Copies de concours: Littérature Agreg Externe 2006 - Copie 1
Note obtenue: 4,5/20
This text is taken from Dracula, and it is an extract from Dr Seward’s diary. The passage describes the scene in which Arthur, Quincey, VH, and Seward go to the graveyard at night so as to find out if VH is telling the truth: is Lucy really un-dead? Is Lucy really a vampire? They all come to see. Considering the nature of the passage, we chose to study the link between sensuality and sexuality. We will see that the analysis of lights, colours, and sounds show the presence of the fantastic genre, which is one of the main features of Dracula. These aspects of the fantastic genre, notably the sublime, leads us to question the importance of sight in the passage. Eventually we will see that, being linked to sight, sensuality has a central function in the passage and in the novel, though it is never openly expressed by Stoker.
Lights, sounds, and colours are very important in the passage, and
they appear to belong to the most central features of the novel.
There is a series of oppositions and contrasts. In the first part of
the text, silence is omnipresent, while sound and speech are present
in the second part. We can distinguish two sorts of sounds; the child’s
are pure and innocent (“a sharp little cry”, l.6), while
Lucy’s words are devilish (“diabolically”, l.30).
The contrast between light and darkness also is important. Light seems
to indicate what the narrator wants us to see; the “startling
prominence” shown by the moonlight cannot be missed. On the contrary,
what lies in the darkness must be hidden, at least for the moment.
Moonlight thus seems to stand for purity and revelation; it is not
just any light, it is a natural and pure light. We can also remark
that the light is progressively brought about, in parallel with revelation;
the scene begins in the dark, then the moonlight, and eventually in “concentrated
light” (l.13).
The opposition of colours is obvious if we look at Lucy and the child.
Lucy is a “dark-haired woman” (l.4), while the child is “fair-haired” (l.5).
We can also find the opposition between white and red, which is recurrent
in the novel. White stands for paleness and death; red stands for blood
and life: “blood is the life”, Renfield will say later.
The colours white and red also have sexual significations in Dracula.
White is associated with teeth which are themselves associated with
the male sex; red is associated with the wound, and thus with the female
sex. But we will come back to these points later.
All these oppositions between sound and silence, light and darkness,
and between colours, give a sublime character to the scene. The sublime
can be defined as the description of spectacular scenes or landscapes
which are frightening and fascinating in the same time. Such is the
case in the text as Stoker seems to insist on the grandiosity of silence
(“a big, aching void”, l.1), of the clouds (“the
concentrated light”, l.13). The sublime is a characteristic of
the fantastic and of the gothic as it allows the author to give a worrying
background and atmosphere to his novel.
The oppositions between light and darkness, and between silence and
sounds are central elements in Dracula and to the fantastic
genre. The study of light, darkness, and colours lead us to the analysis
of sight in the passage.
In the passage, as in the novel, sight is a kind of link between
sensuality and sexuality.
A specific feature of sight is present in the passage: the uncertainty
of sight, which is part of the fantastic genre. In the fantastic genre,
one never knows if sight actually is reliable. The construction of
the sentence on line 5 makes us doubt: was it really a child? The sentence
on line 8 is strange too: does this mean that they did not see clearly
before? The reliability of sight is questioned. Moreover, the insistence
on light is used as if the narrator wanted to convince the reader that
what the characters see is real (l.13). But if what they see is presented
as real, if the characters accept the reality of things, the text is
not in the fantastic mode anymore.
Sight is then presented as reliable: the characters believe in what
they see because the strong presence of light can leave no doubt. What
they see is real, there cannot be any doubt on the reality of things. Stoker
thus operates a shift from the fantastic to the marvellous: the characters
accept what they see, and reality paves the way for horror. It is the
case in the text: “we shuddered with horror” (l.15), Arthur
almost faints, and again “how it made me shudder to see this” (l.22).
Stoker wants the reader to enter the realm of the marvellous as soon
as the beginning of the novel, in which he writes that what is told
is facts. This echoes Jonathan’s numerous attempts at remaining
objective while he is in Dracula’s castle. Sight is reliable
and is necessary for the observation of things.
Nevertheless the observation of some things does not necessarily lead
to the marvellous and the validation of reality; it can lead to voyeurism.
