Purity and Danger Article

Purity and Danger: Dracula, the Urban Gothic, and the Late Victorian Degeneracy Crisis
Author(s): Kathleen L. Spencer

Source: ELH, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 197-225
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873424 .
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PURITY AND DANGER: DRACULA,THE URBAN
GOTHIC, AND THE LATE VICTORIAN
DEGENERACY CRISIS
BY KATHLEEN L. SPENCER
I believethatideas aboutseparating,purifying, demarcatingand

punishingtransgressions have as theirmain functionto impose
systemon an inherently untidyexperience.It is onlyby exagger-
atingthedifferencebetweenwithinandwithout, aboveandbelow,
male and female,withand against,thata semblanceoforderis
created.
-Mary Douglas,Purityand Danger'
The construction ofcategoriesdefiningwhatis appropriate sexual

behavior("normal"/"abnormal"), or whatconstitutes theessential
genderbeing("male"/"female"); or wherewe are placed alonga
continuumof sexualpossibilities("heterosexual," "homosexual,"
"paedophile,""transvestite"
orwhatever); thisendeavoris no neu-
tral,scientific
discoveryofwhatwasalreadythere.Socialinstitutions
whichembodythesedefinitions (religion,the law, medicine,the
educationalsystem,psychiatry, socialwelfare,even architecture)
are constitutiveofthesexuallivesofindividuals.Strugglesaround
sexualityare, therefore,strugglesover meanings-overwhatis
appropriateor not appropriate-meanings whichcall on the re-
sourcesofthebodyand thefluxofdesire,butare notdictatedby
them.
-Jeffrey
Weeks,Sexualityand itsDiscontents
(emphasisadded)2
InterpretingDracula's sexual substratahas become somethingof a
cottageindustryoflate, so much so thatone more readingofthe text's
unconsciousmay seem a bit pointless. Yet there is somethingcurious
goingon here: despite certaindisagreementsas towhatkindofsexuality
is present in the novel, almost all readingspresume a given sexuality
that is repressed and displaced throughoutthe text, which it is the
criticaltask to uncover and articulate. In other words, despite local
disagreements,all of these readings approach the text froma fairly
orthodoxversionof depth psychology.3While this focushas certainly
been productive,there are other questions about the textthatcannot
be answered by focusingon the unconscious sexualityof the author,
ELH 59 (1992)197-225C 1992byThe JohnsHopkinsUniversity

Press 197

or a character,or even, as in Freudian/Marxistreadings,on the class
system.
What I propose is a different kind of historicalreading of Dracula
to supplementthe previous approaches; my concern is less with Sto-
ker'spositionas a representativelate-Victorianman thatwiththe novel
as a representativelate-Victoriantext. For Dracula is not an isolated
phenomenon,but is partofa literary/cultural discoursecomprisednot
only of other tales about vampires,but of other fantasticnovels and
storiesthatalso focuson sexual dynamics,whethercovertlyor overtly.4
Whateverit is that Dracula is sayingabout sex, then, it is sayingnot
in isolationbut as part of a dialogue.
The firststep in thisbroader historicalexplicationof Stoker'snovel
is to identifyits literarycontext:the "romance revival" of the 1880s
and 1890s-more explicitly,that species of romance called "the fan-
tastic." Having located the text generically,we can then clarifyits
culturalcontext- the late-Victorianworld of imperialismand degen-
eracytheories,puritycrusades and the New Woman, materialistmed-
icine and itsopponents(continentalpsychologyon the one hand, Spir-
itualismand assortedoccultismson the other).To illuminatethissocial
contextI will read the novel againstmodels ofculturesin crisisdrawn
fromRene Girard and anthropologistMary Douglas. Finally I will
considerthe relationshipbetween Dracula's genre, its historicalcon-
text,and its popularity,to see what lightthis analysiscan shed on a
largerquestion-why the fantasticas a genre should have flourished
so dramaticallyin this period of culturaltransformation.
I: THE FANTASTIC
Like "romance" itself, <'the fantastic"is a much-disputedterm.

While some theoristsuse "fantasy"and "thefantastic"interchangeably,
others see them as referringto two quite differentkinds of stories,
and stillotherssee the fantasticnot as a genre at all but as an element
that can appear in many kinds of tales (as the term "gothic" can be
applied either to a specificfictionalconfiguration common at the end
of the eighteenthcentury,or to a literarymode which can appear in
worksof any period).
The most famousdefinitionof the term "fantastic"is Tzvetan To-
dorov's,but whatseems to me the mostfunctional,precise explanation
of the fantasticis that proposed by the Polish semiotician Andrzej
Zgorzelski.For Zgorzelski,the fantasticas a genre is signaled by "the
breachingof the internallaws which are initiallyassumed in the text
to governthe fictionalworld." The opening of the textindicates that
198 Dracula and Urban Gothic

the fictiveworldis based on a "mimeticworldmodel,"a modelthat
is violentlybreachedby the entranceof the fantasticelementand
changedintoa different world,one in whichthe fantasticelement
text,then,buildsits
does notviolatethe laws ofreality.A fantastic
fictional oftwomodelsof reality.
worldas "a textualconfrontation "5
frissonofthefan-
Two elementsare essentialforthecharacteristic
theimpossibleeventmustgenuinely
tastic:first, be happening(nota
dream, a hallucination,a mistake,or a deliberate trick);and second,
the tone of the narrativeemphasizes initial disbelief, and (usually)
horror.The charactersreact with fearand revulsionat encountering
what is not only unexpected, but unnatural accordingto the laws of
the world they inhabit, and readers usually respond with the same
feelings,notonlybecause we identifywiththe characters,but because
the world the charactersinitiallyinhabitis our own world. Further,
the narrativevoice insistentlyemphasizes violationand transgression,
the logical contradictionbetween the impossibilityof the occurrence
and its actuality.For example, when Dracula appears in Picadilly at
high noon, the charactersreact initiallywith disbeliefand a kind of
horrifiedvertigoat discoveringthatthe monstrousis real and walking
the streetsof theirordinarymodern city.
Defined in this way, the fantasticas a genre is relativelymodern.
The low mimetic (to use NorthropFrye's familiarterm) must be a
well-establishedfictionalconventionbeforewe can conventionalizeits
violation,a conditionthatdoes not obtain tillthe mid-eighteenthcen-
tury.Beforethe conventionof realismbecame the norm-in the me-
dieval quest narrativeor Renaissance romance, forexample-the in-
trusionof the supernaturalor monstrousdid not create an experience
of the fantasticfor either the charactersor the readers. A questing
knightmay be seriouslydismayed to discover a dragon or a magician
in his path, but the mere existenceof the supernaturaldoes not force
him to rethinkreality,because it does not violate the laws of nature.
For Prince Hamlet, seeing his father'sghostis certainlyalarming;but
it is the ghost's message, not its presence, which so distresses him.
The serious question forHamlet is not whetherthe ghost is real but
whetherit is "honest"-genuinely his father'sspiritor a demon sent
to tempthim to regicide.
Modern readers of these textsneed not believe in the actual exis-
tence of dragons or ghoststo recognize that the text treatsthese oc-
currencesas natural.The conventionsoffictionalrealismdo not apply,
any more than theyapply to modernfantasyor science fiction,whose
readers learn to respond without astonishmentto the presence of
Kathleen L. Spencer 199

wizardsor offaster-than-light
space vessels. But a wizardor faster-
than-light
ship introducedintoa textwhoseopeningpages signala
contemporaryrealisticsettingwouldproducereactionsfromthechar-
acters, the narrator,and the readers that would signal the presence
of the fantastic.
In lightof this requirement,I would argue thatthe Gothic tales of
the late eighteenthcenturyare the firstfantasticfictions,Horace Wal-
pole and Anne Radcliffeamong the firstwritersto experimentwith
the emotionalpossibilities(forbothcharactersand readers)ofviolating
the laws ofnature. Since such violationsare radicallynew, the earliest
writerstend to softenthe effectsa bit. In the firstplace, Gothicfictions
are traditionallydistancedsomewhatfromthe worldoftheiraudience,
set back in time and "away" in space-preferably in Spain or Italy
duringthe Inquisition-making the storiesmore plausible (to an En-
glish audience) by the superstitiousnessof their settings,and at the
same time lesseningthe intensityofthe fear,forthe readers ifnot the
characters. As another softeningdevice, some of the early Gothic
writers,notablyRadcliffe,tidyaway the fantasticby givingus rational
explanationsforthe apparentsupernaturalevents-though not tillthe
end ofthe novel, so we have plentyoftime to experience the fantastic
frissonfirst.However, thistidyingstrategywas soon abandoned. While
second-generationGothic writerslike Monk Lewis and Charles Ma-
turinstill set theirnovels in Inquisition Europe, they apparentlyfelt
less need to reassuretheirreadersat the end thatthe ordinaryrational
laws of realitygoverned the world inside the textas well as outside.
But the fantasticthatdevelops at the end ofthe nineteenthcentury
(exclusiveofthe ghoststory,a popular but traditionalform)is identifi-
ably different fromthe Gothic of one hundredyears before. First and
most important,the new authorsinsiston the modernityof the set-
ting-not on the distancebetween the worldofthe textand the world
ofthe reader,but on theiridentity.A modernsettingmeans, mostpro-
foundly,an urban setting,as by the end of the nineteenthcentury
well over halfthe populationof the BritishIsles lived in cities. To be
modernalso means thatscience is the metaphorthatruleshumaninter-
actionswiththe universe,so the new fantasticadopts the discourse of
empiricismeven to describe and manipulatesupernaturalphenomena.
These characteristicsof the modern fantastic,as distinctfromthe
earliervariety,suggestwe need a new termto referto it; and I would
argue that"Urban Gothic"is particularlyappropriateforthe new type,
acknowledgingthe eighteenth-century ancestrywhile identifying the

