We
all recoil from the fangs of a beast!
Whether
the beast is a wolf, or a vampire makes no difference...
The
gothic horror classic 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker preys upon these fears, and
therein lies much of its deep, subterannean power.
Although
it explores themes related to the supernatural, religion and death; to terror
of the unknown; to a stifling and crippling Victorian sexual repression; and to
the wild ragings of untamed nature, still the fangs of the predator intrude,
cruelly, bloodily, and without remorse.
The
religious ceremony of impaling the vampire with a stake imitates the fang. The
repeated blood transfusions to Lucy involves fang-like needles piercing her
veins. Dracula turns his fangs onto Mina, injecting and drawing blood. And
Jonathan Harker hacks at Dracula with the famed fang of the Gurkas - the Kukri.
Quincey Morris, the American, dispatches the Vampire lord finally with the fang
of Davy Crockett, the Bowie knife...the Count crumbles into dust.
The
wolf and the vampire belong to the land of the unknown: Transylvania with its
legend of Vlad the Impaler (the fang bites deep again), who partly inspired the
creation of the evil Count. The sea casts up a deserted ship with just the
helmsman's corpse bound to his wheel. The vast unknown fathoms of the ocean
keep their secret of the crew's fate. Then a large dog, some wolf-like
apparation, leaps from the empty ship. Again, the fang. Then the insane
Renfield invokes the fang, when he eats, “insects, birds and other creatures”
to absorb their life force, like a carnivorous predator. The brides of Dracula
terrorize Mina at night, but in the daylight they can be killed. Nocturnal
apparitions are they - like fanged wolves they hunt in darkness and shun the
revealing light.
Sexual
elements are undeniably strong in the strange bite of the Vampire's fangs, as
he 'kisses' his victims and exchanges vital fluids with them. Like some weird,
venereal infection his 'lovers' are tormented by the same ghastly sickness he
suffers from. Then they too must pass it on to another victim of those deadly
fang kisses. We watch as Mina gradually succumbs to Dracula's gothic lust, in a
way that was frowned upon in her society when involving actual sex, not it's
symbolic enactment. The blood transfusions given to Lucy by Van Helsing, when
she lays defenceless before him in her uncovered bed, have odours of some
ghastly, supernatural ravishment.
The
bare tooth of the beast intrudes also in the theme of wild nature that this
gothic tale embraces. From the strange, rustic countryside where Dracula's
castle squats, immersed amongst the eerie trees of a forest beloved by the
fanged timber wolf. Progressing to the windblown storms on the immense,
unfathomable ocean that bears Dracula to England, where the large dog-creature
leaps off the death-ridden vessel. And finally the creature itself appears
undisguised and vanquishing: a real wolf savages Lucy and her mother. The
mother dies of fright, and Lucy retreats into her zombie-like trance a little
while later. Nature, the supernatural, the symbolic sex act and the unknown
collide together and are consummated.
In
my own story, 'The Madding Pond', I also explore the nature of The Beast. That is why I am so
uncannily fascinated by Dracula. I respond to the phenomenon much as he does -
but with a shocking modern interpretation!
That
is why there is a dog attack on a lone hiker at the start of the book.
Because
we all recoil from the fangs of a beast...
Article
by: Stone Cokeman author of...
'The
Madding Pond'
The
13th of June. Midnight. Hiking alone, Jim Brightwell hears a child's shriek
split the darkness by a notorious local pond. Driven away by a pack of dogs he
becomes drawn into the horrifying village legend of Rose and her drowned
sweetheart. Why does the pond send night-walkers insane? Was the boy murdered?
What role does Rose, the eerie woman in gray, play? The chilling end will
disturb you for a long, long time...
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