#the Harkers will have their Shakespeare

[moonsun2010]

some highlights from 3 October's entry:

Top left: "With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker's hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare breast which was shown by his torn-open dress."

Top right: "Her face was ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin; from her throat trickled a thin stream of blood; her eyes were mad with terror. Then she put before her face her poor crushed hands... and from behind them came a low desolate wail".

Bottom left: "She shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her husband's breast. When she raised it, his white night-robe was stained with blood where her lips had touched, and where the thin open wound in her neck had sent forth drops."

and

"Harker was still and quiet; but over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair."

Bottom right: ""Hush! there is someone in the corridor!" I got up softly, and crossing the room, gently opened the door.

Just outside, stretched on a mattress, lay Mr. Morris, wide awake."

#my art #dracula #dracula daily #just a few doodles to get this entry out of my system because holy hell what an entry #cw blood #mina harker #mina murray #jonathan harker #quincey morris #to have all this chaos in dracula happen on my birthday makes this entry extra banger to me hahaha #cw assault #one of these is not like the others lolol #man the aftermath of this is like. chilling. like truly the low point but also the turning point? from here the count is on the run #and jon definitelt wont stop till he gets vengence lol #but i cant help but think of the seeking vengence thing in comparison with shakespeare the rape of lucrece where lucrece is telling the men #who want to avenge her by killing tarquin #that their actions are essentially useless and it wouldnt really help her #theres deeper meaning but its the about gist of it. i cant help but compare that to minas plea to jon to stay when he wanted to go and #immediately hunt down the count too like ik we readers are baying for the counts blood at this point #but its interesting to think of how this idea of vengence and honour intersects with gender stuff in the novel. esp given victorian ideals

[see-arcane]

Lucy and Jonathan

“We met some time ago a man that would just do for you, if you were not already engaged to Jonathan.”

I’ll admit, while it probably wasn’t anything more than an airy throw-in without any real barbs behind it, the inflection on Lucy’s comment followed by the idle advertisement of upcoming character, Dr. John ‘Jack’ Seward, as a higher-up-the-ladder ‘what-if’ prospect, still kind of stung to hear. I know it’ll get sanded back in later chapters because—minor spoilers—context clues will show that Mina, Lucy, and Jonathan have known/been friendly with each other since they were kids, and comments from future letters will show a more mutual regard. So it makes me wonder what the reason for the implied derision was.*

*(Beyond her possibly trying to push Jack in a way that says ‘Nope, No, I Choose Not to See the Crush, No Thank You, Hot Potato.’)

My guess? It’s a bit.

Specifically, a holdover from hers, Mina’s, and Jonathan’s earlier days when all of them had grown into adolescence, social mores started getting hammered in in earnest, and Mina and Jonathan were just starting on their official courtship.

Suddenly, they’re no longer a trio of kids enjoying each other’s company. Now it’s two young ladies—one rich, one poor—and a charming young man—also from a lower class. Considering the period, it would be only too easy for whispers to start flying behind fans and cigars that the young Mr. Harker might consider leveling up his prospects, or that the lovely Miss Westenra, a veritable Victorian Helen of Troy, might idly snatch her low-born friend’s man out from under her nose on a whim. And aren’t they such a pretty picture? Quoting their Shakespeare at each other, so intriguingly close compared to most men and their ladies’ friends…unless there are certain extra friendly circumstances involved, ha ha.

A ribald comment too many from coworkers at Hawkins’ firm and a backhanded compliment or three at the latest spring ball probably shocked Jonathan and Lucy respectively into action. Bonus points if one of the inciting remarks came from some tittering debutante, “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. You two are so alike! Such sweet bonny things, parroting the Bard at each other, prattling merrily about the latest little outing without stopping for breath. Really, Lucy, he would just do for you.”**

**(Some have wondered if Lucy was nudging Jack toward Mina due to certain similar traits they shared. Some morose aspects, intensely focused, interests in modern technology. You’ll see when you meet him. Either way, it’s another parallel to ponder here.)

Cue Mina having to endure her loved ones defending her honor from being dubbed a victim of romantic betrayal in the most vaudeville manner possible. Though she should expect no less from Theatre Nerds 1 and 2.

When they go out, Mina is permanently sandwiched between them as if they’re ducking behind a red-faced shield. Lucy brandishes a parasol to ensure they’re at least the shaft’s length apart; sometimes she’ll even open it to make sure they’re not swayed by looking upon each other, may Heaven forbid such scandalous temptation! Jonathan sits on the bench with them with his hat pulled down over his eyes for safety’s sake. At least a quarter of an hour at the start of each outing is dedicated to a back-and-forth of:

Lucy, nose up so high she’s looking more at the ceiling than him: Mr. Harker.

Jonathan, checking his pocket watch to see how long he must endure this most arduous company: Miss Westenra.

Mina, head in her hands: It’s been months.

Lucy, scoffing: Months of torment in his presence.

Jonathan, scoffing harder: Agony in hers.

Lucy, on a fainting couch: However can you stand him, Mina?

Mina, about to pull her hair out of its pins: You helped him pick out the ring, Lucy.

Jonathan, picture of woe: Tormentedly, of course.

Lucy, nodding: Agonizingly.

