Vampire, Dracula and Victorian Morality Theories

Vampire, Dracula and Victorian Morality Theories

1. Mary Douglas (1966)

   • Purity and Danger (1966)
     • Social order and heirarchy is symbolised through the sexual body
     • Prejudice towards other cultures (Eastern Europen in Dracula case) views on sex causes this fear and taboo
     • She exmined different tribal culture in comparison to westernised beliefs about sex

2. Michael Foucault (1976)

   • A History of Sexuality Vol 1 (1976)
     • We as a society are obsessed with sex
     • This obsession creates discourse on the conduct of sex and creates tabboo which folk devils cross
   • This discourse on sex intensified in the 18th century

3. Anne Rice (1976)

   • An Interview with a Vampire (1976)
     • Vampires are represented as beautiful and immoral, not obeying rules and domination
     • Doesn't break the trditional sense in that sunrise is their only curfew
     • They only reveal their ugly side in death
     • Blood and vampire infection were metaphor for AIDS at the time

4. Stephanie Meyer (2005)

   • Twilight (2005)
     • Vampires counteract the anxieties of the family and American value, they are moral, believe in love, no sex before marriage ect.
     • They eat animals rather than feast on humans
     • Fairytale living happily ever after with your middle class vampire family

5. Margaret L. Carter (1997)

   • The Vampire as Alien in Contemporary Fiction (1997)
     • The notion of the outsider in Dracula horrified Victorians, but is perceived as attractive today

6. Rosemary Jackson (1981)

   • Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion (1981)
     • Stoker reinforces social class, racial and sexual prejudices
     • Society can only remain in tact by excluding that 'other' alien

7. Housel and Wisnewski (2009)

   • Twilight and Philosophy (2009)
     • Food is used as a metaphor for love ans desire as it is likened to hunger
     • The vampire no longer requires blood but love