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Dracula Part 3: The Legend 1495 Views


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Looks, wealth, and a super cool castle to live in… Well...maybe not live in, if you happened to be Dracula. But for the most part, this guy had it made. Check out the video to learn more about the hippest undead cat on the block.


Transcript

00:01

We speak student!

00:07

Dracula

00:08

Gothic Literature

00:11

a la Shmoop

00:13

We're gonna dive into some of the primary characteristics

00:16

that separate Dracula from

00:19

other characters of the era, other Gothic characters.

00:23

So, can you frame for us just

00:25

two or three or four other Gothic characters

00:27

that might have existed contemporaneously in this era?

00:32

So a good counterpoint to Dracula would be

00:35

Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray,

00:39

who's also an aristocrat,

00:40

but is not a vampire.

00:42

[ hiss ]

00:43

He makes this bargain to stay young.

00:46

He's a young, pretty lad.

00:49

[ aww ]

00:51

Someone draws a picture of him, paints a picture of him.

00:53

He bemoans the fact that the picture

00:55

will not age and he will.

00:57

In this moment, he makes

00:59

- Faustian... - He makes a Faustian bargain.

01:02

No, he doesn't know. So Faustian.

01:05

And he stays young forever.

01:06

[ baby crying ]

01:08

He's also -- So, Picture of Dorian Gray

01:11

is a Gothic novella.

01:14

He's a Gothic character.

01:16

[ gasp ]

01:16

He's not a vampire.

01:18

He doesn't suck anyone's blood.

01:20

And his vice is kept a little

01:24

under wraps, whereas Dracula is pretty out in the open.

01:29

Another interesting example sort of from the Victorian era

01:33

would probably be something like

01:35

in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre,

01:37

another Gothic novel. Victorian Gothic novel.

01:40

The character

01:42

Bertha Mason Rochester, who is

01:45

Mr. Rochester's first wife

01:47

from the West Indies,

01:49

who he keeps trapped in the attic because she goes mad.

01:52

She's...

01:54

Gothic in the sense that

01:55

there's a suspense and mystery that surrounds her.

01:57

But she's not a vampire.

01:59

But it's one of the first instances in the Victorian novel

02:01

where "vampire" is mentioned.

02:03

Because Jane Eyre sort of comes upon her.

02:06

The secret is revealed - who is kicking up a rumpus in the attic.

02:09

And it's this imprisoned woman.

02:11

And she likens her to

02:13

the German vampire.

02:14

[ hissing ]

02:16

So when we think about the primary characteristics,

02:19

we should focus on - as we're reading Dracula and studying it.

02:21

It's that he's a vampire. He's supernatural.

02:24

[ explosion ]

02:25

And that he

02:28

traverses across the European continent.

02:30

- He's not based in one... - Certainly. He's not -- Yeah.

02:32

He's not static at all.

02:34

But he's one of the first European characters

02:37

that sort of traverses the European system.

02:39

He goes all the way from Carpathia

02:42

to London and back again

02:44

via transit.

02:46

Via different transit modes.

02:48

Okay.

02:53

[ whoop ]

02:54

What other Gothic characters were around at the same time as Dracula?

03:01

[ ooh ]

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