ENG 3407, Gothic Lit, Fall 2019

Critical Response Prompts: Dracula, 16-21

Each of the prompts should be answered by at least 1 member of blog group 1. Please confer amongst yourselves as to who will write which prompt. (Each member should try to do a different category than the one(s) they’ve already done!) Responses should be at least 250 words and posted by 11 am the day of class. Please remember to select the appropriate Blog category before posting.

CLUE.

During the late 19th century, the British Empire reached the peak of its territorial expansion. The British colonized people and places all over the world, extracting their resources and changing their culture, in the name of Christianity and progress.

Against this backdrop, focus on 2 scenes in ch. 16-21 that offer clues as to the book’s attitude toward colonialism. You could look at the scene of Lucy’s staking, the scenes where the heroes reclaim British soil from a foreign invader, the scene where Van Helsing describes the enemy, etc. Are vampires – and Dracula specifically – symbols of colonialism’s evils? Or do they symbolise the “savagery” and backwardness that the British saw their Empire as counteracting?

CONNECT.

Van Helsing gives a detailed description of vampires, and of Dracula’s specific history, in Chapter 18. Vampires in general seem very powerful; Dracula in particular seems both powerful and smart.

Connect the description of vampires and Dracula in Chapter 18 with our lecture last week on technology and the 1890’s. In what ways do vampire powers match, or even exceed, the capabilities of modern technology? In what ways does Dracula seem modern, not just a representative of savage history?

CREATE.

One character whose journal entries we never see is Dr. Van Helsing’s. Create a fictional journal entry from his perspective, written right after the events of Ch. 21. What details from the scene are lodged in his brain? As he reflects on the details of Mina’s horrific encounter with Dracula, is he overcome with disgust and fear, or does he maintain heroic determination even in private? How much does he rely on religion for comfort, and how much on his scientific expertise?

After the paragraph, include 1-2 sentences explaining the rationale behind your characterization of Van Helsing.

Angel Oquendo

Critical Response: Clue

With throwing out all the knowledge that I have of vampires, it made me realize how strange them and their habits are. Vampires are still scary even if you dont know what a vampire is. They sleep in coffins all day, have sharp teeth that stick out their mouths, drink blood, bite people, are unhealthy pale looking, and more. A vampire’s blood lust is violent and bit of the violence was showcased in chapter 11 when Renfeild attacked Seward. Renfield attacked Seward and cut his wrist with a dinner knife. Seward was bleeding everywhere so Renfield dropped to the floor and was licking the blood up like a dog. Science would write off Renfield as being insane and do what they have been doing to him so far, locking him up.

Vampires have sharp teeth that they use to taunt and suck blood. In chapter 12, Lucy was sleeping and being observed by Professor Van Helsing and Holmwood and they noticed that she looked stronger but at the same time looked like she was dying and they noticed her sharpened canine teeth pointing out of her mouth. I dont think science can explain her condition. I looked up if there were any diseases or sicknesses that cause teeth to grow and sharpen. Doctors would also be puzzled as to how is she dying a slow and unexplainable death but somehow becoming physically stronger. Religious people might say that she is being possessed by the devil because of how scary her teeth are becoming and how she’s sick without a cause or diagnostic.

In chapter 15, Van Helsing and Seward were doing some detective work on Lucy and went to open her casket on one night and saw that she wasnt there in her casket. The next night they go back to check her casket and shes back in it with even longer vampire teeth. Science and religion can explain this as someone is graverobbing and stole her body and then put it back. Van Helsing is an open minded doctor and first assumed that she was grave robbed but then thought of the supernatural and took into consideration everything that is happening and concluded to Seward that he believes that Lucy is an undead vampire and is getting out of her gave at night to attack people.

Group 3 Fareena – Create Chapters 10-15

Parents: Oh dear God ! Oh where did you go and who where you with? Are you alright my child?

Child: Mom, Dad I was with the “bloofer lady” translating beautiful lady, she took me by the hand. She appeared very angelic, so very sweet to me. She had such red lips like when I eat my popsicle, very red and pearly long white teeth. Her two teeth at the side are longer than yours ! It was fascinating! I stared at them all the time.

