Proposal

I plan on writing a paper for my final literary analysis project. I want to look at Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. I will also be bringing in some of Candace Benefiel’s Blood Relations: The Gothic Perversion of the Nuclear Family in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire.
I want to look at the use of a family in both of these novels. Benefiel says, “The figuratively incestuous family of vampires can be traced in rudimentary form to Stoker’s Dracula… Dracula is first presented in his Transylvanian castle with three brides/daughters (Stoker 71-73)…Anne Rice however, expanded on this considerably in Interview with the Vampire, making the nuclear family of vampires a major theme in her novel (Benefiel 263). Both of these vampire families are presented in different ways. Dracula and his brides/daughters are not nearly as close to a family unit as Lestat, Louis and Claudia. I want to examine possible reasons for the differences, but also look at why both authors seem to use this idea of a family when relating to vampires.
I believe that this use of the family when relating to vampires can be seen as slightly uncanny. Family is a very familiar thing to everyone here in the United States, but it takes on a whole new quality when applied to vampires. It makes us question what family really is, if vampires can be family then what qualifies as family. In class we talked a lot about the queering of the traditional American nuclear family as it applies to Louis, Lestat and Claudia and I would like to expand on this idea and also apply this “queering” to Dracula and his family. Dracula had three wives. This is definitely not the traditional family we are used to. Dracula does not really seem to care much about these three women. He tells them what to do, but is more interested in having them come around only when needed. They do not seem to be with him and keep him company. In Interview with the Vampire the vampires are in the family unit for company. They do not want to be alone. Lestat had his real father before creating Louis and after creating him he tried to trick Louis into staying with him by withholding information from him. Then right before Louis wants to leave Claudia is made and Louis just cannot leave her. He feels this need to care for her. This is more like a family then anything else. They need company. The vampires in the novel who do not have a family or other vampires around to communicate with are portrayed as completely uncivilized and wild. This seems to suggest that the vampires need a family type of unit to be civilized and to function in the world. Anne Rice seems to be suggesting that everyone needs a family to survive and be civilized. I think that vampires are used in these novels to represent a superior race of humans. They are what humans should and ultimately do strive for in life. It seems that the family is something that needs to be strived for in humans.
In my final paper I want to look at these ideas and examine them more closely and really expand on them. I think it is interesting to compare the families of vampires and then apply these families to Americans and see what the authors are saying. I also want to examine the uncanny aspect of all of this.

Vampires, Family, and Sex

My blog this week is going to be in response/conjunction with Bailey’s blog, found here http://baileysgothicnovelblog.blogspot.com/ . Bailey discusses the homoerotic tendencies of Louis and Lestat, also the very close relationship between Claudia and Louis. I think that both of the observations Bailey made are valid and I would like to expand on this idea of vampires and family and vampires and sex.
In Candace Benefiel’s essay that we read for class, she discusses these matters as well. She kind of mixes the two issues of family and sex. She says, “ The male sexual penetration of the victim (with the phallic substitute fangs) is followed by the more archetypal female nurturing of the victim, feeding him or her blood from the vampire’s body.” (262) I think this quote represents Interview on a few levels. It seems that in the book the vampires are attracted to the people they turn into new vampires and the changing is always highly sexualized. It makes sense then that the fangs would be a phallic representation. But then once the change has occurred the vampires become like a family and the “father” vampire has to nurture and show the new vampire how to live. Another interesting point I think Benefiel makes is that the drinking of vampire blood needed to create a new vampire can be related to nursing. Supporting the idea of a vampire family. She says, “The vampire gives immortality through blood being sucked from it, an image paralleling maternal nursing.” (268)
It doesn’t seem to matter if this new vampire is male or female. Take Louis and Lestat for example. They seem to have this homosexual love for each other, just as Bailey says. Then there is Claudia and Louis. They also have a love, but this love isn’t homosexual obviously, but it is pretty twisted. Claudia is a child and Louis is this father figure, but also her lover, not physically, but emotionally. Louis describes their relationship as, “Father and Daughter, Lover and Lover.” (Interview 90) Even though they are considered lovers they do not have sex. They satisfy this need by killing. Benefiel suggests that this non differentiating between the sexes means that the vampires are bisexual. (268) I do not agree with this statement. It is hard for me to explain exactly why not, but I will try. I see the vampires as different from humans. They have lost some of the ‘rules’ that humans go by, one of the hose ‘rules’ I think is sexual identity. Yes, they have these homoerotic tendencies and yet they also seem to be attract to the opposite sex. I think speaking from a human stand point we would definitely call this person a bisexual, but it is different when apply this concept to vampires. The vampire does not have actual physical sex with other vampires. Louis and Lestat may have had some sort of love for each other, or maybe it was more of an obligation. Creator and Created. I do not think that this qualifies them as homosexuals. Armand and Louis also seemed to have a little love going on to, but I see this as more of an interest in each other and their knowledge. I do not see anything sexual about their relationship. I do not think vampires can have a sexual identity.

