Transcript Bram Stoker’s Dracula - Colfax School District

Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
Dr. Beth Torgerson
Review, Chapters 17-22
• Characters
• Plots
• Themes
Dracula
Film Poster
1931
Evolution
 Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, 1859
 Survival of the fittest
 Which characters represent social evolution?
The Origin of the Species (1859)
Darwin’s theory on “the struggle for existence” is about the
interconnectedness of all living creatures and how life itself
depends upon death—through the eating of food!
On the food chain:
“[W]e do not see or we forget, that the birds which are idly
singing round us mostly live on insects or seeds, and are
thus constantly destroying life; or we forget how largely
these songsters, or their eggs, or their nestlings, are
destroyed by birds and beasts of prey….”
(p. 1539 in Norton Anthology)
The Origin of the Species (1859)
On the beginning of life evolving into more complex species:
“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers,
having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms
or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on
according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been,
and are being evolved.” (p. 1545 in Norton Anthology)
On evolution as progress:
“And as natural selection works solely by and for the good of
each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to
progress towards perfection.”
(p. 1545 in Norton Anthology)
Social
Darwinism
Herbert Spencer,
a Victorian psychologist
and social theorist,
adapts Darwin’s
biological theory
to discuss
social evolutionary theory,
i.e. social Darwinism.
Herbert Spencer
By Miss A. Grant
Degeneration
 Max Nordau, Degeneration, 1892
 Cesare Lombroso’s “Criminal Man”
 Which characters represent social degeneration?
 Count’s crimes versus crimes of civilized heroes
Max Nordeau’s
Degeneration (1892)
Nordeau’s theory: If species, including man, can evolve,
then species can potential de-volve, degenerate as well.
Nordeau’s focus is primarily on man.
“The concept of degeneracy… was first clearly grasped and
formulated by Morel [who wrote the following]:
‘The clearest notion we can form of degeneracy is to regard
it as a morbid deviation from an original type. This deviation,
even if, at the outset, it was ever so slight, contained
transmissible elements of such a nature that anyone bearing
in him the germs becomes more and more incapable of
fulfilling his functions in the world; and mental progress,
already checked in his own person, finds itself menaced
also in his descendants’.”
(p. 471, Broadview edition of Dracula)
Max Nordeau’s
Degeneration (1892)
On the signs of degeneracy: “squint-eyes, harelips,
irregularities in the form and position of the teeth….”
(p. 472, Broadview edition of Dracula)
On the “mental development of degenerates”:
“That which nearly all degenerates lack is the sense
of morality and of right and wrong. For them there
exists no law, no decency, no modesty.”
(p. 472, Broadview edition of Dracula)
Cesare
Lombroso’s
“L’homme
criminal”
Translation:
The Criminal Man
(1895)
After dissecting criminals,
Lombroso notices an
abnormal depression where
the spine and the skull meet
that reminds him of the
skeletal structure of inferior
animals which initiates his
theory on “the criminal man.”
Cesare Lombroso’s
“L’homme criminal”
On the criminal: “an atavistic being who reproduces in his
person the ferocious instincts of primitive humanity and the
inferior animals. Thus were explained anatomically the
enormous jaws, high cheek-bones, …love of orgies, and the
irresistible craving for evil for its own sake, the desire not
only to extinguish life in the victim, but to mutilate the
corpse, tear its flesh, and drink its blood.” (p. 468-469,
Broadview edition of Dracula)
—“monstrosity” and “hairiness” are given in a later list as
signs of criminality (p. 469 Broadview edition of Dracula)
On criminality: “a return to the characteristics peculiar to
primitive savages” (p. 469)
Assignments
For Friday, May 4
Discussion Board Closes at 2pm
For Friday, May 4
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
For Monday, May 7
Chapters 23-27, Pages 301-378
For Wednesday, May 9
GAME SHOW REVIEW