I was surprised reading Dracula how emotional all the men were. Like I’m reading a Victorian novel, expecting stoic or emotionally stunted men, and these dudes are like crying to each other and telling them how much they mean to one another. It was kinda awesome lol
we have very strange notions about what men were like/what was socially acceptable for men and women to behave like in the past because of our own social norms today
I know right? Van Helsing's telling them he loves them, like *really* loves them, all the time. I was amazed. I wasn't sure if that was just this group of friends or if it was commonplace for men at the time. There is a bit of stunted masculinity I love though when, iirc, Johnathan is about to start crying and breaking down that his wife has been attacked by Dracula and is probably going to die and Quincy just puts his hand on Jonathan's shoulder and leaves the room. It's played like Quincy is a bloody decent fellow for removing himself before Johnathan can embarrass himself with tears 😆
I'm late to the game with this but I think its still important to put it out there that the reason young boys were historically dressed in skirts (not girl's clothes, just skirts) was that its easier to change dirty nappies in skirts than in pants. The old chestnut about dressing boys as girls in order to fool the fairies is relatively recent retconning (with an unhealthy dose of Freud) by male historians who never had to change a nappy in their lives. There have always been gender markers in children's dress even if we no longer recognize them. For example, boys had their hair parted on the side and girls had theirs parted down the middle. You will find that the age that boys were traditionally put in pants corresponds pretty closely to the age (in that era) when children completed toilet training.
Nappies were cloth back then, too. I worked in a developing country some years back and my counterpart advised me - never pick up a child if you were dressed up because cloth diapers were still used and they often leak
This is true in most places. In Ireland specifically (specifically the areas outside Dublin's direct influence) boys would commonly wear skirts until puberty. The belief that fairies would steal children and replace them with a 'changeling' - which is almost certainly an attempt to explain Autism - was a widely held belief even well into the 20th century. Boys, while not more likely to be Autistic, are often less able to mask their Autistic traits, so it can appear that there are more of them. If you believe that boys are more likely to become 'changelings' then it makes a certain sense to believe that they need to be disguised as girls in order to protect them until they're old enough that they can either defend themselves or the fairies lose interest in them.
Back in the 30s here in the US my father and uncle were in skirts as toddlers. I remember finding a photograph of them and wondering why a picture of two little girls was in his childhood papers.
Bring back romantic friendships after the pandemic is over, pls. We gotta use the internet power to bring back the best trends. To be fair, Bosie ruined it by being a spoiled child and a messy lover that forgot both his coat and a romantic letter from Oscar in a brothel, where his father acquired enough evidence to successfully have Oscar sentenced to jail. I may or may not be partial to Oscar because I love "The Canterville Ghost" and have read 10% of "De Profundis". But seriously, Bosie was quite reckless, although suing his father was an inconsequential move from Oscar. He could've fled when his friends told him to, but decided to stay and try to sue for libel. Biggest mistake of his life.
@@ChestersonJack not really because the whole point of romantic friendships is to fly under the radar (or possibly for some people just not being gay?) whereas queerplatonic relationships overtly say that you’re queer
I feel like it's making more of a comback at least for women. The amount of women I know who aren't gay but have very gay themed friendships is super high!
One thing to remember that Dracula in the novel (and Vampires in 19th century literature in general) didn't actually burn in the sunlight but it weakened their powers, that didn't come until much later with F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu and later popularized by Hollywood starting with "Son of Dracula" that first outright shows it.
I have a theory... Bear with me on this: The vampire is invulnerable during the hours of darkness; during the hours of daylight, his powers are, as you say, weakened -- he becomes mortal, and may be killed. Perhaps Henrik Galeen misinterpreted this aspect of the myth -- something lost in translation from English to German, maybe (?) -- and assumed that it was the sunlight itself that killed the vampire.
@@willmfrank In the original novel, it was very clear that Dracula can walk in the daylight but he was severally weakened and it's especially the original reason why Harker and Quincey Morris was able to kill him easily because the sun was still present but it was going down though. Of course I will agree that in night time though none of them would have stood a chance against Dracula when he's most at his strongest and most invulnerable where conventional firearms and normal bladed weapons cannot harm him so it makes sense that only Arcane and Divine weaponry like Belmont's Vampire Killer whip or sacred bullets for example is able to harm Dracula at this point.
Fun fact: The concept of The sexy gentleman vampire was introduced by William Polidori, Lord Byron's doctor and "close friend", in his book The Vampyre Extra fun fact: He wrote The Vampyre in Geneva, at The same time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein
@@blackspring3207thank you!!! Came to say this....we had a bunch of talented literary people all writing vampire and monster novels around the same time as a result of the challenge put forth to them by their hosts, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley ('nee Wollestonecraft) at a weekend house party. Awesome results ensued ❤
Bram Stoker’s mother, Charlotte Thornton, came from Sligo, a town in the west of Ireland. In 1832, when she was young, a cholera epidemic hit the town, killing thousands. She wrote her recollections of the epidemic years later. Whilst writing Dracula, Bram Stoker had her mother have the writings typed up and sent to him. Her recollections included people being buried before being fully dead to stop the spread of the disease. Another possible inspiration came from the church his mother attended as a child. The Church of St. Mary and John the Baptist in Sligo. The clay in the churchyard apparently caused bodies not to decompose properly due to the moisture content and chemical makeup of the soil. There was stories or coffins being opened and the body looking as if it had been buried recently despite being underground for many years. It’s a phenomenon called adipocere, where the body basically turns to soap. A body could look perfectly lifelike until touched, when it becomes apparent that it is a very soft, waxy substance. Stoker’s great grand nephew visited recently to lay a wreath on the family tomb and unveil a plaque.
As a kid, what terrified me about vampires was the concept of becoming once bitten, for lack of a better term, an immortal addict. I didn't pick up on the homophobic/xenophobic/fear of disease implications until I was older.
@BK Beatty We can’t really define what the definitive rules of vampirism are, because we don’t have a definition of Vampirism. That is just the Vampire The Masquerade way of becoming a vampire
My favorite aspect of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is that Mina Harker is the hero. She has mastered shorthand and typing, the most advanced data science of the time and uses these to collect the information the feckless men have on Dracula so they can figure out a way to hunt him. After Dracula bites Mina, she realizes that although Dracula can get inside her mind, likewise can she get inside his and they use this to defeat him. Naturally this didn’t make it into any of the movie adaptations although Winona Ryder came closest.
The first ‘sexy’ vampire was Lord Ruthven, based on Lord Byron, in John Polidori’s The Vampyre. Publish in 1819, it predates both Dracula and Carmilla by more than fifty years.
During my literature class I loved reading this book from different perspectives. I did a class 'reading' where Count Dracula was a representation of the upper class and aristocracy and how he feasts on the lower class people, entrancing them to find his way of life as not only achievable but also better. The price of eternal life and the Count's wealth is the literal blood of those in a lower class.
One other small quibble: Stoker was Irish. He wouldn't have painted Harker as himself. He might well have used Harker to satirize everything he hated about the Victorian Normano - Saxons (the "English" look down on the descendants of the Angles) but he wouldn't have identified himself with them. Likewise, you can see his disdain for the Dutch in Van Helsing - possessed of deep roots but impotent to employ them (see Wlliam of Orange and Ulster.)
That's a nice fire surround; especially the stuff that looks like malachite. "They were romantic friends; a practice for matrimony..." "She never married."
thank u for mentioning the antisemitism and anti rroma sentiment in dracula!! ppl just gloss riiiiiiight over it most of the time. i'm really glad i found yr channel!!
I was about to comment the same thing!! So many people (mostly Americans, probably as a result of our own specific problems, namely anti-Black racism) lump the antisemitism and anti-Roma racism in with a general “racism bad” statement, ignoring the unique ways that prejudice towards Jewish and Roma people manifests worldwide
Kaz is Jewish and has also discussed how non-Jewish people in the queer community gloss over the antisemitism of many now-idolized queer historical figures. The "Jews drink Christian blood" thing is a major contributor to all the pogroms of the 19th century and the Holocaust
"He was not the first popular vampire, We cannot forget our lesbian queen, Carmilla." Don't get me wrong, lesbians rule, but also it's hilarious that you left out The Vampyre given how much Polidori was overshadowed during his lifetime
Good point!! That said, The Vampyre might've been neglected here because it was published prior to the Victorian era (1819), whereas Carmilla was published in the approximate middle of it (1872). Carmilla was also published much closer to the date of publication for Dracula (1897), so perhaps that also played into it? I must admit though, I love how Polidori wrote The Vampyre for the same contest that gave us Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Lord Byron honestly didn't know what he was doing when we created that contest and the cultural gems that would be produced as a result (even though I have yet to read The Vampyre; it's on my [never-ending] list though!).
