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Playlist Dracula: Shmoopversations 16 videos
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Dracula Part 3: The Legend 1497 Views
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Looks, wealth, and a super cool castle to live in… Well...maybe not live in, if you happened to be Dracula. But for the most part, this guy had it made. Check out the video to learn more about the hippest undead cat on the block.
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:07
Dracula
- 00:08
Gothic Literature
- 00:11
a la Shmoop
- 00:13
We're gonna dive into some of the primary characteristics
Full Transcript
- 00:16
that separate Dracula from
- 00:19
other characters of the era, other Gothic characters.
- 00:23
So, can you frame for us just
- 00:25
two or three or four other Gothic characters
- 00:27
that might have existed contemporaneously in this era?
- 00:32
So a good counterpoint to Dracula would be
- 00:35
Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray,
- 00:39
who's also an aristocrat,
- 00:40
but is not a vampire.
- 00:42
[ hiss ]
- 00:43
He makes this bargain to stay young.
- 00:46
He's a young, pretty lad.
- 00:49
[ aww ]
- 00:51
Someone draws a picture of him, paints a picture of him.
- 00:53
He bemoans the fact that the picture
- 00:55
will not age and he will.
- 00:57
In this moment, he makes
- 00:59
- Faustian... - He makes a Faustian bargain.
- 01:02
No, he doesn't know. So Faustian.
- 01:05
And he stays young forever.
- 01:06
[ baby crying ]
- 01:08
He's also -- So, Picture of Dorian Gray
- 01:11
is a Gothic novella.
- 01:14
He's a Gothic character.
- 01:16
[ gasp ]
- 01:16
He's not a vampire.
- 01:18
He doesn't suck anyone's blood.
- 01:20
And his vice is kept a little
- 01:24
under wraps, whereas Dracula is pretty out in the open.
- 01:29
Another interesting example sort of from the Victorian era
- 01:33
would probably be something like
- 01:35
in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre,
- 01:37
another Gothic novel. Victorian Gothic novel.
- 01:40
The character
- 01:42
Bertha Mason Rochester, who is
- 01:45
Mr. Rochester's first wife
- 01:47
from the West Indies,
- 01:49
who he keeps trapped in the attic because she goes mad.
- 01:52
She's...
- 01:54
Gothic in the sense that
- 01:55
there's a suspense and mystery that surrounds her.
- 01:57
But she's not a vampire.
- 01:59
But it's one of the first instances in the Victorian novel
- 02:01
where "vampire" is mentioned.
- 02:03
Because Jane Eyre sort of comes upon her.
- 02:06
The secret is revealed - who is kicking up a rumpus in the attic.
- 02:09
And it's this imprisoned woman.
- 02:11
And she likens her to
- 02:13
the German vampire.
- 02:14
[ hissing ]
- 02:16
So when we think about the primary characteristics,
- 02:19
we should focus on - as we're reading Dracula and studying it.
- 02:21
It's that he's a vampire. He's supernatural.
- 02:24
[ explosion ]
- 02:25
And that he
- 02:28
traverses across the European continent.
- 02:30
- He's not based in one... - Certainly. He's not -- Yeah.
- 02:32
He's not static at all.
- 02:34
But he's one of the first European characters
- 02:37
that sort of traverses the European system.
- 02:39
He goes all the way from Carpathia
- 02:42
to London and back again
- 02:44
via transit.
- 02:46
Via different transit modes.
- 02:48
Okay.
- 02:53
[ whoop ]
- 02:54
What other Gothic characters were around at the same time as Dracula?
- 03:01
[ ooh ]
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