Hope in the inevitability of change

The following analysis is an exploration of how social change is inevitable despite Victorian society’s desperate attempts to enforce its morals and gender code. I will refer to Bram Stoker’s Dracula as the primary text of my analysis of the themes of homoeroticism and sexual aggression that clearly outline the fears of Victorian society. In my analysis of Dracula I will relate to the The Castle of Otranto and Carmilla and I will highlight the similarities between the texts. In exploring the themes mentioned, I will highlight the threat of the feminist movement and gender roles that went against the social norms of a patriarchal society that wasn’t ready to concede to change.

     Victorian society was repulsed at the thought of same sex eroticism and viewed sex as necessary solely for reproduction purposes. In Dracula homosexual references are constantly made throughout the text “[t]his man belongs to me” (Stoker 43), but seem to be deflected to heterosexual encounters as “only through women may men touch” (Craft 448). I think Stoker was hiding homosexual references within the text as he himself was part of the later stages of Victorian society and feared he would be publicly slandered for such a publication or worse- jailed. “Dracula’s daughters offer Harker a feminine form but a masculine penetration” (Craft 446) where “the hard dents of the two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there” (Stoker 43), suggesting an “explicit representation of a male’s desire to be penetrated” (Craft 447).

     This homoerotic undertone can also be observed within the text of Carmilla. Carmilla “would press me more closely in her trembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek” (Ryan 89). Laura experiences homosexual encounters which she enjoyed but also disgusted her: “I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust” (90), just as Jonathon did in ‘Dracula’ in his encounter with the weird sisters: “[t]here was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal” (Stoker 42).

     These gothic horror tales highlight all that was disdained by Victorian society and just as we see homoerotic undercurrents in these texts, we can also see incestuous relations. Two of the weird sisters in Dracula “were dark and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes” (42), suggesting they may be Dracula’s sisters or relations. In Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, we are subject to the same incestuous references. Manfred offers himself to Isabella in a desperate attempt to spawn a new heir to the thrown after the demise of his son who was supposed to marry Isabella. She is disgusted by the incestuous nature of the offer: “What do I hear! You, my lord! You! My father-in-law! The father of Conrad” (Walpole 34). Both texts reveal recurring incestuous references throughout and both also show strong representations of the moral code enforced through the sacred. Isabella “knew even Manfred’s violence would not dare to profane the sacredness of the place” (35), referring to the church. Similarly in ‘Dracula’ when the Count sees the crucifix, “[i]t made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there” (Stoker 31).

          Victorian society was very constraining on its people suppressing anything that was different. The dominant forces in society tried desperately to enforce its moral code but times are always changing and Dracula clearly shows this. What appealed to me the most were the strictly enforced gender codes and the initial struggles of the feminist movement. The ‘new woman’ represented as sexually aggressive vampires “indirectly acknowledges woman’s dangerous potential” in society (Craft 452). I feel this is related to a patriarchal society’s fears of a strengthening feminist movement and this ‘new woman’ may be something terrible. “The sexualisation of Lucy, metamorphosing woman’s ‘sweetness’ to ‘adamantine, heartless cruelty, and [her] purity to voluptuous wantonness” (452) horrified Victorian audiences as it represents a sexually aggressive woman which completely goes against gender roles and it magnified the fear of the ‘new woman.’ This is symbolic of the social change that was strong in Victorian times through the nascent feminist movement. Women were becoming more outspoken and gaining more recognition in society.

     Dracula highlights society’s attempts to stamp out this change illustrated in the punishment of Lucy who suffers a ferocious death “for her transgression of Van Helsing’s gender code” (455). In the moment of Lucy’s death Arthur seems to represent society’s “untrembling arm..... driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it” (Stoker 192). His arm is untrembling and his face is set as he is serving a higher purpose, to rid Lucy of sin as “[a] woman is better still than mobile, better dead than sexual” (Craft 455). However change is inevitable and we see this in the conclusion where Little Quincey goes on to represent homoeroticism and the struggles of the feminist movement being partially conceived in the veins of Lucy who passed the blood to Dracula who in turn made Mina drink his blood: “[h]is bundle of names links all our little band of men together” (Stoker 326).

