I chose to do a deep dive into the history of vampires to get a deeper understanding of why this novel took off when it did.
Starting off with a bit of history: there have been stories and rumors about people coming back from the dead, being buried alive, and showing changes in behavior.
“In the 1720s, in East Prussia, there were reported two cases of people who had risen from the grave and started murdering people. The frenzy due to these alleged incidents grew so high that even the authorities became involved in the crusade of hunting down and staking the living dead” (Harenda, 170).
“Many legends were simply the result of a very poor, medical knowledge. In most cases, the un-dead were buried alive due to illnesses such as bubonic plague, porphyria and, above all, rabies. The latter was characterized by the disturbance of sleep patterns, fear of light, aggression, hyper-sexuality, and a strong urge to bite others” (Harenda, 170).
While not all of these exact occurrences took place in the novel when the three individuals (Lucy, Jonathan, and Renfield) health was discussed we still saw some interesting behaviors across the board.
“I do not understand Lucy’s fading away as she is doing. She eats well and sleeps well, and enjoys the fresh air, but all the time the roses in her cheeks are fading, and she gets weaker and more languid day by day; at night I hear her gasping as if for air” (Stoker, 103). We can see that the thought of disease was present in the gentlemen that were trying to save her considering Lucy’s mother had heart disease and was the cause of her death. “Mrs. Westenra had disease of the heart, and we can certify that she died of it” (Stoker, 161).
Jonathan has also been considered ill after the bite of Dracula. Though his behavior was different from Lucy’s as he shocked the nurse while in his “delirium his ravings have been dreadful; of wolves and poison and blood; of ghosts and demons; and I fear to say of what” (Stoker, 207).
Renfield had shown the most bizarre behavior out of the three. “About eight o’clock he began to get excited and to sniff about as a dog does when setting…’I don’t want to talk to you: you don’t count now; the Master is at hand.’…All at once, that shifty look came into his eyes which we always see when a madman has seized an idea, and with it the shifty movement of the head and back which asylum attendants come to know so well…When we closed in on him he fought like a tiger. He is immensely strong, and he was more like a wild beast than a man. ” (Stoker, 109-110).
The Smithsonian Magazine has a list of various individuals who were buried alive because they were thought to have died. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/people-feared-being-buried-alive-so-much-they-invented-these-special-safety-coffins-180970627/
https://news.virginia.edu/content/how-spread-disease-juiced-lore-vampires-pandemic-proportions
Sources:
HARENDA, OLIVIER. “CHAPTER ELEVEN BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA: THE MASTER OF TERROR AND HIS IMPACT ON POPULAR CULTURE OLIVIER HARENDA.” https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/56609912/Olivier_Harenda-Chapter_11-_Bram_Stokers_Dracula-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1649955762&Signature=NsaYcrxyaVaHtwLjJwZUOyetgnvNzDbwjeFnIUcVIqTUaygyepjl5UqvnQX3bXNxdJ829v-yvqcJrkFlNtmDpg17LoIVqpkNoITRDr8wxFgOO1er4hE9XwsNaz~zJDqCSy5DJMkeAJUVx9cjMHTfHBTV6TLW~TIBHklfvoEiQpzw7L-gnV3vgiyuT~rGpc-iHt3mh-o8c8O1lxyF94VtURgv9XmP47ImUEdiwiEDRYCcVoqJ3l4wN6d5RpQqFvIHQGPQm7qo4npB2eRkaqzIhOb25i4gMap9g0syi4nU35KxdDCEw3sgX4CHjtZxcIEkIu38lWhdo5hbiBMbxGbA6A_&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