@@kayzmavc4596 oh I never even considered that, thanks for clarifying!!! Also yea, I'm gonna be forever grateful for that contest, Frankenstein was one of the most interesting & formative books I read in my Gothic Lit class. It's such a cool bit of history!!
@@Miles_Phantasmagoria I'm not sure if that's truly the reason The Vampyre wasn't mentioned; it could have just as likely been because Kaz isn't aware of the novella. However, given her (I hope I'm not misgendering here...) obvious interest in the Victorians, I think it may be safe to assume the publication dates had something to do with why Carmilla was mentioned. :P. It's crazy to me that Frankenstein, arguably one of the most popular and culturally important stories, was written for a contest. I love learning about the lives of these authors; it makes them seem less like talking heads, so to speak, and more like actual people who may not have been all that different from us, despite the years separating us.
As a kid I was obsessed (and still am tbh) with things characterized as monsters and I really related to the “otherness” of the vampire (good to know I was never tricked into clear antisementic biases as far as I know) which probably can be explained by my asexuality, queerness, and neurodivergency.
Same 😊 even as a cis male who isnt able to meet the standards of modern masculinity because im a beautiful pixie twink lolol I always felt kinship with the "otherness" of these creatures trying to explain and defend their actions
@15:30 THANK YOU. My family fled Russia in 1904 and described the period from their arrival to their departure as enslavement, more likely perpetual serfdom in some form. The amount of times I’ve had people outright deny that because serfdom was legally abolished is beyond frustrating. While I obviously didn’t experience it myself, I do remember hearing my grandmother telling me how my grandfather was beaten for even asking about life in the old country, and of inquiring about what exactly our heritage was, which just goes to show how clearly traumatic the time in Russia was for my family that they entirely wiped their hands of it.
Good video. But just a small thing, Stoker wouldn’t have smiled for photographs in the Victorian and Edwardian period, regardless of how he felt about his appearance. Exposure times were very long. This is why everyone looks so unhappy in photos. This is a thing we’ll into the 20th century.
By the 1850s and 60s exposure time was down to 30 seconds. In photography's infancy and with faulty cameras it took longer, but by Stoker's time it was relatively quick. A bigger reason why most people didn't smile was because they were emulating the somber portraiture of nobility and royalty- There are a lot of cool photos from the era of people laughing and smiling, it really humanizes them.
I’m really happy to see someone discussing Anti Slavism and what i call Ruritanian Orientalism (orientalist applied to Eastern Europe and combined with the “Ruritania” stereotype of an Eastern European country country, basically). It’s basically never talked about so that’s pretty cool. It’s especially pleasing to me as a Slav (also with some Romani ancestry) living in the west and seeing these preposterous depictions of cultures and peoples I grew up with. It’s also annoying for me to talk about it because anti Slavism, much like anti Irish sentiment, is often used by racists to say “look, us whites are/have been oppressed too” so I always have to give a multi paragraph disclaimer making it clear that that’s not the point I’m trying to make and am not trying to discredit the suffering of POC. It’s also interesting to see how these stereotypes are applied by Slavs to each other, like a lot of Orientalist stereotypes were applied by the more westernized Croats to the Serbs who had been under Ottoman rule and Serb refugees settling in Croatia lived in Rural areas and thus had the usual “superstitious peasant” stereotype applied to them. Or by Slovenes who were part of the “Western European” kingdom of Austria to Croats who were ruled in conjunction with the “Eastern European” kingdom of Hungary. Then of course there’s the way Poles historically viewed Russians, Ukrainians and other East Slavs as wild and uncivilized people under the influence of savage steppe hordes who need to be taught Western civilization by the Poles.
It'd be really cool for an Eastern European UA-camr (like Anna LeWild) to make a video tier-ranking all the fictional Eastern European countries like Ruritania, Sokovia, etc, in a completely honest way, saying both their good and bad points unfilteredly. It'd also be interesting to have a pop-culture fake Eastern European country that is both really traditional AND really modern and futuristic, like a Slavic Japan.
The way orientalism manifests itself towards Eastern Europe from Western Europe is really fascinating, and I'm a little surprised it's not discussed more in the mainstream. Not that surprised, though.
I think the Oscar wilde trials as an Irish person are a really interesting time in our own history. It was used in England to fuel a lot of anti irish hate. Fun fact, Wilde's mother was Jane Wilde a famous poet and folklorist in her own right who preserved a plethora of folklore that was otherwise reserved to hard to read scholarly texts before. Many people used this to prove irish folklore was disgusting and archaic also citing Julius Caesers texts on the ancient Irish having homosexual relationships quite openly and more freely than the romans of the time as it wasn't a power play. Irish folklore which was was already struggling was really hurt by this and as you stated of calling gay men "fairies" really did a lot of harm to what would be called the fairy-faith.
Thank you so much for addressing the zenophobia towards Slavic people. As a Polish American the hatred directed towards Slavic people is often not addressed and things like making fun of Eastern European food or making jokes about how Polish people are stupid still happen today.
Can I just say that as an Irish-Ukrainian this was the same stereotype that the ENGLISH have towards the IRISH and that Stoker and Wilde would have been offended to be called Brits considering how much of their work is critical of the Jonathan Harker's of the world. As an Irish (American) raised in a strongly anti-colonialist family I always thought Jonathan's attitudes were weaknesses being critiqued by Stoker. Harker to me was a sell out who throws away his own fiancé's safety to be a yes man to his boss. He chooses Dracula's money and status while disregarding the commoners who tell him not to go to the castle of the local lord which is OF COURSE what England did to Ireland when they pressured them to civilize by installing Brits in the castles of Irish speaking leaders like the O'Rourke's who had ruled Western Ireland for centuries. Bram Stoker's grandmother is known to have told stories about the living dead that came from her homeland of Sligo which was an anti-colonialist culture famous for being untameable by Victoria's forces which is why it is the last stronghold OF the Fairy kings and queens. Huxley's Savage Man could be tied to this same oppositional Irish character for whom it could be said "Tis Herself". In fact John Tenniel's drawings compare the Irish cause TO Dracula. At any rate I loved this video and ate it right up. Prayer emoji Fire emoji I could not get enough of the gay info I had no idea how sexy Dracula was and this is reminiscent of the rumored attraction to his boss Irving. However despite the many impolite and racist veins going over like a lead balloon today that exist within Dracula I could not get down with the part where Stoker is supposedly playing for the crown by having a disdain for the Slavs. Did Stroker learn to highlight his disgust with savages and their unsophisticated superstitions in this fairy story while at Trinity college in Dublin and was this an endorsement of the oppressor as to a "woke" critique with a flavor that was and is prevalent amongst the Irish? I'm pretty sure Bram idololized the stories about the little people when writing what is one of the best horror stories of all time despite his potentially closeted self hating tendencies. On a side note both Pushkin and A. Tolstoy's epic earlier vampire stories also turn Slavs into bloodsuckers preying on white families whereas today we allow for the drowning of those immigrants coming from known vampire country. In the end it is the farmers who warn Jonathan about the natural and unnatural world of the fairies who also did things like steal babies and mortal women. Yeats, Wilde, and to a lesser degree Stoker had very Irish dispositions hence their recurrent outsider themes about a natural world of horror that would always dominate the civilizing world of Victorian England.
@ryanscates1011 different story in Western Europe, I live in Denmark where people have more or less the same prejudices against Eastern Europeans in general (extending to non-Slavic peoples like Hungarians and Lithuanians) as WASP Americans have towards Latin Americans
The fact that Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker were both born and raised in Ireland seems to have been left out at the start for some reason, which is a little odd. Good video nonetheless.
I would like to hear a more rigorous dissection of Bram Stoker's Irish character, the nature of colonialism in Ireland, Stoker's self-loathing as an Irishman.
I love your discussion of the dichotomy within Bram Stoker and his internalized homophobia but wish you'd have also addressed how he was a man who pushed for home rule in Ireland but still wanted to be on good terms with the monarchy as force for good (oh boy). That's a deeply important layer to colonialism and I'd argue the way he struggled to both humanize and dehumanize immigrants in the ways you discussed.