majormodifications thathavebeen madeto adaptthefantastic to the
needs ofa new era.
The changefromGothicto UrbanGothicallowswritersto call on
thepowersofwhatHenryJames,in a reviewofthe sensationnovels
of MaryElizabethBraddon,called "thosemostmysterious of mys-
teries,themysteries whichareat ourowndoors."AsJamesobserved,
the innovationofbringing the terrornextdoorgave an entirelynew
The new strategy
directionto horrorliterature.
wasfatal ofMrs.Radcliffe
totheauthority castle
andhereverlasting
in the Apennines.Whatare the Apenninesto us, or we to the
Apennines?Insteadofthe terrorsof"Udolpho",we were treated
ofthecheerfulcountry
to theterrors houseand thebusyLondon
more
lodgings.And thereis no doubtthatthesewere infinitely
terrible.
In 1865,Jameswas moderatelyscornfulofthe supernaturalas a fictional
device, remarkingin this same review that"a good ghost-story, to be
mustbe connectedat a hundred
halfas terribleas a good murder-story,
years later
points with the common objects of life."6 But twenty-five
he himselffounduses forthe supernaturalby followinghis own advice
and connectingit "at a hundredpointsto the commonobjects oflife"-
and so did his "fellow" (ifwe can so call them) romancers. In short,
James, along with many of his contemporaries,explored the Urban
Gothic.
II: THE ROMANCE REVIVAL
But the Urban Gothic was only part, if a crucial part, of a larger
literarymovementofthe last two decades ofthe century:the romance
revival. "Romance" is anotherof those protean literarytermswhose
meaningvaries with the frameof reference,but in the contextof the
1880s, the term has a fairlystable meaning. The "romance revival"
began as a reactionagainstthe "highrealism"ofthe 1870s, whichwas,
in its turn,a reactionagainstthe "sensationnovels" ofthe 1860s. The
theoristsof high realism rejected the sensation novel's emphasis on
plot,arguingthatit demanded less ofreadersthannovels thatrequired
themto interpretthe subtletiesofhuman motives. In addition,it was
believed, too strongan emphasis on plot would interferewith the
"naturalness"of characters.
By the 1880s, these novels of"characteranalysis"themselvescame
under attack.First,being limitedto and by "gross"reality,the novels
(theircriticsargued) were dull and trivial.Second, these novelistshad

chosento adoptthe"heartless"methodsofscience("vivisection" is a
commonmetaphor),treatingtheircharacterswithno sympathy or
decorum,dissecting theminpublic.Then,when"highrealism"trans-
posesintonaturalism, newgrounds forrejectionappear.Foronething,
naturalistnovelspersistently triedto introducemoral,middle-class
readersto the kindsofpersons-prostitutes, criminals, beggars,and
other"undeserving" or unappealing poorpeople-whom theyhad no
desireto meet. For another,realism,especiallywhenpushedto the
extremesofnaturalist determinism, allowedno roomforthe higher
workings ofProvidence,no roomforthe rewardofthe virtuousand
thepunishment oftheguilty.Finally,sincenaturalism was identified
in the mindsof EnglishreaderswithZola, James,and Howells,it
becameforsomereadersand criticsa patriotic dutyto resist"foreign
influences,"and to call fora healthyEnglishfiction.7
The resultwas a resurgence ofinterestin bold,high-stakesadven-
ture,larger-(and simpler-)than-lifecharacters, exoticlocalesand in-
cidents,idealisticquests,world-classcriminals,disguisesandescapes,
rescuesand disasters.AnthonyHope Hawkins,author(as Anthony
Hope) ofone ofthebest-known romancesoftheperiod,ThePrisoner
ofZenda (1893),exclaimedthatin romance,
Emotion mustbe takenat highpitch.It mustbe strong, simple,
confident; itlacksthequality
otherwise neededforromance....
romance becomesanexpression ofsomeofthedeepestinstincts of
humanity.
It hasno monopoly ofthisexpression,butit is itsprivilege
to
render itina singularly andpureform;
clear,distinct, itcangive
tolovean idealobject,toambition a boundlessfield,tocourage a
highoccasion;andthesegreatemotions, intheir
revelling freedom,
exhibitthemselvesin theirglory.Thusin itsmostworthy forms,
in thehandsofitsmasters, itcannotonlydelight men,butcan
touchthemtotheveryheart.It showsthemwhattheywouldbe
iftheycould,iftimeandfateandcircumstances didnotbind,what
ina sensetheyallare,andwhattheiractswouldshowthemtobe
ifan opportunityoffered.So theydreamandarehappier, andat
leastnonetheworsefortheirdreams.8
RobertLouis Stevenson,RudyardKipling,H. RiderHaggard,Ar-
thurConanDoyle, and (inhisearlyworks)H. G. Wellsare thebest-
knownfiguresof this new movement,along withArthurMachen,
Algernon Blackwood,and AndrewLang, severalofwhomalso wrote
manifestosforthecritical In additionto
journalsin favorofromance.9
familiar
theserelatively names,a wholearmyofromancers, oncepop-
ularbutnowpractically unreadand in manycases entirelyforgotten,
202 Draculaand UrbanGothic

to supplythenew markets.'0
producedlargequantitiesofthisfiction
Butiftherevivedromanceofthe1880stakesitsdeclaredformfrom
thenewromancers
an ancienttradition, (liketheauthorsoftheUrban
Gothic) draw on contemporaryinterestsfortheircharacters,settings,
and themes: the exotic reaches of the empire-Africa, Egypt, India,
Australia-as well as such regions as China, the South Pacific, and
Southand CentralAmerica;dead civilizationsofthe ancientpast (Egyp-
tian, Peruvian, Celtic, Neanderthal), their tales enlivened by infor-
mationculled fromthe newest archaeologicalreports;lost races inside
volcanoes, at the bottom of the sea, in the polar regions, on other
planets, in the future;the thrillingpossibilitiesof modern technology
(electrically-inducedimmortalityor eternal youth; brain transplants;
memoryrecordings;timetravel);or the beliefsand ritualsofthatother
revivalof the 1880s, the occult revival (Spiritualism,Theosophy, the
SocietyforPsychicalResearch, and the magiciansof the Order of the
Golden Dawn)."
III: PURITY AND DANGER
Thus not onlythe Urban Gothicbut the romancerevivalas a whole

transforms a traditionalliterarygenre by an infusionof modern per-
spectives.But the Urban Gothicand the romanceshareanothercrucial
characteristicbeyond theircommonreliance on contemporaryadven-
tureand exoticism:a concernforpurity,forthe reductionofambiguity
and the preservationof boundaries. Both attemptto reduce anxiety
by stabilizingcertainkey distinctions,which seemed, in the last dec-
ades of the nineteenthcentury,to be eroding: between male and
female, naturaland unnatural,civilized and degenerate, human and
nonhuman. At issue, finally,underneathall these distinctions,is the
ground of individual identity,the ultimate distinctionbetween self
and other.
Where once a complex web of traditionalroles and relationships
grounded individualidentity,in the new capitalistworld of the cash-
nexus, AnthonyGiddens observes, the bulwarksof identitywere re-
duced essentiallyto two: the arena of intimaterelationships(that is,
the family,personal and highlysexualized), and the arena of "mass
ritual," of sportingevents and political ceremonies, especially the
ferventimpersonalgroup identitywe call nationalism."In such con-
ditionsof social life,"writesGiddens, "the ontologicalsecurityof the
individualin day-to-daylifeis more fragilethanin societiesdominated
by traditionand the meshingsof kinshipacross space and time.
Instead ofbeing broadlysupportedby a web ofinterlockingkinship
KathleenL. Spencer 203

links,workgroups,ceremonialsocieties,traditions,routines,and even
the continuitiesof place and seasonal cycle, identityforthe ordinary
middle-classBritonnow hung delicatelyon two slender threadsat the
extrememarginsofscale, the intimateand the national. So it is hardly
surprisingthatmanypeople grew anxious to preserve the clarityand
purityof the distinctionsthat supportedthis system.
However, even at this time of theirheightenedsignificance,these
very distinctionscame under attack. Darwinian evolutionarytheory
blurredthe boundariesbetween human and animal in not one but two
ways: by the famousargumentthat humans and apes had a common
ancester,but also by the implied hierarchyat the end of The Descent
of Man whichleads fromthe ape-like ancestorthroughprimitivepeo-
ples to civilizedEuropeans. The imputedinferiority ofthe lowerraces,
as George Stockingpoints out, "although still in the firstinstance
cultural,was now in most cases at least implicitlyorganicas well."''3
Thus the boundarybetween human and ape became a matterof sci-
entificdoctrine,but (as Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau pointed out)
an ambiguousone: whatwas actuallya philosophicand politicaldebate
was concealed under the language of science. Yet since "scientific"
language could not hope to stabilize a fundamentallyunscientific
boundary,the issue continuedunresolved.
Nor was thisboundarya matterof abstractspeculationforcivilized
Europeans; forifhumans could evolve, it was thoughttheycould also
devolve or degenerate, both as nations and as individuals. At what
point in a downwardslide did a human being cross over the line into
animality?Lombroso addressed this question with his new "science"
of criminalanthropology,which purported to demonstratethrough
elaborate measurementsand chartsoffacialangles thathabitualcrim-
inals were throwbacksto primitiveancestors, with more of the ape
than the human about them. Fear of such national"degeneracy" was
furtherhighlightedforBritonsby the Boer War of 1899-1902, firstby
the series of unprecedented defeatshanded the greatestarmyin the
world by a handfulof Dutch farmers,and second by the recruiting
campaignthat discovered the physicalinadequacies of the men from
London's East-End slums,who were alarminglyundersized,frail,and
sickly.'4Such concernsunderlaythe tremendouspublic anxietyat the
end of the centuryabout the conditionof the BritishEmpire and the
warningsthat,like its Roman predecessor, it could fall,and forwhat
were popularlyperceived as the same reasons-moral decadence lead-
ing to racial degeneration.
Anothercrucialdistinctionunder attackwas thatbetween male and