     Similarly I feel Carmilla represents the initial steps of the feminist movement: “[s]he was a person of consequence” (Ryan 81). The first wave of the feminist movement began in the 18^th century continuing on to the early 20^th century. Carmilla was written in 1872 in the later stages of this period. The novel shows how Carmilla exerts power over Laura immediately influencing her life: “[s]he interested and won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging” (87). Laura is left changed long after Carmilla is gone: “to this hour the image of Carmilla returns to memory” (137). I think this shows how one push is needed for a domino effect to take place in society. This story describes how one person cannot change society but they can leave a crack in its foundations that will widen and break tearing down social barriers and bringing about social change. Society changes over a few generations and we see the beginning of this change in the conclusion of the novel.

     Laura cannot forget about Carmilla. I think she herself is becoming a vampire and is set to carry on what Carmilla started: “[t]hat spectre visits living people in their slumbers; they die, and almost invariably, in the grave, develop into vampires” (137). She doesn’t fulfil her father’s plans of an arranged marriage which is a big shock for that era. I feel this symbolises going against the grain and the first movement against male dominance. In the execution of Carmilla we see the utmost desperate attempt by society to stamp out social change: “a sharp stake driven through the heart .....the head was struck off .....the body and head were.....reduced to ashes, which were thrown upon the river” (134). When someone breaks social norms there is a negative reaction to it and I think the execution represents that reaction where male dominance felt threatened by feminism and lesbian sexuality. But Carmilla has made an impact on society and her legacy lives on: “I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing-room door” (137).

     In conclusion I feel each text I’ve explored was closely linked in the evaluation of the themes I highlighted. Homoeroticism and sexual aggression were prevalent throughout all three texts. It seems that these themes are very much related to the lives of the authors, how they perceive Victorian society and its social norms. In Stoker’s Dracula there is an underlying homoerotic tone which is said to be attributed to Stokers good friend Oscar Wilde who was imprisoned in England for homosexual activities. It seems as if by writing about the threats to Victorian society, Stoker is actually highlighting the social constraints that limit the people’s freedom and how they wish to express themselves. Horace Walpole had a strong connection to Victorian society being a politician and son of first British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole. His sexuality was questioned. Some biographers have perceived him as asexual. In this way, the homoerotic undercurrents and incestuous relations in The Castle of Otranto may represent society’s intolerance for difference. Le Fanu studied both law and journalism so he had a good understanding of society. He was aware of current issues and social deviance. Le Fanu was able to use his professional life in addressing societal problems and constraints in Victorian society in Carmilla. These texts were representative of a patriarchal Victorian society desperate to enforce its moral code in the face of change but in every society social norms are subject to change. We can see hope among the gory details of these gothic novels in knowing that no matter how constraining a society is, the people always have the power to change it.

Works Cited

Craft, Christopher. "Kiss Me with Those Red Lips": Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Critical ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 446-455. Print.

Ryan, Alan. The Penguin Book of Vampire Stories. Penguin Books, 1987. 81-137 Print.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Critical ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 31-326. Print.

Walpole, Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 2004. 34-35. Print.

Mere Cogs In A Machine

William Faulkner returned to Oxford, Mississippi in 1919 after World War I when America was changing drastically. He experienced the great expansion of the 1920’s after the war when America began dealing with its own problems expanding industries in all directions. Cars were introduced on a large scale and were affordable to working class citizens. Wages were higher than ever and technology allowed people to improve their lives being able to travel places they only heard of before. Roads were improved all over with the introduction of cars. Many new businesses opened along these roads and people realized they could now easily live in the country and travel by car to their city jobs. America was improving and expanding at a rapid rate. Society became increasingly more systematic and many people had less time for their families or some just chose work as their primary concern.

     Then Wall Street crashed along with many other factors which caused the Great Depression of 1929. Social unrest quickly spread throughout America. Businesses shut down and unemployment rose everywhere. Faulkner published As I Lay Dying in 1930 a year into the Great Depression. He began writing it on October 24, 1929, the day after the American stock market crashed (“Novel Summaries Analysis”). I feel the story has a deep connection to the dramatic changes the South faced going from a time of great prosperity to immense poverty. In my exploration of the text I will look at the relevance of the time it was published and how this is portrayed through the lives of the characters. I will explore the theme of communication. In analysing the theme of communication I will chiefly focus on the relationship between Darl and Jewel.

