Context: D + TLS

Context: D + TLS

1. D

   • Religion
     • "Crux": something that is difficult to explain/a puzzle, or Latin for cross
     • Van Helsing references the eternal flames of hell - "paths of flame"
   • Writing
     • Stoker began noting down Dracula while in Whitby on holiday
     • Intertextuality: Lucy referencing Hamlet when Ophelia is already dead appears ironic
     • Shorthand was superseded by sound-recording devices
   • Physiognomy
     • Connection between facial features and character
     • Some physiognomists claim people are "more beautiful" after death than they ever were alive
   • Society
     • Women
       • New Woman
         • 1882 Married Women's Property Act gave women rights to ownership of property in marriage
       • Patriarchy
       • "Voluptuous"
         • 19th century view of fuller-figured feminine beauty
         • Estimated 80,000 prostitutes in a population of 2m
         • Mesmerism: hypnosis to cure mental illness, criticised by was said to remove women's sexual inhibitions - D to M
       • Idealised childhood and sanctity of motherhood, in part because of high infant mortality rates and risks of childbirth for women
       • Blood transfusions were often fatal with the first successful occurring in 1818
     • Class
       • Social divide was continued after death because the wealthiest with a superior class position would be buried in tombs and mausoleums
       • Main characters are amused by the working class' "thirst" to drink
     • Death
       • Seances grew in popularity especially on behalf of the wealthiest
       • Spiritualism was a revival of medieval superstitions
       • Interest in the occult
   • P92

2. TLS

   • Women
     • Patriarchy
       • Caroline returning to care for Roderick
         • Made to step aside to make way for men returning from the war
       • Rod acts as the head of the house with MA as matriarch
       • Married exploits repressed gender dynamics to obtain HH
       • Caroline remains polite towards Faraday while suppressing her inhibitions and suspicions towards him
     • Given more rights following the World Wars
     • Progressive: doesn't conform to Faraday's ideals of women
   • Class
     • Introduction of death duties
       • Loss of income in the estates
         • Betty complains about her job as a maid in a declining country house because her friends are working in factories
           • Unlike Faraday, Betty's surname is never revealed because she is serving the sole purpose of maid to the characters
     • Faraday's focus on how his mother sacrificed her health to give him an education
       • Faraday's obsession with identity and states means his forename is never revealed, he is only "Doctor"
     • The Ayres' self-destructive isolation
       • Common theme used by Waters as well as class resentment
       • Faraday's intervention in the Ayres' family leads to the breakdown of it, symbolises the changing culture
   • Politics
     • Followed World War Two
       • Vague understanding of mental health
         • Use of mental health institutions, like for Roderick
           • Used as an authoritarian form of social control
     • Labour government under Attlee was focused on wealth redistribution through higher taxes on the rich
       • Culture of change
         • Originally intended to analyse the rise of socialism
       • Ambiguity surrounding the future and anxiety towards it
         • Leads to scrutiny around the characters' sanity
     • Creation of the National Health Service threatened private doctors
       • Faraday is symbolic of the unsuccessful old ways
       • Criticised: Faraday shouldn't have time to court Caroline because rural doctors were usually busy each day
         • The NHS was needed to reduce the strain on the rural doctors
         • NHS helped those in poverty who couldn't afford the costs of privatised healthcare
   • Writing
     • Neo--Victorian novel
     • Spent time preparing to write the novel in Warwickshire, where it's set
       • Researches the era to use colloquialisms for authenticity
     • Almost seen as two novels
       • Social history of lower-class Faraday falling for unattainable upper-class Caroline
         • Waters: wouldn't say it was a heterosexual novel
           • Faraday: complicated desires
           • Roderick: more feminine than Caroline
           • Caroline: average, not the embodiment of idealised women
       • Classic ghost story of Hundreds Hall
     • Historical author
     • Uses tropes from turn-of-the-century writers

3. Gothic

   • Gothic genres are often written with ambiguity to distance the story from the readers
     • The epistolary format used by Stoker creates different interpretations
     • Faraday's limited perspective as first person relies on other narratives and his own biased view of them
       • The reader and characters are able to infer his motives as the plot develops in place of him revealing his own motives
   • Tropes
     • Castle Dracula is a typical location for a Gothic setting
     • The bloodline during the Victorian period needed to be preserved and was the basis of class and national identity, which would be polluted by foreigners
       • Vampirism is depicted as an infection transmitted through blood
   • Somnambulism: believing that sleepwalking was a link between dreaming and madness
   • Psychological approach to the genre examines apprehension of reality and how dreams are without the restraints of civilised behaviour

4. Supernatural