In other readings of the book I've heard Dracula as representing cholera, as Stoker's Mother was once accosted on the road from Sligo trying a to escape a cholera epidemic which was spreading (from East to West) , by an angry mob seeking to stop the spread of the disease. She was lucky to escape with her life as other's were buried alive. I've also heard it argued that it represents the dichotomy between enlightenment and religious thought and was a piece of work that marked the end of the enlightenment era and the beginning of romanticism. A novel that not only had progressive (for its time) female characters, but that also considered women as part of the readership
Carmilla's so rad i got it for free on audible so I went in blind and was shocked and delighted at its content. Left such an impression that i did an animatic of it for one of my assignments the following year
A few Victorian-era horror novels reference some form of the message "But what if this colonisation we're doing happened to US!?" Dracula is one example (a foreigner with powers beyond the comprehension of contemporary Londoners tries to invade and take over, oh my!) Another is The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, where the Martian invaders really eerily parallel British colonial invaders. I wonder how many of Victorian authors really examined this fear of the Uno reverse card.
As someone who wrote both her theses about the relation between the figure of the vampire and its relation with cultural anxieties and fears (within the west, I must add), I appreciate this video so much! Your videos are a gift! To you, and whoever might read this, I hope you have a most wonderful day
i had to save this video to watch with my morning coffee, and it did not disappoint!! believe it or not, up until recently I didn't know that bram stoker is widely thought to have been gay, and I always sort of wondered what the sources on that were and how exactly that tied into dracula. this was a really interesting watch, and I can't wait to see more from you!
I had no idea Dracula was written as a foreigner because foreigners=bad? I thought he was kinda inspired by Vlad the impaler? great video tho, I learned many stuff
I've got pdfs of a few "travels in Eastern Europe" books from this era. The tone more "cultured" authors took when looking at that region were pretty blatantly appalling.
Yeah, as an Eastern European who was really in love with Victorian literature for a few years, seeing us being described as these animalistic barbarian peasants was sometimes hilarious, sometimes a bit hurtful, but I suppose that was just a product of its time.
@@cstef5592 That’s just how the British portrayed most foreigners. They thought the Irish were simian, ape like, violent creatures. In Hartlepool, the locals hanged a monkey because they thought he was a Frenchman. Everyone was seen as untrustworthy, barbaric, unintelligent, dirty etc etc.
@@Dreyno A point to also consider is that if there are no survivors from a shipwreck then the remains are legally allowed to be salvaged by whoever found it, that includes the cargo, ships payroll, timber that can be used for building, sail canvas etc. Cruelty by local drunks who still practice bull and rat baiting for entertainment, a joke getting out of hand, combined with the smarter local merchants and smugglers making sure they have legal sanction to loot what they can get from the pile of free money is just as likely. But the monkey story plays well for the tourists. It was a regular risk, when the Admiral Cloudesley shovell ran his fleet into the Isles of Scilly the local killed the survivors on the beach including Admiral Shovell. Wrecking was a regular crime of the era.
Carmilla is *chefs kiss* truly, I’ve read it twice now, and am in the middle of my third read, and will advocate that it is a hundred times better than Brahm Stoker’s Dracula. The version edited by Carmen Maria Machado is the one I own, and her additions and editorials to the novel are amazing.
I just found your channel and it's now favorite. I truly appreciate all the research and contextualizing of historical events you have done for this video and the other videos I've watched so far. As a someone who has been doing a lot of research on Dracula to hopefully adapt it, this video has been a gift!
Me reading Dracula at 10, having no concept of sexuality: Uh I think Harker likes Dracula. Me now at 24 ace and biromantic: Uh, I think Harker is bi. And by Jove I was right. Also shout to Lucy's suitors for being awesome.
Wow, I had experienced Dracula in a completely different way. I had seen Harker's imprisonment as a power move by a foreign personality. I appreciate you dedication in this piece of literature, it merely highlights the versatility of good written work. Much thanks.
great video but i kinda wish you'd talked about the gross sexism in the book it starts with lucy asking mina what women did to deserve men who are so good and they, themselves, suck ass and then it also shows up in the characterization of lucy after she's turned, when she's weirdly sexual in comparassion to how she was before a sort of a "corruption of western women" thing
I agree with you there, but don't forget that Mina herself is hugely overpowered in the book and is the one who actually figures out how to get at Dracula, once he's fleeing England.
@@Carolina57685 Yes, about a character who is much worse in the movies than in the book. What Lucy is echoing is the way women were perceived then which is sexist today, but was normal then. The way Mina is portrayed was unusual then and - unfortunately - is still unusual now.
@@cayreet5992 Can you not understand my og comment? Idgaf if that is "how women were perceived". It's still sexist. Gay men were perceived as disgusting and immoral which was very homophobic even if that was the norm. What's the big problem with someone pointing out that the way Stoker wrote women was sexist? Just because Mina was written in a positive light it doesn't erase the shitty way in which Lucy was written. Might as well tell the creator of the video that they shouldn't have bothered to make it cuz "homophobia was normal back then".
I loved this video (and your fangs)! So interesting and really well researched. I've read the book like 10 years ago, but now I want to read it again in this new light. Thank you for your insight and also for a well-made and entertaining video.
Stoker's description of Dracula is horrific from the outset. He is ancient, with pointed teeth and finger nails. His teeth protude over blood red lips. But there's certainly no sexual frisson between Dracula and Harker. However, the three vampire ladies which Harker encounters in the castle where he is imprisoned are hungry sexual beasts. He is both terrified and aroused by their "charms".
I didn't find the Count himself sexy (unlike other vampires like Udo Kier) but thought Jon & Renfield were in a nonconsentual psychological relationship with a stronger man who "sodomized" them by placing things in their body and invading/dominating their wills. They were cabróns or what we might today call a cuck for Dracula. One could say that a man in society was expected to submissively approximate himelf with powerful people while overlooking their sinister aspirations of dominance. However everyone knows the English gentleman is at a disadvantage with women because he is much more proper and uptight than an Eastern, Italian, Spanish,common, Irish, Aussie, American, or even Northern Englishman (see: Mr. Thornton). I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a white guy mention the anatomy of other races. So basically ladies men are constantly threatening to steal the girl with their ability to express emotions, close talking, and silver words. Even gay Irishmen were stealing girls.
This is an interesting read on it, I enjoyed it a lot! And I appreciate you talking about Eastern Europe, I feel like especially now it’s become something you’re “allowed” to stereotype still and I really wish people would stop thinking that’s okay.
Oooh! I have something. It’s true that little boys being dressed as girls had folkloric undertones. On a practical note though, children were dressed without thought to gender because clothes were often shared between siblings regardless. With high infant mortality rates and the amount of time and money that went in to making one’s own clothes, it made much more economic sense to recycle your baby clothes through your kids. As industrialism spread, broadly around the same time, clothes got easier and cheaper to make, so little boys could start wearing trousers without draining their parents wallets.
Kaz is so handsome attractive and cute. I can't wait for them to hit 100K. I would totally buy their merch. They're charming, clever, hardworking, and dedicated to their craft. SO MUSH LOVE
I knew about the xenophobia involved with vampire lore but I can’t believe I didn’t know bram stoker was historically homophobic as well... it makes sense considering how sexualised vampires were that there were also roots in cultural views of homosexuality. It’s got 50s american lavender scare written all over it.
Dracula has seriously become one of my favorite books, mainly because of the characters. The men are emotionally open, not stuck up cardboard cutouts. And the women have character just beyond being demure. It made me fall in love with them and my heart genuinely broke for Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood.
this is such a wonderful video, i never knew stokers connection to wilde or how widespread the "romantic friendships" of the era actually were. also Stephen = Steven, its the same pronunciation (its my dads name so his frustration in having it misspelled all the time rubbed off on me lol) i checked if anyone mentioned this in a comment and didnt see any but if this is a repeated statement i apologize, just jumped at the opportunity love your work
Not sure if someone else already commented this, but verilybitchie has a great 2-part video about the bisexual and lesbian history of vampires. Would definitely recommend as further watching.
I had no idea based on the title what the content of this video would be, but I’m pleasantly surprised! I read Dracula as a child and had no inkling of any of these insights. Thank you for your excellent dive into this topic! Midway through the video I wondered if Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had similar themes? I read it in middle school and had to analyze it for Christian themes of the gospel (which is a crazy sentence to type) but I will have to read it again and actively analyze it through a different lens. Thank you again for a great video!
