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... tive weapons in combating supernatural evil is symbols of unearthly good. In the fight against Dracula, these symbols take the form of the icons of Christian faith, such as the crucifix I have placed the crucifix over the head of my bed. The novel is so invested in the strength and power of these Christian symbols that it reads, at times, like a propagandists Christian promise of salvation for the innocent.
A main theme in both novels could be moral behaviour; though a contrast in these could be that Stoker focuses more on sexual morality. In the personification of Dorian Gray, it is shown how man always struggles with the unwritten laws and rules of modern society and human (forbidden) desire. Dorian Gray embodies immoral behaviour, not at the beginning but after he decides that he can do whatever he wants, for the painting will take all the burden of his shame. The complete denial of responsibility in Sibyls death is but the beginning of his moral degradation. He relishes in observing the mutilation of the picture, and therefore his soul. His further meetings with Henry simply magnify this descent into extravagance: ...
You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I dont know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It is all Henrys influence. I see that Although Dracula has many scenes that seem to revel in sexual language and sensual description, these pleasures are heightened to a Victorian and Christian sense of morality. In writing a novel that implicitly combines sin with sexuality in a moralizing way, Stoker is also given free reign to write incredibly lurid and sensual scenes.
The themes of Christian redemption and the triumph of purity are successful, but the sexually loaded scenes that of the three female vampires closing in seductively on a powerless but desiring Jonathan Harker, for example, tend to linger longest in a reader's mind. Colour is particularly noticeable in both of the novels both the authors use white as a sign of purity and innocence All three had brilliant white teeth. It is the white purity of Dorians boyhood that Lord Henry finds so captivating, much in the way that Harker had some longing towards the three evil sisters he encountered. Red is also indicative of passion and liveliness rose-red youth in Dorian Gray, and in Dracula it is used more widely for blood, stained purity and passion the ruby of their voluptuous lips.
White is used to indicate the goodness and virtue of Dorian Gray -You are the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. However, this fades as the picture starts to change. When ordering flowers for Sibyl he asks for as few white ones as possible showing his loss of virtuousness, and the lack of need for it. One of the main contrasts in these two novels is the use of female characters. The main and almost only female character in the entire novel of Dorian Gray is Sibyl Vane.
Her death happened on the verge of Dorians transformation why is it that I cannot feel this tragedy as much as I want to? She is the entire innocent, beauty and purity that are in him. She is everything to me. Sibyls portrayal of Juliet from Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet foreshadows the doomed nature of Sibyls relationship with Dorian Gray. Women don't play a substantial or crucial part in the novel. In the novel, women are present, but remain very shallow and stereotypical.
Most of the women who do appear are upper class women, except for Sybil Vane. Even though Sybil Vane plays an important part in Dorian's life for a while, her character remains unimportant, it's the woman she plays he falls in love with. When is she Sybil Vane? Never. When she fails on stage, it doesnt matter to Dorian who she really is beyond the parts she played. Further in the novel, women seem only present at gatherings and meetings, but they seem neither of any importance to the story nor to the main characters.
In contrast, the female characters in Dracula are more dominating figures. The three weird sisters that Harker encounters in Dracula's castle are both his dream and his nightmare they in fact embody both the dream and the nightmare of the Victorian male imagination in general. The sisters represent what the Victorian ideal stipulates women should not be deliberately voluptuous and sexually aggressive which was both thrilling and repulsive thus making their beauty both a promise of sexual fulfilment and a curse. However, this sexual proficiency threatens to undermine the foundations of a male dominated society by compromising mens ability to reason and maintain control. Dracula addresses the fear of things we cannot prove scientifically and rationally, and the ways we still rely on magic, ritual and faith to comfort and even to save us in an age of scientific curiosity and achievement. Stoker's characters are in love with modern technology: with telegraphs and trains, with typewriters and gramophones write it out for him on the typewriter and primitive recording devices.
As well, there are references to scientific and medical advances such as the transfusion of blood, which aim to dispel all mystery. The invasion Dracula attempts provides a suggestion that people may be pompous and pretentious in feeling they can know and control everything: there are mysteries, which perhaps cannot be fully grasped. Dracula is defeated by human effort using tools of ritual, not by science or reason: God's madmen must do wild work. To the reader, this would suggest that relying on such modernity would have a disastrous effect.
This would capture the attraction of the readers of the 19 th century as they were beginning to use such progressive things. It would place a fearful belief in their minds that perhaps technology isnt as successful as it is supposed to be. Although The Picture of Dorian Gray is definitely described as a Gothic text, it does not contain many of the features typical to a Gothic text. There is no real particular mention of religion, animals / creatures or even any particularly bleak settings.
However, in both novels loved ones and innocent people die, innocence and good is corrupted and there is a connection to sexuality. Both novels create an aspect of mystery for the reader of the 19 th century. Stokers portrayal of a creature little known by the English public of the 1890 s would have been of fear inspiring fascination to read about. Though few would have read John Palidoris vampire novel, more perhaps would have heard the tale of Vlad the Impaler. He was a man who supposedly drank human blood or the blood of his war victims, and was in fact a Dracula. This basis in reality would add a sadistic interest to the novel.
Wilde's novel, though equally inexplicable, doesnt create the same feeling of terror, but does raise a number of reservations in its reader. Both novels are seemingly successful texts in upholding the interest of the reader through many of the typical conventions of the Gothic tradition.
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Research essay sample on 19 Th Century Dorian Gray