In short, Jonathan 🤝 Lucy:

#they think they're so funny #and they are #lucy westenra #re: dracula #dracula daily #dracula #jonathan harker #mina murray #mina harker

[t00thpasteface]

as i was standing around the barbecue joint yesterday worrying about my friend jonathan harker i started thinking like... honestly we would all benefit from having at least one blorbo from a book/play that's at least a hundred years old. not to be a shakespeare enjoyer on main but in this day and age everything is so focused on new releases, trending hashtags, teaser trailers, etc. and overall i feel like the shelf life of fiction/art is getting increasingly short for a lot of complex and overlapping reasons. i think it's good for the brain and spirit to get deeply insanely attached to something older than your great grandparents. sure you get "cultured" but you really learn a lot too. and it makes you fun at parties. this is me btw

#and for gods sake don't think i'm only talking about western literature this applies to global art and fiction #dracula daily #sketch #shebbz portrait #20000 leagues under the sea

[go-to-the-mirror]

It’s so weird to me when people are like… in fandoms of stuff like Shakespeare, or Dracula, or Moby Dick, or stuff like that, because I feel like I have this notion that old things have to be looked at with… respect, I guess, and critical analysis, and then, people are making ship names for characters and calling Jonathan Harker their poor little meow meow, and writing fanfiction for Hamlet alongside Rusty Quill Gaming, like it’s so weird

#also. it’s old #it doesnt have to be fanfiction if it’s in the public domain #dracula daily #frankenstein weekly #whale weekly #like i do it but it’s just odd to me #also fandom-ification made that one take abt the picture of dorian grey and i HATE that take #no the preface isnt abt the book it’s abt the audience reaction #do historical research before analysing stuff

[spooh52]

Do you every think about how Jonathan “Shakespeare lover” Harker could have proposed to Mina using a sonnet he wrote with Lucy “Shakespeare Lover” Westenra? Do you Ever think about how he could have taken her to the cemetery or graveyard where their parents could have been buried if their parents were buried in the same place and done the proposal after taking her on a date chaperoned by Mr. Hawkins who knows that Jonathan is going to propose so he leaves them alone so Jonathan can have some privacy to do it. Do you ever think about how it could have been sunset (or cloudy, about to rain when no one else but them would propose) and Jonathan starts out saying this sonnet to Mina who knows that this is going to end in the proposal and her excitement feeds Jonathan’s so he gets stronger with every verse, more assured with every quartet only to get to the couplet at the end and he falters on the last line. The line that goes like “Dear Wilhelmina, will you marry me?” But he gets stuck on the “will”. Her heart is pounding; his heart is aching. He knows that he has to say “you marry me” but he wants to say the “will” which makes it eleven syllables instead of ten thus, ruining the sonnet. But then, Mina who knows him, knows where this is going, has been waiting for this moment for so long. She sees him on his knee holding a ring given to Jonathan by Lucy for the purpose of proposing to Mina. She says “you marry me” in a feeble voice and Jonathan whispers “yes” in confirmation that that is the rest of the line, and yes he wants to marry her. Mina jumps up and practically shouts yes herself. Thus Mina is the one who technically proposes to Jonathan because she finished the question. They hug. Falling into the grass laughing like the young twenty something’s they are not knowing how this proposal is going to be tested. Does this cross anyone else’s minds?

#jonmina #having really bad JonMina thoughts before my next class #like I was to do homework before class but this won’t leave and I needed to get it out. #what if I wrote the sonnet…what is I drew the proposal…. #jonathan harker #mina murray #dracula #headcanon or an interpretation of text? #dracula daily #does this count as Dracula daily if it would take place before Dracula #would this count as Dracula spoilers if new readers don’t know who anybody is? #Dracula daily spoilers #just in case this counts

[thethirdromana]

My journey is all mapped out: a two-week Dracula tour of Europe

A fun fact about me is that I enjoy planning holidays that I have no intention of taking. So, if I had two free weeks and more money than I actually do, here's the Dracula-inspired journey around Europe that I might consider.

(Spoilers under the cut)

Days 1-3: Whitby

This is the opportunity to visit all the key Dracula locations, from a coastal walk to Robin Hood's Bay to gazing out over the village and the sea from Mina and Lucy's favourite spot in the graveyard of St Mary's.

In non-Dracula things, Whitby Goth Weekend happens twice a year in April and October. I recommend the Magpie Café for fish and chips.

Day 4: travel to London

Most of the long train journeys in this plan are delightful overnight sleeper services that will make you feel like you're right there with Jonathan and Mina rattling across Europe. Unfortunately, the journey from Whitby to London is not one of them.

Services are infrequent and the journey takes a solid 5 hours. But the start, where you go very very slowly through the beautiful North York Moors, isn't too bad.

Days 5-7: London

There's a whole heap of things to see in London on a theme by either Dracula or Bram Stoker:

The Lyceum Theatre, where Bram Stoker worked for 27 years

The various houses that Bram Stoker lived in

Golders Green Crematorium, where Bram Stoker's ashes can be visited by appointment

Assorted Dracula settings, such as those the Harkers visited on their London day trip

I'd also suggest a visit to Highgate Cemetery, which may have been part of the inspiration for Lucy's tomb (pop in on Karl Marx and Douglas Adams while you're there), and the British Library for general literary joy.

