Student Question
How do Beloved and Dracula similarly and differently present the supernatural?
Quick answer:
Dracula and Beloved both feature supernatural entities, but with different purposes. In Dracula, the supernatural is embodied in a malevolent vampire who consumes life to expand his power, symbolizing greed and conquest. In Beloved, the supernatural manifests as a ghost driven by a need for maternal connection, consuming Sethe's life out of fear and loss, ultimately leading to healing through community intervention.
While both Dracula and Beloved deal with the supernatural, their approaches to the subject/genre are very different. With Dracula, Bram Stoker tells a chilling story of an evil entity driven to consume mankind, while Morrison's Beloved presents a ghost that devours because it doesn't know any better.
Dracula's titular character consumes everything in his path in order to
survive. After luring Jonathan Harker to his castle, he imprisons him and
feeds off Harker repeatedly as he prepares to travel to England. Dracula
then leaves Harker behind in the care of thralls and continues to England,
feeding upon the crew of the Demeter along the way, using his supernatural
powers of strength, concealment, and shape-shifting to remain
undiscovered. By the time the ship reaches shore, there is no living
creature left aboard. He then moves through England, turning Lucy
Westenra into a vampire and biting Mina Harker (Jonathan's wife) and attempting
to convert her to vampirism as well. His ultimate plan is to settle in
various houses throughout the country to expand his feeding grounds, consuming
at will. He is shown to be a great evil to the world, using his powers to
kill and control nearly at will. When he is finally destroyed, Mina is
freed from his grasp, the remaining characters are able to begin the process of
healing, and England (and perhaps the world) are saved.
Beloved, on the other hand, also deals with a nearly all-consuming
supernatural character in the form of the ghost that shows up to 124 Bluestone
Road. Beloved, the ghost, does consume and draw the life out of those
closest to her (Sethe, primarily, and Denver), but unlike Dracula she is not
bent on destruction. Rather, Beloved is in one way the manifestation of a
baby killed 18 years before, when pride caused communal bonds to
shatter.
Upon showing up at 124 Bluestone, Beloved behaves in much the same way that
a baby would. She falls asleep regularly, she has trouble controlling her
body, and she is always hungry and often short-tempered. Her existence
would not be possible without the influence of the supernatural. The
title character embodies the spirit of a baby trapped in a woman's body.
She isn't driven by malice but rather the fear of being separated from her
mother again. She spends the majority of the book physically monopolizing
Sethe's time while supernaturally consuming Sethe's being. Beloved also
succeeds in driving wedges between Sethe and her relationships with Denver and
Paul D, until finally Denver is forced to go out into the community to ask for
help. Once the community begins to understand what is happening, they
come to 124 to confront the ghost and, through love, forgiveness, and
acknowledgement, succeed in driving Beloved out and saving Sethe.
While both novels seemingly deal with greedy, all-consuming entities, it is
important to note the reasons for the consumption. While Dracula's thirst
for blood was a symbol for his greed and desire for conquest, Beloved's desire
to initially occupy all of Sethe's attention and then all of Sethe's existence
is the result of the baby's loss of that attention eighteen years before.
The supernatural is a major part of both of these novels. Without the
presence of the supernatural, the fantastical plots and resolutions could not
occur. However, whereas in Dracula the supernatural is employed
as a vehicle with which to consume society, in Beloved the
supernatural exists as a means to heal a community.
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