Chapters 10-16 - complete Flashcards
what is van Helsing’s first name?
Abraham
what does Seward’s inability to diagnose or stop the progress of Lucy’s illness show?
○ This shows how Dracula exposes the limits of Western science and the power of rational thinking, as even modern medicine proves useless
§ People are made vulnerable to Dracula by a lack of understanding/an unwillingness to believe in superstition: they are blinded by the confines of rationality
□ This doesn’t mean that Stoker is saying we should all be irrational, its more that rational thinking within a limited space of experience/knowledge sometimes fails to discover underlying truths
® The Victorians were exploring the limits of rationality, and the relationship between the surprising, weird and supernatural-seeming advancements in science could be married with the razor rationality they were brought about by?
what main quality makes Van Helsing the strongest/most heroic character?
- However Van Helsing, combining an open mindedness to superstition, a deep understanding of the techniques of modern medicine, and a strong rational capability (shown by his ability to perform blood transfusions), proves the strongest/heroic character
ANSWER SUMMARY: He is not limited to either superstition or enlightenment thinking, and instead embodies the best of both
what do the blood transfusions given to Lucy demonstrate (3)?
- they demonstrate the bravery and chivalry of the men who donate their blood, as well as their moral righteousness
- symbolic of sex between the men and Lucy
○ It could also show how Dracula is drinking not only Lucy’s blood but the blood of all men who donated their blood to her
§ This could mean that he is slowly subsuming the male population, emasculating them as they slowly grow to ‘belong to [him]’
give a quote showing Arthur Holmwood’s blood in particular (and actually all of the men’s blood) is pure and morally strong
Holmwood’s blood is described as ‘so young and strong and of blood so pure that we need not defibrinate it’ (remove fibrin which causes clotting) by van Helsing
what does the blood transfusion symbolise in relation to marriage with a) Arthur and b) all the other men
§ For Arthur, giving blood to Lucy was like the consummation of their relationship and was a pure/good act, as it made them truly of one flesh
§ For the others, Van Helsing says that the blood transfusion made him a ‘bigamist’ and made Lucy a ‘polyandrist’ (a woman who is married to multiple men at the same time)
□ This perhaps shows the corrupting influence of Dracula or Lucy’s own immoral corruption
- As Arthur says goodbye to Lucy (as Van Helsing realises she is dying fast), she puts on an ____ and ____ voice
give a quote about this moment
uncanny and seductive
○ It is described as ‘a sort of sleep-waking, vague and unconscious state’, and she speaks in a ‘soft, voluptuous voice’, saying ‘Kiss me!’
when Jonathan sees Dracula what does he do
- he is overcome with fear and falls into a deep sleep and has forgotten everything when he wakes
- he is still pale and dizzy when he wakes
what is Lucy called (as a vampire) by her child-victims
the ‘Bloofer Lady’
when Lucy becomes a vampire, she becomes the monstrous antithesis of the victorian ____as she preys on whom?
mother
young children
what does Dracula say to Jonathan before he enters the castle Dracula which tells us that Dracula cannot enter a home unless invited - how does this show that Lucy is complicit in her own downfall
‘enter freely of your own will’
how is Dracula sucking Lucy’s blood akin to the sexual act?
§ It involves her inviting him into her bedroom, him penetrating her and drawing a little blood
§ It also leaves marks on her - which is perhaps akin to the mark of cain that the narrator receives in the bloody chamber?
as a vampire, what does Lucy look like?
‘radiantly beautiful’
§ ‘sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness’
§ Lucy’s lips were ‘crimson with fresh blood’ and there is a ‘stream’ of blood trickling down her chin which ‘stained the purity of her lawn death-robe’
§ The men see her with ‘horror’
§ She is repeatedly described as ‘voluptuous’
what is Lucy carrying when the men see her as a vampire and awake? what does Lucy do when she sees Arthur? how is she repelled in this scene?
a child
§ She drops the child she had been holding and demands sex from Arthur, saying her ‘arms are hungry for you’ and ‘come, my husband, come!’