Parents: How you scared us?! Did she hurt you? Was it anyone we know? Have we seen this lady before? Why on earth would you go with a stranger ?!

Child: No mom and dad, I’ve never seen the “bloofer” translating to beautiful lady before. I would certainly remember it.

Parents: What happened to your neck? Did the lady do that to you?

Child: I think she went to kiss me, but now I don’t remember how it got there. Maybe I scratched myself ? I don’t think she meant to hurt me.

Parents: Thats certainly not a scratch, maybe you hurt yourself in the bushes, or while you were wandering about when we found you. Looks like a rat has bitten you, you say she has long white teeth, but Im sure she didn’t want to hurt you or else you wouldn’t be here with us right now. I suppose it was someone who needed company or someone who couldn’t have kids or lost a kid even. So she took you for a day and befriended you. But promise us no more talking to strangers and going with them okay?

I highly think the parents wouldn’t even think it could be something as supernatural as it really was. I think the child would describe Lucy as very beautiful as in the English accent bloofer lady is pronounced as beautiful lady. Lucy was beautiful in life and death because she was proposed to 3 times in one day ! She had to be beautiful, as well as characteristics I would say long pearly white teeth and cherry red lips.

Announcements for the weekend (Sept. 20-23)

I can tell everyone came to class prepared and excited to move through our reading material together. It shows in the quiz results! Keep it up, and consult the in-class board notes for tips on how to get the most out of annotations.

As mentioned on the schedule, please read ch. 10-15 of Dracula, as well as the highlighted portions of the Felluga essay on abjection. It’s dense, but you’ll find that Felluga defines a concept that’s very useful for understanding images of violence and degeneration in Gothic fiction.

Group 3 (EDITED), please post your comments on this week’s blogs within the hour (if you haven’t already!). Also, Group 3, looking forward to reading your critical response prompts on Tuesday.

best,

Professor Kwong

Critical Response Prompts: Dracula, 10-15

Each of the prompts should be answered by at least 1 member of the blog group. Please confer amongst yourselves as to who will write which prompt. Responses should be at least 250 words and posted by 11 am the day of class. Please remember to select the appropriate Blog category before posting.

CLUE.

Throughout chapters 10-15, we learn a lot more about vampirism: how it’s contracted, what it does to the patient, how it can be contained. Try to forget everything you know about vampires, and analyze 3-4 clues from this section that reveal the powers and weaknesses associated with vampirism. Which of these powers/weaknesses are explainable through science, and which through religion/”superstition”?

CONNECT.

Dino Felluga describes corpses as pure examples of abjection, since a corpse “literalizes the breakdown of the distinction between subject and object that is crucial for the establishment of identity.” Abjection is embodied in vomit, open wounds, and other “gross’ violations of the border between life and death.

Find a passage that connects to Felluga’s definition of abjection. It could be a description of Dracula’s home invasion, or Lucy’s deathbed condition, or of Jonathan Harker’s response to seeing Dracula in London. How do physical descriptions, or first person narration, or style choices in any of these passages blur the border between life and death?

CREATE.

Chapters 13-15 introduce the subplot of the “bloofer lady” (beautiful lady, in the accent of English children) who takes local children on walks, and leaves them with bite marks. It’s implied that this is the Un-Dead Lucy, now preying on children.

Create a dialogue in which one of these children tells their parent about what they saw. How do you imagine the child describing the lady? What is the parent’s reaction? Do either of them believe something supernatural is going on? Include 1-2 sentences after the dialogue explaining the basis for your paragraph.