Exeter is a 2.5 hour train journey from London, so you could also go there, either overnight or for a speedy day-trip, if you're a completist. But personally I'd skip it and spend the time going to see the Lion King at the Lyceum or a Shakespeare play at the Globe instead.

Day 8: Paris

The characters in Dracula take a number of different routes to get across Europe, but I've gone with the route that the Crew of Light take as they go to hunt Dracula down in his home.

That means following the Man in Seat 61 guide for travelling from London to Romania by train, taking an early Eurostar to get yourself to Paris. You'll only have a few hours in Paris before the evening sleeper train, but it should be enough to visit Père Lachaise Cemetery, where Oscar Wilde is buried.

Day 9: Vienna

You'll arrive in Vienna around 10am, then have the day to spend there until another evening train. Personally, I'd spend the time visiting the Hofburg Palace and Sisi Museum; Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria was famous in the late 19th century and her tragic life story feels fitting for a Dracula tour.

Yes, this plan involves fast trains crossing multiple European countries without much of a breather. Just like they do in Dracula :)

Day 10: Cluj-Napoca

Note: I've visited all the other destinations in this guide, but never been to Romania, though I'd really like to go to Cluj in particular. So from this point on, this is based on googling, not first-hand knowledge.

Cluj, referred to by the German name of Klausenburg in Dracula, is the unofficial capital of Transylvania. Your sleeper train from Vienna should get there around 8.20am, in time to hop on a tram to the Old Town's cluster of breakfast places. I've been told that Cluj is a lively, student-y city with great nightlife and festivals.

Days 11-14: Romania

Time to explore Romania! At this point there's a decision to make. On the one hand, there's strict adherence to the settings of Dracula, in which case you'll want to head to Bistrița, or maybe even extend your journey on to Varna or Galați.

On the other hand, you could go more on vibes. In which case, hire a car to drive through the remoter parts of Transylvania, then turn south to Bran Castle, which has very little actual connection to Dracula but certainly looks the part.

-------

In the unlikely event that anyone actually does this journey off the back of this post, please let me know how it goes. I'd be so thrilled to hear about it!

#dracula daily #dracula daily spoilers

[pinkacademic]

Studying Literature

I'm starting things off with what I actually know about!

Ok, Lit girlies, let’s get it started! How in the name of Jane Austen do you actually study literature? The answer isn’t just “lol read?” but actually find your passion for it, and find connections between you and the person one, two, five hundred years ago who is feeling and struggling and trying their best alongside this same text.

This is going to be a series of three parts- Finding the Connections, Themes and Context, and Actusl Studying- starting today with connecting to literature written 100+ years before you were born because personally, that’s where I think the passion for classics is found.

How it applies to Real Life in Modern Day

If you’re struggling to connect to characters from classic literature, you need to reframe how you think about them. Consider- Clueless is just Emma, right? Therefore Emma Woodhouse (handsome, clever, and rich) is just a pretty rich girl who likes playing matchmaker and is perhaps a little bit spoiled. Similarly, 10 Things I Hate About You is the Taming of the Shrew and even features plenty of references to Shakespeare in the naming of people and places.

Let’s look at a couple of other examples of how we can find connections.

Dracula: Of course, Dracula Daily has been bringing Dracula to the forefront again, and has been bringing about modernisations in the form of calling Jonathan Harker a poor little meow meow. But why? Because he’s just so meow, that’s why Because people are finding aspects of his character relatable and amusing. He’s essentially a recent graduate being given an insane opportunity for travel, and a great degree of responisbility- how exciting! And he’s learning about other cultures and trying new food! And experiencing the horrors! How novel!

Wuthering Heights: Catherine Earnshaw- a hopeless romantic in many senses of the word: she wants the romance of true love, and she wants the romance of the wilderness surrounding the Heights. She feels trapped in the world of what everyone else wants her to be after realising that what she thought she wanted wasn’t what she wanted. Heathcliff- a man wronged in his childhood who lets his emotions become all-consuming. Would you be the same in his circumstances? Can you be sure you wouldn’t be?

The Picture of Dorian Gray: I’ll admit that I didn’t enjoy this one. I loved the premise, but I just struggled. But still, I understand Dorian being swayed and tempted as if by the devil, I understand unrequited love, I understand obsession. And, weirdly enough, I have been part of two forbidden romances… like two nickels isn’t a lot, but it is weird that it happened twice.

Let’s have a look at some Shakespeare, then, while we’re at it

The Merchant of Venice: (Did I choose this because its my fave and I’m biased? Yes!) Forbidden love! Romance! A sympathetic villain! What’s not to love? The courtroom scene is right out of Legally Blonde- featuring girlboss lawyers in disguise to boot! And Shylock’s badass monologue calls morality into question. Here’s my fave line “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

Hamlet: Yes, by god, it is LONG! Listen, 15-minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard will help you for this one. And so will the Lion King. Make it easier for yourselves, loves! BUT Hamlet is one for the Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher’s Ghost Files and Mystery Files girlies! There’s a ghost right from the start! There’s a whole slew of murders, and there’s a man losing grip of reality. Hamlet himself is a student who has lost his father and is questioning the morality of revenge. He’s such an old character that he’s been interpreted and reinterpreted a hundred thousand times, and if you go through the Royal Shakespeare Company among others, you can surely find one you can relate to.

