Antonio Cruz-Ventura

English 102

Professor Batty

November 15, 2017

Jonathans Nightmare

Monsters scare us not only because they are scary looking, but also the way they are able

to put fear into peoples minds. In the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the character Dracula is a

monster that puts fear in humans by manipulating their minds. Bram Stokers true masterpiece is

a carefully interlaced web of of journal and diary entries, letters and newspaper reports, that

follows the actions of a group of ordinary people thrust into an extraordinary situation

(Bibliographical note iii). Abraham (Bram) Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin, Ireland but

lived most of his life in London, England; the main setting of his most memorable novel Dracula

(St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers). The novel took several years for Stoker to

finish and publish and Stoker's Dracula is considered to be an incarnation of pure evil, Dracula

is one of the scariest monsters that the mind is capable of conjuring up because of the fear he

provokes through his appearance, actions and the threat and trauma that comes with his presence.

Dracula lives in Transylvania and his intention is to buy houses in England that will

allow him hideouts to infiltrate the London crowd. But before we know this theres a character

named Jonathan Harker who travels long to meet the count and do necessary paperwork for the

houses that Dracula is trying to buy. On his journey to transylvania, he encounters an old lady

telling him that its St. Georges Day when all the evil things in the world will have full sway,

(Stoker 4). She tells him to stay and not go, she elicits a warning to Jonathan but he says he must

go and the lady presses a crucifix on him. The old woman warning Jonathan is the first of a
 Cruz-Ventura 1

series of events that evoke much fear in the man, and from the behavior of the townspeople he

meets it is clear that they have come to fear Dracula a great deal: when Jonathan prepares to

leave, the crowd all made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers, a charm to guard him

against the evil (Stoker 5).

At first meeting, Dracula he is introduced as count Dracula, someone that looks like a

rational human being but in reality is a terrifying monster that can transform into a blood-sucking

bat. Dracula is so frightening to the human mind because in initial appearance he is not strikingly

scary. In fact, he is quite the opposite and he resembles a tall old man, clean shaven save for a

long white mustache, almost feeble in appearance; gentle, and not at all of a frightening nature

(Stoker 13). This can be terrifying to the mind psychologically over time because the person is

not who or what they appear. In Draculas first encounter with Jonathan Harker, the Counts

courteous welcome seemed to dissipate all doubts and fears, but after supper, a cigar and a

further examination of the Counts appearance Harker remarks, I am in a sea of wonders. I

doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul, he is astonished

and not sure what to make of this strange looking man that has invited him to the dark of the

black forest.

As time passes in Transylvania, Jonathan becomes more fearful of the Count because of

actions he makes. At first he is made uneasy by the Counts never eating or drinking and quick

coming and going about the castle; being gone in the mornings, leaving abruptly at dawn, and

always being present in the night hours. However, it is not long before unease turns to outright

fear. Jonathan upon waking from a fairly sleepless night goes to shave when the count places a

sudden hand on his shoulder without making a noise while entering the room or casting a

reflection in the mirror. This startles Jonathan who cuts his neck and the mere sight of blood
 Cruz-Ventura 2

causes the counts eyes to blaze with a demoniac fury, and grabbing at Jonathans neck catches

hold of the crucifix around it that made an instant change in him, he calmed down and threw

the mirror out the window (Stoker 21). His rash action along with the lack of appearance in the

mirror cause immense fear to Mr. Harker, seeing the count be so demonic causes great distress in

him and makes him realize that he is a prisoner in the castle. Shortly after this incident, Jonathan

catches the count making his bed which confirms what he had thought all along; that there are no

servants in the house and he is truly alone and helpless. Harker says he feels like he is being

deceived, like a baby, by my own fears, and later wonders if any dream could be more terrible

than the unnatural, horrible net of gloom and mystery which seemed closing around, Jonathan

eventually escapes but is forever tortured by his experience with the count (Stoker 23). Dracula

is capable of provoking great fear by his appearance and his actions because he is shrouded in

this mystery.

Fear of the unknown is heavily laden throughout the novel. Dracula is distinguished as a

truly terrifying being by what he is capable of and the utter unknown that surrounds him.