female.By all the superficialcriteriaofappearance, behavior,and legal
status,Victorianmen and women must have seemed almost like two
different,though symbioticallyrelated, species. It has been argued
that never in western societyhave gender roles been more rigid or
moredistinct(at least in the middle classes) thanin the late nineteenth
century. Victorian science, especially Victorian medicine, lent the
weight of its prestige to the position that the physical distinctions
between women and men were absolute, and absolutelydeterminate.
In theirverynatureand essence, said the doctors,women were unlike
men; and thisdifferenceexplained theirlimitations-physical, moral,
and intellectual-and justifiedtheirlegal and social disabilities.15
It was woman's special nature that fittedher forthe task she had
been assigned by Victoriansociety.In her guises ofmaiden, wife,and
above all mother, Woman (with a capital) had been appointed the
guardianof moral virtue; the home, Woman's realm, became both a
refugefromthe hard necessities of the utilitarianbusiness world and
the temple of a new religionthat served to supplementor substitute
forthe weakeningChristianorthodoxy-the religionof romanticlove
as the source ofsalvation,and ofthe familyas a haven forall the human
warmth,grace and affectionthathad been banished fromthe father's
dailylifein the world. Woman, as the Angel in the House, was to save
Man fromhis own baser instinctsand lead him towardheaven.
Jenni Calder's study of the Victorian home furtherclarifiesthe
significanceof this domestic religion.While Victoriansgenuinelyde-
sired to make the world a better place, Calder argues, the social
problems facingthem were so massive and so intractablethat they
usuallyhad to settleformakingthe home, as the onlypartofthe world
responsiveto theiractions,a betterplace instead. Thus "the angel in
the house was at the root of multitudesof Victorianassumptionsand
ideas, and Victorianrationalizationsand ideals."16
But thispositiondid not go unchallenged.Throughoutthe century,
women argued forreformsof marriageand divorce laws, and in par-
ticularforthe rightof marriedwomen to own propertyin theirown
names. The kind of resistancetheyfaced is revealed mostpotentlyin
the commentsof Lord St. Leonards, who argued againstthe passage
of the Married Women's PropertyBill of 1857 on the groundsthatit
would "place the whole marriagelaw . . . on a differentfootingand
give a wife all the distinctrightsof citizenship," an argumentthat
indicatesthatforthisdistinguishedjuristand formerLord Chancellor
the categoriesof"wife"and "citizen"were mutuallyexclusive.17 A few
men joined the frayon the distaffside, mostnotablyJohnStuartMill,

who argued against such logic in The Subjection of Women in 1869
and even tried to get women the vote, on the grounds that only if
theycould vote fortheirrepresentativeswould Parliamenttake their
needs seriously;butconsiderablediscussionproducedlittlesubstantive
action.
The debate grew even more heated in the last few decades of the
centurywhen the New Woman arrivedon the scene, wantinghigher
education, strivingto enter the learned professions,and ever more
frequentlyworkingoutside the home formoney (thatis, middle-class
women began to do so, forofcourse lower-classwomen had long been
so employed). And some ofthe mostradical New Women even argued
that they were entitled to the same freedomof sexual expression as
men. In short,more and more women insistedon leaving the house
of which they had been appointed angel, the house that, if a refuge
formen, became formany middle-classwives and daughtersa more
or less pleasant prison. But in the eyes of most Victorianmen, for
women to deny their traditionalrole was to deny theirwomanhood,
to challenge the distinctionsbetween women and men upon which
the family-and thereforesociety- depended.
Nor was the New Woman the only source of threatto gender cat-
egories. Homosexualitywas broughtinto the consciousness of a hor-
rifiedpublic, firstby the Cleveland Street scandal in 1889, which
revealed a homosexualbrothelcateringto the upper classes (including
the Prince of Wales's closest friendand, by rumor,the Prince's eldest
son as well).18 More dramaticstillwas the infamousWilde trialin 1895,
which made "homosexuality"both as an ontological state and as a
chosen lifestyleavailable to ordinarymiddle-classimaginationsforthe
firsttime.'9 To late Victorians,ifthe New Woman's desire to achieve
higherstatusby "becoming"a manwas at least understandable,though
outrageous,what could be said about men who deliberatelyrefused
to be men? Such depravitychallengednotjust the distinctionbetween
male and female but thatbetween naturaland unnaturalas well.20
The debates about sex and sex roles in the nineteenthcentury,
argues Ludmilla Jordanova,"hinged preciselyon the ways in which
sexual boundaries mightbecome blurred. It is as if the social order
depended on claritywithrespectto certaindistinctionswhose symbolic
meaningsspread farbeyondtheirexplicitcontext."21In thisperception
she is quite right:anthropologiststell us that social order depends
preciselyon the clarityof such distinctions.But anthropologistscan
tellus more:theycan help us see the dynamicsat workin late Victorian
England in a largersocial context-the contextof a culture in crisis.

Mary Douglas's work on pollutionfearsand witchcraftsocieties is
surprisingly appropriatehere.22All culturesthatexplainevil as a prod-
uct of witchcraft-fromcertainAfricantribes to Salem Village in the
seventeenthcentury-share certain characteristics,she notes. Most
importantly,there is strongpressure on group members to conform,
but the classificationsystemof the society is somehow ineffectivein
structuringreality:it is too narrowand rigidto deal with the variety
of actual experience, or it is inconsistent,or has gaps, or is in com-
petitionwithanothersystemofclassification thatweakensthe effective-
ness of both.
In such a society,the universe is dualistic: what is inside is good,
what is outside is bad. The group boundaryis thereforeboth a source
of magical danger and the main definerof rights:you are either a
member or a stranger.Evil is a foreigndanger introducedby foreign
agents in disguise, but abetted by deviant membersofthe group who
must be identifiedand expelled forallowingthe outside evil to infil-
trate. Since not onlythe societyitselfbut the entirecosmos is endan-
gered by the vile, irrationalbehavior of these human agents of evil, a
witchcraft societyis preoccupiedwithritualsofcleansing,the expulsion
of spies or witches,and the redrawingofboundaries to markthe pure
(inside) and the evil (outside).
Thoughthelate Victoriansdid notexplicitlyattributeevil to witches,
they manifestedthe same fearsof pollutionfromoutsiders,the same
suspicionof deviantsas traitors,and the same exaggeratedestimation
of what was at stake-in short, the same social dynamics as more
traditionalwitchcraftsocieties. The pressures on middle-classVicto-
riansto conformwere intense (and too well knownto need documen-
tation),while the model to which theywere required to conformwas
losingits clarity.The old consensus on the centraldistinctionsoftheir
society-on whichdistinctionswere indeed central,and on how those
distinctionswere to be definedand maintained-was breakingdown.
In the last twentyyears of the century,an intense debate developed
between those who soughtto shore up the old crumblingdistinctions
and those demanding change-nontraditional women, homosexuals,
socialists,some artistsand intellectuals,a fewscientists,working-class
men who had acquired some education. One side stroveto widen or
redefineculturalboundaries, to let some of the "outside" in, while
the otherfoughtdesperatelyto maintainthe "purity"of the inside by
expellingas traitorsthose who breached the boundaries.
Douglas mentionsone other key factorin a witchcraft societythat
the Victoriansalso shared: the leadership of the group is precarious

or underdispute,and the roleswithinthe groupambiguousor un-
defined.Because no one personor factionhas sufficient authority
to
stabilizethe situation,the struggleforleadershippromptswhatwe
mightcall "puritycompetitions": whois mostvigilantat ferreting
out
enemies, especiallythose disguised enemies lurkingwithinthe society
itself?In otherwords,the struggleforpower and stabilityunder these
social conditionsleads inevitablyto scapegoat rituals.23
The struggleforleadership of a divided and confusedpeople also
characterizedlate Victoriansociety. For the Victorians,neither tra-
ditionalistnor "rebel" forcescould take complete command: the tra-
ditionalistshad the numbersand most of the worldlypower, but the
rebels tended to be educated and articulate,many were influential,
and all had ready access to a public forumin the wide-open periodical
marketofthe 1880s and '90s. As a result,theycould make theirvoices
heard in disproportionto their numbers and officialpositions. The
battle produced numerous cries of "seize the witch!"-directed both
at groups (Jews, Germans, Slavs, Orientals, birthcontroladvocates,
promiscuous women, decadent French authors [especially Zola],
homosexuals) and at individuals-most spectacularly,though by no
means solely, Oscar Wilde.
And here is where we reconnect the social and the literary.The
romance,I would argue, and in particularthe Urban Gothic, not only
in its characteristicsubject matterbut more importantlyin its very
form,is the perfectliteraryreflectionof the cultural crisis Britain
experienced between 1880 and 1914. In such an atmosphere, the
modern fantasticbecame a potent vehicle for social drama-potent
because the images ofthe fantasticare alwaysdrawnfromour dreams
and nightmares.The fantasticas a genreis based on violationsofreality,
which means it is fundamentallyconcerned withdefiningreality;and
the natureofrealityis exactlythe question at issue in late-nineteenth-
centuryEngland. Finally, since at the end of a fantastictale the vio-
lating element is characteristically expelled and the mimeticworld,
the status quo, is reestablished, the fantasticproved ideal for sym-
bolicallyreaffirming the traditionalmodel of reality.
As NorthropFrye told us long ago, the romance is traditionallya
psychomachia,a strugglebetween the forcesofgood and evil in which
evil is defeated, and the modern romance (as Hope's quotation sug-
gests, with its emphasis on clarityand purityand "great emotionsin
theirglory")retainsthis pattern.The Urban Gothic extends the tra-
ditionin a peculiarlymodern way by definingthe enemy as not only
evil but unnatural: she/he/it has no rightto exist at all. In the very