My point here is that, though some of the characters in classics might seem distant, you can find timeless themes in these stories, and if you just push the boundaries of how you think about the characters, there is going to be something you find relatable.

Go forth and have fun with classics, while I work on the installment on Themes… no, we are not shying away from problematic literature here! Also, feel free to pop me an ask, a comment, or a dm, if you have anything you want to see!

#pink academia #pink #academia #pink academic #pink academia masterpost project #studyblr #studying #studying literature #classic literature #shakespeare

[atundratoadstool]

My I ask what it is about the lyceum theatre that makes you want people to get into it 👀

Okay! So despite what we know him for today, Bram Stoker was not actually best known as an author of horror novels for a long time. Being an author was not even his day job for most of his life (and also a of the novels he did write on the side were soapy romances). Bram Stoker was--as the one post I reblogged mentioned--superstar actor Henry Irving's manager and almost all of his working life centered around the Lyceum Theatre and the people associated with it.

I don't think that one needs to know about Bram Stoker's life in the theater in order to appreciate his novels, but there are so many things that make an awful lot more sense when you have a snapshot of his life as a theater worker. Irving resembling Dracula in appearance (and possibly temperament) is something a lot of scholars and annotators and biographers have commented on. The Lyceum also put on a blockbuster, SFX laden production of Faust in which Mephistopheles has a lot of very theatrical issues with thresholds and crosses. Shakespeare comes up an awful lot in Dracula, and there are some indications that material was cut from the book riffing on The Flying Dutchman, which doubtlessly would have connected to Stoker's fascination with an adaptation of the opera called Vanderdecken, which Irving starred in. According to Stoker's son, Noel, Jonathan Harker got his name from his father just walking up to scene designer Joseph Harker and saying "I've taken your surname for one of my characters – hope you don't mind." There's an endless amount of stuff one can come upon when you look to Stoker's professional life outside of writing vampire novels.

Also, just... a lot of stories about him and the Lyceum crew are just really adorable. Leading Lady Ellen Terry's nickname for him was "Mama" and I will never get over that.

So yeah, I hope if people want to delve even deeper into Dracula beyond the text itself that they look into Bram's life as a professional theater nerd and the theater with which he was associated.

#Bram Stoker #Dracula #Dracula Daily #Henry Irving #Dracula Daily asks

[trisscar368]

Jonathan Harker is misquoting Hamlet.

“Up to now I never quite knew what Shakespeare meant when he made Hamlet say:—

"My tablets! quick, my tablets!

'Tis meet that I put it down," etc.,

for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose. The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.”

The passage in question is from Act 1, scene 5 (line 107 to be precise).

Yea, from the table of my memory

I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,

That youth and observation copied there;

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,

Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!

O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

My tables,--meet it is I set it down,

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain

Hamlet here has just been confronted by the ghost of his father the King, and told that his mother the Queen helped his Uncle to kill his father. He’s had a very similar realization to dear Jonathan that something is deeply, unnaturally wrong. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Transylvania, and the supernatural walks the earth.

Now prior to the play beginning, Hamlet was a student at Wittenberg, which is a university town in Germany (where Martin Luther and many reformers taught, and known as the home of one Doctor Johannes Faust). The tables he’s referencing are writing tables - a rather ingenious erasable notebook. The pages were covered in wax, and you could make notes with a metal stylus and then wipe the page clean with a wet sponge. When Hamlet was written there were no graphite pencils (pensils, which are mentioned prior to that era, were a type of paintbrush) and fountain pens wouldn’t be invented till the 1700s. If you were going to write something in ink you needed someplace to sit; a writing table was portable, like Jonathan’s journal. But they were expensive to make, and by the 1890s the technology was long forgotten. [x]

So dear Jonathan is misquoting a passage about memory and note taking, saying now he understands why taking writing things down is so important. But Jonathan doesn’t have the history to understand what those “tablets” actually were. That was lost when modern technology came about. And he doesn’t understand what Hamlet is doing.

It’s easy in context to understand that the reference is to school and note taking, but you must have the whole instead of just the one line to see the picture. Hamlet is replacing his prior life with this new knowledge and commandment (avenge me!), he is rewriting himself and starting down a dangerous path. He’s been exposed to a horror and it’s changed the genre of his life.

That is very accurate. Jonathan just doesn’t understand yet. Nor does he understand how applicable the passage is to the Count - one may smile, and smile, and still be a villain. All the politeness and courtesies Dracula extends hides something dangerous.

It’s very in theme with the novel - it’s not until Mina and Jonathan begin to gather all the letters and journals, putting together the context, that they understand what they’re dealing with. Something forgotten, something lost when the world modernized.

——

Now, there is a Doyleist reason that Jonathan is misquoting this passage - reportedly a friend of Stoker’s, Henry Irving, insisted on the line being said thus during his performances of Hamlet. Irving was rather well known for misquoting Shakespeare and his performances sound … colorful, to say the least. So there is at least one reference to a man who sounds very like a certain Count slapping on a mustache to pretend to be a carriage driver :D

#dracula daily #shakespeare may be one of my obsessions lol #it is unfortunate entirely in character that I’m writing meta about this damn book >.< #dracula meta #long post

[vickyvicarious]

i thought dracula was based on irving?

