Sleepy sleepyness!!

There are many references to sleep and dreaming throughout Bram Stoker's Dracula. The majority of references are linked to the difficulty that characters in the book have sleeping. A lot of the characters have trouble sleeping at some point within the book and in the majority of cases it can be linked to Dracula. The main example of this is Lucy, whose sleep is often disturbed by visitations from Dracula himself. In an extract from her diary at the beginning of chapter 11 she writes: "Oh, the terrible struggle that I have had against sleep so often of late; the pain of sleeplessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep, with such unknown horrors as it has for me!". The 'unknown horrors' that she is referring to is the coming of Dracula during the night to suck her blood. She also refers to trouble sleeping in her last diary entry before her death in chapter 11. She writes: "Then there came to me the old fear of sleep, and I determined to stay awake. Perversely sleep would try to come when I did not want it...". This willingness to stay awake seems to pre-empt what is about to happen and she seems to recognise the fact that bad things seem to be happening when she is asleep.
The link between sleep and death is quite strong throughout the book. When Lucy dies in chapter 12 Dr Seward writes: "We thought her dying whilst she slept and sleeping when she died" and looking back at a reference to Dracula in Jonathan Harker's journal in chapter 4 he writes: "He was either dead or asleep I could not say".
Dracula's power over sleep is also a recurrent theme within the book as night time is portrayed as his domain. He seems to have some kind of supernatural power over people's sleep, especially his victims, and in this case Lucy: "I tried to stay awake and succeeded for a while; but when the clock struck twelve it waked me from a doze, so I must have been falling asleep..... I suppose I must then have fallen asleep. More bad dreams." It is almost as if he can make his victims fall asleep so that he can attack them and he also seems to be in control of making sure that his victims are in a suitable place where he will not be discovered. This can be seen in chapter 8 when Lucy and Mina are staying in Whitby and Lucy sleep walks to to the Abbey where she is later found by Mina "half-reclining with head lying over the back of the seat" and "there are two little red points like pin-pricks" on her throat.
The mixing of sleep and reality is a key part in the book as it helps to create irony whereby the reader understands what is happening but the characters seem blissfully unaware, therefore making the reader feel that they want to convince and warn the characters of what's going on. A good example of this can be seen in chapter 3 when Jonathan Harker meets the three vampire women: "I suppose I must have fallen asleep..." he doesn't seem to be sure if he actually saw the three women or if he dreamed it and this could link back to Dracula's 'control' over sleep as it is he who seems to induce Harker's sleep.

Dear me! How very improper!!

According to traditional preconceptions the Victorians were very prudent in what they said and did, one of the most common examples being that women could not show their ankles as it was seen as being lewd and similarly the word 'leg' was improper to say in a social context therefore 'limb' was the preferred term.
However, it has become apparent that the Victorians were not as innocent and naive as they would like us to believe! Explicit and erotic writing such as 'My Secret Life' by Walter [Henry Spencer Ashbee] and The Peal show the Victorian's somewhat secretive fascination with sexuality.

This repressed sexuality can be seen reflected in Bram Stoker's Dracula through the subtle references and innuendos throughout the text. None of the text is overtly sexual but if looked at in detail there are many references to sex in the content of the book, for example it could be seen that the vampires biting people could be seen as a reference to penetration.

The presentation of Dracula....

Dracula is presented as being almost supernatural in appearance and countenance as he seems very strong for his apparent old age and "cruel-looking". His face is described as being "strong - a very strong - aqualine..." an his chin is described as "broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin". This suggests that his features do not seem to have softened with age as one might expect and linking back to Harker's earlier description of his "prodigious strength" he seems almost inhuman. Continuing on his inhuman qualities, he seems almost animalistic in appearance with "peculiarly sharp white teeth" and his "squat fingers" and "the nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point". His "peculiarly arched nostrils" could also relate to having animalistic features.

Dracula: Bad Dreams?

Freud suggested that bad dreams can be interpreted as our unconscious trying to resolve a conflict occurring in our lives at present or something that has happened in the past.

In Chapter 3 Jonathan Harker recalls his strange encounter with three women whilst in a dream-like stupor. If I was interpreting this encounter as a bad dream I would suggest that Harker's "desire that they would kiss me with those red lips" is an unconscious hunger for contact with a woman, whether it be in a sexual sense or not. This could either be due to the fact that he has been away from Mina for a long time or because subconsciously he feels that his relationship with Mina is not satisfying him. This could be supported by the fact that he does not try to stop the woman from approaching him even though it becomes apparent that she wants to bite him.