There is a fantastic book about this by Joseph O'Connor called 'Shadowplay' about Stokers life and relationships and how it inspired him to write Dracula. 100% would recommend! O'Connor is an excellent author.
currently studying dracula at college! i would be lying if i said i enjoyed it (i am finding it slightly dry compared to our other texts), but nonetheless feel as though this video has given me a much deeper appreciation for the uniqueness of the novel:)
I thought Dracula the book was about xenophobia and sexuality but didn't pick up the queer coding. To me, vampirism was shorthand for venereal disease and spread through body fluid exchange. Dracula is a seducer, or at least he seduced Lucy. Mina's encounter with Dracula seemed more like an assault and when she declares herself "unclean" she blames herself for the assault, like many survivors do. Thanks for this!
I came back to this video and realized with terror that I haven't left a thumbs up when I was here before and I want to apologize for that since this is an exquisite video. Anyway I corrected my mistake ❤
I'm Romanian. I'm queer and love nearly all vampire lit, and I am and have been a goth most of my life. The amount of hate I have for this author is hard to put into words.
Wow! I didn't know any of this. Pretty cool to learn something new and interesting, though you forgot to mention that another theme of Dracula also was the old vs new, modernity triumphing over the ancient world. Thus why they put the foreigns too as the old savage world. That's why we are shown all this new machines and new medical techniques (at the time of the publication) presented in the book too. As Dracula represented the old world.
I would just like to say “No matter how big and scary you make the sexy vampire, you still made a big sexy vampire” is now a quote I've used in a university essay and I'm *so* happy about it XD
I gotta say, Dracula in Bram Stoker’s book, is a pretty long way from being “super sexy”. Not even merely sexy. Dracula in the book is pretty grotesque. No where’s near as “sexy” as even Bela Lugosi.
I don't know, he's described a lot as being "repulsively sensual." And when Jonathan sees him in his coffin, there's almost an effort to describe what he looks like in negative terms. I can buy that there's both horror and allure. And mostly horror at the allure.
Love your structure, your subtle humor, your research, your souces in the description, how I learn about history while simultaniously being able to extend my to-read-list and my to-watch-list. Love all of it. Pls never stop. Thank you.💜
Dacre is the great grand nephew of Bram Stoker, author of the 1897gothic horror novel "Dracula". Dacre lives in Aiken, SC. Dacre Stoker and his wife manage the Bram Stoker Estate. He is very well known and is a writer. He has written several books. He is a popular humanitarian. You can learn more information about Bram Stoker by looking up his great grand nephew, Dacre Stoker. Aiken, South Carolina.
For years I always had some sort of belief that everyone in early pictures was sad or depressed. But earlier this month I learned in my photography class that these frowns pictured was due to the fact that keeping a smile for as long as a picture would take just to be taken would be extremally uncomfortable and basically not worth it.
I really enjoyed this breakdown and analysis of Dracula and the perspectives taken on this. However, I do think more evidence or detail from the novel to demonstrate how the context - that was so well explained in this video - was translated into the novel.
That old drawing of the person having access to a bell or whatever on the surface for if they were accidentally buried alive was TERRIFYING! I mean, yes, I appreciate that 'fail-safe', but just thinking about having to USE it has me shook!
I read Dracula recently and was not surprised, but disappointed at the racism present. Such heavy handed racism did make me more engaged with the text and I did end up paying more attention to the themes and subconscious messages like the internalized homophobia and the state of medicine. It was super common for people to die of a disease that to the outside looks like they just get weak and die for no reason. It made me cringe so hard when they do blood transfusions without knowing about blood types… I never knew about Stoker’s relationship with Wilde though. I guess all the Irish authors were a giant polycule though, so it makes sense
In recent years, I've come to think of "Dracula" as a story about an STD, which was tailored in a specific way to fly under the proverbial radar of the Victorian-era censors. Lucy and Mina had what amounts to sex with a man they weren't married to, and they contracted a horrible illness from that. (6/18/2021)
I don’t really see how dracula is depicted as the “sexy vampire” tbh. In the book the point of view we see him first from ins Jonathan’s and he’s described (not all that attractive from what I remember) the seduction came from the female vampires more to the male characters such as Johnathon and the 3 vampire women and Lucy’s seduction of Arthur in the graveyard.
I read Dracula as part of my graduate history courses so this brings back a lot of memories and my thoughts. Especially the Orientalism. I mean, Holy Orientalism Batman!
This is an interesting video, And to think I own a first edition of Dracula I bought in a used book shop here in NYC, I need to re-read this book once more A great story, but now with some new thoughts. Thank you for this.
It is never stated or insinuated in the book that Jonathan Harker is attracted to Dracula, it stated that he is repulsed and fascinated by the eccentric count, and the only lustful thoughts is in the scene with the brides, and while I agree there a subtle homoerotic feel to the book, it is certainly not between Harker and Dracula. It hinged on one line "this man belongs to me" this is not to be taken as a sexual statement, but that Dracula has still a use for him in his escape to London.
I was surprised reading Dracula how emotional all the men were. Like I’m reading a Victorian novel, expecting stoic or emotionally stunted men, and these dudes are like crying to each other and telling them how much they mean to one another. It was kinda awesome lol
Would love a study of intimacy and vulnerability between men throughout history
@@NoiseDay yes!
we have very strange notions about what men were like/what was socially acceptable for men and women to behave like in the past because of our own social norms today
I know right? Van Helsing's telling them he loves them, like *really* loves them, all the time. I was amazed. I wasn't sure if that was just this group of friends or if it was commonplace for men at the time.
There is a bit of stunted masculinity I love though when, iirc, Johnathan is about to start crying and breaking down that his wife has been attacked by Dracula and is probably going to die and Quincy just puts his hand on Jonathan's shoulder and leaves the room. It's played like Quincy is a bloody decent fellow for removing himself before Johnathan can embarrass himself with tears 😆
Time for me to re read Dracula again
I'm late to the game with this but I think its still important to put it out there that the reason young boys were historically dressed in skirts (not girl's clothes, just skirts) was that its easier to change dirty nappies in skirts than in pants. The old chestnut about dressing boys as girls in order to fool the fairies is relatively recent retconning (with an unhealthy dose of Freud) by male historians who never had to change a nappy in their lives. There have always been gender markers in children's dress even if we no longer recognize them. For example, boys had their hair parted on the side and girls had theirs parted down the middle. You will find that the age that boys were traditionally put in pants corresponds pretty closely to the age (in that era) when children completed toilet training.
Nappies were cloth back then, too. I worked in a developing country some years back and my counterpart advised me - never pick up a child if you were dressed up because cloth diapers were still used and they often leak
This is true in most places. In Ireland specifically (specifically the areas outside Dublin's direct influence) boys would commonly wear skirts until puberty. The belief that fairies would steal children and replace them with a 'changeling' - which is almost certainly an attempt to explain Autism - was a widely held belief even well into the 20th century. Boys, while not more likely to be Autistic, are often less able to mask their Autistic traits, so it can appear that there are more of them. If you believe that boys are more likely to become 'changelings' then it makes a certain sense to believe that they need to be disguised as girls in order to protect them until they're old enough that they can either defend themselves or the fairies lose interest in them.
Back in the 30s here in the US my father and uncle were in skirts as toddlers. I remember finding a photograph of them and wondering why a picture of two little girls was in his childhood papers.
OH MY MOTHERFUCKING GOD, THANK THE LORD SOMEONE ELSE FINALLY SPREADS THIS KNOWLEDGE!
Exactly 💯
We coulda had it all with romantic friendships but NOOO some old guy had to go and ruin all the fun
Bring back romantic friendships after the pandemic is over, pls. We gotta use the internet power to bring back the best trends.
To be fair, Bosie ruined it by being a spoiled child and a messy lover that forgot both his coat and a romantic letter from Oscar in a brothel, where his father acquired enough evidence to successfully have Oscar sentenced to jail.
I may or may not be partial to Oscar because I love "The Canterville Ghost" and have read 10% of "De Profundis".
But seriously, Bosie was quite reckless, although suing his father was an inconsequential move from Oscar. He could've fled when his friends told him to, but decided to stay and try to sue for libel. Biggest mistake of his life.