Oh, I think for sure that’s a common consensus! Specifically, Henry Irving had been acting as Mephistopheles in Faust for around five years before Stoker started working on Dracula, and the titular character definitely exhibited some traits reminiscent of Irving’s depiction of the demon. There are also references to Macbeth which was apparently Irving’s favorite role, along with other Shakespeare:

...a cursed warrior-king in a desolate castle, three weird sisters, somnabulism, and blood imagery. The shipwreck in a storm and Dracula’s ability to drive the elements seem dark reflections of The Tempest; Dracula’s funereal puritanism - his black clothing, his rejection of ordinary human pleasures like food, his inveighing against mirrors and human vanity - all darkly conjure the character of Hamlet, metamorphosed into a ghost like his father. *

And then there’s the detail that in Stoker’s attempt at staging a play of his novel (which just wound up being one reading), Dracula was read by someone who may have been Whitworth Jones who apparently “was sufficiently Henry Irving-like to be cast as Mephistopheles in America some years later.” (*) So basically, not only was Stoker inspired by Irving, but there’s a good chance he hoped to see Irving act Dracula on stage one day and may have even written the role to be somewhat appealing to him. If so, the attempt failed.

However, the year 1895 was not only about when Stoker started writing Dracula and Henry Irving was knighted - it’s also the year Oscar Wilde was convicted. The final essay in my book makes a really interesting argument for the ways Wilde’s trial and reputation may have informed Stoker’s work. First of all, Stoker apparently began writing the novel about a month after Wilde was sent to jail (actually writing chapters as opposed to just being in planning stages).

In particular, Jonathan Harker’s experiences at Castle Dracula “were written . . . in the first vivid flow of inspiration.” These first five chapters read as a nightmarish meeting between Harker and Dracula, who are fictionalized projections of Stoker and Wilde. Like Stoker ... Harker is a married man, a solicitor who has not practiced law, and a younger man loyally working for a beloved older man. Dracula ... represents not so much Oscar Wilde as the complex of fears, desires, secrecies, repressions, and punishments that Wilde’s name evoked in 1985. Dracula is Wilde-as-threat, a complex cultural construction not to be confused with the historical individual Oscar Wilde. **

Basically, the essay I’m quoting here (and the one I was referencing in the tags I presume you're responding to) goes on to argue that Jonathan and Dracula both represent Oscar Wilde. Jonathan is the sympathy, whose imprisonment is described so vividly. He represents how Stoker can empathize with what Wilde is going through as an individual - and yet he also represents Stoker’s desire to return to normalcy, to distance himself from the spectre of such treatment. So Jonathan is given all the compassion throughout an imprisonment that mirrors Wilde’s: “As reported by Reynold’s News, Wilde’s own clothes had been removed - just as Harker’s clothes had been taken by Dracula. Wilde was detained for two years, Harker for two months. The rules of the prison were read out to Wilde, just as Dracula told Harker where he was forbidden to explore and to sleep.” (**) Wilde apparently also had some degree of freedom of movement inside his prison, and spent most of his comforting time in a library. At the same time though, Jonathan spends his time at Castle Dracula attempting to resist and escape Dracula and the other vampires (representing homosexuality in this reading), and his escape back home can be seen as Stoker deciding to stay in the closet, to not indulge any desire he may have to speak up for someone like Wilde.

Dracula meanwhile represents Wilde’s reputation. The homosexual tension between him and Jonathan may seem alluring at times, but it’s predatory - specifically towards ‘corrupting’ a younger man, something Wilde was accused of. The fear of someone like Wilde spreading or “infecting” others with homosexuality was a real one, and is mirrored in Dracula turning others into vampires. Especially on Jonathan’s last day in the castle, the morning after it is implied Dracula fed upon Jonathan (aka homosexual things happened and weren’t just threatened/hinted) the description of Dracula echoes common depictions of Wilde in 1895. He was “grey-haired, heavily overweight, and famously easily exhausted” (**); Dracula meanwhile had just become grey-haired, was asleep, and is described as having fuller cheeks and looking bloated. Jonathan’s revulsion at the sight of him echoes what a lot of people claimed to feel towards Wilde at the time (whether they felt that way about him as an individual or not). There are also references to Alfred Taylor, who was tried at the same time as Wilde and who supposedly procured boys for him to corrupt. Some details of his life regarded as suspicious in the trial were: how he had no servants and did his own cooking and cleaning; how his rooms were kept dark without the windows being cleaned or opened, which led them to smell bad (stuffy and hot); how his rooms were furnished beautifully but unpleasant to be in; how he had no job.

