Vampires (22 page)

Le Fanu’s
Carmilla
was a sensation. It clearly derived much of its excitement from the unspoken passion between the two young women, in scenes that were couched in the euphemistic language of the day, but which were quite clearly sexual in nature. In an age where young women spent a great deal of time together, often without male company, such feelings were bound to evoke great curiosity, particularly from female readers.

This aspect of the vampire myth, particularly in its portrayal of lust as a deathly form of greed, in which the aroused lover wants to consume the loved one, had never before been expressed so directly in gothic fiction. From this point on, the vampire becomes an iconic image of the sexually voracious individual, whether male or female, seeking to destroy the object of its passion by feasting on its flesh and drinking its blood. In this way, the myth begins to explore and express the controlling, destructive aspect of human sexuality. What was particularly shocking about Carmilla was that this covert discussion took place in the taboo context of lesbian love, and that the author attributed such intense sexual feelings to women as well as men.

Le Fanu was undoubtedly influenced in his writing by the French scholar Augustin Calmet’s work on vampires and revenants. This had been translated into English under the title of
The Phantom World
some years prior to the publication of
Carmilla
. In addition, Le Fanu is thought to have consulted Sabine Baring Gould’s
Book of Werewolves
, published in 1863, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s narrative poem
Christabel
, and
Schloss Hainfeld
, an account by Captain Basil Hall of the Royal Navy, telling of a winter spent in Lower Styria, Austria.

Carmilla
was to have a lasting legacy in vampire literature. It greatly influenced the most famous novel of the genre, Bram Stoker’s
Dracula
, and was also said to have inspired parts of Henry James’s
The Turn of the Screw
.

 

One of the most significant aspects of
Carmilla
, from today's perspective, is that it was a forerunner of Bram Stoker's
Dracula
. Although
Dracula
was a much longer and more elaborate novel than
Carmilla
, the influence of the former work is evident in several ways. In the first draft of
Dracula
, seven years prior to final publication in 1897, the Count's remote castle is set, like Le Fanu's castle, in Styria, Austria. Later, this was altered, and Stoker made Transylvania the setting of the book. There are also many similarities between the characters of Carmilla and Lucy, Stoker's central female vampire figure. Both are beautiful women who are not only very desirable to others, but who themselves have strong sexual desires. In addition to these important similarities, the ‘vampire expert' in Stoker's novel, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, bears more than a passing resemblance to Le Fanu's vampire slayer, Baron Vordenburg.

 

 

Dracula
was an extremely significant novel that, after a relatively slow start, captured the public imagination and has provided the template for vampire horror fiction ever since. Contemporary commentators have pointed out that today,
Dracula
is regarded as a classic work of fiction, largely as the result of the attention drawn to it by the many film versions of the book that appeared in the twentieth century; however, at the time of its publication, it was seen by the majority of the public simply as an enjoyable adventure story. There were Victorian critics who recognized its seminal, iconic status, comparing it to other outstanding novels in the horror genre, such as Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein
, but in general, these reviewers were few and far between.

Abraham Stoker, was the personal assistant of Henry Irving, a well-known actor and the owner of the Lyceum Theatre in London. Besides his work for Irving, Stoker was also a prolific writer of novels and short stories. As a denizen of the London theatre, Stoker understood better than most the popular taste for dramatic action, high adventure, and gothic fantasy, and used this knowledge to make his fiction appealing to readers.

Bram, as he was generally known, had been brought up in County Donegal, the third son of seven children. His mother, Charlotte Thornely, was an early feminist. The family were cultured but not well off, and as a child Stoker suffered a great deal of illness. He was bedridden until the age of seven. During this time, his mother used to read to him and tell him ghost stories; he was an imaginative child, and, as he put it, ‘the leisure of long illness gave opportunity for many thoughts which were fruitful … in later years.'

 

 

At the age of seven, Bram made a miraculous recovery, completed his education, and went on to study at Trinity College, Dublin. He then became a theatre critic for a local paper. After reviewing a performance of
Hamlet
by Henry Irving, he and Irving became friends. Later, Stoker and his wife moved to London, where he began to work for Irving, whom he had now come to idolize. (He even named his only son after Irving.)