§ She ‘recoils’ from the golden crucifix held out to her
vampire Lucy is described as a ‘___which had taken Lucy’s ___ without her ___’ and she has a ‘___appearance’
Thing shape soul
carnal
van helsing prepares to kill Lucy with ‘___’ (adjective) using what instrument
methodicalness - a stake
- combined rational scientific thinking and superstition
how does the influence of the Undead (vampire) spread? (give quote)
like ‘ripples from a stone thrown in the water’
killing Lucy will free Lucy’s soul so it can go to who?
the ‘Angels’
who finally kills Lucy and how
Arthur - drives a stake through her heart
give 2 quotes from Lucy’s death scene
§ Lucy ‘writhed’ and a ‘screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions’
after Lucy is killed - what does Arthur do to her?
he kisses her - as Helsing encourages him to do
which 4 key parental figures are killed after Lucy is killed and just as the novel is reaching its climax
○ Mr swales (the old man in Whitby, a kind of father figure for Mina)
○ Mr Hawkins (Harker’s boss and father figure)
○ Lord Godalming Senior (Arthur’s father)
Mrs Westenra (Lucy’s mother)
what does the death of the 4 key parental figures do for the atmosphere at this point in the novel?
○ Death is pervasive in the novel - the atmosphere is very dark
○ No parent figures remain
§ There is a sense of vulnerability, isolation and lack of guidance
§ There is space for the characters to grow - Bildungsroman
Van Helsing becomes a sort of symbolic father figure for all characters
what kind of christianity does Helsing represent
muscular christianity
van helsing experiences strong ___ which is a gothic convention. however he also retains a patriarchal exterior through self control
emotion
Lucy’s mother s a figure of ___ as she embodies the hapless/inept mother figure
ridicule
van helsing is the symbolic ___figure
father
give a quote from Seward when he begins to question his own sanity
‘wonder if my long habit of life amongst the insane is beginning to tell upon my own brain’
○ This is his rational scepticism working, as he doubts the ancient wisdom/superstitious wisdom of van Helsing. This makes him doubt his own sanity
who is arguably the most masculine character
Quincey morris
what is a quote about the usefulness of a brave man’s blood
‘a brave man’s blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in trouble’
- note that the brave man being so pure is a Manichaean idea
- this quote sets up an antithesis between men and women
give a quote expressing the ideas of muscular christinaty from van helsing
(Hint: its about what God sends us when we are in need)
‘God sends us men’ when we need them
give a quote from van helsing about Manichaean conceptions of good and evil
‘check to the king!’
- the chess match is a Manichaean symbol which van helsing repeatedly refers to - the forces of Dark against the forces of light
throughout the story women are presented as inherently ____ and also ___ and hence threatening
transgressive (Lucy)
inept (Mrs. Westenra)
Lucy’s first deathbed scene evokes what emotion
pathos
during Lucy’s first deathbed scene, Helsing ensures Arthur and Lucy don’t what
instead they do what
give a quote about this encounter
kiss
their eyes meet
(Helsing purifies their final encounter)
‘their eyes met instead of their lips’
explain how Lucy’s sexuality is made literally dangerous by her vampirism
- she would have harmed Arthur (made him a vampire) if she had kissed him
as a vampire, give 3 quotes to describe Lucy
a ‘thing’
‘unholy’
‘nightmare of Lucy’
‘blood stained, voluptuous mouth’
‘devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity’
what are the two ways to interpret Lucy’s final death scene
sexual and orgasmic
or rape like
give 2 quotes from lucy’s second death scene which suggest it is sexual and give two possible interpretations of the quotes
‘writhed…opened red lips’
‘shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions’
- this could be orgasmic
- however the violence could be rape like
the stake is a ____ object (Freudian analysis)
phallic
- showing a male assertion of dominance over her
give a quote about Lucy after she dies and explain how to give a christian interpretation of this
‘holy calm that lay like sunshine over the wasted face and form…earthly token and symbol of the calm that was to reign for ever’
○ Her beauty is gone as she is ‘wasted’, but this is good as beauty is an earthly pleasure/virtue whereas spiritual beauty shines over her (a holy, unearthly virtue)
Arthur killing Lucy is an act of ___ give a quote to support this
give another quote to support the wider interpretation of Arthur’s holy heroism in this scene
righteousness
‘it was my hand that sent her to the stars’
Arthur is described like ‘Thor’ with a ‘high duty’ (a stake in his left hand and a hammer in his right)
who has the idea of the willing suspension of ___
disbelief
Coleridge
whose theory Is the sublime
Burke
as a vampire, what pronouns is Lucy described with
‘it’
give a quote showing vampire lucy’s unclean nature
blood from her lips ‘stained the purity of her lawn death-robe’ (lawn = white)
as Lucy becomes more other she also becomes more ___ showing a connection between what and what
immoral
foreignness and debasement
eyes are the window to the ___and Lucy’s eyes are described as ‘____’ as a vampire whereas before they were ‘______________’
soul
unclean
pure, gentle orbs
where does Lucy hold the child and what wider symbolic significance does this have?
