Well, fear is that distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is one of the most basic human emotions and is programmed into the nervous system to respond similar to an instinct. We are only born with two fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears we currently possess have developed from an event or events in our past which we associated with pain or danger.
Fear has been the basis for entertainment since the beginning of civilisation, in particular the myth of the vampire has always inspired fear in humanity. The ancient Babylonians believed in a female being, called Lilu, who roamed the night, attacking young children. The Jewish tradition has stories of a woman called Lilith who would snatch up young boys in their sleep. This ancient creature had been revisited and recreated in Bram Stoker's gothic novel, Dracula, which was written during the Victorian Era. In this era, composers did not have access to television and so could not use suspenseful and dramatic music or quick cuts to create fear in the audience. Instead, they would write gothic novels, which would critique their contextual values and hence scare the audience by appealing to their real-life fears. It can be said that Stoker had created his main character, Count Dracula, as a result of common Victorian-era fears and Stoker's own personal views on sex .
A common fear prevalent in the Victorian era was attentiveness to social etiquette, along with consciousness to the consequences of an individual's actions. Hence, Stoker creates his main character, Dracula, a notorious vampire, who is above all modern conventions and laws placed down by society, a fact that prompts his pursuers to fear him even more. Inevitably, the Hunters try desperately to destroy Dracula before he gets to them, in an effort to maintain their Victorian morality.
Stoker further reveals the total sexuality of the vampire, with it constantly at odds with the repressed sexuality of the Victorian age. Dracula was written before the suffragette movement had 'taken off' and so Stoker speaks from the perspective of a society, in which it was deemed vulgar and inappropriate for a woman to lift her skirts to her knees to cross a puddle. Stoker appeals to his audience by challenging this view in Dr Seward statement; "She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there, pointed teeth, the blood stained, voluptuous mouth, which made one shudder to see, the whole carnal and unspirited appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy's sweet purity". Woman in the Victorian era were also frowned upon for being sexually assertive in any way. However, in his novel, Stoker uses imagery and word choice in Harker's confession, "I felt in my heart a wicked burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips", to embody the sexual dominance of the vampire mistresses and illustrate his gradual loss of morals.
Such ideas would likely have been a very disturbing and frightening concept to the conservative society of the Victorian Era and would make for a great gothic novel.