Jonathan shortly before he makes his escape witnesses the count climbing head first down the

side of the castle like a lizard. He is stricken by the sight and can not comprehend how a man is

capable of this and remarks to himself, what manner of man is this, or what manner of creature

is it in the semblance of man? I feel the dread of this horrible place overpowering me; I am in

fear-in awful fear- and there is no escape. I am encompassed by the fears that I dare not think

of, Jonathan is so shaken up and scared that he can not even think of the unknown fears that lie

ahead of him (Stoker 29). Stokers novel is also full of another fear brought on by Dracula and

that fear is xenophobia. As defined by Merriam-Websters Dictionary and Thesaurus xenophobia

is fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of what is strange or foreign (Merriam-Webster

 Cruz-Ventura 3

1252). Xenophobia is ridden through the novel as fear of Dracula comes not just from who he is

but where he comes from. As Christina Metzdorf says in Bram Stokers Dracula - A Foreign

Threat to the British Empire, corruption of society and the individual is personified by Dracula;

he embodies Victorian anxieties of a collapse of the Empire, in the time of publication of

Dracula, England was in a state of terror about possible social and cultural decline (Metzdorf 4).

This made Dracula the novel not only frightening to the characters in the novel but to the readers

as well.

Through the course of the novel, trauma is a great result of the fear caused by Dracula.

Jonathan Harker remarks at the end of the novel as Jamil Khader points out in Un/speakability

and Radical otherness: The Ethics of Trauma in Bram Stokers Dracula that castle Dracula is the

old ground which was, and is, to us full of vivid and terrible memories, This passage shows

that the traumatic core of the vampiric attack lines the novel entirely, and provides a rethinking

of the significance of trauma and its effect on memory in the novel (Khader 2). Khader also

makes a claim that by shifting focus while evaluating the novel in a psychoanalytic light to the

effects of trauma allows us to consider the representation of the vampire as a radically inhuman

Other, whose motives and desires cannot be accounted for within the limits of human discourse

and thought.(Khader 4). While dealing with the trauma the characters have undergone it is near

impossible to grasp the whole of the situation as the narrative is fragmented. Even if it were not

something as simple as Jonathan viewing Dracula descending headlong down the castle wall can

not have its full trauma realized because it is being recorded so nearly after happening and

Harker even remarks about terrors he dare not think of (Stoker 29). Terror and trauma underline

the novel and showcase the horror that Dracula places the characters and especially Jonathan

through.
 Cruz-Ventura 4

The novel does however present quite a paradox when dealing with Count Dracula and

Jonathan. The conundrum comes from the actual origin of the novel itself and is one of the most

trauma causing experiences Jonathan must endure. According to St. James Guide to Horror,

Ghost & Gothic Writers biography on Bram Stoker, Bram Stoker first dreamt the story and In

the dream which provided the seed from which the story grew the "king-vampire" appeared only

at the end, interrupting the female vampires who posed a more immediate threat to the dreamer--

as they do, in the text, to Jonathan Harker, through Jonathans nightmare the count not only

saves Jonathan Harker but also reveals that he is capable of love. Jonathan is attacked in a

sensual dream like molestation by three beautiful vampire women and only kept alive by the

returning count who casts the women away but not before saying yes, I too can love; you

yourselves know it from the past, proving that there is warmth to his cold being. The paradox is

made because Jonathan owes his life to the count and has now witnessed the soft side of him yet

will return to hunt and kill Dracula. The argument could very well be made that Dracula is not

an incarnation of pure evil. but someone who has the capacity to love and be loved. However,

when looking at the novel in a holistic sense, the argument is simply invalid.

Dracula not only causes all this torment to Jonathan but also causes the deaths of Lucy

Westerna, Renfield and Quincey Morris. He torments Mina Harker and leaves her emotionally

scarred for the rest of her life, and the trauma he causes Jonathan will never be forgotten and no

soul will ever believe the tale. As Van Helsing puts it We want no proofs, we ask none to

believe us, for if they did ask they would have no authentic documents to prove it (Stoker .

Count Dracula is a being that is a true incarnation of pure evil and one of the scariest monsters a

mind can conjure up in a nightmare and it is apparent through the fear he manifests from his

deceiving appearance, his uncanny actions, and the trauma caused in the wake of his presence.
 Cruz-Ventura 5

Works Cited

Bibliographical Note. Dracula. Dover Thrift Editions, 2000.

 Cruz-Ventura 6

"Bram Stoker." St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, Gale, 1998. Biography in

Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K2409000352/BIC1?u=lavc_main&xid=e33923a9.

Accessed 16 Nov. 2017.

Khader, Jamil. "Un/Speakability and Radical Otherness: The Ethics of Trauma in Bram Stoker's

"Dracula.." College Literature, vol. 39, no. 2, Spring2012, p. 73. EBSCOhost,

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&

AN=7 3913890&site=eds-live.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003.

Metzdorf, Christina Sissy. Bram Stokers Dracula - A Foreign Threat to the British Empire.

Master of Education, Prof. Sibylle Baumbach, 30 Aug. 2012.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Dover Publications, 2000.