Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Capitalism, and Reverse Colonization

Franco Moretti, unlike Stephen Arata’s account addresses how Stoker and even Frankenstein’s Mary Shelley, emphasize problems within the society during the Victorian era. Morettimakes it clear that the fear in both books is created by the protagonist ultimately making the reader see that advancing technology, family, and traditions could be compromised by the monsters of the books. Moretti also explains that ascetic of terror in Dracula “is celebrated the victory ‘of the desire for possession over that of enjoyment’; and possession as such, indifferent to consumption, is by its very nature insatiable and unlimited” (Moretti, 84). This helps the reader see that "If the vampire is a metaphor for capital, then Stoker's vampire, who is of 1897, must be the capital of 1897" (92). Helpful to understanding Moretti’s critique of Dracula being one with capitalism and how the bourgeoisie capitalists, once given the chance or opportunity will take everything they can possibly get from anyone. Because of this, the monster (Dracula) must be killed because once he or the capitalists gain control over everyone/the world, they can never be stopped. Moretti sees Count Dracula as the expression and or figure of monopoly capitalism. Moretti believes that capital and the bourgeoisie helps to emphasize Dracula’s blood-sucking abilities but also ignores his deal with the lumpenproletariat (gypsy’s?). Lumpenproletariats are the refusal of being within the bourgeois or the proletariat classes but instead are an independent class of their own who have been or don’t accept having a legitimate way to make money. These would mean people who are thieves, drug lords, gamblers, whores, etc. While Stoker wants his readers to be scared, Moretti sees how Stoker does this..”the narrative time is always in the present, and the narrative order-always parasitic- never establishes causal connections…the reader only has clues..”(Moretti, 107) Although, Stephen Arata doesn’t talk about Stoker’s ability