Violence in Dracula and Dorian

PLAN:
Intro

P1 – VIOLENCE IS SHOCKING // violence of Lucy feeding on children, creates more shock to the
reader, rejecting social norms of the maternal figure // violence of Sybil killing herself because she
stopped acting like other people and became herself, social norms of women having to act how men
want them to, they can’t just be themselves // context – social norms for women

P2 – FEAR CAUSES VIOLENCE // Dorian is pushed into paranoia through the painting, causing him to
lash out at Basil and unintentionally kill himself // The groups fear, including xenophobia, causes
violence. They are pushed against Dracula because of the fear against him spreading his
vampirism // context - at the time in Victorian era, fear of STI's was big, especially syphilis (caused
hysteria and hallucinations)

Conclusion

ESSAY:
Both novels Dracula and The Painting of Dorian Gray, present violence in different forms. Violence
and crime were a big issue in Victorian England, many people were alcoholics and back alleys of
cities because a great place for murders. In Dorian Gray, violence is hidden and looked down upon
by society, whereas in Dracula it is deemed necessary by the group to take action due to violence
that Dracula started.

In both novels, the violence that takes place is shocking to the readers. For example, in Dorian Gray
the violence of Sybil killing herself shocks the people around her and the readers. She killed herself
because she felt she couldn’t be herself around the person she loved, and she found out that he
doesn’t love her, only the characters she plays: “Her eyes opened wide in exquisite wonder when I
told her what I thought of her performance, and she seemed quite unconscious of her power”. The
word “power” is key because it is what he sees in her that he likes, he strives for any kind of power
and so sees a powerful woman suitable to be by his side, especially if she is also oblivious and thus
controllable. However, this all fails when she becomes herself, trashing her reputation as an actress,
which is the only thing Dorian cares about. This leads her to suicide, thinking that life will never be
worth living, even though Dorian the next morning was planning on fixing things. Despite his
intentions being corrupt, knowing that he was going to make an effort would have saved her. The
shock comes from how she did it a couple of hours after he left her, meaning that she had time to
think it through and was not just being irrational. She was forced to feel like she wasn’t enough and
had to act like other people in order to be enough for men to love. In the Victorian era the woman’s
role was in the home, cooking and with children. They were meant to be subservient to the men and
do everything they were told, not do anything drastic or controversial. Sybil crossed this when she
showed Dorian her real personality. In Dracula, these expectations of women were also played with
to make the violence shocking to the readers. Lucy turned into a vampire, and her beastly and non-
human ways were shown through stereotypes of an ‘untrained’ woman: “The sweetness was turned
into adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness”. Victorian ideals of
“sweetness” and “purity” turned to sexual attraction and impenetrable power, and the thought of
her having power is scarier that her blood-sucking teeth to the Victorian men. Furthermore, when
Lucy became a vampire, she fed on children who were alone and vulnerable. This would have been
extremely shocking and violent to the readers because women had to be maternal and innocent, not
eating children. This rejection of social norm makes the violent acts worse.

Another factor of the violence in the two novels is that all of the time, it is created by fear, even if it
the fear of starving in Dracula’s case. The fear caused by his impending take over cause the group to
attempt justice, and this happened to be through violence. There are many influences of their fear,
and why Bram Stoker decided to give them that fear, one being xenophobia. Stoker had never been
to Transylvania but had create an image of it in his book, the fear of mythical creatures such as
vampires would have influenced the readers, who won’t have been to Transylvania either. The huge
fear is that they know that vampires can turn humans into vampires, and they are scared of this
snowballing into a crisis. So, it is potentially a national and international problem of vampirism
illustrated by it moving to England. This can be linked to a big problem of the Victorian era: STIs,
specifically syphilis. Syphilis causes hysteria and hallucinations, and the spread across England was
scary because of the physical implications but also the embarrassment of the sin of sex. The taboo
transfers to vampirism, as it could be seen as a punishment to Lucy for not being pure enough and
being proposed to 3 times in a day. Likewise, the violence in Dorian Gray is fuelled by Dorian’s fear of
himself. He is pushed into paranoia through the painting, knowing that it was his fault and that it has
made him a worse person, meaning the death of sybil and all the hearts broken were his fault. This
pent-up fear created a need to try to protect himself, and he ends up lashing out at Basil and
stabbing him many times. Basil is his oldest and arguably truest friend; he has the best intentions for
Dorian and has stayed his friend for over 18 years throughout all of his wrong doings. The closeness
of the two contrasted with the violence of Basil’s death presents the gruesomeness and violence
caused by Dorian’s fear of himself. When Dorian unintentionally kills himself, the fear is backfired
onto him through the painting.

In conclusion, the characters in both novels are violent in similar ways, caused by fear of themselves,
unknown lands and differences from what they deem normal. It expressed violence and fear in
Victorian England, from diseases to murderers, and also some of the issues that women faced
regarding social norms and expectations.