'Dracula' quotes

‘you cannot deceive me, my friend; I know too much and my horses are too swift’ (11)

‘you cannot deceive me, my friend; I know too much and my horses are too swift’ (11)

this represents the omniscience and omnipotence that the supernatural/ evil attempts to take on, performing the role of God. This juxtaposes Dracula to his adversaries, who accept their own inferiority and represent Western religiosity

‘to him alone I can look for safety’

Dracula is trying to completely isolate Jonathan - this shows the supernatural as a fragmenting and disruptive force (there is a comparison to ‘Beloved’ here in that the characters are not forgotten, but instead looked for)

‘sometimes, as the road was cut through the pine woods that seemed in the darkness to be closing down upon us’

characterises the landscape with a predatory nature - suggesting that Transylvania is a place where you can easily become lost

‘this man belongs to me’

• there is a danger presented in possession (however, here it is not the other characters that are trying to possess each other, but the supernatural); possession relates to the sensuality of danger

• this also places Jonathan in the passive position, and thus shows the fragmentation of masculinity (unlike ‘Beloved’, however, it is masculinity that becomes protective of female honour in the end)

‘I have been so long master that I would be master still’ (23)

• the vernacular of colonialism is used here and thus makes reference to fears of reverse colonialism

• there is a sense that Dracula doesn’t know how to stop, and this is a theme in the gothic - living in fatal excess - and thus reference is made to moral decay of the fin-de-siecle

what is important about Jonathan Harker’s profession

being a lawyer positions him in a place of rationality, thus juxtaposing the supernatural

what is important about the narrative style of Dracula

• it is chronological, and so Stoker’s use of time contrasts the irrationality of the supernatural (unlike Morrison’s use of time)

• the only character whose voice is not given narrative privilege is Dracula, to reemphasise the impossibility of human and supernatural coexistence

• the use of diaries etc makes the narrative style seem very scientific

‘the strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest’

shows the perceived contrast between the East and West and subsequent discourse on colonialism

what is important about the supernatural taking on the human form in ‘Dracula’

it shows something blasphemous trying to imitate something made in the image of God (this is proved as futile in that he is a shape shifter)

it also raises questions as to whether the supernatural can experience human emotions such as guilt, and in its apathy it is thus villainised further

‘at least God’s mercy is much better than that of these monsters, and the precipice is steep and high’

there is an acceptance of death within the human characters, and this contrasts the refusal of death that exists in the supernatural (this is different to the supernatural in ‘Beloved’, where there is an inability to die)

‘the impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East’

there is a sense, drawing on contemporary attitudes, that the West is characterised with civilisation, while the East is its opposite (this is complimented by the representation of religious settings in the East as decayed and corrupt)

how are religious settings in the East in ‘Dracula’ represented as irreligious and corrupt

• by being home to Dracula, and the denial of death that comes with him

• by being filled with symbolism of death (e.g. coffins) and thus not eternal life

‘there was one great tomb more lordly than all the rest; huge it was, and nobly proportioned'. On it was but one word: DRACULA. This then was the Un-Dead home of the King Vampire’

this shows the corruption of religion in the East and the use of terms such as ‘lordly’ and ‘King’ represent the supernatural attempting to assume the role of God

how does the representation of religion in ‘Beloved’ contrast that of ‘Dracula’

there is a sense, in ‘Beloved’ that religion has abandoned the characters, rather than the other way around

‘the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner’

this represents the infiltrative nature of the supernatural and relates to the theme of reverse colonialism

• mention of London shows that civilisation is ascribed to the characters of ‘Dracula’ in the same way it is taken away from the characters of ‘Beloved’

‘I was indeed awake and among the Carpathians’

there is a semantic field of sleep in ‘Dracula’, as an inability to die a Christian death is represented through the metaphor of being unable to sleep