The essay goes on at length about the roles they each play, and how the theme of imprisonment is continued even in London with Renfield, and with Dracula himself being described as a kind of prisoner to his nature. At the same time, the way Jonathan and Dracula mirror one another and begin to exchange traits almost to share an identity/meet in the middle (discussed at length here) is really interesting given this reading. It could hint at Stoker, once again identifying with Jonathan, recognizing the ways remaining closeted isn’t enough to fully absolve him of his identity as homosexual. Or perhaps it shows how the terrifying reputation isn’t the whole truth of the story; Jonathan representing more of a possible reality of homosexual encounters that aren’t inherently predatory or evil. The essay doesn’t really go into Stoker using Abraham van Helsing as a self-insert, though there’s a lot you could possibly read into his role and relationships with both Dracula and Jonathan with this interpretation. (He’s so smart and learned and does research and knows all the ways Dracula is evil, comes up with how to defeat him; his mind is open to considering him in the first place though. Similarly he is full of admiration for Jonathan’s survival and bravery, and yet seems wary at times that Jonathan/Mina may become too much like Dracula.)

The essay closes by mentioned how Quincey dies on Jonathan’s lap, and he must be bleeding out onto Jonathan though the novel never explicitly says so - the first shown instance of blood connecting two men rather than a man and a woman. Quincey Harker is depicted in this essay as a sort of result of the strong bond between two good men, a kind of son of Quincey Morris as well as Jonathan (also mirroring the way Mina stained Jonathan with Dracula’s blood) - and yet, equally as much as he was born on Quincey’s deathday, so too was he born on Dracula’s deathday. So even in the happy ending the ambiguity remains about whether there is a homosexual infection of evil, a good heterosexual procreation, or a kind of miraculous ‘good’ homosexual procreation.

It gets pretty deep into the symbolism at times, especially near the end, and I wish that it talked more about Mina’s role as well as the vampire ladies but it’s a pretty interesting essay. I especially was intrigued by the idea that the early chapters of Castle Dracula represent both Oscar Wilde the individual and Oscar Wilde’s reputation as almost two separate things - the man suffering and the evil preying upon him.

.

* - “His Hour Upon The Stage”: Theatrical Adaptations of Dracula by David J. Skal

** - “A Wilde Desire Took Me”: The Homoerotic History of Dracula by Talia Schaffer

#dracula daily #dracula meta #count dracula #jonathan harker #norton notes #anonymous #replies

[romeoisalesbian]

hello beloved mutual i'm sending people asks today so are there any non-shakespeare non-goodomens characters that you firmly believe to be lesbians in the same way that romeo is one?

oh my gosh hello!

i feel like there are SO many. lesbians everywhere you look

i hoenstly don't even know my qualifications for lesbian and i feel like it changes day to day and is mostly Vibes.

ok ok i know she's married to a man technically but...mina harker. she jsut feels like a bit of a wlw to me!

fred scooby doo. I also don't really have an explanation for this one. it just feels right.

I will throw donkey kong out there for your consideration. she's butch! every butch I know would KILL to have a tie with their initials on it like that.

ALSO MS. FRIZZLE. that one is self explanatory. the l in lesbian stands for LIZARD!

final one: bobby strong from the musical urinetown. i think he's a he/him lesbian in my heart

#thank you so much for the lvoely ask :) #im sorry for taking so long to respond!!! i had to consider for a little while and was swamped with school and such #you rock beloved mutual <3 #griffin :)

[classic-lit-couples-showdown]

Current Submissions

Submissions remain open until ~10pm pst tomorrow (March 3rd); submit through this form or the ask box

Those who have secured spots on the bracket (3 or more submissions);

Elizabeth Bennett & Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Enjolras & Grantaire from Le Misérables by Victor Hugo

Victor Frankenstein & Henry Clerval from Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Faustus & Mephistopheles from Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Ishmael & Queequeg from Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Mina & Johnathan Harker from Dracula by Bram Stoker

Henry Jekyll & Gabriel Utterson from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Other possible contenders (under read more);

Offred & Moria from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Celie & Shug from The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Lestat & Marius from The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Gimli & Legolas from Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

Samwise Gamgee & Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

Gandalf & Hobbits from the works of Tolkien

Romeo & Juliet from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Clarissa Dalloway & Sally Seton from Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Anne Elliot & Frederick Wentworth from Persuasion by Jane Austen

Emma Woodhouse & George Knightley from Emma by Jane Austen

Maurice & Alec from Maurice by EM Forster

Margaret & Thornton from North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Holden Caufield & Stradletter from The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Charlie & Patrick from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Gene Forrester & Finny from A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn from the works of Mark Twain

John Yossarian & the Chaplain from Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Jane Eyre & Helen Burns from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Lionel Verney & Adrian Windsor from The Last Man by Mary Shelly

Eugenie Danglars & Louise d'Armilly from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Dante & Virgil from The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Hamlet & Horatio from Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Lizzie Hexam & Eugene Wrayburn from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

Phileas Fogg & Passepartout from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

Huckleberry Finn & Jim from the works of Mark Twain

Sherlock Holmes & John Watson from Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Lord & Lady Macbeth from Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Beatrice & Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

Gilgamesh & Enkidu from The Epic of Gilgamesh

Heathcliff & Catherine Earnshaw from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Mr. Collins & Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Victor Frankenstein & Adam ('the creation') from Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Dorian Gray & Lord Henry from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Rodion Raskolnikov & Mitya Razumikhin from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern from Hamlet by William Shakespeare

First Mate Starbuck & Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Charles Bingley & Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Eyre & Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre by Emily Brontë

