Dracula the novel and its undertones

The enduring masterpiece of Vampire fiction and perhaps even 19th Century literature is undoubtably Bram Stoker's Novel. Many might dispute my claim to call it literature, since it is basically a hack tale of a greasy wog bounder who takes a liking to genteel English womenfolk, and is given a sound thrashing for his trouble by a group of upright Anglo-Saxon lads. The fact is that Bram Stoker, whose other work was largely rubbish, fluked a masterpiece.

The accidental genius of Dracula is that the novel carries a tormented subtext that reveals subtly, and at times very obviously, Stoker's tormented inner self. The novel drips sex, and yet there is never a blatant breach of Victorian taste.

It has been widely speculated Stoker may well have been a closet homosexual, perhaps so firmly in the closet that he denied even to himself his own sexuality. Certainly his marriage was cold and his life seems to have been one of sexual frustration. Perhaps this was the norm for the period.

Born near Dublin in 1847, Stoker married Florence Balcombe at the age of 38 Florence, a ravishing beauty, had previously been courted by no other than the young Oscar Wilde when Wilde was still in the closet. Stoker's marriage to Florence appears to have been stable but not warm. Even Stoker's granddaughter has characterised Florence as being 'very anti-sex.' The real love of Stoker's life appears to have been the actor Henry Irving. Stoker managed Irving's Lyceum theatre through most of his working life, but since Irving was clearly heterosexual any un-Victorian affection remained unspoken.

One theory has it that Florence was physically cold toward Stoker because he was syphilitic. Stoker's death certificate lends a certain amount of credence to this as the causes of death was listed as kidney failure, exhaustion and 'Locomotor Ataxy', the latter being a euphemism for tertiary syphilis.

Judging by his writing Stoker appears to be a man suffering from tremendous sexual frustration, and someone who completely represses that frustration. However that frustration sneaks out when he is not looking and finds its way into the imagery used in his writing. For example, in Stoker's last novel, The Lair of the White Worm, is the following description of a Lady Arabella, whose clothes "clung close to her form, showing to the full every movement of her sinuous figure." Lady Arabella, however is really a giant serpent, and in her true form resembles

"a long white pole, near the top of which were two pendent white masses, the hidden mass at base of the shaft was composed of cast coils of the great serpents body, forming a base from which the upright mass roseŠ"

However in Dracula, written between 1890 and 1897 Stoker excelled himself.

In one section the hero, Jonathan Harker is faced with three beautiful female vampires who have caused him to fall into a dreamlike state:

"Lower and lower her head went as the lips went below the range of my mouth and chin and seemed about to fasten on my throat. Then she paused, and I could hear the churning sound of her tongue as it licked her teeth and lips, and could feel their hot breath on my neck. The skin of my throat began to tingle as one's flesh does when that is about to touch it approaches nearer, nearer, I close my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited, waited with a beating heart. Lower and lower, nearer and nearer. "

Suddenly the Count himself arrives and says:

"Back I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him or you'll have to deal with me"

Throughout the novel Stoker compares the Vampire's kiss to sexual acts yet he and his contemporaries seemed unaware of the implications. Where the subject of sex is a little less taboo, in references to marriage, Stoker brings obvious references to polyandry and extramarital affairs into the foreground

In short Dracula represents all the anxieties, passions and lusts that lay banished from Bram Stoker's consciousness; and this is why the book is still fresh, and seems to grow with every passing decade.

How is this relevant to Kung Fu Vampire Killers? Not very much at all, but Stoker's novel was required reading for me when researching the concept. There isn't any obvious sex in Kung Fu Vampire Killers, other than the fact that the male Vampires seem to prefer to chase Mina than Jonathan or Maceo. This is merely as pleasant digression.

The full text of the novel is available here:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/drac-table.html

All materials © 2006 Phil Davison
All rights reserved.