Editing Dracula (section)

== Context and interpretation ==

=== Sexuality and gender ===
Sexuality and seduction are two of the novel's most frequently discussed themes,{{Sfnm|1a1=Kuzmanovic|1y=2009|1p=411|2a1=Stevenson|2y=1988|2p=139|3a1=Spencer|3y=1992|3p=197}} and modern critical writings about vampirism widely acknowledge its link to sex and sexuality.{{Sfn|Craft|1984|p=107}}{{Sfn|Roth|1997|p=412}} Across the novel's critical history, Miller writes that theorists have collectively argued that the Count breaks virtually "every Victorian taboo", including [[Casual sex|non-procreative sex]] (including [[fellatio]]), transgressive sexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality.{{Sfn|Miller|2001|p=220}}

[[Transgressive fiction|Transgressive]] or abnormal sexuality within ''Dracula'' is a broad topic. Some psychosexual critics focus on the [[Sexual inversion (sexology)|disruption]] of Victorian [[gender role]]s; within the Victorian context, Christopher Craft writes males had "the right and responsibility of vigorous appetite" while women were required to "suffer and be still".{{Sfn|Craft|1984|p=108}} Critics highlight the many places in which the novel disrupts these social mores: Jonathan Harker's excitement over the prospect of being penetrated;{{Sfn|Craft|1984|p=109}} Dracula's resulting anger and jealousy;{{Sfn|Nystrom|2009|p=64}} and Lucy's transformation into a sexually aggressive predator who drains "vital fluid".{{Sfn|Stevenson|1988|p=146}} Some critics, including professor [[Carol Senf]], argue that the novel reflects anxiety about female sexual awakening as a threat to established norms.{{Sfn|Senf|1982|p=44}}{{Sfn|Nystrom|2009|p=65}}

''Dracula'' contains no overt homosexual acts, but homosexuality and [[homoeroticism]] are elements discussed by critics.{{Sfn|Miller|2005a|p=43}} Christopher Craft argues that the primary threat Dracula poses is that he will "seduce, penetrate, [and] drain another male",{{Sfn|Craft|1984|p=110}} and reads Harker's excitement to submit as a proxy for "an implicitly homoerotic desire".{{Sfn|Craft|1984|p=110}} Victorian readers would have identified Dracula with sexual threat.{{Sfn|Punter|2012|p=283}} Some critics note that changes made to the 1899 American version of the text reinforce this subtext, wherein Dracula states he will feed on Harker.{{Sfn|Auerbach|Skal|1997|p=52}}{{Sfn|Miller|2005a|pp=167–168}} Critics have variously linked these themes to [[homoerotic]] letters Stoker wrote to [[Walt Whitman]], his friendship with [[Oscar Wilde]],{{Sfn|Schaffer|1994|pp=381–381}}{{Efn|While some write that Stoker started writing the novel after Wilde's [[Oscar Wilde#Imprisonment|imprisonment for homosexuality]] in 1895,{{Sfn|Schaffer|1994|p=381}} Stoker had been writing ''Dracula'' from as early as 1890.{{Sfn|Bierman|1977|p=40}}}} his intensely emotional relationship with Irving, and contemporary rumours of Stoker's almost [[sexless marriage]].{{Sfn|Schaffer|1994|pp=381–381}}{{Sfn|Glover|1996|p=1}}{{Sfn|Hindle|1993|pp=xxiii–xxx}} [[David J. Skal]] acknowledged the letters' subtext but cautioned against applying [[Anachronism|anachronistic]] modern sexual labels to Stoker.{{Sfn|Skal|2016|pp=92–99}}