form ofboththeromanceandtheUrbanGothic,then,we findrepeated
the contemporary driveto purifythe inside and expel the foreign
pollution:at the heartofbothlies the scapegoatritual.
Andthisfinally bringsus to Dracula, a classicexampleofthecon-
servativefantastic:in the end Dracula is killed,the alien element
expelledand the ordinary worldrestored.But whatexactlyis being
expelled?In particular, how would Stoker'soriginalaudiencehave
readthisnovel?In theculturalcontextof1897,whatthreatdidDracula
representthatneeded so desperatelyand at such costto be driven
out?How was theculturebeinginstructed to protectitself,and from
what?
Anotherway to put the questionis this:who is the scapegoatin
Dracula, and to whatend is thatscapegoatsacrificed?
IV: RITUALVICTIMS IN DRACULA
AsReneGirardtellsus inViolenceandtheSacred,whatallsacrificial
victimshavein commonis thattheymustrecognizably belongto the
community, but mustat the same timebe somehowmarginal, inca-
pable offullyparticipatingin the socialbond-slaves, criminals, the
mad,thedeformed. Theyare enoughofthecommunity to substitute
forit, but betweenthemand the community "a crucialsociallinkis
missing,so theycan be exposedto violencewithoutfearofreprisal.
Theirdeathdoes notautomatically entailan act ofvengeance."As a
themwillend communalviolenceratherthanpro-
result,sacrificing
longingit. 24
In Dracula,I argue,LucyWestenrafillsthecategory andthesocial
functionofthesurrogate victimwhois sacrificedtorestorea lostorder.
On thesurface, itwouldseemthatLucybelongstotheclassVictorians
wouldfindleast sacrificeableratherthanmost-a young,beautiful,
virtuousgirl-and that,in anycase, she is a victimnot ofher own
community but ofa monstrous outsider.However,we are givennu-
merousindications thatLucy,forallhersweetness, andbeauty,
purity,
is a marginalfigure.In the firstplace, her social connectionsare
alarmingly tenuous:her fatheris dead, and she has no brothersor
otherfamilyto protecther excepther mother,who is herselfvery
weakbothpsychologically and physically (andin factpredeceasesher
daughter).Thereis no one to protectLucyfromattack,or to revenge
herdeathat thehandsofherowncommunity.
More crucially,Lucy'scharacteris "flawed"in a waythatmakes
herfatallyvulnerableto thevampire.She is a womanwhosesexuality
is underveryimperfect control.She is loveddevotedlyby threedif-

ferentyoungmen,whichin itselfis nota fault,but her reactionto
revealsa problem.Whenshe writesto Mina abouther
thissituation
shecan'thelpgloating
suitors, about"THREE proposalsinone day."25
Worse, althoughshe says she is greatlyin love withArthur,she also
feelsverybadly about turningdown those two splendid fellows,John
Seward and Quincey Morris, and bursts out, "Why can't they let a
girlmarrythreemen, or as manyas wanther,and save all thistrouble?"
Immediatelyafterwardshe admitsthat"thisis heresy,and I mustnot
say it" (59); but even so, we sense that she means what she says: she
reallywould like to marryall of them.
And, accordingto the novel's own semiotics,she gets her wish. At
her funeralArthurdeclares that,because he has given Lucy his blood,
he feels that she is his true wife in the sight of God. Under the
circumstances,his friendsnaturallyrefrainfromtellinghim about the
transfusions Lucy had received fromher othertwo loversand Dr. Van
Helsing; but later, alone with Seward, Van Helsing burstsout in un-
controllablelaughter thinkingof it. True, as Seward observes, the
thoughtis very comfortingforArthur.But if Arthuris rightin his
belief, Van Helsing points out, what about the other three donors?
"Then this so sweet maid is a polyandrist"(176).
Nor is this desire to marryall three of her suitorsthe only sign of
Lucy's suspect character. She is a sleepwalker, a habit traditionally
associated with sexual looseness. She is thereforedoubly vulnerable
to Dracula's approach; in the symbol-systemof the novel, she has
signaled her sexual receptivity.It cannot be an accident that on the
nightofthe storm,when Dracula's ship lands, Lucy indulges again in
sleepwalking,leaving the house dressed only in her nightgown.Con-
sideringthe armor-likecharacteristicsof the ordinaryVictorianwom-
an's daytimeclothing-the heavily-bonedcorsets,the immenseweight
ofpetticoats,the endless layersofcloth Lucy in her nightdressmight
as well be naked. Worse yet, she goes to the old cemetery,alone, and
to the grave of a suicide (the only spot of unsanctifiedground in the
churchyard).The traditionalequation of sexualityand death could
hardlybe clearer, nor her invitationof Dracula more explicit.
What makes Lucy's sexualitythreateningto the community-suf-
ficientlythreateningthat she becomes an appropriatesurrogatevic-
tim-is that she will not limit herselfto one man. While she does
officiallychoose one of her three suitors,her choice is insufficiently
absoluteto controlthe competitionamongthe threeforherpossession.
Stoker downplays the competitionby making the men such good
friendsand such decent, self-controlledcharactersthat the threatof

disorderis concealed,but nonethelessthatcompetition remainsas a
sourceofpotentialviolence.
But in orderto function as a surrogatevictimwho can purgethe
community of its universalviolence,something furtheris required:
Lucyhas to takeon the aspectofthe monstrous. In one light,Lucy
functions as the monstrous double of Mina, the virtuouswife;seen
anotherway,she functions as her own monstrous double,forthere
are twoaspectsto herpersonality whoseseparationbecomesincreas-
inglymarkedthroughout her transformation intoa vampire.She is
boththeimageofpurity, sweetness,andbeauty-the traditional blond
angelin the house-and the creatureofsexualappetites,the sleep-
walkerwhoaccedestoviolentpenetration bythevampire.Her saving
grace,accordingto Van Helsing,is thatshe yieldedto Draculaonly
duringa trance-that is, whenher consciouspersonality was notin
command -so her unconsciouspersonality alone has become vam-
piric.26Duringherlasthours,she manifests bothsidesofherperson-
alityin alternation, sometimes thesweetpureLucytheyall love,and
sometimes thewanton,voluptuous creaturewithcruelmouthandhard
eyes. When she is awakeand thus"herself,"she clutchesthe garlic
flowersto her; but in her sleep, she thrustsaway thatprotection,
embracing hermonstrous fate.Sinceshe dies in hersleep,herfuture
as one ofthe Un-Dead is inescapable.
As a vampireshe is even morebeautiful thanin life,butno longer
theLucy they had known. "The sweetnesswas turnedto adamantine,
heartlesscruelty, andthepurity tovoluptuouswantonness.... Lucy's
eyes [havebecome]uncleanand fullofhell-fire, insteadofthepure,
gentleorbswe knew";theyblaze with"unholylight"and she is as
"callousas a devil" (211). Againand again, Sewarduses the words
"wanton"and "voluptuous"to describeUn-Dead Lucy's smile,her
tones"diabolically sweet"-untilshe is thwarted, at whichpointshe
becomesovertlymonstrous, her eyes throwing out "sparksof hell-
fire,"the brows"wrinkled as thoughthe foldsofthe fleshwere the
coilsofMedusa'ssnakes"(212).Thesesameimagesare repeatedwhen
the fourmen, Dr. Van Helsingand Lucy'sthreesuitors,returnthe
nextdayto freeLucy'ssoul,to save herby killingher. "She seemed
like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there;the pointedteeth,the
bloodstained, voluptuous mouth-whichitmadeone shuddertosee-
the wholecarnaland unspirited appearance,seeminglikea devilish
mockery ofLucy'ssweetpurity"(214).
But the riteofsacrifice, an act ofterribleviolence,restoresboth
Lucyand thecommunity she had threatened. As Stokerdescribesit,

the final killingof Lucy is quite clearly both a religious act and a
communalone. The settingis a solitarytomblitonlyby candles. Arthur
drives the stake throughLucy's heart, as the one with the best right
to so violate her offendingbody and release the innocentsoul, and he
is supportedin his workby the priestlyfigureof Dr. Van Helsing and
by his two closest friends,Lucy's other lovers, who read the prayer
forthe dead as he strikeshome.
The thingin the coffinwrithed;and a hideous,bloodcurdling

screechcamefromtheopenedredlips.The bodyshookand quiv-
eredandtwistedinwildcontortions; thesharpwhiteteethchamped
together tillthelipswerecut,and themouthwas smearedwitha
crimsonfoam.But Arthurneverfaltered.He lookedlikea figure
ofThoras his untrembling armrose and fell,drivingdeeperand
deeperthemercy-bearing stake,whilstthebloodfromthepierced
heartwelledand spurtedup aroundit. His facewas set,and high
dutyseemedto shinethrough it; thesightofit gaveus courageso
thatourvoicesseemedto ringthrough thelittlevault....
There,in thecoffin layno longerthefoulThingthatwe had so
dreadedand grownto hate thatthe workofher destruction was
yieldedas a privilegeto theone bestentitledto it,butLucyas we
had seen her in life,withher faceof unequalledsweetnessand
purity.(216)27
In death Lucy becomes again the angel she had been in life; she
also becomes a bond between her threerivals,where in lifeshe could
onlyhave been a source of division. Despite theirpersonal grief,it is
fortheman ideal solutionto theproblemshe represented.In sacrificing
Lucy, the fourmen purge not only theirfearof female sexualitygen-
erally,of which she is the monstrousexpression,but also-and more
importantly-theirfear of their own sexualityand their capacity for
sexually-prompted violence against each other.
The scene in the tomb exemplifiesa key element of the sacrificial
rite,"the atmosphereofterrorand hallucinationthataccompanies the
primordialreligiousexperience."28The violent hysteria,the decisive
act ofviolence perceived as religiousexperience,the succeeding calm
and the atmosphere of holy mysterycovering the participants,all
functionto fuse the men into a closed and harmoniouscommunity.
AlthoughLucy is no longer available to any of the men as a bulwark
of his personal identity,her death serves to reinforcetheir common
bond, theirdedicationto each otherand to a sense ofshared interest,
thus bolsteringthatother pole of Victorianidentitythat Giddens de-
finesas nationalism.
But Lucy is not the only scapegoat in the novel. Count Dracula