Before the woman can bite Harker, Dracula appears and stops her "as though he were beating them back". This could show that Harker is missing Mina very much as it reflects his current situation, whereby he is being prevented from seeing her by Dracula as he is essentially a 'prisoner' in Dracula's castle.

Look, I actually did a blog... and it's on time!!

In Thursday's lesson we looked at Act 5, the final Act of the play. The first line of Act 5 Scene 1 Wagner says; "I think my master means to die shortly...", this suggests that in this Act we will see the demise of Doctor Faustus.

After talking to three scholars and conjouring 'Heln of Greece' for them an old man appears on stage who tries to reason with Faustus and convince him that there is still time to save himself. He talks of "repentant heaviness" and "celestial rest" and suggests that Faustus can repent his sins and God will forgive him; "But mercy, Faustus, of thy saviour sweet, whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt". Faustus' immediate reaction to this is to request a dagger so that he may 'dispair and die', which is contradictory to what the old man has just suggested. The old man reasons with Faustus and says that he should 'call for mercy and avoid dispair' instead of killing himself, which Faustus subsiquently agrees to do.

Mephistopheles refers to Faustus as a 'traitor' for disobeying the 'soverign lord' and orders him to go back on his word (not repent) or he will "in piecemeal tear thy flesh". On hearing this Faustus asks Mephistopheles to beg for Lucifer's forgiveness and requests that Mephistopheles torments and punishes the old man. This happens but the old man's faith is too strong and he cannot be destroyed; "my faith, vile hell, shall triumph over thee".

In Act 5 Scene 2, the last scene of the play, Faustus is preparing himself for death as the end of his 'four-and-twenty years' draws nearer. He is again talking to the three scholars, who try to convince him that he can turn to God and be saved but he is adament that he cannot be forgiven and therefore must be ready to face death/hell.
In his final speech Faustus wishes that time would stop and that he could be saved; "Christ's blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul, half a drop." As his impending doom draws ever nearer he wishes that he hadn't jad a soul to sell in the first place or that he will be reincarnated after death or dissappear into oblivion instead of suffering eternal hell.

All this hoping and wishing is in vain as at the end of the scene he is taken away by devils with one final appeal to Mephistopheles.

The blog that I should have done, but did not... now done!

In Thursday's lesson we looked at Act 4 Scene 1 in which Faustus' meets an Emperor. The way in which he talks to the Emperor is slightly controversial as he says things such as "I am content to do whatsoever your majesty shall command me" which contradicts what Faustus' said in Act 1 Scene1 (line 59); "...Shall be at my command. Emperors and kings are but obeyed in their several provinces, nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds..." which suggests that he wants to be of higher status than Emperors rather than serving them.
The Emperor asks Faustus to prove his abilities in magic by raising Alexander the Great from the dead. Faustus tells the Emperor that he cannot raise a body 'which long since are consumed to dust' but that he can raise an apparition of Alexander. But does Faustus not know his own power or is it Mephistopheles who is performing the magic for him? as he manages to raise the bodies of Alexander and his Paramour!
Faustus then turns from performing fantastic magical feats to exploiting his magical powers to perform stupid tricks on people as he gives the Knight, who mocked his magical abilities, horns which is a mockery of his family and his manhood by suggesting that his wife has been unfaithful.
He then tricks a horse-courser by selling him a horse which subsequently turns into hay when it's ridden into water.
Why is Faustus exploiting his abilities and using them for stupidity when his first intentions were to use his magical abilities to perform great deeds?

Doctor Faustus 16th September 2010

In Thursday's lesson we started reading Doctor Faustus. We looked in detail at what kind of person Faustus is and what kind of person he makes himself out to be. He is a very intelligent yet very arrogant man who claims to know all there is to know about
1. Philosophy
2. Medicine
3.Law
4.Divinity
and now he wishes to become accomplished in magic. He believes that if he can master the art of magic it will bring him fame and fortune. This sees the entrance of the good angel and the bad angel who act as Faustus' conscience. The good angel is trying to persuade him not to study magic as it is a bad profession and connected with the devil: "that is blasphemy". The bad angel is trying to persuade Faustus that studying magic will be good for him and could make him God-like: "be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky".


We also looked at the prologue in which the story is set and Faustus' past is revealed. This confirms our beliefs that he is an intelligent man as he went to university; "of riper years to Wittenberg he went" and he was given the title of Doctor: "he was graced with doctor's name". At the end of the prologue there is foreshadowing of what is to come in the play: "falling to a devilish exercise" this is referring to Faustus selling his soul to the Devil by partaking in magic.