Cassandra McDermott
ENG 377
Final Paper: Dracula
Dracula, Orientalism,
And Oscar Wilde
At the basis of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, is Edward Said’s notion of Orientalism.
Stoker utilizes this theme in various ways throughout the text, injecting notable instances of
“passing”; the use of the vampire to represent the east; the pairing of the hideous and erotic; and,
ultimately, Victorian England’s fear of decline and reverse empire. Stoker also includes a series
of Wilde-inspired perspectives and motifs throughout the novel, such as parallels drawn between
Wilde and the Orient, and the ambivalent nature of gender and sexuality.
Throughout the novel, Dracula presents himself as an aristocrat: his inviting appearance
represents the danger that the invisibility of blood can yield. In Dracula, the dangers of blood—
meaning race that is concealed from the eye—lie in Dracula’s ability to appear both intriguing
and harmless, if not compassionate, yet surreptitiously harboring carnal, unforgivable desires.
Blood itself is a common theme throughout the novel, such as on page 192, when Lucy’s body is
being stabbed with a stake: “…a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red
lips…the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared
with a crimson foam…whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it.”
In the quoted passage, “blood” is both repeated and described in excessive detail to emphasize
the fear that it instills when it is unleashed. Throughout the novel, ‘blood’ is utilized in a similar
fashion: to warn the Victorians of the hidden dangers of blood and race. The British feared a
reverse empire, in which the various countries that had been colonized by the British would
attract immigrants to England and thus eventually lead to a mixing of races, which would in turn
produce people who looked less and less like their foreign ancestors, and more like English
people.
The notion of reverse empire manifests itself as Dracula’s ability to blend in with nonvampires; to “pass” as an upstanding aristocrat, though containing a hidden agenda. Today,
“passing” can still be used to describe a racial phenomenon; however, the emergence of gender
and sexuality ambiguity has more-recently adopted this notion of “passing.” For instance,
“passing” when referred to a gay male, may indicate that this male is able to “pass” as a straight
male in society or, more recently, “passing” refers to a person who is trying to “pass” as a certain
gender. “Passing,” in either context, instills a sense of fear in people because it assumes that we
can no longer tell what kind of blood a person possesses just by looking at them, just like a
person’s sexuality or gender is no longer solely a matter of appearance. In the novel, Dracula’s
true identity is not figured out from the start for Jonathan: because of his immaculate appearance,
Dracula is able to “pass” as normal: a non-vampire. The Victorians feared this type of hidden
identity, because it made it impossible to tell what being English meant: they felt compelled to
redefine their identities and what it meant to be the west. In reference to Edward Said’s book,
Orientalism, this redefinition of the west—manifested in the Victorians’ fear of a reverse
empire—assumes an inherent aversion to the east, or the Orient. This fear of misrepresentation
and secret identity of immigrants who migrated to England also assumed an explicit difference in
appearance between the east and west—The Orient and the Occident. It was easier for
Victorians to tell whether someone was from the Orient by their features, however, if blood was
mixing and races were co-mingling, then judging where a person came from based on
appearance would become increasingly harder, if not impossible to do.
Stoker presents Dracula as a denizen of the east: he hails from eastern Europe, though
his mannerisms and aesthetic tastes appear to be influence by Victorian England. Dracula seeks
to be westernized, sustaining the dichotomy between east and west—west being the more
dominant of the two. Stoker uses the vampire to combine the Romantic and the horrific, the
“thrilling and repulsive” (42). Dracula, like Said’s Orient, is hyper-sexualized to the point of
fetishization: similar to Wilde’s supposed associations with opiates, and his sometimes being
depicted as Asian (in drawings or cartoons), so too is Stoker’s Dracula. On page 42, Jonathan
describes three women that approach him, two of them depicted as similar to the Count, and one
described as traditionally western in appearance. These women instill Jonathan with both fear
and intrigue, in which he states that they made him “uneasy,” paired with “some longing and at
the same time some deadly fear.” Jonathan feels a “wicked, burning desire” (42) for the women
to kiss him, turning them into some kind of masochistic fetish. This scene also suggests eastern
myths involving orgies, harems, and ultimately the dismantling of the traditional family—as two
of the women are described as looking very similar to Dracula, yet nevertheless maintain sexual
tension amongst one-another. Similarly, in The Importance of Being Earnest, the photograph of
the dismantled traditional family unit denotes a certain ambiguity amongst the characters,
perhaps even, as in Dracula’s case, a sexual ambiguity. But in terms of Orientalism, Stoker is
also saying something about the role of Victorian women: they are sexualized in a way that
Others them, making them inferior; as Gilbert and Gubar would claim in their book The
Madwoman in the Attic, women are represented as either “monsters” or “angels,” making them
above or below, but never actually part of their culture’s hegemony.
