Racism and
xenophobia: two things plaguing our world today that keeps us from seeing eye
to eye. To say that these are “hot” topics in today’s world would be an
understatement; issues having to do with “foreigners” are one of the biggest issues
in our modern world. It isn’t recent issue however; racism and xenophobia have
been consistent problems all throughout history. So then, it shouldn’t come as
a surprise to find out that it is one of the underlying themes in Dracula.
The most
obvious evidence for this claim is the man himself, Dracula: a foreigner who
speaks imperfect English with a heavy accent, coming to a different country and
immediately causing trouble. This entire idea parallels the thought process of
people of Great Britain at this time. This comes, at least in some way, from
the decline of British Imperialism. For the longest time Great Britain had
conquered and oppressed country after country and when they finally calmed
down, many people were worried(scared more like) that some of those people
would be a bit ticked off. Many were taking note of the rise of other
economies, such as Germany and the United States, and the growing unrest in
British colonies and took it as a sign that Britain was in a
decline-economically, politically, socially and so on (Arata 622). This rise
and their fall caused many citizens to grow afraid of foreigners as they were
on the rise and might want payback for Britain’s misdeeds.
So then, Dracula
represents an invasion of sorts into the British way of life. Dracula shows up
and (though a small group) life starts becoming chaotic. Lives are lost,
routine is interrupted and so on. But Dracula only represents one side of the
foreign invasion. Consider Quincey Morris, the Texan who is not only one of
Lucy’s love interests, but also one of the “heroes” of the story. Everyone
seems fine with him, but he is a foreigner so what’s up with that? Well there’s
a few reasons for this. First of all, by this time America and Britain were
allies. Tensions were not nearly as high as they had been in the past, so the
fear of Americans wasn’t very high. However he is portrayed differently from
the Brits. Quincey, while not being portrayed as dumb per say, isn’t portrayed
as the smartest man. In fact, in terms of story, he doesn’t provide much. A
blood transfusion, some dialogue here and there, and help in destroying the
boxes, he isn’t exactly the most important character…until the end. In the
final fight with Dracula, Quincey is one of the main contributors in the fight
against him, and also the only casualty on the “good” side. In one fell swoop,
both foreigners, Dracula and Morris, are killed. I believe this is a way for
Britain to “assert” its rapidly declining power, having the British characters
survive while the foreign, friend and foe, perish. Whether or not it actually
signifies that exactly, the similarities and differences between Morris and
Dracula are interesting.
Here is my source by the way: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3827794?seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
