The most disturbing part of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was undoubtably when Dracula feeds a half smothered infant to his wives. Reading this section horrified me and, as a mother, I could not imagine injuring a helpless child. Stoker however takes these 3 women and has twisted them and turned them against what should be a very basic instinct to protect an infant. Instead they seem titillated and eager to end this babies life. The very thought/action is the antithesis of what maternal instinct should drive them to.
I do feel that the movie scene was not as disturbing as the book. I think this is very much due to the fact that most people are horrified by the idea of injuring or killing a baby. In the movie they show Dracula giving the crying child to his wives but the horrific death of the baby is not shown. I personally would not wish to see that and I assume that the movie producers thought that the general knowledge of what happened to the infant would be enough without actually showing what happened. I’m not sure i’d want to keep watching if they went all “national geographic” with this scene.
Humanities 101 