The underlying tone of Dracula is nothing like I thought. Dracula has been so modernized that I forgot that it was written in the Victorian Era. It was written for a society of people who, while similar to us now, were very different. Dracula is scandalous, he is a foreigner with 3 wives, a killer, a monster. He does not fit into any of the neatly laid out boxes presented to the masses.
Dracula was scandalous because of the blatant sexual activity, homosexual undertones and mild beastiality. It touched on the fear of immigrants and mixed in the fantasy and anxiety revolving around sexual pleasure.
Jonathan Harker was not what I expected. Stoker’s mental issues really come out with Harker because he is Stokers representation of himself. He is a married man who towards the end of the book finds himself unable to save his wife. He is stuck in a trance, impotent and weak minded. He is unable to defend his madonna of a wife from this monster; from Dracula. And at the end he is only able to defeat Dracula with the help of Quincy. Quincy is the epitome of what Stoker considers a man to be and you’ll see that for Harker to finally reclaim his manhood, Quincy must die.
Humanities 101 