Dracula: Infection, Disease and Illness

This essay examines Bram Stoker’s Dracula and how the author carefully constructed the main antagonist, Count Dracula, one of literature’s most monstrous and notorious villain, to reflect late-nineteenth-century anxiety and fear of contagion, disease, and illness. It explores how the Count and vampirism metaphorically stand for disease and three different and conflicting disease theories, the three Victorian theories of infection — contagionism, miasmatism, and the germ theory — and how Bram Stoker symbolically utilizes the theories differently in his novel to allude to the consequences on the individual and society, such as isolation and quarantine. Additionally, the paper looks at Bram Stoker’s knowledge of medicine and medical practices at the time and how his comprehension of fast-developing contemporary science is significant enough for him to have mixed feelings about its evolution and potential, even though he sees it as one of the main advantages in the fight against the supernatural Count Dracula and vampirism, and therefore, in reality, against infection, disease, and illness. Furthermore, this work delves into the myth and superstition behind Count Dracula and vampirism and how both were used to explain the unexplainable in difficult times. This thesis also analyses the shapeshifting aspect of Count Dracula and how the countless forms, shapes, shapelessness and even timelessness of the vampire makes it easier for him to carry and spread fear and disease and eventually infect his victims. Finally, this paper reveals the many animalistic features and various animal forms of Count Dracula that alter repeatedly, uncovering that the Count is frequently characterised as an animal in the novel who can also transform himself into an actual animal to better channel disease, while at the same time adopting human-like emotions and qualities to make him even more ambiguous and complex.

Author dc:creator

• Magnús Geir Gíslason 1978-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskóli Íslands

• Enska (námsgrein)

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/40185

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/40185