Dracula vs Van Helsing
Dracula reflects both Bram Stoker’s context and his interest in controversial ideas. Use ‘Dracula’ and ‘Van Helsing’ to demonstrate what concepts and concerns have endured and how they have been represented in both texts.
JUSTIN LIANG
Dracula ( novel) written by Bram stoker is a text which reflects its English Victorian era context, where gender roles were repressed and science and religion had a conflicting relationship. Van Helsing (Stephen Summers) is a contemporary reproduction which demonstrates the same concepts and concerns that have endured but evolved, and so they have been represented for the modern day audience. The evolution of the concern of Gender roles and the idea of the new woman is very obvious through the comparison this essay will make between the conservative Victorian era Mina Harker and the superwoman 2004 Anna. The Victorian era’s idea of Science and Technology Vs Religion evident in Dracula, has endured, and reincarnated through the characterization such as the equipped superhero-type Van Helsing and the ageless scientific Dracula. Modernised concepts are heavily represented through clever usage of film devices and technique such as shot angles, music and scene structure.
Women of the Victorian era had very suppressed roles and it was at this time, where women were struggling for liberation causing the evolution of the Victorian new woman. Lucy Wenestria, the evolving New woman in Dracula, was seen by the society as a female character with outrageous behaviour and socially unacceptable due to her sexual expression. However, Bram Stoker’s Lucy character would seem almost conservative compared to the modernised ‘Anna’ of Van Helsing. It is obvious that because of the liberation and dominance gained by women over the years since the Victorian era, the women of the contemporary film would be even more dominant and outrageous in behaviour, sexually and violently. This is demonstrated in the re-incarnation of Lucy, Anna of Van Helsing.
JUSTIN LIANG
Dracula ( novel) written by Bram stoker is a text which reflects its English Victorian era context, where gender roles were repressed and science and religion had a conflicting relationship. Van Helsing (Stephen Summers) is a contemporary reproduction which demonstrates the same concepts and concerns that have endured but evolved, and so they have been represented for the modern day audience. The evolution of the concern of Gender roles and the idea of the new woman is very obvious through the comparison this essay will make between the conservative Victorian era Mina Harker and the superwoman 2004 Anna. The Victorian era’s idea of Science and Technology Vs Religion evident in Dracula, has endured, and reincarnated through the characterization such as the equipped superhero-type Van Helsing and the ageless scientific Dracula. Modernised concepts are heavily represented through clever usage of film devices and technique such as shot angles, music and scene structure.
Women of the Victorian era had very suppressed roles and it was at this time, where women were struggling for liberation causing the evolution of the Victorian new woman. Lucy Wenestria, the evolving New woman in Dracula, was seen by the society as a female character with outrageous behaviour and socially unacceptable due to her sexual expression. However, Bram Stoker’s Lucy character would seem almost conservative compared to the modernised ‘Anna’ of Van Helsing. It is obvious that because of the liberation and dominance gained by women over the years since the Victorian era, the women of the contemporary film would be even more dominant and outrageous in behaviour, sexually and violently. This is demonstrated in the re-incarnation of Lucy, Anna of Van Helsing.