• this can be compared to representations of purgatory in ‘Beloved’

the idea of being ‘among the Carpathians’ relates to ideas of being devoured and forgotten (unlike the characters in ‘Beloved’, however, the past is not forgotten)

what is important about showing the site of a lunatic asylum in ‘Dracula’

it shows a separation between the human world and insanity, compared to the coexistence that exists in ‘Beloved’

‘my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down, with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings’

• imagery of animalism in ‘Dracula’ is ascribed to the supernatural, rather than the human, as it is in ‘Beloved’

• the supernatural tries to emulate the human form, something created in the image of God, but Dracula’s shapeshifting corrupts it

‘what manner of creature is it in the semblance of man’

suggests the corruption of the human form

‘he is young and strong; there are kisses for us all’

parallels are created between the three women and Lucy (she recurringly asks Arthur to kiss her) and they become a criticism of the New Woman

‘there was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive’

there is an attraction to that which corrupts us

‘as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips’

• animalism is attributed to the immoral, rather than the human

• the horror of femininity is shown

• the three women are compared to the wolves, and thus masculinity is shown as a controlling and successful force in that the Count has control over the wolves

what is a quote that shows the Count has control over the wolves

‘I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms […] the wolves fell back and back further still’

what is another moment when the three women show the human condition of attraction to whatever corrupts us (but simultaneously the Western manhood in overcoming this)

when Van Helsing is confronted by the women asleep in their coffins, but resists their temptations

• ‘there is some fascination, surely, when I am moved by the presence of such an one, even lying as she lay in a tomb fretted with age’

• ‘the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss - and man is weak’

what is different about the volume of the ghosts in ‘Dracula’ and ‘Beloved’

Morrison herself identifies the vocality of ghosts in her novel

‘I had better get all the sleep I could’

the theme of sleep arises regularly in proximity to the moral characters, while sleeplessness is associated with the immoral

‘Then without warning the tempest broke. With a rapidity which, at the time, seemed incredible, and even afterwards is impossible to realize, the whole aspect of nature at once became convulsed’

there is a sense that the supernatural disrupts natural order

‘The ship, as if by miracle, had found the harbour, unsteered save by the hand of a dead man’

• autonomy is ascribed to the dead and the supernatural, suggesting once again that it is not an inability to die but rather a refusal to in its placement in the active role

• the use of a religious term, ‘miracle’, shows the corruption of faith

‘before long the searchlight discovered some distance away a schooner with all sails set […] it would be quite impossible that she should fetch the entrance of the harbour’

the ship seems a metaphor for suicide and unholy death, in the way in which it continues towards danger and certainty of death with ‘all sails set’ despite the impossibility of survival

‘the coastguard said the man must have tied up his own hands, fastening the knots with his teeth’

this relates again to ideas of suicide and contrasts the Christian Victorian notion of an ideal death; this is complimented by the use of religious imagery that seems corrupted in the hand of a dead man (a crucifx)

‘between the inner hand and the wood was a crucifx’

this biblical language provides a juxtaposition to the resurrection - the sense of a dead man able to steer a boat replicates Jesus’ resurrected body but in a grotesque and corrupted way

‘the schooner is a Russian from Varna, and is called the Demeter’

‘Demeter’ is a reference to a Pagan goddess, thus showing Victorian perceptions of uncivilised religion

Demeter was also a goddess of fertility and thus it appears that the supernatural possession of the boat is even more of a violation in its associations with death

‘it almost seems as though the captain had been seized with some kind of mania’

mania is something that infects a person, seizing them, and is thus something external to the human condition; it is presented as in league with the supernatural and the evil

‘Mate could not make out what was wrong; they only told him there was something, and crossed themselves’

the use of restricted narration emphasises the attempted omniscience of the supernatural

‘four days in hell, knocking about in some kind of maelstrom and the wind a tempest. No sleep for anyone’

ideas of an afterlife separate from God and sleeplessness are placed in close proximity

‘only God can guide us in the fog, which seems to move with us; and God seems to have deserted us’

there is a sense of an abandonment of faith (perhaps this is what allows the sailors to die) and the supernatural trying to take on the role of God; the supernatural seems to be a punitive God, but merciless in that this is no motivation for its punishment