Both the Orient—as
Said’s claim that it’s a fraud depiction of eastern culture—and women are Othered in the same
fashion throughout Stoker’s Dracula. However, what Stoker introduces us to with his depiction
of Count Dracula is the dismantling of our traditional views on race, gender, and sexuality.
Dracula is no doubt sexualized, feminized, and yet simultaneously feared throughout the
novel, similar to Said’s notion of the Orient and the Victorian era’s depiction of women,
however, something that Dracula suggests to its audience is the presence of extreme
ambivalence—primarily in the case of Count Dracula himself. Dracula’s identity is constantly
shifting and changing, from the “strange driver” (17) to a “dog” (18); and from a “blue flame”
(19) to “a ring of wolves” (20). Vampires, even outside of Stoker’s context, are known for being
polyvalent; they might be depicted as rats, bats, normal people, etc. On page 39, Jonathan
describes Dracula as some sort of “lizard” as he’s scaling the walls of the castle, and this endless
shape shifting creates an ambivalent nature that sustains itself throughout the novel. Another
factor that portrays Dracula as an ambivalent, if not ambiguous figure is his attraction to blood—
whether it is from a male or female. This predatory yet indiscriminate nature ignores gender and
sexuality: Dracula preys on Jonathan for his blood, not his gendered body. This ambivalence
injects fear into any and all individuals, as Dracula ignores sex and gender norms; he is feared
because he not only preys on women—as would a traditional male predator, but he also preys on
men. Both his polyvalent identity and his sexual ambivalence suggest a parallel to Wilde’s
ideals of fluidity and ambiguity.
In both Jude the Obscure and The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde destabilizes the
traditional family unit, which ultimately breaks down identity in general. This destabilization of
identity leaves a general feeling of ambivalence throughout both texts: for instance, in Jude the
Obscure, Sue marries Phillotson in order to have a career—this newly introduced symbol of the
independent woman rejects the traditional family set-up and the assumed role of women; Sue
eventually adopts Arabella’s baby, but Jude and Sue never get married, and this notion of the
unconventional pseudo-family breaks down the traditional family unit. In The Importance of
Being Earnest, both Jack/Ernest and Algernon live double-lives, each creating dual identities;
from the very beginning of the play, there is no presence whatsoever of the traditional family
structure, and the only thing close to it is Lady Bracknell’s presence as the totally un-Victorian
matriarch of the “family” that is created by the end of the play. No one actually knows who
anyone is, as the characters all appear to be both sufficiently confused and deceived throughout
the play; even lady Bracknell’s identity is not that of a traditional Victorian mother, as most
depictions of her are that of a transvestite. Both Stoker and Wilde emphasize the ambiguousness
of sex and gender, creating a strong sense of uneasiness around identity and maintaining the
ever-prevalent theme of “passing.”
I don’t believe that Dracula can be merely reduced to a homoerotic text; however I think
that this strong presence of sexual ambivalence throughout the novel is a crucial theme for
Stoker. Perhaps this ambivalence suggests, in accordance with Orientalism, the fear of
ambiguous, amorphous sexuality because of our own insecurities about sexuality. Said would
maintain that the west projects their ideas of the east onto the east, without any factual support.
The Orient is nothing like the east, but is actually a symbol of the west’s assumptions about the
east, which stems from their own cultural and historical insecurities. In the case of Dracula,
people fear vampires because of their ambivalence and their unpredictable nature, and because
they are fluid, we reject them out of fear; and what we fear is domination. The west feels
threatened by the east, and so we project these insecurities onto the east, in the form of the
Orient. When someone refers to the Orient, they are referring not to the actual east, but rather, to
a western construction of the east: the Orient is what the west is afraid they will become.