Is that not what people are establishing "queerplatonic relationships" to be?
@@ChestersonJack not really because the whole point of romantic friendships is to fly under the radar (or possibly for some people just not being gay?) whereas queerplatonic relationships overtly say that you’re queer
I feel like it's making more of a comback at least for women. The amount of women I know who aren't gay but have very gay themed friendships is super high!
So what you’re saying is…Oscar Wilde is to blame for Twilight
No, Smeyer is too Mormon to be influenced by a possibly gay man. Also he's too good for that.
No. JK Rowling and Emily Bronte are.
9 11 and my chemical romance, actually
@@Nico-nb5mp Her wet dream with Gerard Way caused this. I feel genuinely sorry for him.
if we think about it like that, Lord Byron is to blame for recaptcha
TWO love triangles?!?!?? damn those old timey people were messy
AND busy...
No phones or tv so
@@victoriadiesattheend.8478 lol I was about to say that lolol
It's one of my favorite things as an amateur Victorianist, the era was wild.
Irish authors polycule
One thing to remember that Dracula in the novel (and Vampires in 19th century literature in general) didn't actually burn in the sunlight but it weakened their powers, that didn't come until much later with F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu and later popularized by Hollywood starting with "Son of Dracula" that first outright shows it.
Yup, Carmilla could even take a stroll with Laura at 3 pm to see the gardens. She was just unbelievably pale and alluring.
I have a theory...
Bear with me on this:
The vampire is invulnerable during the hours of darkness; during the hours of daylight, his powers are, as you say, weakened -- he becomes mortal, and may be killed.
Perhaps Henrik Galeen misinterpreted this aspect of the myth -- something lost in translation from English to German, maybe (?) -- and assumed that it was the sunlight itself that killed the vampire.
@@willmfrank In the original novel, it was very clear that Dracula can walk in the daylight but he was severally weakened and it's especially the original reason why Harker and Quincey Morris was able to kill him easily because the sun was still present but it was going down though.
Of course I will agree that in night time though none of them would have stood a chance against Dracula when he's most at his strongest and most invulnerable where conventional firearms and normal bladed weapons cannot harm him so it makes sense that only Arcane and Divine weaponry like Belmont's Vampire Killer whip or sacred bullets for example is able to harm Dracula at this point.
Fun fact: The concept of The sexy gentleman vampire was introduced by William Polidori, Lord Byron's doctor and "close friend", in his book The Vampyre
Extra fun fact: He wrote The Vampyre in Geneva, at The same time Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein
prompted in fact by the same literary house party that prompted the writing of Frankenstein.
@@blackspring3207thank you!!! Came to say this....we had a bunch of talented literary people all writing vampire and monster novels around the same time as a result of the challenge put forth to them by their hosts, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary Shelley ('nee Wollestonecraft) at a weekend house party. Awesome results ensued ❤
Bram Stoker’s mother, Charlotte Thornton, came from Sligo, a town in the west of Ireland. In 1832, when she was young, a cholera epidemic hit the town, killing thousands. She wrote her recollections of the epidemic years later. Whilst writing Dracula, Bram Stoker had her mother have the writings typed up and sent to him. Her recollections included people being buried before being fully dead to stop the spread of the disease.
Another possible inspiration came from the church his mother attended as a child. The Church of St. Mary and John the Baptist in Sligo. The clay in the churchyard apparently caused bodies not to decompose properly due to the moisture content and chemical makeup of the soil. There was stories or coffins being opened and the body looking as if it had been buried recently despite being underground for many years. It’s a phenomenon called adipocere, where the body basically turns to soap. A body could look perfectly lifelike until touched, when it becomes apparent that it is a very soft, waxy substance.
Stoker’s great grand nephew visited recently to lay a wreath on the family tomb and unveil a plaque.
🔥🔥🔥Holy Shit
Oh, fascinating
That’s so sad 💔💔💔
As a kid, what terrified me about vampires was the concept of becoming once bitten, for lack of a better term, an immortal addict. I didn't pick up on the homophobic/xenophobic/fear of disease implications until I was older.
@BK Beatty We can’t really define what the definitive rules of vampirism are, because we don’t have a definition of Vampirism. That is just the Vampire The Masquerade way of becoming a vampire
My favorite aspect of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is that Mina Harker is the hero. She has mastered shorthand and typing, the most advanced data science of the time and uses these to collect the information the feckless men have on Dracula so they can figure out a way to hunt him. After Dracula bites Mina, she realizes that although Dracula can get inside her mind, likewise can she get inside his and they use this to defeat him.
Naturally this didn’t make it into any of the movie adaptations although Winona Ryder came closest.
Yeh Mina saves Jonathan.
Yeah, the way every adaptation crews around with her character and her adorable relationship with Jonathan has always enraged me.
The first ‘sexy’ vampire was Lord Ruthven, based on Lord Byron, in John Polidori’s The Vampyre. Publish in 1819, it predates both Dracula and Carmilla by more than fifty years.
Iinteresting😊
During my literature class I loved reading this book from different perspectives. I did a class 'reading' where Count Dracula was a representation of the upper class and aristocracy and how he feasts on the lower class people, entrancing them to find his way of life as not only achievable but also better. The price of eternal life and the Count's wealth is the literal blood of those in a lower class.
One other small quibble: Stoker was Irish. He wouldn't have painted Harker as himself. He might well have used Harker to satirize everything he hated about the Victorian Normano - Saxons (the "English" look down on the descendants of the Angles) but he wouldn't have identified himself with them. Likewise, you can see his disdain for the Dutch in Van Helsing - possessed of deep roots but impotent to employ them (see Wlliam of Orange and Ulster.)
That's a nice fire surround; especially the stuff that looks like malachite.
"They were romantic friends; a practice for matrimony..."
"She never married."
thank u for mentioning the antisemitism and anti rroma sentiment in dracula!! ppl just gloss riiiiiiight over it most of the time. i'm really glad i found yr channel!!
I was about to comment the same thing!! So many people (mostly Americans, probably as a result of our own specific problems, namely anti-Black racism) lump the antisemitism and anti-Roma racism in with a general “racism bad” statement, ignoring the unique ways that prejudice towards Jewish and Roma people manifests worldwide
So as anti-slavic... Like "it's not a real racism if you hate the right nation", ugh... Feel you so much!
Probably because it's an utterly insignificant plot point from the 1800s.
Yup! There's a lot of baby blood drinking in the novel. I could see how that would cause someone to shpilkes.
Kaz is Jewish and has also discussed how non-Jewish people in the queer community gloss over the antisemitism of many now-idolized queer historical figures. The "Jews drink Christian blood" thing is a major contributor to all the pogroms of the 19th century and the Holocaust
"He was not the first popular vampire, We cannot forget our lesbian queen, Carmilla."
Don't get me wrong, lesbians rule, but also it's hilarious that you left out The Vampyre given how much Polidori was overshadowed during his lifetime
Good point!! That said, The Vampyre might've been neglected here because it was published prior to the Victorian era (1819), whereas Carmilla was published in the approximate middle of it (1872). Carmilla was also published much closer to the date of publication for Dracula (1897), so perhaps that also played into it?
I must admit though, I love how Polidori wrote The Vampyre for the same contest that gave us Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Lord Byron honestly didn't know what he was doing when we created that contest and the cultural gems that would be produced as a result (even though I have yet to read The Vampyre; it's on my [never-ending] list though!).
@@kayzmavc4596 oh I never even considered that, thanks for clarifying!!! Also yea, I'm gonna be forever grateful for that contest, Frankenstein was one of the most interesting & formative books I read in my Gothic Lit class. It's such a cool bit of history!!
@@Miles_Phantasmagoria I'm not sure if that's truly the reason The Vampyre wasn't mentioned; it could have just as likely been because Kaz isn't aware of the novella. However, given her (I hope I'm not misgendering here...) obvious interest in the Victorians, I think it may be safe to assume the publication dates had something to do with why Carmilla was mentioned. :P.
It's crazy to me that Frankenstein, arguably one of the most popular and culturally important stories, was written for a contest. I love learning about the lives of these authors; it makes them seem less like talking heads, so to speak, and more like actual people who may not have been all that different from us, despite the years separating us.
@@kayzmavc4596 yeah, they go by they/them
@@Miles_Phantasmagoria Thanks for the correction! I appreciate it. :)
As a kid I was obsessed (and still am tbh) with things characterized as monsters and I really related to the “otherness” of the vampire (good to know I was never tricked into clear antisementic biases as far as I know) which probably can be explained by my asexuality, queerness, and neurodivergency.
