Obsession, repression, and the men behind Dracula

The style, characters and action of Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel, Dracula—including the relationships among male characters—can be attributed to the author’s close relationship and bond with famed Victorian actor, Henry Irving. Irving’s demeanor, personality and acting talent highlighted Stoker’s affinity for Irving, and this essay’s primary objective is to determine how Bram Stoker’s social and professional relationship with Irving, influenced and shaped Dracula. The essay will review the lives of both Irving and Stoker individually and separately, but also delve into their personal relationship, symbolic and representative of male bonding and the role that gender plays in Stoker’s novel. Themes of homoeroticism, whether on the conscious or unconscious level, and gender boundaries will be examined for they both are apparent in Stoker’s life as well as the cast of characters in Dracula. This essay will examine any and all nuances or specific methods that Irving used both as an actor and as a producer. Noteworthy chapters, excerpts and moments from Dracula, such as Jonathan Harker’s stay in Castle Dracula and the excavation of Lucy’s tomb by the four men can be indicators of a continuous desire for male bonding on Stoker’s part. He often struggled with the concept of bachelorhood and marriage. The novel does not praise either, but provides an attractive alternative: a socially intimate and sexually ambiguous cast of males. Ranging from the personal to the public to the professional spheres of Stoker and Irving, this essay intends to provide a comprehensive evaluation of Dracula’s style and characters while simultaneously demonstrating the power of social, professional and personal relations in a literary and theatrical world. Even after Irving overlooked Stoker when he passed on his management rights, Stoker was continually drawn to him. Even after Irving left Stoker nothing after his death, Stoker continued to praise him. It is evident in almost all places that, to Stoker, Henry Irving was not just a man but also a source of pleasure, similar to the way that the males in Dracula perceive each other.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Benjamin A. Kukaini