As Edward Said says himself in an interview about Orientalism, the construction of the
Orient by the west creates an “ideal Other.” I suppose Stoker develops Dracula into a perfect
symbol of the Victorian Other: he is hyper-sexualized (unlike Victorian culture); he is gender/sex
ambiguous, which would have been shocking to the Victorians; he rejects the ideals of capitalism
by being his own servant, driver, etc. yet he maintains its aesthetic, which would have been
threatening to the Victorians as he would’ve been “passing” as an Englishman. All of these
characteristics—as in the case of Orientalism—are concocted in order to suppress the Victorians’
fear of decline. The west fears the east because of reverse empire, which results in the
Occident/Orient dichotomy, just as the Victorians feared reverse empire—with Dracula
representing this threat.
The major fear that the invisibility of blood instills in people is the inability to know if
someone’s blood might turn on them: the west fears the east because of their assumed
unpredictable nature. In the 18th century, with the emergence of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
and its popularity sweeping the western world, many people feared what is known as
degeneration. Victorians feared Evolution, viewing it as the possible cause for a bleak future.
The Theory of Evolution exposed people to the unpredictability of the future and the ability for it
to change drastically from what we know—and possibly to degenerate.
A major fear of degeneration was that it would lead to a reverse evolution, in which
society would reject social norms and customs, turning people into animals. In terms of Dracula,
Stoker introduces Count Dracula as a symbol of degeneration: a rejection of social norms—done
with the strategic application of “passing”; a lack of adherence to the family structure; a
dangerous hyper-sexuality that declines Victorian ideals. Not only does Dracula deny Victorian
culture and customs, but also he does so in a way that is shielded from society. Dracula looks
like a modern Englishman, but what he really is completely dismantles the traditional
Englishman: he is feminized; he is eastern; he preys on both men and women alike; he is anticapitalist clad with a capitalist exterior. As a figure, Dracula denies gender, sex, traditions,
religion, etc. In a way, he is Wilde’s portrayal of the perfect critic: he is constantly evolving; he
is cosmopolitan. To tie Said’s Orientalism to Wilde’s idea of what it is to be cosmopolitan, I
might go so far as to say that a possible solution to the problem that Said proposes with
Orientalism is the practice of being cosmopolitan. Perhaps dismantling the Occident/Orient
dichotomy will come with exercising Wilde’s cosmopolitan ideals: to be open yet critical; to be
both interested and moved yet inquisitive; to be fluid and yet respectful.
With Dracula, Stoker utilizes various themes, primarily extracted from both Said’s
Orientalism and various texts by Wilde. The most common theme throughout the novel is the
presence of ‘blood’ and all of its implications; the Victorians feared the invisible nature of blood
because they thought it would lead to a reverse empire. Dracula instills this same fear in people
because he “passes” as an aristocratic Englishman, but in reality he is a vampire—which, as
previously stated, possessing all things anti-Victorian. Because he is a vampire that “passes” as a
normal Victorian, he is feared—just as the west’s projection of the east is feared by the west.
The significance of the Occident/Orient dichotomy—when referring to Dracula—is that the
Orient, an inaccurate Romantic depiction of the east, is a threat to the west in the same way that
Dracula is a threat to Victorian England. Though both the Orient and Dracula are hyper-
sexualized and intriguing, they remain alienated from their culture’s hegemony in the same way
that women were portrayed in the 1800’s. Not only is Dracula feminized and fetishized, but also
he is constantly changing form, which sustains his ambivalent nature, perpetuating the fear that
the Victorians had of a reverse empire. Stoker and Wilde both introduce this notion of
ambivalence and hazy ambiguity, suggesting the rejection of the strict Victorian gender and
sexuality norms. As Said mentions, the Orient is the “ideal Other,” which strongly applies to
Dracula’s role throughout the novel: Dracula is what we fear we will become if we don’t uphold
social norms promoted by British culture. Lastly, this fear of degeneration experienced by the
Victorians was brought on by the emergence of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, which suggested
a possibility for a bleak future, or reverse evolution. The Victorians feared the mixing of races
and “passing,” because they feared de-evolution. Throughout the novel, this fear manifests itself
in Dracula. And though Dracula depicts the fear of Victorians, his character does promote
positive ambiguity, which suggests feminism and gender and sexuality fluidity.