Clue – Blog Post 2 Freddie Feria

To the idea of one’s limit towards “reason and deductive logic.” Dr. Seward’s observations of his patient Renfield is an example of how maybe both reason and deductive logic might be somewhat useless. We see that in chapter 5 he begins his research on him and learns that he has a “desire” for consumption and how it strengthens him. Of course, Dr. Seward sees this in a logical sense and classifies him as a “zoophagous.” But later we see that this changes when all of a sudden Renfield is trying to escape because something is calling for him. He becomes aggressive and is in a hurry to leave. He escapes and runs to Carfax to where Dracula’s new home is currently. This sort of behavior is quite interesting because these signs could only mean some sort of madness. Finally, we see that in Chapter 9 when Lucy is in fact in trouble of her health. Dr. Seward turns his attention to this situation and postpones his research on Renfield. Not understanding Renfield with his reasoning, it becomes infuriating on why his methods won’t be as useful to him. This is why I believe Stoker is trying to say in the world of Supernatural, there is a limit on what one can possibly try to understand with logic and reasoning. His studies on Renfield, in the beginning, he knew he might become dangerous because he’s careless, he understood that he wanted to become stronger by taking the life out of a living creature. And finally, when he started to follow what was calling him I think he kind of lost hope of understanding Renfield because he was just a crazy power-hungry individual. So in a sense, there isn’t enough understanding with logic and reasoning in the world of supernatural.

Dracula, ch 5-9, Prompt #3- Ayshe

After the paragraph, include 2-3 lines explaining the basis for your paragraph, with reference to the text.

When news had gone out between the captain and the crew that yet another two of our members have gone missing, I have been unable to sleep at night. Looking over at the noted logs from one of the members, mentioning a “tall, thin man, who was not like any of the crew, come [came] up the the companion-way. and go along the deck forward, and disappear” (Stoker 71), I instantly grew cold. I too, have seen such a being lurking the dark corners of my cabin late at night. At first I thought it was a figment of my imagination. Here and there, I have frightful dreams, but I do not think much of them, for they are only dreams. However, I knew that this was a true event and that the ship must be searched at once. After finding no such being on the cruiser, the crew and captain were in good spirits again. A few days had pass and I began to grow uneasy again. The weather at sea was horrendous. It was if the only weather possible was heavy storms and hectic waves. Returning back from my watch late night, I felt something creeping the corridors. As the ship rocked back and forth with the rhythm of the waves, I have finally seen the face of my stalker. It was the tall thin man! With blazing red eyes, full red lips with sharp white teeth, I was paralyzed in fear. I see the strange being charging at me with great speed. Although I could see him approaching me, I could not hear the sound of his feet on the floor. It was as if he was floating. Too busy focusing on the the speed at which he was approaching, I failed to realize that the man has his strong grip on my throat and pierced his mouth on it. His sharp teeth is was what brought me back into reality. It was a sensation I had never experienced before. Sucking the life and blood out of me, I began to think panic more and more, which grew more interest and excite to my attacker. The world around .e grew darker and darker. I truly wished I had never embarked on this journey. The crew and I were wrong, we were not alone on this ship at all… *Darkness*

After the first few crew mates have suddenly gone missing, the sailor is truly frightened. He knows that there is a unidentify being on the boat with him and his mates and after encountering him late at night, he knows that his fate has come to an end. He tries not to struggle because he knows there will be no way out of this, seeing the results of the missing mates and the logs they’ve been keeping.

connect group 2 dracula , Fahima Hossain

“I went out on the stairs, and found a room looking towards the South. The view was magnificent, and from where I stood there was every opportunity of seeing it. The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green tree tops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.

But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit.

The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!”

Here I would like to relate Lucy’s and Jonathan’s struggles or the connection they might have in different but similar situations. We know that in the early times girls were expected to marry a suitor early and they had duties to take care of which mostly included them looking after their husband and children. We see Lucy struggling to find a way out of the three proposals and she felt like a “prisoner” like Jonathan did in chapter 2. Lucy was not really a prisoner but the fact that she had to choose a man to marry and to have to reject and move on to the next is like a closed feeling trying to make a way out of it “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? … I know I would if I were free. ” chapter 5. Though Jonathan was not a prisoner either he was said to be a guest but seeing Dracula and his doors mostly locked and him being in a closed area made him feel so. These two events can be connected as per my understandings.

