Dracula

Like Frankenstein, Dracula has been glamorized by Hollywood, so once again I've been shocked when I read the literally description of the legendary vampire. Here are my thoughts of what I expected him to look like: tall, dark well quaffed hair, handsome face, lean, well dressed,young, and very suave.

This is what Dracula actually looks like: "His face was a strong-a very strong-aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty doomed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, cruel-looking, with particularly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years" (23) "For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremly pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin...The backs of his hands had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse-broad, with squat fingers...there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me (24).

That said Dracula does not sound like the seductive killer that people have come to know. (I'm on team Edward, but I don't read Twilight, Rob Pattinson is just really attractive lol)

What I find bizarre though is that the novel begins with a male character that Dracula is trying keep imprisoned. Everything that I previusly knew about vampires, at least the males, was that they seduce women. They turn on the charm to get the girls pretty little necks. In the first few chapters all I see is Dracula trying to "seduce" Jonathan Harker with his hospitality, status in life and knowledge of history. I get that creepy old guy pedophile vibe from Dracula, especially when he says "This man belongs to me!" and "Yes, I can too love; you yourselves can tell it from the past!(43). So why is there this underlying homoerotic feeling coming from Dracula? I don't know, to be honest. I know that latter on there are female victims, but opening sets the tone of this uncanny story of a monster.

Wuthering Heights

The "love story" between Heathcliff and Catherine is still way too far fetched for me. The past two classes we took the time to discuss each character and it made me wonder how these two people could possibly say they love each other.

Catherine is a selfish, narrow minded, fool. She is almost childlike in her thought process. One example of this is when she is talking to Nelly after Edgar has proposed to her on page 64. Catherine has concocted this grand scheme of marrying Edgar Linton, but using his money to support her "love" Heathcliff. Nelly responds by saying "You'll find him (Edgar) not so pliable as you calculate upon: and, though I'm hardly a judge, I think that is the worst motive you've given yet for being the wife of young Linton" (64). Catherine's reply is "It is not, it is the best" (64). It's almost as if she is not familiar with how marriage or the real world works. This shallow look at the world is the reason i wonder how she can love or even fall in love with Heathcliff. The whole novel she treats him as an annoyance that won't leave her. He gets in the way of her becoming a proper lady and her ability to climb the social ladder. The class discussed that Catherine might be a "wild child" and Heathcliff embodies that persona. Out of that jealousy for his freedom, she covets him, but doesn't really love him. She is quoted as saying "I am Heathcliff". Her saying that solidifies her want to be Heathcliff not to be with him. This is very selfish of her, she seems to enjoy toying with the emotions of Heathcliff. If she really loved him she would have married him. Throughout the entire novel Catherine always got what she wanted. So how is it that the one person she claimed to be madly in love with is out of reach for her. I don't feel that it's believable. Catherine had her fun playing around with Heathcliff, but when it got down to her life and what she wanted, she went with the easier life. Edgar will be able to provide for her, despite the lack of spontaneity she would have received from Heathcliff.

Heathcliff is no better than Catherine when it comes to selfishness, but he also has the added brooding characteristic. His entire life has been trying and how is someone that hardened to the world able to fall in love with someone as superficial as Catherine? As you read more into the story you can see that his love of Catherine is more of a possible plot to exact revenge on Hindley, Catherine's cruel brother. Hindley caused Heathcliff so much suffering in his life, Heathcliff was willing to take his time to execute his plan. Marrying his sister would be the perfect way to get back at him. Heathcliff would be in the family forever and there wouldn't be anything Hindley could do about it. This is just proving that Heathcliff is just as crazy as Catherine. These two characters do not seem to have a concept of how surreal they appear the "normal" people in the book. Their actions dictate how the rest of the characters act, so it's like you have the two puppet masters controlling the story and nothing about this novel makes it a love story.

Frankenstein 2

The creature is not a human. Sure “it” or “he” may appear to be a grotesque, hideous human, but he lacks the soul and humanity that makes a person a person. I think of the creature as a sociopath. Like a sociopath, the creature has the ability to mimic people, but “he” lacks the social cues to function in society. Because the creature is isolated from the world he grows to resent the world he can’t be a part of. With this built up anger he seeks revenge on the man that created him. The creature kills Victor’s brother and new wife Elizabeth and indirectly kills an innocent Justine. After he kills he feels no remorse. Real people, no matter how much anger or hatred they are harboring for a person they killed, have some feeling of guilt or sadness. The creature doesn’t even know he should feel like this. The creature doesn’t know how to really express any real human emotions because he is an unnatural being.

He is a freak of nature, but the irony is that he finds his solace in nature. Nature is supposed to be pure, but the creature is a contradiction to the environment he lives in. He possesses left over limbs and discarded organs. There is nothing pure or original about him at all. Man should not intervene with nature, because if you do disastrous things occur. With this notion, I believe that is why Victor destroys the companion he promised to make the creature (115). “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like to him, and, trembling with passion tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged.” He is showing some restraint with the powerful knowledge he has, and maybe that is the point Shelly wanted to get across. Science is a good thing, but there must be caution or terrible things could happen.