How does the novel Dracula tap into the paranoia and fear of its readers?
Considering the context of reception, the novel provides fear and paranoia to readers when it was written in the eighteenth century all the way through to today. The Victorian audience didn’t receive the novel as well as some would today due to it being a gothic novel, it would have only appealed to some readers.
Stoker uses various different aspects such as religion and psychological ideas to add an understanding of reality to the novel even though it is gothic literature. Stoker outlines the differences between evil and good through his characters, Dracula being a powerful demon serving to the devil, whereas Van Helsing is an avenging servant to the lord, both characters are serving their higher powers in acting out their plans. Religion plays a big role in the novel as its consistent; a good example of this would be the ruined abbey, using gothic architecture to add a sense of fear and paranoia to the novel. Atmospheric ruins that inspire nervous thoughts and spooks, those also seem to occur in Dracula the ruin’s of the abbey are a relic of the thirteenth century, not only does the abbey have its own macabre site but also its legends and haunting supernatural tales, its broken windows and open spaces suggests violence. Another religious part in the novel that I feel ties in well with fear and paranoia is when Jonathon is on his way to the castle and he comes across a religious woman who puts a crucifix around his neck (an English churchman) and tells him to be careful when the clock strikes midnight to be aware that is “the eve of St George’s day”. As readers we realise that Jonathon is not very religious at all, he doesn’t take these things into account until later on when he finds out he actually needs to be aware of these religious aspects. In a way this whole idea of the crucifix has a fearful undertone to it as it is still mentioned later on in the novel. On the topic of religion I feel there is another important part in the novel when paranoia and fear are a constant reminder of what the novel is about. It is when Lucy becomes ill as a bat attacks her, this leads to her being weak and needing blood, this is when the idea of sacrifice comes into place and we start to realise that giving blood from a younger person is seen as pure and kind, so Lucy is given blood form her fiancé Arthur but this doesn’t work as Dracula has already taken it from Lucy so in a way she has lost her virginity to Dracula rather than Arthur. So we see that stoker has used religion in a clever way to tie in with the fear and paranoia in the novel so far.
Furthermore Stoker uses psychological ideas to give the novel an aspect of fear and paranoia he focuses on the fear of sleep and even attacks when people sleep, in other words when people are most vulnerable. This adds a sense of fear throughout the novel, as he could be anywhere as he is a crude shape shifter, he can come when least expected. His physical presence is also a big part of the novel and its what makes the reader feel paranoid as he can be in the form of a bat one minute, and then the next be in the form of mist this highlights his power yet at the same time illustrates how he has turned from a count to a wolf then to a bat, and then finally into the form of mist, this cycle can show to us the downfall of his importance/character.
Overall I believe that Stoker puts paranoia and fear into the novel through aspects like religion and the politics at the time, and how they influenced him to write what he wrote and what effect it had on its readers. The ongoing theme of fear works quite well with Dracula’s character and how he uses certain characteristics to make the readers feel uncomfortable, a prime example of this would be his shape-shifting characteristic to put other people in danger and attack them when they are most vulnerable.