himselfis also sacrificedfor the common good. Like all sacrificial
victims,he must be both connected and marginal. His links to the
communityare literallyblood ties-the blood ofJonathan,Lucy, and
Mina. Further,he resembles his enemies in several importantways:
he is (or was once) human, he is European, he is extremelyintelligent
and has a most powerfulwill. But his roots are in Eastern Europe
Slavic, Catholic, peasant, and superstitiouswhere England is Anglo-
Saxon, Protestant,industrial,and rationalist.Further,unlike Arthur,
the bourgeoisaristocrat,Dracula belongs to a mucholder, morefeudal
sortof aristocracy,one that was was going out of favorin England.29
In fact,the mostunmistakablesignofhis allegianceto thatolder pattern
may be his sexuality,whichpartakesofthe ancient droitdu seigneur.
"Your girlsthatyou all love are mine already,"he gloats(306), taunting
his opponents; and throughoutthe novel he lets his appetites run
rampant,voracious and (as Freud says of the child's sexuality)poly-
morphouslyperverse-a most appropriatephrase, since the narrative
repeatedlyemphasizes Dracula's "childbrain" (335), as opposed to the
adult brainsofhis enemies. Even Mina has, we are told, a man's brain
to go with her woman's heart (234).
But we know that civilized adult men controltheir appetites; his
failureto do so marksthe crucial distinctionbetween Dracula and his
opponents:he is degenerate,"a criminaland ofcriminaltype"according
to the theories of Lombroso and Nordau, which means he has an
"imperfectly formedmind" (342).3 Consequentlyhe can onlyworkon
one project at a time, and in emergencies must fall back on habit-
whichis why,closelypursued, he can do nothingbut fleeto his castle,
while his opponents are able to innovate strategiesforhis defeat. As
criminaland degenerate, Dracula is by definitionselfish,evil, solitary;
despite his pride in his descent fromAttilaand in his people's valiant
strugglesagainst the Turk, as a vampire he has no true "national"
identity,no "community"to belong to. Even the threevampirewomen
at the castle who could conceivablyfunctionas a familyforhim, ifnot
a nation, do not appear to do so. By contrastthe "band of brothers"
is selfless,good, and unifiedinto a communityboth by their shared
sacrificeofLucy and theirshareddevotionto Mina. It is, as Van Helsing
tells them, one of their great advantages over Dracula-the "power
of combination,"along withthe "sources of science" and "devotionin
a cause" (238).
However, despite all these differences,the truthgraduallyemerges:
the Count representspreciselythose dark secret drives thatthe men
most fearin themselves,which are most destructiveto both poles of

identity-theintimateselfof the familyman, threatenedby unre-
strainedsexualappetites,and the communalselfof the nation,un-
derminedby violentinternalcompetition morethanby externalin-
vasion.Representing a real aspectofhis enemies,but one thatthey
consciously wishtoreject,Draculahasboththenecessary connections
to the community and the necessaryseparationfromit to fulfill the
scapegoat'spurgativefunction.
AndlikeLucy'ssacrifice, the scene ofDracula'sdeathcontainsall
theelementsoftheprimordial religiousexperience.The atmosphere
is terrifyingand hallucinatory: thetwopartiesdesperately racingthe
sun, each fighting forlife- Dracula to reachhis castle,the band of
heroesto catchthevampirebeforesunsetrestoreshis deadlypower;
theCount'sglaringeyesand "horrible vindictivelook"as he lieshelp-
less in his coffin,and his triumphant expressionas he sees the sun
settingand anticipates his revenge.Like theearliersacrifice, thisact
is communal:two of the youngmen togetherpryoffthe lid of the
coffin withtheirknivesand strikesimultaneously, one slashingthe
Count'sthroat, theotherplunging a knifeintohisheart-all described
in wordsthatintensify the terrorof the moment("sweep,""flash,"
"shriek,""shear,""plunge"[377]).
"Itwaslikea miracle,"criesMinainrelief;but,as theCount'sbody
crumblesintodustbeforetheireyes,sheadds,"Even in thatmoment
of finaldissolution, therewas in the facea lookofpeace, such as I
nevercouldhave imaginedmighthave restedthere"(377). As at the
momentofLucy'sdeath,thesacrificial victimis picturedas at peace,
almostgrateful to die forthe greatergood of the community. And
indeed,theremaybe a reasonforbothLucy'sand Dracula'scurious
passivityat the momentof death. MaryDouglas remarksin Purity
and Dangerthat"ifa personhas no place in the socialsystemand is
therefore a marginalbeing,all precautionagainstdangermustcome
fromothers.He cannothelp his abnormalsituation."But to saythat
he cannothelp his situationis to suggestthathe wouldliketo help
it,thathe does notwantto be a dangerto others.
Howeverwe readthisreaction, theatmosphere ofthescenechanges
dramatically at themomentofthevampire'sdeath:Castle Draculais
suddenlyseen standingout againstthe sunsetskyas we have never
seenitbefore,everystoneblazinginthelight.Theviolenceandhorror
is succeededby holyawe and peace, whichis cappedwhenQuincey
Morrissees Mina'sforeheadnowclearofitsshameful scar,and vows
withhis last breaththatthisoutcomeis worthdyingfor.It is the
ultimateconfirmation thatthecommunity has been saved.

V: WHAT IS LOST: WHAT IS SAVED
But it has been a near thing,and the cost high: Lucy is lost to them
(thoughher soul was saved), Quincey is dead, and both Jonathanand
Mina sufferseverelybeforeDracula is defeated. Stoker'snovel, then,
reveals two complementaryperspectives on its subject. If Lucy and
Dracula demonstratethe terrifying powers of degeneracy, so threat-
ening thattheymustat all costs be expelled fromthe communityand
fromlife itself,Jonathan'sand Mina's experiences exemplifythe dif-
ficultiesand the rewardsof resistance.
Accordingto Victoriansexology,in Dracula's castle Jonathanis a
man at risk:he is engaged to Mina, but they are not yet married,so
that his sexual fantasiesare inflamedbut not yet lawfullysatisfied.
Further,he is farfromhome and isolated fromother living human
beings. For the Victorians,solitude greatlyincreased sexual danger:
the solitude of privacyallowed one to indulge in masturbation,while
the different solitudeofanonymityleftone freeto indulge in the kinds
of sexual experiences one would, as member of a family,have been
ashamed to admit desiring.3'Jonathanis both alone and anonymous.
Confrontedwith the three mysteriousand beautifulwomen in the
moonlitroom,he admits,"I feltin myhearta wicked, burningdesire
that they would kiss me with those red lips" (37). The scene that
follows,when he very nearly (and disastrously)gets his wish, is re-
corded with incandescentdetail:
The girlwenton her knees and bent over me, simplygloating.
Therewasa deliberatevoluptuousness whichwasboththrillingand
repulsive,and as she archedher neckshe actuallylickedherlips
themoisture
likean animal,tillI couldsee in themoonlight shining
on the scarletlips and on the red tongueas it lapped the white
sharpteeth.Lowerandlowerwentherheadas thelipswentbelow
therangeofmymouthand seemedto fastenon mythroat.... I
couldfeelthesoft,shivering touchofthelipson thesuper-sensitive
skinof my throat,and the hard dentsof two sharpteeth,just
touching andpausingthere.I closedmyeyesin languorous ecstasy
and waited-waitedwithbeatingheart.(38)
The erotic charge of the scene is quite remarkable,as is Jonathan's
fascinatedpassivityin surrenderingto his sexual fantasies,even while
admittingthe wickedness of what he desires. What we see and he
does not, at thismoment,is thathe is riskingnot the "littledeath" of
orgasm, but the real thing. Ironically,Jonathanis saved fromthe
women not by his own virtue, but by Count Dracula's opportune
arrival. However, he is rescued fromthe evils of femininesexuality

onlyto be plungedintothe horrorsof homosexualpassions."How
dareyoucasteyeson himwhenI had forbidden it?"Draculafuriously
askshis handmaids."Thismanbelongsto me!" The womenanswer,
witha laughof"ribaldcoquetry," "Youyourself neverloved;younever
love!"The Countlooksat Jonathan's face"attentively,"and saysin a
softwhisper,"Yes, I too can love" (39). As Draculaapproacheshim,
Jonathan conveniently sinksintounconsciousness -into thesamestate
inwhichLucyhad yieldedto thevampire'sblandishments. Ifwe had
had anydoubtsaboutthe equationofviolenceand sex in the novel,
thisscenewoulddispelthem:Dracula'sownlanguageconflates erotic
desireand feeding;the mouthbothkissesand consumes,the same
organgratifying twodistincthungers.
Theencounter seemsto"cure"Jonathan ofhissexualdesires(desires
he willlaterpayforin thebrainfeverwhichsendshimto hiswedding
an invalid).The textattributes his reactionto the factthathe now
understands who,or rather,whatthefatally beautifulcreaturesare,
andthusseesthemwithhorror ratherthanhisearlierguiltyfascination.
"I am alone in the castlewiththoseawfulwomen.Faugh!Mina is a
woman,and thereis noughtin common.Theyare devilsofthe Pit!"
(53). His beloved,he insists,thougha woman,hasnothing in common
withthesecreatures.He means,of course,thatshe does not have
theirevil capabilities-butneither,we notice,does she have their
voluptuousness. He neverrecordsanyeroticreactionto Mina at all,
let alone one ofthisfeverishintensity. In fact,since theirmarriage
beginswithher nursinghimthroughhis illness,Mina'srelationship
to herhusbandalwaysseemsmorematernalthanwifely.But in late-
Victorian theory,thatis as it shouldbe. Marriageis designedto tame
the sexualimpulsesof husbands;and as forwives,as Krafft-Ebing
remarks,"Woman,ifphysically and mentallynormal,and properly
educated,has butlittlesensualdesire.Ifitwereotherwise, marriage
and family lifewouldbe emptywords."32
Victorian sexualtheoryalso helpsus to understand the difference
betweenLucyand Mina,toexplainwhyMinatakeslongertosuccumb
to the vampirecount,and whyshe is able to resistmoreeffectively
thanher friend.In the firstplace, whileLucy satisfies her own un-
consciousdesiresin yieldingto Dracula,Mina'svulnerability results
as muchfromthefailures ofothersas herownweakness.It is no action
ofMina'sthatallowsthecountaccessto herbedroom,butRenfield's
betrayalin givinghis masterthe necessarypermissionto enterthe
house.Further, herhusbandandherfriends, whoshouldbe protecting
her, insteadbecome so obsessed with the fightagainstDracula-a

