Historical Context

The Victorian Era

• A time of great development in art, science, and culture

• Industrialisation rapidly increased poverty in London

• Darwin’s Theory of Evolution led to a ‘survival of the fittest’ mindset and the development of eugenics - a combination of racism and elitism

• Bohemians like Oscar Wilde would discuss art and literature and be extreme, eccentric, and proudly decadent - they were largely condemned by conservatives

New Women

• A movement of women who challenged traditional gender roles

• Mina is a positive exploration of ‘New Women’ - she is resilient, intelligent and independent, yet she is also a traditional woman with propriety and decorum, who marries well and respects her husband

• Lucy begins a traditional woman who longs to marry, but becomes a negative presentation of the ‘New Woman’ when she is turned by Dracula and becomes lustful and deranged

Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine

• A British writer who Stoker dedicated Dracula to

• He wrote about controversial topics and was an avid human rights activist

Cesare Lombroso

• An Italian criminologist who used physiognomy to create a profile for the ‘born criminal’

• This included having a low forehead, high cheekbones, upturned nose and/or baldness

Hegel

• Came up with the concept of the ‘other’

• This suggested those who were a deviation from Western societal ‘norms’ to be frightening and threatening

Ellen Terry

• Lucy may have been characterised after Ellen Terry - a famous actress of the Victorian Era

Immigration

• A steady rise in immigration brought unfamiliar races and cultures onto British soil

• A year after Dracula's publication, British author H.G. Wells exploited similar anxieties in his alien-invasion novel The War of the Worlds.

Psychology

• Sigmund Freud began publishing his theories of sexuality and the unconscious in 1895

• Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing are practitioners of this new (in Stoker's day) science of the mind.

Oscar Wilde

• In 1895 Oscar Wilde was prosecuted for homosexuality.

• The publicity and hostility surrounding the trial may have had an impact on Stoker - Dracula shows the evidence of his suspicion and anxiety toward all forms of sexuality.

The Enlightenment

• A 17th and 18th century movement that emphasised reason, science and individual rights rather than religion and tradition

Smoke and Fog

• The Industrial Revolution in the 19th century polluted the air and covered London in a layer of smog

• It was thought in the Victorian Era that disease was spread through the air - miasma

• There was a syphilis epidemic in London at the time

• In Dracula fog symbolises invasion and intrusion - the Count’s ability to turn into smoke makes him dangerous

• The Count as an invasive fog links to Western fears of invading foreigners

• Fog was linked to disease and decay, for the Count to be associated with this makes him a repulsive and malevolent villain

Spermatic Economy

• The widely-believed theory that life’s essence derived from bodily fluids including blood and semen

• These bodily fluids had to be conserved, hence strict rules about sex

• Dracula' sucks the life of people through their blood - he is a great threat

• Lucy’s blood transfusions would have been shocking since multiple men are giving her blood (potentially symbolic of semen)