Thursday, September 11, 2008

Cavemen in Victorian England

Some of you may have heard rumors (whether nasty or not) from literary critics that Dracula by Bram Stoker contains touches of feminism. Well, compare the passage where they kill the lady vampire with this passage from The Everlasting Man:

"But others have conjectured that what is called matriarchy was simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remained fixed because all the fathers were fugitive and irresponsible. Then came the moment when the man decided to guard and guide what he had created. So he became the head of the family, not as a bully with a big club to beat women with, but rather as a respectable person trying to be a responsible person. Now all that might be perfectly true, and might even have been the first family act, and it would still be true that man is for the first time acted like a man, and therefore for the first time became fully a man."

You see, I have seen a criticism that compared the actions of the men in this particular scene from Dracula with things that the actions are obviously not supposed to represent. I saw this action as something immensely good. Upon reflection, this Chestertonian thing is what it seemed to resemble. This interpretation has none of the evil aspects of feminism.

8 comments:

don pedro said...

Oh I'm dying to post my Dracula project on this board, perhaps I will petition whoever it is I am supposed to petition. My report has some discussion of sexuality (it is Dracula, after all) so anyone who has younger siblings or whatever who checks this, please warn me. Perhpas I can just email it to those interested (like I sent it to Old Fashioned Liberal) =)

love2learnmom said...

How long is it? You can e-mail me a copy love2learnmom@gmail.com and I can take a look, but I'm guessing that the length as well as the content could be an impediment.

Thanks!

Mrs. VH

RED said...

I wouldn't mind being emailed it. I love Dracula, and I'd be quite interested to read your take on it.

Lucia Rosa said...

I would like to read it as well (though I haven't read Dracula yet). You might get me interested!
By the way, I haven't been here in a while and I am surprised and delighted at all the new people and frequent posting!

Racoon said...

Yes, don Pedro. I'd also like to read it if you could email me a copy!

don pedro said...

Alright, sorry I've been off the blog for a while. Anyways, forgive my ignorace, but how do I send emails to lewis the editor and lucia rosa if I don't have their emails? Is there a private messaging system on Blogger? Any help? thanks!

RED said...

Right--I didn't think of that. I don't know of a private messaging system on Blogger. However, I believe we all have Ria's mom's email address (because that's how we joined this blog--or at least how I did).

love2learnmom said...

Anyone who is trying to contact another blogger here can e-mail me - love2learnmom at gmail.com - and I'll try to get you connected.