fight fromwhichtheydeliberately, andwiththebestmotives,exclude
her-that theyleave hertoo muchalone. Solitudeis a dangerto her
as itwastoJonathan; andwhileMinahaspresumably hadlittlepersonal
experienceofsexualdesire,she has, we mustremember, readJona-
than'sjournalin the processof transcribing it. That meansshe has
readhisdescription ofhisadventurewiththethreefemalevampires.
Her ownhusband,then,inanothersortofbetrayal, has exposedMina
to his sexualfantasies.
Thusisolatedand exposed,Mina'sexperienceofmaritalsex, such
as it has been, givesher no protection againstthe count'spowersof
sexualfascination. Whenshe recognizeshimin herbedroom,she is
appalledbutparalyzed,unableto respondor cryout as he baresher
throatto refresh himself.Suchparalysisis bad enough,butworse,to
her bewilderment she discoversthat,"strangely enough,I did not
wantto hinderhim. I supposeit is a partofthe horriblecursethat
suchis [sic],whenhistouchis onhisvictim"(287).Draculahasdrained
notonlyherblood,butalso herwillto resist.He is, in sexualterms,
moreseducerthanrapist.Fora modernreader,thismightlessenthe
crime,butforVictorians seductionwouldhavebeen infinitely worse.
In Victorian theory,it is sexualdesireratherthansexualactivity that
is the truesourceof danger;and as Mina herselfmakesclear,she
experiencesdesireunderDracula'sattentions.
ThisexplainswhyMina'sforeheadis scarredbytheHost,whyshe
herselfsuffers such(to us disproportionate) agoniesofguiltand self-
revulsion.Butonce she is no longerisolated,once she is includedin
thecommunity ofherhusbandand theirfriends, she is able to resist
desire, to exerther will to
againstDracula help defeat him.Thuswhen
he dies, the shameful scardisappearsfromherforehead.Withhelp,
Minahas conqueredtemptation and the dangersofdegeneracy.It is
thiseffort ofwill,the effort to conquerher own sexualimagination,
thatmakesherworthy ofthesacrificesoftheothers-thatmakesher
worthy, in the end, ofsalvation.
What,then,has been achieved?By the end ofthe novelLucy is
dead, QuinceyMorrisis dead, Mina and Jonathan have bothcome
closeto death-or worse,to thedeath-in-life ofthedegeneracy which
vampirism represents; buttheyhave,afterall, repentedand are now
strongerthanever. Dracula has been killed,and Englandand the
worldpreserved.The fantastic elementhas been expelled,and we
returnto the safe,ordinary realityoftheopening.
In fact,thenovelendsquiteabruptly, barelya fullpage afterDra-
cula'sdeath.In a briefnotewe are toldthatMinaand Jonathan have

a son, that Seward and Gadalming are happily married (Lucy's role
filledby otherwomen), and thatVan Helsing is now incorporatedinto
the extended family.We also learn that the storywe have just been
told is, despite its elaborate detail and fundamentallydocumentary
nature, unsupportedby any originaldocuments-nothing exists but
Mina's typescript,which is hardlyproofof the remarkablenarrative
we have just read. Thus we, the fictiveaudience, are leftto accept or
reject based purely on the internalevidence, and-since the danger
is safelypast-need not react at all ifwe choose.33
VI: DRACULAAND THE URBANGOTHIC
But ifcomparativelylittlehas happened in the world of the fictive

audience, in the world of the actual audience Stoker's novel has ac-
complished a good deal. With Dracula's death, the "natural"superi-
orityof Englishmenover the "lesser" races has been once again con-
vincingly portrayed. More importantly,a number of profoundly
disruptiveelementshave been symbolicallyexpelled fromsocietyand
the crumblingboundaries between certainkey categoriesreaffirmed:
between lifeand death, civilizationand degeneracy,human and non-
human, desire and loathing-all of which boundaries Dracula had
blurred or violated. The even more fundamentalboundarybetween
selfand other,whichDracula's abilityto overridehis victims'willpower
so terrifyingly challenges, is seen once again triumphantin Mina's
recovered purityand self-control.
In Sexualityand Its Discontents,Jeffrey Weeks connects the de-
velopmentofsociologywiththe simultaneousdevelopmentofsexology.
As these two new disciplinesstruggledto definethe "laws" ofbehavior
in their respective realms, he argues, a powerfulinterdependency
sprang up between them. At the same time as sexualitywas being
constitutedas a key area of social relations,where it helped to define
personal identity,sex as what Freud would soon call a "drive" came
to be perceived as "a forceoutside, and set against society,"as "part
of the eternal battle of individualand society."m Thus sex is paradox-
ically seen as both social and anti-social;it helps to defineindividual
identitywhile at the same timethreateningthe collective. No wonder,
then, that sex is such an explosive issue for the late Victorians,for
whomthese two poles ofidentityhad become so crucialand so fragile.
(It may also help to explain why sex is still an explosive issue forus,
their grandchildren,a hundred years later-apparently so different
fromthem,but livingin a societywhich, like theirs,balances precar-
iouslyon the same two poles.)

The sex/society formulation,Weeks continues,"evokes and replays
all the othergreatdistinctionswhichattemptto explainthe boundaries
ofanimalityand humanity"-like nature/culture, freedom/regulation -
the "two rival absolutes."35As we have already seen, these are some
ofthe centralcategoriesat play in Dracula. The outcome ofthe novel
suggestsStokerwas arguingthatthe solutionto the late Victoriancrisis
lay in privilegingsocietyover sex, thatin orderto preserve the nation
it was necessary to sacrificesome degree of personal freedom.That
would explain the novel's insistentpatternof the many against the
one, the communityagainstthe scapegoat; it mightalso help explain
the novel's popularityat a time of imperialistfervorconcealing deep
anxietiesabout the futureof the empire.
And it is the generic conventionsof the fantasticthat have made
thisresolutionpossible, by creatingan imaginativeway simultaneously
to affirm and denythe realityofchosen culturalelements.The fantastic
allows writersand readers to take those aspects of theirown culture
thatare mostemotionallycharged,mostdisruptive,and identifythem
as monstrous-that is, as violationsnot just of human law but of the
very nature of reality-so that societycan be symbolicallypurged of
its pollution.
However, Dracula is not merelyfantastic;it is an example of the
Urban Gothic, that modern version of the fantasticmarked by its
dependence on empiricismand the discourseofscience. The difference
can be seen mostclearlyby comparingDracula to its immediatepred-
ecessor and reputed inspiration,Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871).
Le Fanu's storyof a female (and lesbian) vampire is, in fact, quite
powerfuland subtle, but the tale is set in a remote countryhouse in
eighteenth-century Transylvania,whereas Stokergoes out of his way
repeatedly to emphasize the modernityof his setting. For example
(more or less at random):Van Helsing observes, "A year ago which of
us would have received [i.e., believed] such a possibility,in the midst
of our scientific,sceptical, matter-of-factnineteenthcentury?"(266);
or again, in "this enlightenedage, when men believe not even what
they see, the doubting of wise men would be [Dracula's] greatest
strength"(321). In additionto such references,which could easily be
multiplied,the band of heroes relies readily and matter-of-factly on
modern technologylike blood transfusions,typewriters,telegraphs,
and Dr. Seward's "phonographdiary" (219).
But these are mere decorations on the surfaceof the text. More
important,the approach of the charactersto their tasks in each tale
shows the same contrast.Carmilla is trackedto her lair and killed by

referenceto the past-her own history, religious
and the traditional
knowledge ofthecommunity, whileDraculais identified anddefeated
bypainstaking ofhis presentactions.Dr. Van Helsing's
investigation
knowledgeofvampireloreeventually becomesessential,but it is of
no use untilDraculacanbe conclusivelyidentifiedas a vampire.Thus
themostcrucialeventin Dracula occurswhenMinatypesup all the
documentsofthe case (Jonathan's diary,Seward'srecords,her own
correspondencewithLucy, newspaperclippings,even telegrams)and
assembles them in chronologicalorder-the order in which we read
them. Only with chronologydoes narrativeemerge; only then does a
collectionofdata turnintoa hypothesis.And, as in science, hypothesis
is a necessaryprelude to action. In other words, while Carmilla re-
sembles a traditionalghoststory,Dracula is constructedlike thatother
formwhich comes into its own in the 1890s, the detective story.36
The implicationsofthisdifferenceare crucial. The ghoststory,like
the eighteenth-century Gothic to which it is closely related, usually
findsits methodsin the shared knowledgeofthe community,whether
thismeans traditionalreligiousapproaches to the supernaturalor the
ancientremedies of the folk.In eithercase, the necessaryknowledge
is both implicitand communal. In the modern world, and therefore
in the Urban Gothic,thereis no implicitknowledge:everythingmust
be tested and proved. A method for dealing with the supernatural
mustbe created, drawingon the most powerfuland prestigioustools
at theirdisposal: the methods of science, shaped by a secular world
view-paradoxically, the veryworldview thatwas initiallyoverthrown
by the fantasticintrusion.37
How are we to read this paradox, so centralto the Urban Gothic?
Is the primaryeffectto invalidate the supernatural,seeing it as an
alien intruderin the modern world? Is it, on the contrary,to affirm
the realityof the supernaturalin the very act of expellingit? Or is it
to demonstratethe efficacyof the scientificmethod in addressingany
kindofcrisis?I would argue insteadthatthe centralappeal offantastic
literatureis that,like the violentscapegoat ritualsit mimics,it allows
itswritersand readers simultaneouslyto acknowledgeand deny those
aspects of themselvesand theirworld thattheyfindmost troubling-
to see thembothas partofthe communityand as available forsacrifice.
Douglas observes thatone of the sources of ritualpollutionis "the
interplayofformand formlessness.Pollutiondangersstrikewhen form
has been attacked."38Dracula is a perfectexample of the "formless"
attackingform(he is, afterall, a shape-changer);but at the same time,
our cultural experience of the novel suggests that, in creating his

