Comments on: Boys vs. Girls

By: Jerry C. Stanaway

Jerry C. Stanaway — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:22:51 +0000

No, I don’t have trouble picturing Dracula with a mustache. I have trouble picturing Dracula without a mustache. If Stoker says he had a mustache, he had a mustache. John Carradine played Dracula with a mustache in House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula.

By: Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth Miller — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:35:25 +0000

Not really surprising, Prolixian. Consider that the 1890s was the decade of Oscar Wilde – the scandals, the trial, the imprisonment. I would not go so far as to claim (as have a couple of literary critics)that these events inspired the novel, given that Stoker did significant work on the early chapters during 1890. But they may have been on Stoker’s mind as he wrote. Then, too, you may or may not be aware of the fact that in 1878, back in Dublin, Stoker had married Florence Balcombe, who had previously been courted by – you guessed it! – Oscar Wilde.

By: Prolixian

Prolixian — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:59:52 +0000

Dracula is totally new to me in that I have neither read the book before, nor seen any of the movies. I’m doing my best to approach the book without reading into it any of the popular representations of Dracula (which seem to border on cartoonish).

One thing that strikes me, in the context of vampirism as it relates to sexuality, is that Dracula himself seem to be bisexual/omnisexual. By this I mean that while his sexuality seems both masculine and dominating, but it seems to be directed at men and women alike. His attentions to Harker in the first few chapters seemed filled with such tension.

This seems surprising, given the time of writing, but I can’t claim to be an expert in that area. Am I out in left field on this?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:23:45 +0000

You’re dead on about Mina. There is a reason there are more sequels to Dracula featuring Mina than featuring any of the other original novel cast of characters outside of Van Helsing. She, VH, and Dracula himself are THE most compelling characters throughout the novel. I think it’s notable that when Alan Moore was picking and choosing characters from this period to include in his “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” comic book series, he pulled Mina from Dracula rather than Van Helsing who would have been the more obvious choice.

By: Moira

Moira — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:53:44 +0000

Mina mentions the ‘New Woman’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Woman) a few times in the text, but mostly to poke fun at the idea.

By: Moira

Moira — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:42:01 +0000

OMG YES to how much of a dimwit Harker is — I had the exact same reaction wrt the shaving-mirror (altho I am v behind on blogging it). And yeah, Mina is a much more interesting and independent character — I wonder deliberately? Harker seems more sort of stereotypically ‘feminine’ (the BAD parts of that stereotype), down to being the princess kept captive in the tower and preyed upon.

By: Moira

Moira — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:40:28 +0000

‘Stoker’s Shakespearean allusions invariably came from the Lyceum’s actors’ copies and prompt books’

I didn’t know that! That’s fascinating.

By: Chelsey

Chelsey — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:28:40 +0000

I agree with this a lot. I think there are many attempts by Stoker to cover possible responses to a vampire, and I think Harker is not dim, but staunch in his ways. I mean sure, as the wise reader, you find him to be a moron– but in that circumstance, wouldn’t you try to talk yourself out of your “nonsense” too? No one ever wants to believe that the worst is happening to them, even when it is.

By: Chelsey

Chelsey — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:26:43 +0000

It states in the text that Mina is also an orphan, so I imagine she’s always had to work for her bread.

By: OneBigParty

OneBigParty — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:32:46 +0000

By the way I think Ethan Hawke would make a good Harker. He plays handsome, trouble-prone and dim (as well as fake dim) well.