Same 😊 even as a cis male who isnt able to meet the standards of modern masculinity because im a beautiful pixie twink lolol I always felt kinship with the "otherness" of these creatures trying to explain and defend their actions
@15:30 THANK YOU. My family fled Russia in 1904 and described the period from their arrival to their departure as enslavement, more likely perpetual serfdom in some form. The amount of times I’ve had people outright deny that because serfdom was legally abolished is beyond frustrating. While I obviously didn’t experience it myself, I do remember hearing my grandmother telling me how my grandfather was beaten for even asking about life in the old country, and of inquiring about what exactly our heritage was, which just goes to show how clearly traumatic the time in Russia was for my family that they entirely wiped their hands of it.
Good video. But just a small thing, Stoker wouldn’t have smiled for photographs in the Victorian and Edwardian period, regardless of how he felt about his appearance. Exposure times were very long. This is why everyone looks so unhappy in photos. This is a thing we’ll into the 20th century.
By the 1850s and 60s exposure time was down to 30 seconds.
In photography's infancy and with faulty cameras it took longer, but by Stoker's time it was relatively quick.
A bigger reason why most people didn't smile was because they were emulating the somber portraiture of nobility and royalty- There are a lot of cool photos from the era of people laughing and smiling, it really humanizes them.
I’m really happy to see someone discussing Anti Slavism and what i call Ruritanian Orientalism (orientalist applied to Eastern Europe and combined with the “Ruritania” stereotype of an Eastern European country country, basically).
It’s basically never talked about so that’s pretty cool. It’s especially pleasing to me as a Slav (also with some Romani ancestry) living in the west and seeing these preposterous depictions of cultures and peoples I grew up with.
It’s also annoying for me to talk about it because anti Slavism, much like anti Irish sentiment, is often used by racists to say “look, us whites are/have been oppressed too” so I always have to give a multi paragraph disclaimer making it clear that that’s not the point I’m trying to make and am not trying to discredit the suffering of POC.
It’s also interesting to see how these stereotypes are applied by Slavs to each other, like a lot of Orientalist stereotypes were applied by the more westernized Croats to the Serbs who had been under Ottoman rule and Serb refugees settling in Croatia lived in Rural areas and thus had the usual “superstitious peasant” stereotype applied to them. Or by Slovenes who were part of the “Western European” kingdom of Austria to Croats who were ruled in conjunction with the “Eastern European” kingdom of Hungary. Then of course there’s the way Poles historically viewed Russians, Ukrainians and other East Slavs as wild and uncivilized people under the influence of savage steppe hordes who need to be taught Western civilization by the Poles.
i agree, orientalism towards eastern europe and its origin in history are not discussed enough. and the internalized orientalism too! it's awful.
It'd be really cool for an Eastern European UA-camr (like Anna LeWild) to make a video tier-ranking all the fictional Eastern European countries like Ruritania, Sokovia, etc, in a completely honest way, saying both their good and bad points unfilteredly.
It'd also be interesting to have a pop-culture fake Eastern European country that is both really traditional AND really modern and futuristic, like a Slavic Japan.
The way orientalism manifests itself towards Eastern Europe from Western Europe is really fascinating, and I'm a little surprised it's not discussed more in the mainstream. Not that surprised, though.
I think the Oscar wilde trials as an Irish person are a really interesting time in our own history. It was used in England to fuel a lot of anti irish hate. Fun fact, Wilde's mother was Jane Wilde a famous poet and folklorist in her own right who preserved a plethora of folklore that was otherwise reserved to hard to read scholarly texts before. Many people used this to prove irish folklore was disgusting and archaic also citing Julius Caesers texts on the ancient Irish having homosexual relationships quite openly and more freely than the romans of the time as it wasn't a power play. Irish folklore which was was already struggling was really hurt by this and as you stated of calling gay men "fairies" really did a lot of harm to what would be called the fairy-faith.
Thank you so much for addressing the zenophobia towards Slavic people. As a Polish American the hatred directed towards Slavic people is often not addressed and things like making fun of Eastern European food or making jokes about how Polish people are stupid still happen today.
@Ryan Scates lmao and?
Jokes on them Eastern European food is delicious
Can I just say that as an Irish-Ukrainian this was the same stereotype that the ENGLISH have towards the IRISH and that Stoker and Wilde would have been offended to be called Brits considering how much of their work is critical of the Jonathan Harker's of the world. As an Irish (American) raised in a strongly anti-colonialist family I always thought Jonathan's attitudes were weaknesses being critiqued by Stoker. Harker to me was a sell out who throws away his own fiancé's safety to be a yes man to his boss. He chooses Dracula's money and status while disregarding the commoners who tell him not to go to the castle of the local lord which is OF COURSE what England did to Ireland when they pressured them to civilize by installing Brits in the castles of Irish speaking leaders like the O'Rourke's who had ruled Western Ireland for centuries. Bram Stoker's grandmother is known to have told stories about the living dead that came from her homeland of Sligo which was an anti-colonialist culture famous for being untameable by Victoria's forces which is why it is the last stronghold OF the Fairy kings and queens. Huxley's Savage Man could be tied to this same oppositional Irish character for whom it could be said "Tis Herself". In fact John Tenniel's drawings compare the Irish cause TO Dracula.
At any rate I loved this video and ate it right up. Prayer emoji Fire emoji I could not get enough of the gay info I had no idea how sexy Dracula was and this is reminiscent of the rumored attraction to his boss Irving.
However despite the many impolite and racist veins going over like a lead balloon today that exist within Dracula I could not get down with the part where Stoker is supposedly playing for the crown by having a disdain for the Slavs. Did Stroker learn to highlight his disgust with savages and their unsophisticated superstitions in this fairy story while at Trinity college in Dublin and was this an endorsement of the oppressor as to a "woke" critique with a flavor that was and is prevalent amongst the Irish? I'm pretty sure Bram idololized the stories about the little people when writing what is one of the best horror stories of all time despite his potentially closeted self hating tendencies. On a side note both Pushkin and A. Tolstoy's epic earlier vampire stories also turn Slavs into bloodsuckers preying on white families whereas today we allow for the drowning of those immigrants coming from known vampire country. In the end it is the farmers who warn Jonathan about the natural and unnatural world of the fairies who also did things like steal babies and mortal women. Yeats, Wilde, and to a lesser degree Stoker had very Irish dispositions hence their recurrent outsider themes about a natural world of horror that would always dominate the civilizing world of Victorian England.
My comeback to Polish jokes is Marie Curie and Frederick Chopin
@ryanscates1011 different story in Western Europe, I live in Denmark where people have more or less the same prejudices against Eastern Europeans in general (extending to non-Slavic peoples like Hungarians and Lithuanians) as WASP Americans have towards Latin Americans
The fact that Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker were both born and raised in Ireland seems to have been left out at the start for some reason, which is a little odd. Good video nonetheless.
I know we (Ireland) were under British rule at the time, but it sounds so weird to me to hear him described as a nice British man/English
I would like to hear a more rigorous dissection of Bram Stoker's Irish character, the nature of colonialism in Ireland, Stoker's self-loathing as an Irishman.
Yeah... wasn't he Protestant?
I love your discussion of the dichotomy within Bram Stoker and his internalized homophobia but wish you'd have also addressed how he was a man who pushed for home rule in Ireland but still wanted to be on good terms with the monarchy as force for good (oh boy). That's a deeply important layer to colonialism and I'd argue the way he struggled to both humanize and dehumanize immigrants in the ways you discussed.
In other readings of the book I've heard Dracula as representing cholera, as Stoker's Mother was once accosted on the road from Sligo trying a to escape a cholera epidemic which was spreading (from East to West) , by an angry mob seeking to stop the spread of the disease. She was lucky to escape with her life as other's were buried alive.
I've also heard it argued that it represents the dichotomy between enlightenment and religious thought and was a piece of work that marked the end of the enlightenment era and the beginning of romanticism. A novel that not only had progressive (for its time) female characters, but that also considered women as part of the readership
Carmilla's so rad i got it for free on audible so I went in blind and was shocked and delighted at its content. Left such an impression that i did an animatic of it for one of my assignments the following year
A few Victorian-era horror novels reference some form of the message "But what if this colonisation we're doing happened to US!?" Dracula is one example (a foreigner with powers beyond the comprehension of contemporary Londoners tries to invade and take over, oh my!) Another is The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, where the Martian invaders really eerily parallel British colonial invaders. I wonder how many of Victorian authors really examined this fear of the Uno reverse card.