An intelligent, cultured man, Stoker read widely and had many interests, including the study of folklore, science, medicine, criminology, and the occult. He was also fascinated by mesmerism – a theraputic technique involving hypnotism. He had great faith in the power of science over irrationalism and superstition, which is ironic considering that he created the most famous evil vampire character in English literature. However, one could argue that the aim of
Dracula
was ultimately to help dispel the vampire myth once and for all. Moreover, some critics have pointed out that by the end of the nineteenth century, superstitious pagan beliefs among urban populations – at least in England – had receded to the point where it became possible to approach ideas of the supernatural in a more playful, entertaining way.

 

 

Stoker wrote
Dracula
as a series of letters, journal entries, and newspaper clippings made by several narrators, which allowed him the scope to tell the story from different points of view. The adventure concerns a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker's visit to his client, Count Dracula, who lives in a remote castle in the Carpathian Mountains. Harker finds his host gracious and welcoming, but realizes after a while that he has become trapped in the castle. Count Dracula tries to find out as much information as he can about London, Harker's home city, and we get the impression that Dracula plans to visit the city soon.

In the meantime, the Count warns Harker not to wander around the castle at night, but Harker does so, trying to escape. He is set upon by three licentious women, The Brides of Dracula, who, as it transpires, are vampires. They attack Harker, who is saved at the last minute by the Count. Eventually, Harker makes his escape, returning to London and the company of his faithful fiancée, Mina Murray, and her friend, the vivacious Lucy Westenra.

Unbeknown to Harker, Dracula makes the journey to London from his castle in Transylvania, and begins to prey on the local populace. Not long afterwards, Lucy falls prey to a mysterious disease. Doctors are called in, including one Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Holland. Van Helsing immediately suspects that Lucy has been bitten by a vampire, but does not communicate his fears, instead treating his patient with blood transfusions. On the night Van Helsing returns to Amsterdam, Lucy and her mother are attacked by a huge wolf. Both women, tragically, die shortly afterwards.

 

 

After Lucy's burial, reports in the newspaper describe a beautiful woman who stalks children by night. Van Helsing reads these reports and realizes that Lucy has now become a vampire. He and Lucy's various suitors go to her grave and destroy her vampiric self by exhuming her body, cutting off her head, putting a stake through her heart, and filling her mouth with garlic.

However, Mina then becomes ill, and it transpires that she has developed a telepathic connection with Count Dracula, who has been wandering about London, and has visited her at night, feeding her his blood. Through Mina, who is hypnotized by Professor Van Helsing, the men track Dracula's movements as he flees back to his castle in Transylvania. Finally, they catch up with him, just before nightfall, and stab him in the throat and heart. Count Dracula crumbles to dust and the spell is lifted.

Of all Stoker's many sensationalist novels,
Dracula
became the most successful. Its theme of an English invasion by a foreign force, in this case Count Dracula's visit to London, chimed with a number of other important novels on a similar theme, by writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, and Rider Haggard, concerning terrifying mythical creatures invading Britain from abroad. Commentators today have argued that
Dracula
drew much of its appeal from the idea that England was being influenced by corrupting forces from the continent; according to this argument, the image of the bloodsucking Austrian Count is symbolic of the gradual infiltration of degenerate influences from abroad.

 

 

As with John Polidori's vampire, Count Dracula was an aristocratic figure. In Polidori's case, he drew on the character of Lord Byron for inspiration. In Stoker's, he used his boss, the charismatic Henry Irving, as a model for the vampire. Although talented, gracious, and charming, Irving could also be tyrannical and domineering, and it was the contrast between these two aspects of the same character that made Stoker's fictional vampire so fascinating. Count Dracula expressed a deep dichotomy in human nature, that is, the existence of primitive, aggressive, destructive sexual drives alongside the cultured, refined personality.

In addition, the character of Van Helsing presented the paradox between science and irrationalism, in that the Professor is at once a well-educated medical man, with a vast knowledge of science, and at the same time has an extensive understanding of the darker forces of human nature, which includes vampirism. This theme of the dual personality, and the role of science in understanding the workings of the irrational unconscious mind, had previously been a theme in other Victorian stories and novels, such as Robert Louis Stevenson's
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
, published in 1886.