     The family seem to represent all poor white farming families in the South. Their primary concern is working the land. They seem to put the family assets ahead of the family itself. It seems Cash’s tools are more important than their dead mother in the coffin in the flooding scene: “[w]e stand above him, holding the plane, the saw, the hammer, the square, the rule, the chalk-line” (Faulkner 1918). In the South farming life was restrictive and demanding on both men and women even before the Great Depression: “[t]he US Agricultural sector had been in recession for many more years” (Pettinger). A lot of farmers lived on an income of a little over a hundred dollars often having to supply themselves both farm labour and basic necessities: “a farmer’s life during the 1920s involved a constant struggle for survival” (“Novel Summaries Analysis”). This is evident in the text with all the sons’ assigned specific tasks on the farm. The story depicts a Southern families fight for survival really well when we see the men debating whether Darl and Jewel should take a three dollar job even as they know their mother is on the verge of dying: “[y]ou’d better make up your mind soon, so we can get there and get a load on before dark” (Faulkner 1865).

     It seems that the farm is the only concern of the family. There is no emotional connection that bonds any two family members together. This lack of communication spawns from Anse and Addie’s relationship from the start. He was a farmer who needed help running his farm so he proposed to Addie. We can make out from the text that they never even connected when they first met when Addie felt that the love Anse mentioned was “just a shape to fill a lack” (1921). A lot of women got married at the time on the basis that the man had wealth: “[t]hey tell me you’ve got a house and a good farm” (1920). Addie sees society as pushing her into a life she doesn’t want as she sees that her children are just objects that Anse wanted to help him with the farm and she was just the tool used to deliver them: “I knew that living was terrible and that this was the answer to it” (1921). She did not fulfil her maternal role as a loving mother would: “Cora Tull would tell me I was not a true mother” (1922) as she gave no extra attention beyond what was necessary: “I refused my breast to Cash and Darl after their time was up” (1922).

     It seems bad parenting and a lack of emotional support has caused extensive communication problems in the text and this is most evident in the relationship between Darl and Jewel. In Addie’s passage which Faulkner interestingly includes after her death, we see the blood as a representation of division in the family. From this section we can see conflicting relations between family members such as Darl and Jewel instilled through birth. It seems Addie is rebelling against a systematic suppressive society that constrains her to the one role of being a mother of kids she doesn’t want. Her negative perception of life causes her to be emotionless towards her first born children Cash and Darl but when she had Jewel, it seems the “wild blood boiled away and the sound of it ceased” (1923).

     Addie becomes calm but I feel she has passed her anger and negativity to Jewel. It seems she has given up and accepted the maternal role society has bestowed upon her: “[t]hen there was only the milk, warm and calm, and I lying in the slow silence, getting ready to clean my house” (1923). This is very symbolic of a time when women had no choice but to accept what was offered to them by a patriarchal society: “[f]or women, family is particularly painful, since it essentially assigns child-bearing as their sole purpose in life” (“shmoop gamma”). Resistance was futile especially in the poverty stricken times of The Great Depression. And so she became a mother long after conceiving her first born. This is symbolic of division in the family from its beginning seen through the blood that boiled away to leave Anse with Vardaman to replace the child Addie robbed from him: “[a]nd now he has three children that are his and not mine” (Faulkner 1923).

     Cash seems to represent the systematic society which had grabbed hold of America. Consumerism had one focus-work. In one passage by Cash he describes his work. He numbers thirteen points as to why he “made it on the bevel” (1888). It seems work takes up all his time with the “Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. of the adze” (1860) driving Jewel crazy: “[w]ith Cash all day long right under the window, hammering and sawing at that-” (1865). Even though Jewel himself is fully occupied with work too, his impatience of listening to Cash work symbolizes peoples disdain for a growing consumerist society and how an over enthusiastic attitude towards consumerism has led to The Great Depression causing farming families like the Bundrens to work even harder in order to survive: “a farm family’s land, labor, livestock, and equipment were its only assets” (“Novel Summaries Analysis”).