vampire count, Stokerhas given to formlessnessitselfa formof con-
tinuingpotency.
Universityof Nebraska
NOTES
Some of the research forthis essay was done duringan NEH Summer Seminar for
College Teachers on "BritishLiteratureand Culture 1840-1900" given at Brown Uni-
versityin 1989. I am gratefulto the NEH, to the seminar's directors,Profs. Roger
Henkle (English) and L. Perry Curtis (History),and to my colleagues in the seminar
fortheiradvice and support.
l Mary Douglas, Purityand Danger: An Analysisof Concepts of Pollutionand Taboo
(New York: Praeger, 1966), 4.
2JeffreyWeeks, Sexualityand Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths,and Modern Sex-
ualities (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985), 178.
3The most common positionsare thatDracula is eitherabout male sexualitythreat-
eningpassive femaleinnocence, or about the need to controlrampantfemalesexuality.
But it has also been argued thatthe novel is about coverthomoeroticdesire displaced
onto women, and even thatall the sex in the book is sadomasochistic.For a convenient
collectionofthe best recentcriticismofDracula, see MargaretL. Carter, The Vampire
and the Critics (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988). For some non-psychological
readings of the novel, see Nina Auerbach, Woman and the Demon: The Life of a
VictorianMyth(Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1982), and Elaine Showalter,Sexual
Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Sikcle (New York: VikingPenguin, 1990).
4For example: Rosa Campbell Praed, Affinities: A Romance of Today (1885); Rider
Haggard, She (1887); ArthurConan Doyle, The Parasite (1894); Richard Marsh, The
Beetle (1897); Somerset Maugham, The Magician (1907); Algernon Blackwood, "The
Camp of the Dog" in John Silence, PhysicianExtraordinaire(1908); Sax Rohmer, The
Brood of the Witch-Queen(1918); Jessie Kerruish, The UndyingMonster (1922).
5Tzvetan Todorov, The Fantastic:A StructuralApproach to a LiteraryGenre, trans.
Richard Howard (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1975); Andrzej Zgorzelski, "Is Science
Fictiona Genre ofFantasticLiterature?"Science-FictionStudies6 (1979): 289 (emphasis
in original).Todorov definesthe fantasticin relationto two othergenres,the "uncanny"
and the "marvellous." In a realisticworld-that is, a textualworld modeled on the
world we inhabit-an event occurs thatappears to violate the laws of this world. The
characterwho experiences thisseeminglyabnormalevent (and, more importantly,the
reader ofthe text)mustchoose between two explanations:eitherthe event is a product
of illusion, or imagination,or deliberate deception-in which case the familiarlaws
remainintact(and the textis an example ofthe uncanny);or else the event has genuinely
occurred, is a part of reality,in which case the laws must be modifiedto allow forthe
existence of, say, ghostsor the Devil. In thatcase, the textbelongs to the categoryof
the marvellous. If, on the otherhand, it is impossibleforcharacteror reader to decide
whether or not the event is genuine, the text is, by Todorov's definition,fantastic.
"The fantasticis that hesitationexperienced by a person who knows only the laws of
nature, confrontingan apparently supernatural event" (25; emphasis added). The
problem with Todorov's definitionis that most texts do actually commit themselves
about the event; thus very few texts that we normallythink of as fantasticend up
qualifyingas suchbyTodorov'sdefinition.For a moreextendeddiscussionofZgorzelski's
definitionand its implications,see Kathleen L. Spencer, "Naturalizingthe Fantastic:
NarrativeTechnique in the Novels of Charles Williams," Extrapolation28 (1987): 62-
74.
6 Henry James, "Miss Braddon," The Nation, 9 Nov. 1865, 593-94; reprinted in
Notes and Reviews (Cambridge: Dunster House, 1921), 110. Jane Austen makes a

similarpointin Northanger Abbey,contrasting the imaginary horrorsin the Gothic
novelsherheroineis so fondofreadingwiththemoremundanebutveryrealcruelties
she findspracticedin herownmodern,ordinary England.
7For a fullerdiscussionof this material,see George KennethGraham,English
Criticismof the Novel 1865-1900(Oxford:Clarendon,1965), 51-109. For a more
traditional (thatis, judgmental) treatment ofthe romance-realism debatesee Lionel
Stevenson, TheEnglishNovel:A Panorama(Boston:HoughtonMifflin, 1960)andJohn
Halperin,"The Theoryofthe Novel:A CriticalIntroduction" in The Theoryof the
Novel:NewEssays,ed. JohnHalperin(London,NewYork:OxfordUniv.Press,1974),
3-22. For the patriotic argument forrejectingnaturalism, see WilliamC. Frierson,
"TheEnglishControversy OverRealismin Fiction1885-1895,"PMLA43 (1928):533-
50.
8 Citedin Sir CharlesMallett, Anthony Hope and His Books(London:Hutchinson,
1935),114.
9See, forexample:R. L. Stevenson,"A Gossipon Romance,"Longman'sMagazine
1 (November1882):69-79; Stevenson,"A HumbleRemonstrance," Longman'sMag-
azine5 (December1884):139-47;H. RiderHaggard,"AboutFiction,"Contemporary
Review51 (February1887):172-80;AndrewLang,"Realismand Romance,"Contem-
poraryReview52 (1887): 683-93; George Saintsbury, "The PresentState of the
Novel.I,"Fornightly Review,n.s., 48 (September1887):410-17;"The PresentState
oftheNovel.II,"Fortnightly Review,n.s., 49 (January 1888):112-23;and Hall Caine,
"The New Watchwords ofFiction,"Contemporary Review57 (April1890):479-88.
10For example,MarieCorelli,GeorgeGriffith, GuyBoothby,WilliamLe Queux,
Sax Rohmer.
" For a fullerdiscussionof the late Victorianfascination withthe farreachesof
empire,see PatrickBrantlinger, RuleofDarkness:BritishLiterature and Imperialism,
1839-1914(Ithaca:CornellUniv.Press,1988).Thoughthefuturistic plotsettingsof
someofthesenovelsmaymakethemsoundverymuchlikesciencefiction, theydo
notas a rulequalifyas suchby anyreasonably rigorouscriteria,noteven thenovels
set on otherplanets.Theirgenericaffiliations are ratherwiththe imaginary voyage
andtheutopia,whichare quitedifferent Fora surveyofthesetextsandan
traditions.
alternateviewoftheirgenre,see DarkoSuvin,VictorianScienceFictionin the UK.
The Discoursesof Knowledgeand Power(Boston:G. K. Hall, 1983). For a brief
description of the occultrevival,see KathleenL. Spencer,"The UrbanGothicIn
British FantasticFiction1880-1930"(Ph.D. diss.,University ofCalifornia,LosAngeles,
1987),34-98. For moredetail,see JohnJ.Cerullo,The Secularization of the Soul:
PsychicalResearchin ModernBritain(Philadelphia: InstitutefortheStudyofHuman
Issues,1982);FrankMillerTurner,BetweenScienceand Religion(New Haven:Yale
Univ. Press, 1974); Alan Gauld, The Foundersof PsychicalResearch(New York:
SchockenBooks,1968);and Ellic Howe, Magiciansof the GoldenDawn: A Docu-
mentary Historyofa MagicalOrder1887-1923(London:Routledgeand KeganPaul,
1972).
12 Anthony Giddens,A Contemporary Critiqueof HistoricalMaterialism, Vol. I:
Power,Property, and theState(Berkeley:Univ.ofCalifornia Press,1981),194.
13 GeorgeW. Stocking, Jr.,Race, Culture,and Evolution:Essaysin theHistoryof
Anthropology (London:Collier-Macmillan, 1968),121.
14 For a discussion ofthe East End and degeneracy, see GarethSteadmanJones,
OutcastLondon:A Studyin the Relationships BetweenClassesin VictorianSociety
(Oxford: Clarendon,1971),149.
15 Fordiscussions ofthispoint,see (forexample)MaryPoovey,UnevenDevelopments:
TheIdeologicalWorkofGenderin Mid-Victorian England(Chicago:Univ.ofChicago
Press,1988),andElaineShowalter, TheFemaleMalady:Women,Madness,andEnglish
Culture1830-1980,2nd ed. (New York:Penguin,1987). Whilethe femalerole as
constituted in theorywas quite rigid,in practicebothworking-class and aristocratic
womenexperienced somerelaxation ofitsrigors, ineconomicand(therefore?)
especially
222 Dracula and UrbanGothic

in sexual activities:aristocrats,because of the traditionalprivileges of their class and
the sense thattheirlives are notbound by the same rulesas everyoneelse; and working-
class women, because they were needed in the paid workforceby both theirfamilies
and their employers.
'6 JenniCalder, TheVictorian and EdwardianHome(London: Batsford,1977), 132.
17 3 Hansard, CXLV, 800. Quoted by Lee Holcombe, "VictorianWives and Property:
Reformof the Married Women's PropertyLaw, 1857-1882" in A Widening Sphere:

Changing Roles of VictorianWomen,ed. MarthaVicinus (Bloomington:Indiana Univ.
Press, 1977), 12. Holcombe's articleas a whole (3-28) is an illuminatingand scholarly
discussion of the struggleof Victorianwives to reformpropertylaws.
18 For detailed discussions of the Cleveland Street brothel, see H. Montgomery
Hyde, The Cleveland Street Scandal (New York: Coward, McCann, and Geoghagan,
1976), and Colin Simpson et al., The Cleveland StreetAffair(Boston: Little, Brown,
1976).
19For a discussion of the way the Wilde trial helped turn "homosexual" froman
adjective describingcertainkinds ofbehaviors into a noun indicatinga kind of person
and the significanceof this change forthe subsequent historyof homosexuality,see
Jeffrey
Weeks,Sex,Politics,and Society:TheRegulation Since1800(Lon-
ofSexuality
don: Longman, 1981). To give one small example of the trial's effecton the general
culturalatmosphere (beyond the terrorit struckin the hearts of homosexuals): in the
late 1880s and early'90s, therehad been an explosionofnovels treatingsympathetically
such previouslyuntouchable subjects as female sexuality,freelove, and fallenwomen.
Thomas Hardy's Tess ofthe D'Urbervilles (1891), forexample, was received notwithout
controversy,certainly,but witha good bit ofsupportforHardy's sympathetictreatment
of Tess. But Jude the Obscure, published in 1896 afterWilde's public disgrace, was
greetedwithsuch a firestorm ofdisapprovalthatHardy swore offwritingfictionforever
(forthis argument, see Eric Trudgill, Madonnas and Magdalenes: The Origins and
of VictorianSexualAttitudes,
Development [London:Heinemann,1976]). Dracula,
published in 1897, reached the public at the heightofthisantisexualhysteria;it should
not surprise us to findreflectionsof this mood in such a popular text-meaning both
one thatwas addressed to a less sophisticatedaudience and one that was very widely
read at the time.
20 In this same decade, the "unnaturalness"of homosexualitywas also being chal-
lenged by Havelock Ellis, along with several prominentapologists like Edward Car-
penter and JohnAddingtonSymonds who in the 1890s published books arguingthat
homosexualswere not"failed"or "unnatural"men or women but were insteadmembers
of a thirdor "intermediate"sex (Ellis, who was married to a lesbian, was the firstto
writesympathetically about lesbianism). In the earlyeditionsofPsychopathiaSexualis,
Richard von Krafft-Ebingargued that all homosexual behavior was degenerate, but
afterthe turnofthe centuryhe softensthisjudgment,concludingthatsome homosexuals
indeed seemed to be "born" not"made ,"-in his words,"congenital."See, forexample,
the lengthydiscussion of "Homosexual Feeling as an AbnormalCongenital Manifes-
tation"(356-90). He explores the available explanationsof"sexual inversion"fromthe
traditional"vice" to the more "scientific"cause, excessive and/orearly masturbation,
and finallyconcludes thatin some cases an explanationbased on physiologicalfactors-
somethingin the structureof the brain, somethingthereforenot subject to the will of
the "invert"-rather than the old medico-moralexplanationof "willfulindulgence in
depravity,"is the only logical conclusion. He does not altogetherabandon degeneracy
as an explanation even in these cases, arguing that "In fact, in all cases of sexual
inversion,a taint of a hereditarycharacter may be established"; but he admits that
"What causes produce this factorof taint and its activityis a question which cannot
be well answered by science in its present stage" (370; emphasis added). By allowing
forthe possibilityof inheritedtendencies to degeneracy, Krafft-Ebing simultaneously
takes back and lets stand his uneasy conclusion that some homosexuals do not seem
to be morallyresponsible fortheirsexual orientation.(Richardvon Krafft-Ebing, Psy-