When Lucy recognizes Arthur, we assist to a more sensual scene as she
invites Arthur to join her, probably hinting at a sexual intercourse
(“My arms are hungry for you” , l.28). Seward, VH, Quincey,
and the reader thus become voyeurs: they assist to the beginning of
a private scene, which VH even goes as far as interrupting: “VH
sprang forward and held between them this little golden crucifix” (l.33).
Sight and observation shift to voyeurism; VH, Quincey, Seward, and
the reader remain passive – at least until VH interrupts the
scene – and Seward even seems to enjoy this situation as he describes
Lucy with sensual adjectives (“languorous, voluptuous”,
l.27). Voyeurism will even go further in the scene where Lucy is staked
by Arthur, a clear metaphor of sexual intercourse.
We saw that sight led to the study of voyeurism. Voyeurism also questions
sexuality as a whole in the passage and in the novel.
Sexuality is not directly treated by Stoker in the novel, as he uses
numerous metaphors and displacements. The sexual dimension in Dracula has
always been denied by its author; but it does not lower the central
notions of sex and sexuality in the novel.
In the passage women – Lucy – are clearly presented as
being more powerful than men. Roles actually are inverted: women’s
sexuality is stronger than men’s. We have just seen that VH,
Seward, and Quincey were passive in the scene; Arthur also is passive
(“he seemed under a spell”, l.32). Moreover it is Lucy
who invites Arthur to a sexual intercourse, showing that traditional
roles are inverted. Lucy is in a position of power, and thus requires
that Arthur should come to her. In this respect this scene echoes the
scene in which Jonathan is attracted by the three vampire women in
Dracula’s castle; the enclosure of the graveyard also echoes
that of the castle.
Lucy inspires fear, which is underlined by her representation as Medusa,
and reinforces the parallel with the three vampire women. This representation
is not obvious in this passage, but we can nevertheless find some elements:
her hair (l.4) and her eyes (l.19). These aspects are however present
in Coppola’s adaptation, notably with Lucy’s long and curly
hair which echoes the three vampire women again. Coppola makes the
comparison between the three vampire women and Medusa even more explicit,
as he added snakes in their hair. If female sexuality is so frightening
for male characters in Dracula, it is also because women have
more and more important roles in the late Victorian society. Women
are offered traditional manly jobs, and can do medical studies. Respective
roles which are traditionally attributed to men and women are not the
same anymore: the New Woman has come, and men fear she might take their
jobs and their traditional roles.
In the text Lucy is seen with a child on her breast (l.3), which gives
us an image of a mother nursing her child. But if we look closer, we
can see that this image is not as pure and decent as it seems. Lucy
clearly wants to vamp the child she brought back with her, that is
to say to bite him. Referring to sexuality, the bite is assimilated
to a sexual intercourse; the pointed teeth symbolize the male sex;
the wound symbolizes the female sex. Lucy intends to vamp the child
which, following this idea, amounts to committing an act of paedophilia.
Female sexuality is thus not only frightening and threatening; it is
also monstrous according to Stoker.
Apart from the fear of female sexuality, it is possible that male characters
have other hidden fears. They are afraid of the mark, of the stain
(l.14), and thus of the vampiric dissemination. We can wonder if what
pushes the Crew of Light to fight against vampires and Dracula is the
cause of their disgust towards female sexuality, which clearly is presented
as animal-like, monstrous (through the child), and only oral (through
the bite). Maybe the male characters fear Dracula might steal their
women. Another interpretation can fit: men are scared of venereal diseases – quite
increasing at the end of the 19th C. – and of their dissemination.
Vampirism, from this point of view, would only be a metaphor.
This passage is quite representative of the whole novel: the centrality of sight, sensuality, and sexuality is defined, and it gives an idea of importance it has in the novel. If women are presented as frightening because of their sexuality, one must not forget that men are not excluded from sexuality. A few lines after this passage, Arthur will stake Lucy’s body, symbolizing an image of rape. Dracula’s sexuality is not really glamorous either. His need to vamp people only shows, from a psychoanalytical point of view, that he never went beyond the oral stage. His motherly behaviour towards Mina nevertheless questions the place of male and female sexuality – and thus their roles – in late Victorian England.