Lucy’s letter mentions:

“I questioned him more fully than I had ever done, with a view to making myself master of the facts of his hallucination. In my manner of doing it there was, I now see, something of cruelty. I seemed to wish to keep him to the point of his madness—a thing which I avoid with the patients as I would the mouth of hell.” chapter 5.

We can see the use of Gothic terms Lucy is using. She uses the words “hallucination” we have learned in class that that the Gothic ideas came by imaginations and hallucination is can be like feeling something that is really not reality. This happens mostly in the Gothic related books like Dracula. Is Dracula a true story? No it really is not it’s more coming from imagination and not reality.

She uses the word “cruelty” which can be related to like evil can also be related to Gothic terms.

Lucy felt restless and started to sleep walk as Mina mentioned in her journal. It seems like Lucy’s father had the same problem but I think this was something more. The restlessness and the sleep walking suddenly shows that the author has more to the story. The point of view was hidden. This seems like Lucy is going to intrude into more of the Gothic themes. “At first she did not respond; but gradually she became more and more uneasy in her sleep, moaning and sighing occasionally.” We see how Lucy was struggling in her sleep like she saw a ghost. This was like opening doors into a more Gothic theme like how the horror movies show us the first ideas of a change. ““His red eyes again! They are just the same.” She was definitely seeing something that was not a human.

Group 2 chapt 5-9 response 3

The Sailor and Dracula

This storm…it was like nothing I had ever seen. The waves were like mad men foaming at the mouth and the skies were like darkened eyes rolling back from some demonic enchanting. I curse this wretched ship. I knew this was a horrid idea, a voyage doomed from the start. Yet for the sake of my family, I press on. Curse the day poverty was created! And let heaven above protect me. It was my night to keep the ship in order as we sailed on. Walking about on this deck, like a balance beam, at least was a fun thing to keep the storm from ravaging my mind. All things are as they should be, tied and secured…but somehow I feel as if I’m being watched. “Who could be out here?” I wondered. Not a soul, and quickly dashed the thought from my mind. However from the corner of my eye I had seen a shadow that moved ever so quickly. “Maybe I truly am going mad…curse this storm, and the night’s watch. I pray the morning and her blossoms of sun come quickly.” Suddenly I heard a small hiss…and as I turned, to my horror, there was a tall, slender, serpent of a man bending over me. All of me, had frozen, and if I had strength to die of a fright I would. My eyes beheld long sharp canine teeth as of a viper. And as he held me with iron arms, he quickly bent down and bit me. “He bit me. He bit me. What devil, THE DEVIL bit me…” my mind thought. I could do nothing but cry as he drained my life from my veins. In my last heaving breath I prayed “Lord if you can hear me, take my soul.”

Brian Chan Group 1 — Connect

In the story, we see that Stoker shifts to very different sort of narrative letters about the friendship between Lucy and Mina. First we learn that the women are best friends. Lucy is married to Arthur and Mina is married to Johnathon. We see in the story that the Mina likes Lucy with “all the moods and tenses of the verb”. This means she loves Lucy in the lovey dovey way. I think this means Mina is bisexual, since she loves Lucy and is married to Johnathon. As for Lucy, she has a thing going on with men. There are about 3 men who want Lucy as their partner. She wants to marry them all, even though that is messed up in today’s world. In terms of internal struggles, I feel that Johnathon’s doesn’t mirror those of Lucy’s. Lucy faces a problem of lovers and lust while Johnathon is straight up dealing with a vampire who wants to take over the world with his own race of undead. Lucy’s subplot foreshadows the intrusion of Gothic themes into her story by giving away hints that are obvious to us. Hints such as being ill, having 2 bite marks on the neck, and glowing red eyes is a dead giveaway. (Pun intended) People don’t have glowing red eyes, even if they’re sick so we know something is up. Since Lucy has 2 bite marks on her neck and is up at night, does that mean she got rabies from an animal bite? We don’t know yet and that gives us an idea that maybe, just maybe some Gothic themes are going to occur.