the instability of an economic system not unlike Dracula himself, a being that continually must destroy in order to survive. Dracula, as Harker discovers, is not merely an aristocrat, but the final member of a long, dynastic line. His house, in other words, will come to an end unless he can reproduce himself. As an aristocrat, a member of the noble class, Dracula has moved well beyond the unlimited supply of blood that Renfield can accept. He is use to the finer things in life and has long since gone past being satisfied by bugs and animals and other creatures of a lower order. Implicit in the decision by Dracula to travel to England is that he also already expended the potential for exploiting the blood of the Transylvania peasantry. The state of dilapidation in which Dracula lives that Harker observes can perhaps be viewed as a foreshadowing of the state of affairs that the vampire aristocrat may have left England in at a later date had there not been an education middle class available to track him down and destroy his runaway ability to consume the very blood of the marketplace. This extrapolation is strengthened by Dracula's stressing the value of not just his noble heritage, but the accomplishments of his progenitors. The most obvious instance of the line that is drawn between the power of the ruling class of ancient times its incarnation in the form of the Count is his claim of ascendance from the line of Attila the Hun, the mightiest warrior the world has ever seen. Dracula believes that this lineage endows him with a certain kind of wholesomeness related to his claims of power through the suggesting that his ancestry was assured thought he sexual coupling with desert devils. In this way was his glory sanctified. The suggestion of a supernatural endowment of worth has been usurped by claims toward endowment of power through the sexual couplings of those who come from the higher classes. Dracula is attempting to inculcate noblesse oblige through metaphor, while those around him make the claim on the basis of primogeniture. Neither is valid and both eventually result in devastation as a result of alienation from reality that typically results self-destruction. The upper class of Victorian society in England experience more privilege and power than the lowly peasants in Transylvania and this may be viewed as well in Marxist terms as a revolt against the excesses of exploitation. This reality is manifested through the relation of the fact that the Van Helsing gang is endowed with the ability to take full advantage of a system where "bribery can do anything, and we are well-supplied with money" (355). Currency is the weapon that separates the higher classes from disenfranchised, not guns, knives or wooden stakes. As a metaphor for the worst excesses capitalism, it is vital to understand that despite sharing Jonathan Harker with the female vampires in his castle, Count Dracula has no interest in sharing the benefits of the means of production unless it can benefit him in a distinct and specific way. Even Harker is not allowed to be used by those females until it behooves Dracula's end to allow these means. Like many a blind business owner who has driven his own company into the ground because he has missed the wisdom of profit sharing initiatives, Dracula even claims ownership to Harker by admonishing his female supplicants to back down because "This man belongs to me!" Only after he no longer has any use for Harker's blood himself does he allow them to have their turn. Dracula is essentially like the CEO who sends his company on a trajectory toward bankruptcy because he skims the profits for his own personal use. The metaphor is chillingly appropriate; Dracula garners the respect of Renfield and others through the extension of an invitation to suck the blood of others only after he has had the lion's share. But Renfield also is an expression of the fact that Dracula's manner of doing business has a fatal flaw in its construction. When Renfield attacks Seward with a knife and slurps the blood that has been spilled, he observes astutely that blood is equal to life. What is most interesting about this passage is it is true that blood is necessary to ensure the survival of anyone, but in the case of Dracula and Renfield that blood is not free; it is something that must be bought and paid for. Renfield seems to be coming to see that blood under the circumstances that Dracula has left him is not a birthright, but commodity. This may be a signal that Renfield is ready to peer through the veil of class distinction and join the ranks of the revolution against a Dracula that forces him to survive on rats while he himself enjoys the unlimited supply of human blood. Dracula cannot live without blood just people cannot live without money and medicine and dignity. Like his brethren who have destroyed the lives of thousands and run a successful company into the ground by ignoring the simple fact that people are not reproducible, Dracula's fatal mistake lies in the fact that truly believes he can possess other humans. Throughout the novel, the Van Helsing gang continuously undergo blood transfusions to help them survive and come back to fight another day. This is analogous to the transfusion that workers receive with each paycheck. Take away the paycheck and they would revolt. Dracula fails to understand that he is playing with the laws of diminishing returns. In fact, he does have access to an endless supply of human blood. The fact that he has been forced to leave Transylvania-a place that would seem to be quite well populated-for England is a testament to the argument that Dracula does not exist in a vacuum; that the means of production can come to standstill if he does not manage his business efficiently. The parallels that can be drawn between the capitalist need to reproduce is in stark relief in the person of Dracula. Although quite strong and endowed with supernatural abilities, he is ultimately dependent entirely on his ability to consume blood. The middle class vampire hunters who track him down and kill are pointedly more powerful for the exact reason that Dracula must abide by certain rules on production and consumption in order to survive. Just as there is a limited supply of workers in reality that can bring even the mightiest captain of industry crashing to his feet should they be withdraw from his ability to exploit them, so is Dracula at the mercy of a limited supply of human blood once his aristocratic arrogance no longer allows him to indulge in the lowly means of deriving his sustenance from animals. For this reason, it is clear to see that Dracula infiltration of British society is what led to his downfall and that this infiltration was made necessary only because he used up his Transylvanian supply of bodies. Read More