Many critics have suggested that the novel reveals a "[[reactionary]] response" to the [[New Woman]] phenomenon.{{Sfn|Case|1993|p=224}} This is a late-Victorian term used to describe an emerging class of women with increased social and economic control over their lives.{{Sfn|Bordin|1993|p=2}}{{Sfn|Signorotti|1996|p=620}}{{Sfn|Miller|2005a|p=167}} Several critics describe the battle against Dracula as a fight for control over women's bodies.{{Sfn|Wasserman|1977|p=405}}{{Sfn|Stevenson|1988|p=139}} Senf suggests that Stoker was ambivalent about the New Woman phenomenon,{{Sfn|Senf|1982|p=34}} while Signorroti argues that the novel's discomfort with female sexual autonomy reflects Stoker's dislike for the movement.{{Sfn|Signorotti|1996|p=620}} Both Lucy and Mina have characteristics associated with the New Woman;{{Sfn|Nystrom|2009|pp=66–67}}{{Efn|Allison Case writes that Lucy is "ambiguously linked" to the concept through her "sexual assertiveness", while Mina is connected to the idea through her professional occupation and skills.{{Sfn|Case|1993|p=225}}}} Mina, who plays an important role in Dracula's defeat, repeatedly expresses contempt for the concept.{{Sfn|Signorotti|1996|pp=625–626}}{{Sfn|Senf|1982|p=34}} Senf notes that Lucy is punished for expressing dissatisfaction with her social position as a woman. After her transformation into a vampire, her defeat by the vampire hunters symbolises the re-establishment of "male supremacy".{{Sfn|Senf|1982|pp=44–45}}
===Race===
''Dracula'', and specifically the Count's migration to Victorian England, is frequently read as emblematic of [[invasion literature]],{{Sfn|Kane|1997|p=8}} and a projection of fears about racial pollution.{{Sfn|Arnds|2015|p=89}} In an influential [[Postcolonialism|postcolonialist]] analysis,{{Sfn|Willis|2007|p=301}} Stephen Arata describes the novel's cultural context of mounting anxiety in Britain over the decline of the [[British Empire]], the rise of other [[world power]]s, and a "growing domestic unease" over the morality of imperial colonisation.{{Sfn|Arata|1990|p=622}} Arata regards the novel as an instance of "reverse colonisation": fear of other races invading England and weakening its racial purity.{{Sfn|Croley|1995|p=89}} Patricia McKee writes that Dracula represents a negation of white culture while Mina represents "pure whiteness".{{Sfn|McKee|2002|p=52}} Dracula can be said to both kill white bodies and turn them into the [[Other (philosophy)#Racism|racial Other]] in death.{{Sfn|Arata|1990|p=630}} Some critics connect the racialisation of Dracula to his depiction as a [[Social degeneration|degenerate criminal]].{{Sfn|Tomaszweska|2004|p=3}}{{Sfn|Glover|1996|pp=43–44}}

Critics frequently identify [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] themes and imagery in the novel. Between 1891 and 1900, the number of Jews living in England increased sixfold, mainly due to antisemitic legislation and [[pogrom]]s in eastern Europe.{{Sfn|Zanger|1991|p=34}} Examples cited by [[Jack Halberstam]] of antisemitic connections include Dracula's appearance, wealth, parasitic bloodlust, and "lack of allegiance" to one country.{{Sfn|Halberstam|1993|p=337}}{{Efn|For further reading on the last point, [[Zygmunt Bauman]] writes that the perceived "eternal homelessness" of the Jewish people has contributed to discrimination against them.{{Sfn|Bauman|1991|p=337}}}} Dracula's appearance resembles some other cultural depictions of Jews, such as [[Fagin]] in [[Charles Dickens]]'s ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (1838), and [[Svengali]] of [[George du Maurier]]'s [[Trilby (novel)|''Trilby'']] (1895).{{Sfn|Halberstam|1993|p=338}} Jewish people were frequently described as parasites in [[Victorian literature]]; Halberstam highlights fears that Jews would spread diseases of the blood, and one journalist's description of Jews as "Yiddish bloodsuckers".{{Sfn|Halberstam|1993|p=350}} Daniel Renshaw writes that any antisemitism in the text is "semi-subliminal"; he writes that Dracula is not Jewish but does reflect the 19th-century conception of Jewish people. Renshaw frames the novel more broadly as a general suspicion of all foreigners.{{Sfn|Renshaw|2022|pp=301–302}}