Bram Stoker was Irish (so he was from a colonised country ). And H G Wells was a Socialist consciously drawing parallels with colonialism.
As someone who wrote both her theses about the relation between the figure of the vampire and its relation with cultural anxieties and fears (within the west, I must add), I appreciate this video so much! Your videos are a gift! To you, and whoever might read this, I hope you have a most wonderful day
i had to save this video to watch with my morning coffee, and it did not disappoint!! believe it or not, up until recently I didn't know that bram stoker is widely thought to have been gay, and I always sort of wondered what the sources on that were and how exactly that tied into dracula. this was a really interesting watch, and I can't wait to see more from you!
Hej
This video is a perfect example of why I adore video essays.
I had no idea Dracula was written as a foreigner because foreigners=bad? I thought he was kinda inspired by Vlad the impaler? great video tho, I learned many stuff
I've got pdfs of a few "travels in Eastern Europe" books from this era. The tone more "cultured" authors took when looking at that region were pretty blatantly appalling.
Yeah, as an Eastern European who was really in love with Victorian literature for a few years, seeing us being described as these animalistic barbarian peasants was sometimes hilarious, sometimes a bit hurtful, but I suppose that was just a product of its time.
The mythos around Vlad the Impaler in western europe is also very much tied to the fear of the foreign/barbarian eastern europe
@@cstef5592 That’s just how the British portrayed most foreigners. They thought the Irish were simian, ape like, violent creatures. In Hartlepool, the locals hanged a monkey because they thought he was a Frenchman. Everyone was seen as untrustworthy, barbaric, unintelligent, dirty etc etc.
@@Dreyno A point to also consider is that if there are no survivors from a shipwreck then the remains are legally allowed to be salvaged by whoever found it, that includes the cargo, ships payroll, timber that can be used for building, sail canvas etc.
Cruelty by local drunks who still practice bull and rat baiting for entertainment, a joke getting out of hand, combined with the smarter local merchants and smugglers making sure they have legal sanction to loot what they can get from the pile of free money is just as likely.
But the monkey story plays well for the tourists.
It was a regular risk, when the Admiral Cloudesley shovell ran his fleet into the Isles of Scilly the local killed the survivors on the beach including Admiral Shovell. Wrecking was a regular crime of the era.
Excuse me why i never heared of Camilla? O.o i already luv her
Pretty sure its Carmilla but yes its awesome
Carmilla is *chefs kiss* truly, I’ve read it twice now, and am in the middle of my third read, and will advocate that it is a hundred times better than Brahm Stoker’s Dracula. The version edited by Carmen Maria Machado is the one I own, and her additions and editorials to the novel are amazing.
Oh miss ma'am. Please do read it. Sheridan Le Fanu. You will never regret it. There's also a very naughty version of Carmilla by Amarantha Knight.
My university English classes made a point of studying her. But then again we also had a prof who studied Buffy.
I recommend this video about how Carmilla started the lesbian vampire trope ua-cam.com/video/7hP8H1kbT1Q/v-deo.html
Actually the sexiness angle was added later on by Hollywood. In the book, he's a monster through and through that just wants to kill and take over.
as someone slavic, i can confirm, we're all gay and/or vampires.
This was a really interesting video!! I never really knew much about the background of Dracula, so I learnt a lot watching :) Love the fangs too!!!!
I just found your channel and it's now favorite. I truly appreciate all the research and contextualizing of historical events you have done for this video and the other videos I've watched so far. As a someone who has been doing a lot of research on Dracula to hopefully adapt it, this video has been a gift!
Me reading Dracula at 10, having no concept of sexuality: Uh I think Harker likes Dracula.
Me now at 24 ace and biromantic: Uh, I think Harker is bi. And by Jove I was right.
Also shout to Lucy's suitors for being awesome.
i’ve been binging your videos all day and i can confidently say “shit has been gay”
this is so well researched, thank you for putting so much time and effort into this super interesting video
Wow, I had experienced Dracula in a completely different way. I had seen Harker's imprisonment as a power move by a foreign personality.
I appreciate you dedication in this piece of literature, it merely highlights the versatility of good written work. Much thanks.
great video but i kinda wish you'd talked about the gross sexism in the book
it starts with lucy asking mina what women did to deserve men who are so good and they, themselves, suck ass and then it also shows up in the characterization of lucy after she's turned, when she's weirdly sexual in comparassion to how she was before
a sort of a "corruption of western women" thing
Thank you for mentioning this.
I agree with you there, but don't forget that Mina herself is hugely overpowered in the book and is the one who actually figures out how to get at Dracula, once he's fleeing England.
@@cayreet5992 both my examples are about lucy not mina
@@Carolina57685 Yes, about a character who is much worse in the movies than in the book. What Lucy is echoing is the way women were perceived then which is sexist today, but was normal then. The way Mina is portrayed was unusual then and - unfortunately - is still unusual now.
@@cayreet5992 Can you not understand my og comment? Idgaf if that is "how women were perceived". It's still sexist. Gay men were perceived as disgusting and immoral which was very homophobic even if that was the norm.
What's the big problem with someone pointing out that the way Stoker wrote women was sexist? Just because Mina was written in a positive light it doesn't erase the shitty way in which Lucy was written.
Might as well tell the creator of the video that they shouldn't have bothered to make it cuz "homophobia was normal back then".
Omg I love this. I wrote my final paper on the connection between Gothic novels and modern horror films. This hit the spot
I loved this video (and your fangs)! So interesting and really well researched. I've read the book like 10 years ago, but now I want to read it again in this new light. Thank you for your insight and also for a well-made and entertaining video.
Stoker's description of Dracula is horrific from the outset. He is ancient, with pointed teeth and finger nails. His teeth protude over blood red lips. But there's certainly no sexual frisson between Dracula and Harker. However, the three vampire ladies which Harker encounters in the castle where he is imprisoned are hungry sexual beasts. He is both terrified and aroused by their "charms".
This and the scene where Dracula holds Mina to his chest to suck his blood is written like a genuine smut parallel
I didn't find the Count himself sexy (unlike other vampires like Udo Kier) but thought Jon & Renfield were in a nonconsentual psychological relationship with a stronger man who "sodomized" them by placing things in their body and invading/dominating their wills. They were cabróns or what we might today call a cuck for Dracula. One could say that a man in society was expected to submissively approximate himelf with powerful people while overlooking their sinister aspirations of dominance. However everyone knows the English gentleman is at a disadvantage with women because he is much more proper and uptight than an Eastern, Italian, Spanish,common, Irish, Aussie, American, or even Northern Englishman (see: Mr. Thornton). I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a white guy mention the anatomy of other races. So basically ladies men are constantly threatening to steal the girl with their ability to express emotions, close talking, and silver words. Even gay Irishmen were stealing girls.
I absolutely adore your channel! You are the most thorough, articulate, and captivating UA-cam personality I’ve come across in a long time.
This is an interesting read on it, I enjoyed it a lot! And I appreciate you talking about Eastern Europe, I feel like especially now it’s become something you’re “allowed” to stereotype still and I really wish people would stop thinking that’s okay.
Oooh! I have something. It’s true that little boys being dressed as girls had folkloric undertones. On a practical note though, children were dressed without thought to gender because clothes were often shared between siblings regardless. With high infant mortality rates and the amount of time and money that went in to making one’s own clothes, it made much more economic sense to recycle your baby clothes through your kids. As industrialism spread, broadly around the same time, clothes got easier and cheaper to make, so little boys could start wearing trousers without draining their parents wallets.
Kaz is so handsome attractive and cute. I can't wait for them to hit 100K. I would totally buy their merch. They're charming, clever, hardworking, and dedicated to their craft. SO MUSH LOVE
I knew about the xenophobia involved with vampire lore but I can’t believe I didn’t know bram stoker was historically homophobic as well... it makes sense considering how sexualised vampires were that there were also roots in cultural views of homosexuality. It’s got 50s american lavender scare written all over it.
Dracula has seriously become one of my favorite books, mainly because of the characters. The men are emotionally open, not stuck up cardboard cutouts. And the women have character just beyond being demure. It made me fall in love with them and my heart genuinely broke for Jonathan Harker and Arthur Holmwood.