chopathiaSexualis:A Medico-Forensic Study,Latintrans.HarryE. Wedeck[New
York:G. P. Putnam'sSons, 1965].Thisedition,withan introduction by ErnestVan
Den Haag,is describedas "The first unexpurgated edition,withtheLatintextstrans-
latedintoEnglishforthefirst time"byDr. Wedeck,butdoesnotspecify whotranslated
theGermanpartsofthetext.I suspectthiseditionis based on thetranslation ofthe
12thGermaneditionbyF. J.Rebmanpublishedin1934bythePhysicians andSurgeons
BookCompany,butcannotverify mysuspicionat thistime.)
21 LudmillaJordanova, "NaturalFacts: An HistoricalPerspectiveon Science and
Reality" inNature,Culture,and Gender,ed. CarolMacCormack andMarilyn Strathern
(Cambridge: CambridgeUniv.Press,1980),44.
22The followingdiscussion is drawnprimarily fromMaryDouglas'sNaturalSymbols:
Explorations in Cosmology (New York:RandomHouse, 1972).
23Forotherexamplesofmodern"witchcraft" societies,considerNazi Germany and
McCarthy-era America.Indeed,the currentstruggle betweensocialliberalsand re-
ligiousfundamentalists overissueslikeabortionand pornography manifests manyof
thesamedynamics.
24 Rene Girard,Violence and the Sacred,trans.PatrickGregory(Baltimore: Johns
HopkinsUniv.Press,1977),13. Interestingly enough,despitethefactthatin many
cultures womenarenotafforded fullstatus,theyareseldomchosenas surrogate victims.
Girardspeculatesthatbecausea marriedwomanretainstieswithherparents'social
groupas wellas herhusband's,to sacrifice herwouldbe to runtheriskofone group
ortheotherinterpreting thesacrifice as "anactofmurdercommitting ittoa reciprocal
actofrevenge,"and so notendingthecommunalviolence,butincreasing it (13).
25 BramStoker, Dracula(Oxford: OxfordUniv.Press,1983),59. Allfurther citations
willbe to thistext.Showalterin SexualAnarchy(note3), whichI did notsee until
afterthisessaywas submitted, makesthesameessentialpointaboutLucy.
26SimonWilliams,analyzing CharlesNodier'splay, Vampire(1820),partof the
responseto Polidori'sTheVampyre (1819),findsa verysimilarpattern."Sexualdesire
is exhibitedas supernatural possessionthatcauses theheroineto wanderdeliriously
in cavernsand shadyplaces in searchofher demonlover.But once she returnsto
consciousness, she is totallyunawareofthe darkforcesthathave briefly takenover
herbody"("Theatreand Degeneration:Subversionand Sexuality," in Degeneration:
TheDark Side of Progress,ed. J. EdwardChamberlin and SanderL. Gilman[New
York:ColumbiaUniv. Press,1985],246). The terms"conscious"and "unconscious"
mayseemanachronistic, butthe Englishhad casuallyacceptedtheidea ofan uncon-
sciousmindby the latterpartofthe nineteenth century;theidea is expoundedin a
numberof different places in the last two decades. It was not the conceptof the
unconscious thatmadeFreudso shocking, buthisnotionofwhatkindsofmaterial the
unconscious contained.As NinaAuerbach(note3) pointsout,Stokermightwellhave
knownofFreudby the timehe wroteDracula, sinceF. W. Myershad presenteda
lecturetotheSocietyforPsychical Researchon FreudandBreuer'sworkwithhysterics
in 1893;and in the novelitselfDr. SewardmentionsCharcot,Freud'steacher(22-
23).
27 Mostcriticsdiscussthissceneas symbolic ofsexualintercourse and orgasm,even
goingso farin one case as to likenit to the "painfuldeflowering ofa virgin,which
Lucy stillis" (C. F. Bentley,"The Monsterin the Bedroom:Sexual Symbolism in
BramStoker'sDracula,"Literature and Psychology 22 [1972]:31). WhileI recognize
theelementsofthescenethatmakeitpossibleto drawtheparallel,whatmoststrikes
mein thedescription (and,I suspect,mostwomenreaders)is theviolence-whichis,
becauseofthereligious overtones ofthescene,weirdly impersonal. Indeed,itis rather
alarming to me to thinkthatthisscenecan be readso easily,and apparently without
qualmsor qualifiers, as an imageof sexualintercourse. Whatdoes such a reading
suggestaboutourculture'sconfusion ofsex and violence?
28 Girard(note24), 161.
29 Thispopular disapproval ofthearistocracy becameparticularly apparentafterthe

publication of Sir FrancisGalton'sHereditaryGeniusin 1869,whichattackedboth
inherited wealthand thetitlednobility.
30 For a detaileddiscussion of Draculaas Lombroso's"criminalman,"see Ernest
Fontana,"Lombroso'sCriminalMan and Stoker'sDracula,"in Carter(note3), 159-
66. Fora morethorough examination oftheplaceofdegeneracy theoryinlateVictorian
thinking, see Chamberlin and Gilman(note26).
31 Douglas(note1), 97. Richard Sennettand MichaelFoucault,"Sexuality and Sol-
itude,"in Humanities in Review1, ed. Sennettet al. (New York:CambridgeUniv.
Press,1982),4.
32 Krafft-Ebing (note20), 42. Notall Victoriandoctorsagreedwiththis,butit does
seem to havebeen a majority opinion,expressedcategorically, and often.
publically,
Pooveyin UnevenDevelopments (note15)offerstheclearestexplanation ofthethinking
behindwhatnow seemsa ludicrousposition.Victoriandoctorsknewso littleabout
femalephysiology, sheobserves,thattheonlymodeltheyhadforsexualresponsewas
the familiar male tumescence/ejaculation sequence. Failingto findthissequencein
women,theyconcludedthatwomennormally did notexperienceorgasm.Ofcourse,
thisdoesnotexplainKrafft-Ebing's valuejudgmentabouttheincompatibility offemale
sexualdesirewithmarriageand family life;that,afterall, is a matterofculture,not
science.Nonetheless, Poovey'sobservation does giveus a welcomealternative to the
reductiveexplanation of"sexism"as to howotherwise intelligent mencouldarriveat
suchabsurdconclusions.
33 Thisdetailis characteristic offantastic
texts,thatfinally we are leftwithjust the
testament itself,and no "external" proofs.
34 Weeks(note2), 81.
97.
35Weeks,
36 Ratherthanpointing to Carmilla,I thinkthatStoker'smostimportant literary
sourceis Polidori'sThe Vampyre (1819),or morelikely(sinceStokerwas a theatrical
man)one ofits manydramaticredactions.Polidori'stextcreatesa modernfantastic
effect, itspotencyfromthedeviceofbringing
deriving hisnobleman/vampire intothe
cityofLondon-seventy-five yearsbeforeStokerdoes thesamething.
37 One wayto distinguishbetweenthetraditionalghoststoryand theUrbanGothic
is thatthe ghoststory,althoughgenuinelyfantastic, is muchcloserin tone to the
originalGothic.In addition,ghostsgenerallyhavequitea limitedrepertoryofobjects,
motives, andbehaviors:togetrevenge,tomakerestitution, tofinish
an important task
leftincomplete at death,towarntheliving(generallyfamilymembers ordescendants),
ortoreenactendlesslythecrucialeventoftheirlives(as in Yeats'"Purgatory").In the
UrbanGothic,thesupernatural powershavea muchbroaderscopeforaction.
38
Douglas(note1), 104.


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Purity and Danger: Dracula, the Urban Gothic, and the Late Victorian Degeneracy Crisis

Author(s): Kathleen L. Spencer

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I believethatideas aboutseparating,purifying, demarcatingand

The construction ofcategoriesdefiningwhatis appropriate sexual

ELH 59 (1992)197-225C 1992byThe JohnsHopkinsUniversity

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Like "romance" itself, <'the fantastic"is a much-disputedterm.

198 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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Kathleen L. Spencer 199

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200 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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Kathleen L. Spencer 201

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202 Draculaand UrbanGothic

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Thus not onlythe Urban Gothicbut the romancerevivalas a whole

KathleenL. Spencer 203

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204 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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Kathleen L. Spencer 205

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206 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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KathleenL. Spencer 207

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208 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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KathleenL. Spencer 209

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210 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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KathleenL. Spencer 211

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The thingin the coffinwrithed;and a hideous,bloodcurdling

212 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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Kathleen L. Spencer 213

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214 Draculaand UrbanGothic

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Kathleen L. Spencer 215

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216 Draculaand UrbanGothic

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KathleenL. Spencer 217

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But ifcomparativelylittlehas happened in the world of the fictive

218 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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KathleenL. Spencer 219

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220 Dracula and Urban Gothic

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KathleenL. Spencer 221

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222 Dracula and UrbanGothic

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Reformof the Married Women's PropertyLaw, 1857-1882" in A Widening Sphere:

KathleenL. Spencer 223

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