The novel's depiction of [[Slovaks]] and [[Romani people]] has attracted limited scholarly attention.{{Sfn|Tchaprazov|2015|p=524}} In the novel, Harker describes the Slovaks as "barbarians" and their boats as "primitive", reflecting his imperialistic condescension towards other cultures.{{Sfn|Tchaprazov|2015|p=525}} Peter Arnds writes that the Count's control over the Romani and his abduction of young children evoke folk superstitions about Romani people stealing children, and that his ability to transform into a wolf is related to xenophobic beliefs about the Romani as animalistic.{{Sfn|Arnds|2015|p=95}} Croley argues that Dracula's association with the Romani made him suspect in the eyes of Victorian England, where they were stigmatised owing to beliefs that they ate "unclean meat" and lived among animals.{{Sfn|Croley|1995|pp=99, 107}}

=== Religion, superstition and science ===
''Dracula'' is saturated with religious imagery. Christopher Herbert regards the novel as a [[parable]] about conflict with an enemy who opposes Christ and Christianity.{{Sfn|Herbert|2019|pp=211–212}} Scholars discuss the novel's depiction of religion in relation to late Victorian anxieties about the threat which secularism, scientific rationalism and the occult posed to Christian beliefs and morality.{{Sfn|Sanders|2015|pp=78–90}} Stoker himself had a lifelong interest in [[supernatural]] inquiry,{{Sfn|Skal|2016|p=53}} and Herbert writes that he mixes the supernatural and superstitious beliefs with religious elements, resulting in metaphors about moral uncleanness becoming literal elements of the text's "occult reality".{{Sfn|Herbert|2019|pp=226–227}} Herbert notes that the [[blood of Christ]] is important to Christian ritual and imagery,{{Sfn|Herbert|2019|pp=218–219}} and Richard Noll notes that actual consumption of human blood is one of the oldest [[Judeo-Christian]] taboos.{{Sfn|Noll|1992|p=3}}

The vampire hunters use many weapons—including Christian practices and symbols (prayer, crucifixes and [[Sacramental bread|consecrated hosts]]), folkloric practices (garlic, staking and decapitation) and contemporary technology (typewriters, [[phonograph]]s, telegrams, blood transfusions and [[Winchester rifle]]s)—in their battle against Dracula.{{Sfn|Senf|2010|pp=74–75}}{{Sfn|Hindle|1993|pp=xxvi–xxvii}}{{Sfn|Skal|2016|pp=357–358}} Sanders argues that Stoker presents Christianity as a religion that can be instrumentalised and incorporated into scientific knowledge.{{Sfn|Sanders|2015|p=78}} Herbert describes Van Helsing's "Christian purification" of Lucy as punitively addressing her promiscuity, and the resulting framing of Christianity as a means towards the "eradication of [[Deviance (sociology)|deviancy]]".{{Sfn|Herbert|2019|pp=218, 223–224}}

=== Political and economic ===

Critics discuss the novel in relation to [[British rule in Ireland]] and [[Irish nationalism]]. Considerable debate exists over whether ''Dracula'' is an Irish novel; while it is largely set in England, Stoker was born in British-ruled Ireland and lived there for the first 30 years of his life.{{Sfn|Stewart|1999|p=238}}{{Sfn|Glover|1996|p=26}} Though born into a [[Protestantism in Ireland|Protestant]] family, he was distanced from the religion's more conservative factions.{{Sfn|Ingelbien|2003|p=1090}}