Jean Valjean & Inspector Javert from Le Misérables by Victor Hugo

Victor Frankenstein & Robert Walton from Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Mary Catherine Blackwood & Constance Blackwood from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Benvolio & Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Achilles & Patroclus from The Illiad

Ajax & Ajax from The Illiad

Jack & Ralph from The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Telemachus & Theoclymenus from The Odyssey

Jo & Laurie from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Elinor Dashwood & Edward Farrars from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Charles Bingley & Jane Bennett from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jo, Amy, Meg, & Beth from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Jack Seward & Abraham van Helsing from Dracula by Bram Stoker

Henry Jekyll & Edward Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Ned Land & Conseil from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Earl of Montararat & Earl Tolloler from Iolanthe

Fogg, Passepartout, & Aouda from Around the World in Days by Jules Verne

Guy Montag & Professor Faber from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Nick Carraway & Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Napoleon & Squealer from Animal Farm by George Orwell

Antonio & Sebastian from Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Antonio & Sebastian from The Tempest by William Shakespeare

[agentem]

Completely random thought: Keanu Reeves is so interesting as a performer. People will laugh if you say he is a good actor (and I saw him try to be our friend Jonathan Harker and do Shakespeare so I will admit he can’t really do specific characters like some actors can).

But when you get into that “movie star” category where you are essentially playing a persona, you rarely see people who have a comedy persona (Bill and Ted) and an action persona (the Matrix, John Wick, Speed). There’s so many action stars who have failed to crossover into comedy.

As far as movie stars go, he’s very versatile. He’s like two-in-one.

#keanu reeves #random thoughts #John Wick 4 #jonathan harker #bill and ted #the matrix #speed #neo

[thefandomcassandra]

Bcc: Jonathan Harker (1/?): PROLOGUE

JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL

(Kept in shorthand)

30 April — As strange as it might be, going out to a foreign land to talk face-to-face with a man for whom I had found a piece of land for purchase, nothing would surprise me quite as much as my dear Mina did moments before I left for the long trip. Catching me as I readied myself, she foisted a parcel of papers bound up in twine onto me. It was almost as heavy as my carriage case, thick in width as half my forearm. The pages were varying in grade, the whole parcel a gradient of yellow shades stained with Indian ink. She seemed distressed and yet somehow resigned to her place, while relieved by my acceptance of her unusual parting gift.

"I would beg you to stay." Though what she said was not a complete statement as it stood, I found myself almost compelled to finish her thought.

"I would not."

She smiled up at me as if some joke, unknown to me, had passed between us. As I attempted to continue my preparations, she grabbed my arm and pressed a kiss to my cheek. It threw me off, my temperature peaking at her brazen gesture, but was not entirely unwelcome. Mina seemed to understand this, as she smiled at me in a devilish manner and patted my arm.

"Be as safe as you are able."

What a queer choice of words. As I am able? Would it not be enough to simply wish for my safety in full?

"As I am able?" My question, though teasing, was marked by my confusion. I simply did not understand her choice of words.

"I try my best to not ask too much of you." Her coy response made me stifle fond laughter. "Now go, so you don't miss the train. Write fondly of me in your journal. Oh and," one final thought gave her pause as she ushered me out the door, "do read that?"

I looked at the parcel as she indicated it with her chin. What about this gathering of letters and hastily written papers was so important? What of its contents demanded it be passed along just at the wire? Whatever it was, it had to be either quite dire or something diverting enough to keep my attention during the days-long ride to my patron's place in the Carpathians.

I assured her of my intent to read her parcel, though she did stress unto me that I mind the foreword and pace myself. While my first thought was to question her desire that I not become absent-minded during my trip, her stern appearance gave me pause.

Something about this whole situation, whether the long trip or my new position of active solicitor or the mysterious nature of the Count, was distressing to her. While I myself might not have such reservations, I would be remiss to ignore the worries of my fiancée. If it would bring her peace, I would even study again for my examination.

Her expression remained stiff and bothered as I bid her farewell. Even as she waved me off, she seemed somewhat distant. Perhaps she worries, even now, for my well-being. (Mem. send Mina a letter as soon as possible for comfort.)

As I settled in my train car hours later, I thought back to the parcel and Mina's queer look. It seemed so important that I read what she had given me, so I retrieved it and untied the bundle, careful as to not throw them all about. On the top of the pile was a seemingly blank sheaf which, when turned over, had Mina's careful print upon it. "What's past is prologue."

While I did not understand at the moment why that line from Shakespeare's "Tempest" was written on the top of these pages, it still felt important. So I steeled my nerves — suddenly unsure of myself as the unease of this day compounded — and began to read the next page, the foreword she mentioned.

It was a letter to me, written in longhand and stained with tears.

Read the Rest on AO3

#dracula #bcc fic #the sheepy writes fic #this is simply the prologue #im still writing #this is to gauge engagement #pls engage #anyway ill reblog this later when ive actually like finished things

[somethingsupwithdrac]

There is no word from our good friend Jonathan Harker today, which remains concerning, considering where his last message left off. I suppose we can’t do much beyond wait patiently and hope he’s well.

