Dracula

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.01: From Drab to Fab

Ah-ah-ah!
(Source)

It all started in May, 1897.

Well, if you want to get really nitpicky, it started with a short story by Lord Byron's doctor John Polidori in 1819. That's the year Polidori's story "Vampyre" was finally published, after he drafted it during the infamous summer vacation that also produced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 

Before the 19th century, most vampire stories were Eastern European folklore about peasants who just wouldn't stay properly dead. Polidori turned them into international men of mystery: creepy, probably corrupt aristocratic types who have a pronounced preference for pretty girls.

All due respect to Polidori, though, Bram Stoker is the one who really made vampires happen.

Head on over to the reading for all the deets.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.01a: The Evolution of the Vampire

Dracula was more of a sleeper success than an immediate box office hit. It was popular enough when it was published, but vampires are made for the screen—or, in Dracula's case, the stage. In 1922, W. Murnau released Nosferatu, an unauthorized (and silent) adaptation of the novel.

It was the first, but it wasn't the last. Something about this creepy tale of a degenerate, bloodsucking aristocrat attacking from the East struck a nerve. In 1931, Bela Lugosi starred in the first Hollywood adaptation—and since then, Dracula and his imitators have been etched into our culture.

But why?

Well, first, it's just a plain good adventure story: the forces of good against the forces of evil. We love that junk.

But second—vampires are useful symbols. They can mean anything and everything: sex, disease, foreignness, race, adolescence, degeneration, and addiction. They represent us. Whatever our current obsessions are—"our" meaning contemporary culture—there's a vampire to represent it.

A Symbol for All Time

In the 1920s, vampires symbolized the loose morals of the new post-War era. In the 1960s, they (according to one scholar, at least) rebelled against authority. In the 1980s, movies like The Lost Boys tied vampires into fears of AIDS. In the 2000s, vampires gave us new stories about sex—narratives of coming out and assimilation.

And in the 1890s?

Well, late Victorians—like "late" anyones—were terrified that they were living in a degenerate age, that people were literally de-evolving. (They all knew about Darwin by then, but they were a little fuzzy on the specifics.) This degeneration, said its major theorist Max Nordau, came about thanks to the industrialization and urbanization that were reshaping the world.

What does all this mean? It means that Stoker's Dracula is exactly the vampire 1897 wanted: a symbol of a degenerate, global, and—above all—technological age.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.01b: Get Down to It

Step One

Drop all those expectations you have about vampires and Dracula. Done? Good.

Step Two

Grab yourself a copy of the text.

Dracula may seem like pop culture, but it's still worth picking up a good scholarly edition. We love the Norton Edition, because not only do you get lots of nice explanatory notes, you also get selections from some of the hundreds of articles digging into Dracula's themes and issues.

Just check out these titles:

• Suddenly Sexual Women in Bram Stoker's Dracula
• A Capital Dracula
• "Kiss Me with Those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker's Dracula
• The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the Anxiety of Reverse Colonization
• "A Wilde Desire Took Me": The Homoerotic History of Dracula

Not convinced? That's cool, too. (Warning: we're still going to be talking about most of these arguments in the unit. Ah-ah-ah!) You can still read the book online; your local Shmoop librarians have a copy reserved for you here.

Step Three

Go ahead and read it for yourself, starting with Jonathan Harker's journals in Chapters 1 and 2.

If you need a helping hand, be sure to check out our summaries.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.01a: Dear Diary

Remember how we said that late Victorians were afraid that people were de-evolving?

Meet Jonathan Harker. He's a low-ranking solicitor, which are the less-fancy types of lawyers; he's weirdly obsessed with train schedules; and he always makes a plan before heading off to the wilds of Eastern Europe.

In other words, he's not much to write home about. In this activity, you're going to be digging into his first diary entries to find out just what kind of de-evolved man our maybe-hero is.

Step One

Read this extremely thorough and sincere "How To OkCupid Profile" to learn how to write an OkCupid profile.

Step Two

Read back through Jonathan's first diary entry, noting down any quotations that seem to give you insight into his character or personality.

For example, one quote we might find particularly enlightening is:

I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the count all about them.)

(Chapter I)

See why we'd choose that one? It lets us know Harker is both meek and excitable—definitely something we'd want to come through in his OkCupid profile.

Step Three

Finally, fill out this handy "dating profile." (You didn't think we'd actually have you go onto OkCupid, did you? Gross.) For each, add about 50–100 words that you think best capture his essence. We'll even start the first one for you.

Sample Lesson - Activity