What about helsing?
This analysis of Kaz's is just past splendid.
Older or otherwise, one learns things from
her presentations otherwise not realizable.
Kaz = 🌟🌟🌟
this is such a wonderful video, i never knew stokers connection to wilde or how widespread the "romantic friendships" of the era actually were.
also Stephen = Steven, its the same pronunciation (its my dads name so his frustration in having it misspelled all the time rubbed off on me lol)
i checked if anyone mentioned this in a comment and didnt see any but if this is a repeated statement i apologize, just jumped at the opportunity
love your work
Not sure if someone else already commented this, but verilybitchie has a great 2-part video about the bisexual and lesbian history of vampires. Would definitely recommend as further watching.
Don't forget to be kind.
You are definitely becoming one of my favorite channels here.
I had no idea based on the title what the content of this video would be, but I’m pleasantly surprised! I read Dracula as a child and had no inkling of any of these insights. Thank you for your excellent dive into this topic! Midway through the video I wondered if Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein had similar themes? I read it in middle school and had to analyze it for Christian themes of the gospel (which is a crazy sentence to type) but I will have to read it again and actively analyze it through a different lens.
Thank you again for a great video!
There is a fantastic book about this by Joseph O'Connor called 'Shadowplay' about Stokers life and relationships and how it inspired him to write Dracula. 100% would recommend! O'Connor is an excellent author.
currently studying dracula at college! i would be lying if i said i enjoyed it (i am finding it slightly dry compared to our other texts), but nonetheless feel as though this video has given me a much deeper appreciation for the uniqueness of the novel:)
I thought Dracula the book was about xenophobia and sexuality but didn't pick up the queer coding. To me, vampirism was shorthand for venereal disease and spread through body fluid exchange. Dracula is a seducer, or at least he seduced Lucy. Mina's encounter with Dracula seemed more like an assault and when she declares herself "unclean" she blames herself for the assault, like many survivors do. Thanks for this!
That little trill on ✨Nice Christian Boy✨ made me think I was watching Ask A Mortician
"Scarificator" thank you god for putting me where i am now and not then.
I came back to this video and realized with terror that I haven't left a thumbs up when I was here before and I want to apologize for that since this is an exquisite video. Anyway I corrected my mistake ❤
(I had to rec it to a friend)
I'm Romanian. I'm queer and love nearly all vampire lit, and I am and have been a goth most of my life.
The amount of hate I have for this author is hard to put into words.
Please bare in mind most of what she said this is just speculation and analyzing nothing of Bram Stoker's views was ever confirmed.
@@jamielester1870 yeah I know and it's all cool to think about
@Eoghan It's okay to be wrong, no worries.
@@weirdandproudofit1 bran stoker was a great writer and I love pussy!
I mean, it's awesome!
Crezi că există toleranta in tara?
I'm so glad this was recommended to me! Love your thorough research and witty delivery. Can't wait to watch more
Wow! I didn't know any of this. Pretty cool to learn something new and interesting, though you forgot to mention that another theme of Dracula also was the old vs new, modernity triumphing over the ancient world. Thus why they put the foreigns too as the old savage world. That's why we are shown all this new machines and new medical techniques (at the time of the publication) presented in the book too. As Dracula represented the old world.
I live in the village where Bram Stoker visited, stayed and wrote Dracula. Cruden Bay.
ok this channel is too good to be true I am very impressed
This is my new favorite channel I just watched 5 videos back to back
I would just like to say “No matter how big and scary you make the sexy vampire, you still made a big sexy vampire” is now a quote I've used in a university essay and I'm *so* happy about it XD
I gotta say, Dracula in Bram Stoker’s book, is a pretty long way from being “super sexy”. Not even merely sexy. Dracula in the book is pretty grotesque. No where’s near as “sexy” as even Bela Lugosi.
I don't know, he's described a lot as being "repulsively sensual." And when Jonathan sees him in his coffin, there's almost an effort to describe what he looks like in negative terms. I can buy that there's both horror and allure. And mostly horror at the allure.
Wow good info. Love Dracula and Bram Stoker.
All of your content is top-notch.
The fireplace is great in the background!!! More vampire lore please! I've been binging your channel, love it so much.
Love your structure, your subtle humor, your research, your souces in the description, how I learn about history while simultaniously being able to extend my to-read-list and my to-watch-list. Love all of it. Pls never stop. Thank you.💜
Im obsessed with this channel at this point
your channel is so underrated! i cant wait for it to blow up
I wish this was hours long! So good! Thanks so much! 🖤
Dacre is the great grand nephew of Bram Stoker, author of the 1897gothic horror novel "Dracula". Dacre lives in Aiken, SC. Dacre Stoker and his wife manage the Bram Stoker Estate. He is very well known and is a writer. He has written several books. He is a popular humanitarian. You can learn more information about Bram Stoker by looking up his great grand nephew, Dacre Stoker. Aiken, South Carolina.
I love how you narrate it, your voice, the video style, and how much you include!
For years I always had some sort of belief that everyone in early pictures was sad or depressed. But earlier this month I learned in my photography class that these frowns pictured was due to the fact that keeping a smile for as long as a picture would take just to be taken would be extremally uncomfortable and basically not worth it.
I'm hooked on your videos. I literally just subscribed this week
I really enjoyed this breakdown and analysis of Dracula and the perspectives taken on this. However, I do think more evidence or detail from the novel to demonstrate how the context - that was so well explained in this video - was translated into the novel.
Fascinating. Brava! The context of contemporary social and cultural history makes a big difference. Love this channel.
I used to fear vampires.
Then I saw a few too many sexy lady vampires in media…
That old drawing of the person having access to a bell or whatever on the surface for if they were accidentally buried alive was TERRIFYING! I mean, yes, I appreciate that 'fail-safe', but just thinking about having to USE it has me shook!
I read Dracula recently and was not surprised, but disappointed at the racism present. Such heavy handed racism did make me more engaged with the text and I did end up paying more attention to the themes and subconscious messages like the internalized homophobia and the state of medicine. It was super common for people to die of a disease that to the outside looks like they just get weak and die for no reason. It made me cringe so hard when they do blood transfusions without knowing about blood types…
I never knew about Stoker’s relationship with Wilde though. I guess all the Irish authors were a giant polycule though, so it makes sense
that moment on the first page of dracula where jonathan harker thinks paprika is too spicy ghdhfhhf
This is so much more fascinating and nuanced, and rings so much more true, than the book I read about Bram and vamps as a kid.
Really beautiful video essay. Love your stuff Kaz! Please stay you and keep up the outstanding work!
How have I never seen your videos?! Really great, thank you!
i played R.M. Renfirld in my community theater's production of, "Dracula." Stoker never said wehat R.M. stood for, so I said it was Richard Millhouse.
In recent years, I've come to think of "Dracula" as a story about an STD, which was tailored in a specific way to fly under the proverbial radar of the Victorian-era censors. Lucy and Mina had what amounts to sex with a man they weren't married to, and they contracted a horrible illness from that.
(6/18/2021)
This channel deserves way more subs holy
This was absolutely brilliant. Thanks so much for sharing your scholarship. Most satisfying.
I don’t really see how dracula is depicted as the “sexy vampire” tbh. In the book the point of view we see him first from ins Jonathan’s and he’s described (not all that attractive from what I remember) the seduction came from the female vampires more to the male characters such as Johnathon and the 3 vampire women and Lucy’s seduction of Arthur in the graveyard.
Yes the Easterner turns the women into sex fiends.
I read Dracula as part of my graduate history courses so this brings back a lot of memories and my thoughts. Especially the Orientalism. I mean, Holy Orientalism Batman!
Just discovered your channel and I'm absolutely loving it.
This is an interesting video, And to think I own a first edition of Dracula I bought in a used book shop here in NYC, I need to re-read this book once more A great story, but now with some new thoughts. Thank you for this.
Little one, this was so helpful to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤
It is never stated or insinuated in the book that Jonathan Harker is attracted to Dracula, it stated that he is repulsed and fascinated by the eccentric count, and the only lustful thoughts is in the scene with the brides, and while I agree there a subtle homoerotic feel to the book, it is certainly not between Harker and Dracula. It hinged on one line "this man belongs to me" this is not to be taken as a sexual statement, but that Dracula has still a use for him in his escape to London.