on her ‘breast’
- links to the subversion motherhood as it links to the image of a mother breastfeeding her child - but instead Lucy is feeding on the child
- This is similar to the vampire women who subvert maternal conventions in chapter 3 by feeding on a child as well
what does the repetition of the word ‘voluptuous’ to describe Lucy as a vampire show us about the presentation of female vampirism
it is equated with deviant female sexuality
what does lucy say when she is thirsty for Arthur ?
‘my arms are hungry for you’ and ‘we can rest together’
Perhaps the ‘rest’ as a double entendres is reminiscent of the ‘eternal rest’ of heaven. Here, her words are a sinful subversion of the religiosity which would allow her to get to heaven
what two animals is Lucy compared with? give 3 key points of analysis for this
‘cat’ and ‘dog’
○ Animalistic description shows her degeneration
○ The animals chosen are more domestic than wolves
- So she isn’t quite as far gone into immorality as Dracula
○ Cats and dogs often connected to disease and contamination
- A key anxiety of the time
give a quote showing Lucy embodying the tensions of the Madonna-Whore dichotomy:
○ ‘Lucy Westenra. Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed’
- The full stop is the dichotomy in the Madonna-whore complex
- There is no nuance in this divide - it is a simple Manichaean dichotomy
what kind of resemblance to human Lucy does vampire Lucy have?
a uncanny resemblance
- vampire Lucy is abhuman
what classical character is Lucy compared to
‘medusa’
- like the femme fatale ( a dangerous sexualised being)
what is the femme fatale
- a dangerous sexualised being
how is carter’s tricolour scheme used in Lucy’s second death scene
(red of blood, white of Lucy’s dress, black of the child at her breast)
give a quote showing Lucy has significant power due to her sexuality and compare this to a similar Carter story
○ Arthur is ‘under a spell’
○ This is similar to the Company of Wolves, where the main character uses her sexual power to subdue the wolf
lucy’s red stain on her dress could be similar to the mark of ___ in the bloody chamber
it could symbolise what two things
- cain
- loss of virginity/ menstruation
Carter and stoker exploit tensions between human and animal states - stoker sees the liminality between these two as a sign of ____ whereas Carter sees it as a sign of ____ (give some quotes to support this interpretation of Carter)
degeneration
power
- The mother in the bloody chamber is ‘eagle-featured’ showing her strength
- The Marquis has a ‘dark leonine’ head
- The wolf in the company of wolves has power due to his wolfishness
□ The nature of this power is kind of morally degenerate, but isn’t always punished in the same way?
Arthur embodies what type of Christianity during lucy’s second death scene
muscular
in lucy’s second death Arthurs hands are like the hands of ___ and give a quote to support this
- God
- his hand is a ‘blessed hand’
- ○ his act was an ‘Infinite kindness which would restore Lucy to us as a holy, and not an unholy, memory’
- He has a stake in his left hand and a hammer in his right
- ‘high duty seemed to shine through’ his face
Arthur looks like what God and what does this show
‘Thor’
- he is a hyper masculine figure
the name Arthur echoes what character in British folklore
King Arthur