‘as he spoke he took his knife and drove it savagely into space. Then he went on: ‘But It is here, and I’ll find It’’

devotion to a cause is a symptom of religious mania and this biblical imagery is reinforced by the capitalization of ‘It’

‘Save me! Save me!’

there is reference to religion in the Mate’s reference to salvation

‘You had better come too, captain, before it is too late. He is there. I know the secret now. The sea will save me from Him, and it is all that is left’

there is a sense of a corruption of salvation in that the Mate turns to suicide, something that juxtaposed the Victorian ideal of death

‘Lucy was very restless all night, and I too, could not sleep’/ ‘It is a very strange thing, this sleepwalking’

restlessness is ascribed to the victims of Dracula

‘There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure’

the sexualisation and romanticisation of the supernatural and its violation of the female form; the ruination of woman is shown in the purity of her white dress; there is also a sense that Lucy’’s interactions with Dracula read more like a seduction than a violation

‘the moonlight struck so brilliantly that I could see Lucy half reclining with her head over the back of the seat’

seductive positioning and symbolism of beauty suggesting that her interactions with Dracula are similar to that of a seduction rather than a violation

how else can we tell that Lucy’s interactions with Dracula are a seduction not a violation

in the way she recurringly asks Arthur to kiss her

what are some quotes for Lucy asking Arthur to kiss her, and taking on the active role of the new woman

• ‘Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!’

• ‘Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!’

‘Another week gone, and no news from Jonathan’

there is a recognition of people going missing in ‘Dracula’ that does not exists for the characters of ‘Beloved’; where fragmentation occurs in Morrison’s novel, it is best to leave things broken

‘I am closing the tomb, so that the Un-Dead may not enter’/ ‘what is that which you are using’/ ‘The Host. I brought it from Amsterdam’

the moral characters have objects of religious significance at their disposal with which to suppress the power of the supernatural (contrasts the way in which religion has seemingly abandoned the characters in ‘Beloved’)

‘Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come’

• Lucy as a metaphor for the new woman

• Lucy’s interactions with Dracula and the sexuality he symbolises are a seduction rather than a violation, as shown by the active role she is placed in

• there is irony in the use of the word ‘husband’ because it is in her not being actually married to him that she has become immoral

‘never did cypress, or yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funereal gloom’

yew trees are symbolic of death

‘by the concentrated light that fell on Lucy’s face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death robe’

relates to imagery of the loss of virginity

‘a dim white figure, which held something dark at its breast’

this image, drawing attention to the breast and thus to imagery of breast feeding, creates a corrupt image of motherhood

‘there was something diabolically sweet in her tones’

‘the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance’

the attraction to that which destroys and corrupts us

describing Lucy in this way also compares her to the three women in Dracula’s castle, who are also described with the same use of oxymoronic language

‘my arms are hungry for you’

Lucy’s sexuality becomes predatory, much in the way the sexuality of the three women at the beginning is compared to the hunger of the wolves

‘We all looked at Arthur. He saw, too, what we all did, the infinite kindness which suggested that his should be the hand which would restore Lucy to us as a holy, and not an unholy, memory’

it is important that it is the man who would have been her husband that restores Lucy to God’s grace; this makes his act of staking her in the heart seem an act of phallic reappropriation

what is a quote that shows Arthur’s staking of Lucy as an act of phallic reappropriation

‘take this stake in your left hand, ready to place the point over the heart, and the hammer in your right’

‘outside the air was sweet, the sun shone, and the birds sang, and it seemed as if all of nature were tuned to a different pitch’

there is a metaphorical recreation of the Garden of Eden, which serves to suggest the novel’s religious subtext

what are some quotes which show the violation of the female body as abhorrent in ‘Dracula’ (contrasting the way in which it is shown as an inevitability in ‘Beloved’)

• ‘this desecration of the grave’

• ‘not for the wide world will I consent to any mutilation of her dead body’

what are some quotes which show the masculine duty to preserve female honour

• ‘My Lord Godalming, I, too, have a duty to do, a duty to others, a duty to you, a duty to the dead; and, by God, I shall do it!’

