The Count participates greatly as an element of the gothic genre. His appearance is revolting and makes Harker ‘shudder’.
‘His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed.’
Dracula’s pointed ears remind us of wolves which are often used in gothic novels. His mouth is ‘cruel-looking’ and his teeth are odd. Dracula also wears a cloak which has monotones of bats which are often linked to the gothic genre. He is also capable of controlling the wolves that he calls ‘the children of the night’. Wolves are often seen to be very scary as they come out at night and are generally vicious animals.
The three vampire women create an air of mystery and confusion to Harker. They are beautiful and attractive however they are also predatory and sinister,
‘I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Faugh! Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common. They are devils of the pit!’
They are threatening to Harker and make his feel uneasy and confused. They lure him towards them and then try to attack him. These actions are often found in the gothic genre. People are often lured into traps against their will.
There are often innocents in a gothic novel that can easily be trapped and lead astray. In ‘Dracula’ there are generally two innocents. One is one of the main characters, Jonathon Harker and the other is Lucy Westenra. Harker is incredibly curios of the castle and seems oblivious to the many hints given to him by the villagers and the old lady who gives him the crucifix. Also the many strange elements of the castle and the Count, it takes him a long time to realise Dracula is not a normal man. He obviously does not want to let his company down as he is a young graduate and this is his first assignment. Lucy is a typical gothic innocent. She is extremely beautiful and flirtatious. This is shown by her three proposals. She also has some odd and different undertones to her character though. I think this is shown in her disturbed sleep and her sleep walking as Dracula approaches. She seems to be over-sensitive to the signs and approaching of Dracula. There is usually always a young, beautiful, innocent girl in all novels of the gothic genre who usually get tricked by the evil character e.g. Dracula and fall in love with them.
Another weird aspect of the book which shows an element of the gothic genre are the gypsies who come to the castle and choose to help Dracula instead of Harker by giving Dracula the letter Harker wrote home.
‘I have given the letters; I threw them through the bars of my window with a gold piece, and made what signs I could to have them posted … The Count has come. He sat down beside me, and said in his smoothest voice as he opened the two letters: The Szagny has given me these’.
This seems to give the impression that Dracula is able to control everyone and everything and this makes the reader scared which is an important element in a gothic novel.
However there are a few elements of the horror genre in ‘Dracula’. The horror genre is generally more gruesome and more shocking than the gothic genre. It leaves less to the imagination and has more gory details than gothic novels do. I believe there are three points in the first six chapters of ‘Dracula’ that could class as the horror genre.
One of these is when Harker decides he wishes to ‘rid the world of such a monster’ and tries to kill Dracula. He lifts a spade to strike him across the head however Dracula moves the spade with his powers and it only makes a ‘deep gash above the forehead’.
‘The last glimpse I had was of the bloated face, bloodstained and fixed with a grin of malice which would have held its own in the nethermost hell.’
Dracula is described in detail and the blood seems to be more in the aspect of the horror genre than gothic. It does not leave much to the imagination as Gothic novels often do. Instead it describes so we have a clear picture in our heads of the ‘bloodstained’ Count.
Another horrific section of the book is in chapter four. Dracula steals a woman’s baby and when she goes to save it he sets the wolves on her. There is little description of blood or the actual event,
‘There was no cry from the woman, and the howling of the wolves was but short. Before long they streamed away singly, licking their lips’.
However, the thought of the Count setting wolves on the woman and the wolves were eating her fits into the horror genre.
The last point which has an element of the horror genre in the first six chapters is the baby in the bag,
‘she pointed to the bag which he had thrown upon the floor, and which moved as thought there were some living thing within it … One of the women jumped forward and opened it. If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child.’
The baby is an innocent creature and it is horrific to put it into a bag and then kill the baby and eat it. Yet again there is little description of blood however, as the thing in the bag is a baby I think it comes under the horror genre because babies are seen to be sweet young innocents and to take their lives and mistreat them is an element of the horror genre.
I think the first six chapters of ‘Dracula’ have elements of both the gothic and horror genres. However, I believe it is mainly a gothic novel.