There is, however, the first Poe Daily! I was always That One Kid reading Poe and Shakespeare and shit when I was like ten years old. I was the only little weirdo absolutely stoked to get to the Poe story in our middle school English textbook because OMG you guys this is so good you have no idea and not quite understanding why the rest of the class was not quite so enthusiastic about it or ready to read it out loud. Two of my most prized possessions as a child were a) the hugeass Complete Works of Poe that is still sitting on my bookshelf today, and b) a copy of Annabel Lee in Poe’s script printed on parchment. Which is to say I am so excited about this.

I love The Masque of the Red Death so much. I could do some literary talk about stuff like red as the symbol of both life and death, but instead I’m just going to fangirl about how much my lil goth heart adores this one.

The description of the Red Death as a very scary, very fatal disease is great, and the mental image of victims just bleeding everywhere and there being absolutely nothing anyone could do is very effective nightmare fuel.

Prospero. Oh, Prospero, you ill-fated and terrible, terrible person. It is very typical aristocrat shit to look around at all the peasants dying and be like “sucks to be those guys, time to hole up in an abbey and have a party ‘til all of this blows over, lol!” Gathering yourself and a thousand other members of your court in a building with no way in or out once you welded yourselves in was certainly A Choice. Definitely no chance of this proving a terrible idea later. Y’all just sit there with your massive supply of provisions and let the peasants die while you distract yourselves with wine and music. It’s fine.

The rooms! The descriptions of the rooms for the ball have always been one of my favourite parts because they’re just so ‘eccentric rich guy’. Twisty maze of colour-coordinated rooms! Symbolic meaning of colour choices! Hella goth final room with a ticking clock, red windows, and black walls that I was never allowed to emulate for my own personal childhood bedroom, mom. (In retrospect, black walls in a bedroom the size of a walk-in closet would have been a terrible idea, actually.)  Love that in designing these suites they really went with ‘no normal lights for you, we’re just going to stick a brazier of fire back here, it’ll do some funky shit’, like the 19th century equivalent of a rave light show. (The red light in the black room sounds incredible, your aristocrat buddies are just cowards. ‘oh no, the black room full of red light doesn’t pass my vibe check, boo hoo’.)

The clock. The clock is almost a character itself and the idea of it being this inescapable, ominous thing that just cuts through all of the merriment and reminds the gathered rich folk that time is still passing. Reading about that sound, and how it somehow managed to echo through all the rooms at once despite the fact that was in the most distant one, I’ve always imagined a sound almost more like a heavy church bell than a normal clock chime. I don’t know why, that’s just where my brain has always gone. Quite effectively creepy and ominous.

The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre.

The Duke: avant-garde fashionista.

He had directed, in great part, the moveable embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fête, and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to the costumes of the masqueraders.

Also: theatre director

I’ve always imagined this whole section, with the descriptions of the masquerade and the costumes as a sort of Mardi Gras/Carnivale from hell tbh. The usual over-the-top, exaggerated glittery and flashy costumes and sets but with a sort of nightmare funhouse mirror effect over all, and almost a physical sort of energizing presence driving all of these wildly-costumed aristocrats dancing through the rooms with the lights flickering over them.

And then. Into the wild revels intrudes the clock and the stranger, interrupting the ‘dreams’ and their carefree partying. This stranger, who dared exceed even Prospero’s most outlandish and bizarre imaginings and brought into the masquerade the costume of a Red Death victim. (Apparently there are limits to what even the most callous and reckless of aristocrats will tolerate, and that line is somewhere around ‘dressing up like a victim of the plague you’re all pretending isn’t still ravaging the population outside these walls’.)

i LOVE THIS PART SO MUCH. The anger and offense, slowly giving way to horror and fear as the Prince demands to know which of his group did this, and the realization that all of them are accounted for, and whoever this is, they aren’t anyone he let in the abbey, so who are they and how the hell did they get in to a sealed building? The slow, inexorable march of the masked figure through the rooms toward the prince, spreading silence and paralyzing fear like a plague, and the moment when, confronted by the figure, the prince drops dead. Then the last, shocking revelation-there isn’t anyone under the cloak. The Red Death itself came for those who thought that they might use their wealth and privilege to escape the inevitable clutches of death. That final image of all of the bodies lying in heaps, still wrapped in all of their bizarre masquerade finery, with blood seeping out to pool and soak into the formerly merry halls and the fires flickering and dying as the clock chimes its final hour is one of the most incredibly powerful and striking things I have ever read.

(You’ve got to love a story of doomed aristocrats arrogantly thinking they can buy their way out of dying like poors, lol. Sorry my dudes, but no.)

#poe daily #the masque of the red death #edgar allan poe #my ramblings #probably shouldn't have gotten started because i WILL babble forever about this shit #lol sorry prospero u dead #dracula daily #not dracula daily

[iamnmbr3]

Great God! merciful God! Let me be calm, for out of that way lies madness indeed. I begin to get new lights on certain things which have puzzled me. Up to now I never quite knew what Shakespeare meant when he made Hamlet say:—

"My tablets! quick, my tablets! 'Tis meet that I put it down," etc.,

for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose. The habit of entering accurately must help to soothe me.

In which Jonathan Harker spells out that no, he’s not oblivious, he’s just been coping as best he can and trying to remain calm and using the diary for that purpose. 

Also now im gonna go cry forever. 

#dracula daily #Dracula