• ‘do we not see our duty’

• ‘Do you mean to say, Professor Van Helsing, that you would bring Mina, in her sad case and tainted as she is with that devil’s illness, right into the jaws of his death-trap’

‘I have had a great shock, and when I try to think of what it is I feel my head spin round, and I don’t want to know it’

there is a suppression of the past and memory, and a refusal of knowledge, as if to refuse the omniscience that the supernatural attempts to take on

what is another quote that shows Jonathan’s refusal of knowledge

‘the secret is here and I do not want to know it’

what is Jonathan’s suppression of knowledge similar to in ‘Beloved’

Paul D’s suppression of the past within his tobacco tin - Jonathan’s tobacco tin is his diary

‘unless, indeed, some solemn duty should come upon me to go back to the bitter hours’

there is a refusal of memory and knowledge, except for the requirement of it by duty; this makes commentary on both masculinity and heroism

what is the effect of Dr Van Helsing being a foreigner

• this suggests that Dracula and the supernatural is something unknown to the Western world, and can only be overcome by foreign power

  • this also then makes commentary on reverse colonialism

• this allows for Van Helsing to be absent for parts of the novel, when he returns to Amsterdam

  • it is during these moments that Lucy is at her most vulnerable, presenting him as a representation of salvation (biblical?)

what is important about the way in which Renfield refers to his Master

he never refers to him by name, suggesting a sense of knowledge that is not open to humans and thus ascribing a God-like quality to him yet again

what are some quotes that show Renfield’s religious mania

• ‘you don’t count now; the Master is at hand’

• ‘the bride-maidens rejoice the eyes that wait the coming of the bride’

• ‘I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and you shall reward me, for I shall be faithful. I have worshipped you long and afar off’

• ‘he thinks of the loaves and the fishes even when he believes he is in a Real Presence’

‘I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and you shall reward me, for I shall be faithful. I have worshipped you long and afar off. Now that you are near, I await your commands, and You will not pass me by’

this use of biblical language by Renfield suggests the supernatural taking on the role of God and specifically corrupts the idea of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ (the supernatural is not a resurrection but a refusal of death)

the idea of ‘reward’ brings connotations of the afterlife, but the supernatural is not an experience of an afterlife, but of some kind of purgatory

‘just now his hobby is catching flies’

Renfield’s catching of animals presents itself as an obsession, and thus as the collection of false idols

my friend has now a whole colony of sparrows, and his flies and spides are almost obliterated’

this shows the cruelty of the supernatural (unlike that in ‘Beloved’) due to the juxtaposition between the innocence of these animals and Renfield’s machiavelian treatment of them

his behaviour seems something like heresy in his cult-like behaviour of sacrifices

‘on the far side of the house, I found him pressed close against the old iron-bound oak door of the chapel’

Renfield’s religious mania is continued

what is a quote that shows the innocence of Renfield’s creatures

‘a kitten, a nice little, sleek, playful kitten, that I can play with’

‘and my good friend John, let me caution you. You deal with the madmen. All men are mad in some way or the other’

fear of madness and otherness in contemporary Victorian society

how does the epistolary nature of the novel add to ideas about sin and infection

sin is something like a plague, and the fragmented, epistolary structure of the novel adds to this presentation by suggesting that there are epidemics of immorality happening all over the country

• this relates to fears over moral panic

the use of interjecting newspaper reports adds to this - the ship at Whitby, the escaped wolf, the Bloofer lady

how does Stoker reinforce the superiority of the Christian man

by suggesting that masculine strength lies partly in faith - he does this especially well through the character of Jonathan and Van Helsing

what are some quotes that show the religious characterisation of Van Helsing

• ‘he touched me on the heart and on the forehead, and then touched himself the same way’