"Queering" the American Nuclear Family

In Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, I can see a small family form, at least within the first two parts of the book. This family is made up of Louis, Claudia and Lastat. They act like a family and the two men raise the little vampire girl. It is as if Louis is more of the motherly, nurturing character, as he is the one to educate Claudia with books and art. He and Claudia also sleep together. He is the caregiver; whereas Lastat plays the more fatherly role by teaching Claudia how to hunt and how to enjoy the hunt. He cares little about how she acts or what else she learns. This little family is different then the traditional American nuclear family however. There is not a mother and a father, but two males. Yes, one may take on more of a motherly role, but they are in fact two males. The “queering” of the traditional American nuclear family comes in, not only I the fact that there are two males, but also that both males were used to create Claudia, as a vampire. Louis started it by drinking of her blood, but she did not die. Then later as he was finishing her off, Lastat took her from Louis just before she died. Louis says, “I realized what he (Lastat) was doing, that he had cut his wrist and given it to her and she was drinking.” (pg 91) It took both of these males to create this child. That is not the way of the nuclear family. Traditionally it takes a male and a female, but here it is done by just the males. Not just one of the males, but both.
Then later on the family dynamic changes yet again. Lastat is gone, maybe dead, maybe not. Now it is as if Louis and Claudia have progressed not just from a father and daughter relationship, but it has turned into an almost sexual relationship. I am not sure if vampires have sex, but if they do I am pretty sure that Claudia and Louis would have gone there. Not only do they share a coffin, but they share blood as well. Claudia gave Louis some of her blood before she was a vampire, obviously, but then again later on she offers some to him so he can make it through the night. She also says, “I can’t bear you to look at me the way you did. I cannot bear it if you do not love me!” (pg. 139 ) She cries for him not to leave and wants to be with him forever. Later she kisses him. This family dynamic went from father, daughter to lovers. The is definitely not the traditional American nuclear family.

Blood and Hierarchy

In Stephen Arata’s essay, The Occidental Tourist: Dracula and the anxiety of Reverse Colonization, he suggests that there are racial anxieties in the novel expressed in one way through Lucy Westenra and her blood transfusions. He writes, “But Stoker is careful to establish a strict hierarchy among the potential donors.” (pg. 467) The first to give the transfusion is Holmwood. Lucy’s fiancé but also an English aristocrat. Then Dr. Seward, an Englishman. Then Van Helsing, who is a foreigner. Finally by Morris, who is not only a foreigner but also an American. This order does not make any logical sense. Mostly because, Van Helsing is the oldest, yet he is in line before Morris who is a healthy young man. It furthers the fact that this is a racial anxiety in the novel.
I did not notice this until Arata pointed it out. I did find it odd that Van Helsing was not the last, being the oldest, but I did not look at the deeper meaning. It is interesting that such a hierarchy was put in place among the men, when it came to “purifying” Lucy’s blood. It is as if only the “best” blood would be able to chase out the “devil” blood of Dracula. It is interesting however that although the vampire’s bite is feared because of becoming undead, that the vampire is suggested to be stronger then all other men. This is furthered by the fact that even with the four blood transfusions; Lucy still was changed by the stronger being. Even the English aristocrat’s blood was not “potent” enough against Dracula. Something that is not even mentioned is Lucy’s own blood. It is obvious in the novel that women are seen as the weakest being. This is furthered by Van Helsing saying, “I fear to trust those women.” (pg. 180) in reference to the servant women. So not only is he saying that his old, weak blood is better than a woman’s blood, but also that his foreign blood is better than a lowly servant’s blood. Lucy’s blood was obviously not strong enough to withstand the bite by Dracula on its own. She needed these males blood to keep her alive and from turning into a vampire herself. All of this eventually failed and she inevitable became a vampire. She a woman, viewed in the novel as one of the lowliest creatures has now become string because of her blood or taste for blood, as it turns out.
It is also interesting to note that even though women’s blood in the novel seems to be seen as “bad” blood, this is the only blood Dracula feeds off of. He only seems to bite women. He is sustained off of women’s blood. Was Stoker trying to say something about women and how they were viewed in this time as powerless? Was he trying to show that women may have the “best blood of all”? I doubt it, but it is an interesting thought.