As I read Brahm Stoker’s Dracula, I was struck by many things. First of all is its perspective of the first person. The reflective nature of the text as a collection of letters, journal entries, transcriptions of recordings, memoranda, and minutes from meetings lends a particularly personal sense to the entire piece. The reflective nature of the individual articulations give the reader a sense of how the characters pieced together the events of their experience. Then, of course, each character’s experience is pieced together with the others. This mosaic of experience lends a sense of reality to the text, or at least, believability. This is a similar approach used by Max Brooks (a historian by trade) in his novel World War Z. The oral history approach to horror makes the danger more present and more personal. The limited view of the events gives greater threat to the villain and we as readers know no more than the protagonist(s). This highlights the power of the unknown in the text and heightens the fear.
Fear that is personal is far more moving and motivating than that with the protective distance of the 3rd person. I found that I became very involved in the events that effected Mina Harker. The remarkable terror of her experience with Dracula, the which is one of the most arresting moments in the book, conveys the sense of horror of the loved ones of the attacked. This case is not told from Mina’s perspective, but by those men that love her and want to protect her. This is akin to catching a man in the act of rape, and the victim is one’s own wife. The horror of this moment is so resplendently described by Stoker that it is difficult to get through. When my wife an I were first married we lived in a very unsafe apartment complex in a very unsafe part of town. We often heard men running after each other down the hall swearing and threatening. A man was found bloodied on the doorstep. A woman stopped us before entering our apartment to warn us that a rapist was going around and had already raped 3 girls. Also, on one occasion we locked ourselves out of our apartment and the neighbors were more than willing to show us the ‘tricks’ to get into any of the apartments in the building. Needless to say, I was terrified of any time I had to leave my wife alone, even if it was only to take out the trash. I would often have horrifying visions of opening the door to my apartment only to find someone attacking my beloved. The clear description of Dracula grasping Mina’s wrists and forcing her lips to his bleeding chest hearkens so clearly to rape and my own fears that I found myself leaping through the pages to the rescue. I continue to have these fears as I now have children, 3 of which are girls. Knowing that a man in a grey Grand Prix was recently driving through my neighborhood after school trying to pick up kids doesn’t make things any easier.
Aside from the very personal fear of these vampires coming after those I love, I found the final chapters of the book, that describe in languid detail the travel to the castle of Dracula, personal and destructive. Mina’s slow transformation into a Vampire reminded me of the slow and unstoppable consumption of cancer. My mother was diagnosed with a fairly aggressive cancer at age 38. I was 11 at the time. Over the next two years she underwent surgery which removed 2/3 of her colon, part of her stomach, and her uterus and ovaries. She reported for chemotherapy every 2 weeks. The first few days after chemo were the worst and she could hardly get out of bed. Gradually she would feel better until she had to go back again. This experience seemed like unto what is described with Mina. She grows pale and ill and the men worry over her, then one day she seems cheerful and back to normal. The cheer is always with the dread of what is to come. As they draw closer to the mountains Mina grows worse. She sleeps most of the time and when she is awake is not entirely herself. The treatments that they perform on her (hypnosis) grow more and more ineffective. As my mother drew towards the end of her life she spent more of her life asleep. The chemo was deemed ineffective and she was taken off and put on hospice care. It seemed to me that she was away more than she was here. When she was awake she did not entirely seem herself. She grew pale and thin and rarely talked and when she did, she did so in a far away voice like from a television in another part of the house.
The difference between Mina and my Mother is that for Mina there was hope. It was just a matter of time. But for my mother, eventually there was no hope. It was just a matter of time. So in this case the reflective, personal nature of the narrative combined with the personal experience of mine reflected in the text. This made for a powerful cathartic experience, yet also incredibly difficult. So, in a sense, Mina never was in danger of becoming a vampire, she always had a reflection.
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