     The most prevalent communication problems can be seen between Jewel and Darl: “‘will you do that, Jewel?’ Jewel watches me, hard” (Faulkner 1911). Darl seems to know everything. He can tell what people are thinking by looking at them. He even knows of Addie’s feelings towards her children knowing that she did not consider him to be her son even though he loved her. He also seems to know that she passed her negativity to Jewel which is why Jewel has no regard for her even though he is her favourite: “I cannot love my mother because I have no mother. Jewel’s mother is a horse” (1893). Darl and Jewel’s feelings towards each other are intense especially in the flooding scene and the burning barn scene. Jewel overreacts to everything Darl does when they are trying to get the wagon across the river as Jewel: “looks back at me, his face suffused with fury and despair. ‘Goddamn you. Goddamn you.’” (1894) When the barn is set alight Jewel knows it was Darl and his quite reaction to it is frightening giving a sense of foreboding for bad things to come as he just stares at Darl: “he gives me across his shoulder a single glare furious and brief” (1939). Sure enough Jewel gets his revenge by organising for Darl to be seized and taken away to a mental institution. Jewel is shouting: “[k]ill him. Kill the son of a bitch” (1946). This is also symbolic of Jewel’s feelings towards his mother referring to her as a bitch. It reiterates the idea that this is a divided family in a selfish consumerist society.

     The flooding catastrophe is born out of the father’s selfishness. What he wants is new teeth and a new wife. However, he pretends it is because he made a promise to Addie that he would bury her in Jefferson. Even though he made this promise, it would have been acceptable to break it for the sake of the family but he goes through with it even with the risk of losing everything in the flood because he has his own selfish reasons for going to Jefferson. I feel Jefferson represents the growing consumerist towns in America where things were available to people that they didn’t need. I feel the family’s journey to Jefferson symbolizes the effects of the Great Depression as the family lose many of their assets in the process of seeking luxuries: “the purchases of luxuries like false teeth and bananas were a big deal” (“Novel Summaries Analysis”). It was aggressive obsession for material wealth that caused the stock market to crash so hard. People lost sight of family and were happy if they got what they wanted even if it was detrimental to those they were supposed to care for. Anse represents this selfish kind of person dragging his whole family on a torturous journey to fulfil his wants: “kind of hangdog and proud, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at us” (Faulkner 1955).

     In conclusion the time of the text’s publication is definitely relevant to the ideas presented by Faulkner. I feel a lot of the text relates to the suppressive time of The Great Depression especially for farm families who were hit harder than most people. The selfish nature of a consumerist society is expressed through the character Anse who seeks luxuries that are not needed especially in times when it is so tight for the family to get by as Anse said himself (1907). Communication problems are born out of bad parenting in Addie’s refusal to properly play the role of a mother and Anse’ selfish attitude and obsession with material objects which leads to disaster for the family. We see a lack of communication between all family members but especially between Darl and Jewel. Their relationship is symbolic of many families during this period in America when farming families had so little time outside of work that there was no room for bonding or the family matters that should have mattered most. William Faulkner was a very inventive writer and being from the South himself and experiencing American life at the time of The Great Depression he was able to encapsulate brilliantly the suppressed life of working families and what they had to endure in order to get by in an unsympathetic consumerist society.

Works Cited

“As I Lay Dying Historical Perrspective.” Novel Summaries Analysis. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.novelexplorer.com/as-i-lay-dying/historical-perspective-5/>.

“As I Lay Dying Theme of Family.” Shmoop gamma. Shmoop University, Inc., 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http:/www.shmoop.com/as-i-lay-dying/family-theme.html>.

Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying in The Norton Anthology American Literature. 7^th. D. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 1911-1918. Print.

Pettinger, Tejvan. “Causes Of Great Depression.” Economics Help Helping To Simplify Economics. Economics Blog, 2011. Web. 9 May 2011. <http://www.econ.economichelp.org/2008/10/causes-of-great-depression.html>.