Ralph Ingelbien notes that "recognizably nationalist" critics like [[Terry Eagleton]] and [[Seamus Deane]] favoured readings of Dracula as "a bloodthirsty caricature of the aristocratic landlord" where the vampire represents the death of [[feudalism]].{{Sfnm|1a1=Ingelbien|1y=2003|1p=1089}} Bruce Stewart changes the focus to the lower classes,{{Sfnm|1a1=Ingelbien|1y=2003|1p=1089}} suggesting Dracula and his Romani followers more likely represented violence by [[Irish National Land League]] activists.{{Sfn|Stewart|1999|p=239}} Michael Valdez Moses compares Dracula to the disgraced [[Charles Stewart Parnell]], leader of the [[Irish Home Rule movement]] from 1880 to 1882.{{Sfn|Ingelbien|2003|p=1090}}{{Sfn|Moses|1997|p=68}} Robert Smart argues that Stoker's experience during the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] (1845–1852) influenced the novel,{{Sfn|Smart|2007|p=3}} with Stewart also noting this as historical context.{{Sfn|Stewart|1999|p=238}}

Some critics discuss Count Dracula's [[Count|noble title]]. Literary critic [[Franco Moretti]] writes that he is an aristocrat "only in a manner of speaking", citing his lack of servants, simple clothing, and lack of aristocratic hobbies. Moretti suggests that Dracula's blood thirst represents capital's desire to accumulate more capital.{{Sfn|Moretti|1982|pp=72–73}} More generally, Moretti argues the novel evinces cultural anxiety about foreign [[Monopoly|capitalist monopolies]] functioning as a return of feudalism.{{Sfn|Moretti|1982|p=73}} Chris Baldick maintains this line of analysis, describing Dracula as an undead symbol of feudalism but concluding that the novel is more concerned with "sexual and religious terrors".{{Sfn|Baldick|1996|p=148}} Mark Neocleous writes that Dracula symbolises the victory of the bourgeoisie over feudalism.{{Sfn|Neocleous|2003|p=667}} In ''[[Das Kapital]]'', [[Karl Marx]] compared the [[bourgeoisie]]'s exploitation of [[Working class|workers]] to a vampire draining blood.{{Sfn|Neocleous|2003|p=668}} He uses vampires as a metaphor three times in ''Das Kapital'', but these predate the writing of ''Dracula.''{{Sfn|Neocleous|2003|p=669}}

=== Disease ===
Contagious disease was a topic of social and medical concern in late Victorian England.{{Sfn|Walker|2007|p=256}} Vampirism can represent disease, being both an initial infection and the resulting illness.{{Sfn|Willis|2007|p=302}} The novel characterises vampirism with terms from [[Social degeneration|social degeneration theory]],{{Sfn|Herbert|2019|p=226}} an 18th- and 19th-century social and biological concept arising from fear over the deterioration of the "human condition";{{Sfn|Vorachek|2009|p=197}} Victorian psychiatry, known then as "alienism";{{Sfn|Noll|1992|p=11}} and anthropology.{{Sfn|Hurley|2002|p=192}} Theories of degeneracy propagated Victorian-era beliefs about poor moral character being [[Pathogen transmission|transmissible]] like a pathogen.{{Sfn|Herbert|2019|p=226}} [[Jack Halberstam]] writes that Dracula and Renfield's relationship suggests that vampirism is "a psychological disorder, an addictive activity".{{Sfn|Halberstam|1993|p=344}} He notes that Renfield, and by association Dracula, is described by doctors using terminology more appropriate for describing animals.{{Sfn|Halberstam|1993|p=344}} [[Brian Aldiss]] writes that Count Dracula represents the initial disease while Renfield's madness is a symptom of advanced infection.{{Sfn|Aldiss|Wingrove|1986|pp=144–145}} Halbertstam highlights that disease was frequently associated with Jews during the period.{{Sfn|Halberstam|1993|p=341}} [[Sexually transmitted infection]], particularly [[syphilis]], is a frequent topic.{{Sfn|Farson|1975|pp=233–235}} Literary critic Martin Willis writes that the novel depicts Victorian discourse over the origin, cause and treatment of disease, especially in the context of Lucy's treatment and eventual death.{{Sfn|Willis|2007|p=302}}