  • this mirrors the Christian act of crossing oneself

• ‘do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand’

how does Stoker present Lucy as reliant on masculine heroism

she must absorb masculine strength through blood transfusions

• ‘she will die for sheer want of blood to keep the heart’s action as it should be’

• ‘I would give the last drops of blood in my body for her’

• ‘If only you knew how gladly I would die for her you would understand’

‘no man knows till he experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves’

it is important that all of the transfusions are done by men who have loved Lucy - male duty and the duty of a husband is shown through the transfusions

‘the boughs or bats or something lapped almost angrily against the window panes’

the window serves as a barrier that the supernatural is demanding to be let in through, to show the infiltrating nature of the East once again

what is a quote to show the attraction to death and the gothic (that which destroys us)

the inclusion of an extract from Thomas Hood’s ‘The Death Bed’ - ‘we thought her dying while she slept, and sleeping when she died’

• reading the poem reveals themes of female passivity and vulnerability

• the poem is part of the 19th century poetic movements that romanticised death

why is there more fear towards facing the supernatural in ‘Beloved’

because the supernatural is not the unknown, but the known

‘said he not that the transfusion of his blood to her veins had made her truly his bride’

female vulnerability (and perhaps even death) works to focalise male displays of proper feeling (Kromm)

what are some quotes that show the victimisation of children, as a means of showing the supernatural as a cheating of death (restoring youth)

• ‘if my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child’

• ‘during the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home’

• ‘some of the children, indeed all who have been missed at night, have been slightly torn or wounded in the throat’

‘the blood is the life! The blood is the life!’

the symbolism of blood as restorative and the supernatural as refusing to die, rather than being unable to

how does symbolism of blood contrast John Seward to the supernatural

• ‘no man knows till he experiences it, what is to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the veins of the woman he loves’

  • this reference to ‘life-blood’ shows that he would be willing to die

• ‘friend John. I pity your poor bleeding heart; and I love you the more because it does so bleed’

  • blood connects Dr Seward to humanity here

‘then I caught the patients eye and followed it, but could trace nothing as it looked into the moonlit sky except a big bat, which was flapping its silent and ghostly way to the West’

• shows the infiltration of the West by the East and fears of reverse colonialism

• animalism is associated with the body of the supernatural, which contrasts the way in which it is ascribed to the human body in ‘Beloved’

what are quotes which connect animalism to the body of the supernatural

• ‘as he went down the wall, lizard fashion’

• ‘with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings’

• ‘blessed but if he didn’t put his hand in and stroke the old wolf’s ears too

where does Morrison give a voice to her antagonists

chapter 16 - the perspective of the slave catchers is shown

why is it important for Morrison to privilege her antagonists with a narrative perspective

because she wants to make the unreal seem real and show the true potential of human violence and hatred

evil is not something fictional, as it is presented in Stoker’s novel

‘the time is come, I fear, when I must open that parcel and know what is written’

Mina shows an awareness of the fact that there are secrets surrounding the supernatural and thus it is characterised with an even more unbelievable nature

‘King Laugh he come to me and shout and bellow in my ear’

Van Helsing’s vague and eccentric nature adds to the air of mystery around the supernatural

what else about Van Helsing’s personality adds ot his air of mysticism

he is a Catholic and a foreigner

what are quotes to show the transactionality of life and death in ‘Dracula’

• ‘dear poor mother’s body, which seemed to grow cold already for her dear heart had ceased to beat’

• ‘such a sad blow has befallen us. Mr Hawkins has died very suddenly’

• ‘if my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low-wail, as of a half-smothered child’

what is the difference between the way in which life and death is presented as transactional in ‘Dracula’ and ‘Beloved’

• in ‘Dracula’, the transactionality of life and death is abhorrent; the idea that the supernatural should kill so that it may access the restorative nature of blood is repulsive

• in ‘Beloved’ this is just a fact of the slave experience and of natural order