406040

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Exploring the Count’s Psychological Yearnings in the Fin-de-Siècle Britain Through Abraham Maslow’s The Hierarchy of Needs

Article

Last updated: 01 Feb 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

-

Abstract

While most studies of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) concentrate on the societal apprehensions and anxieties prevalent in Victorian English society—particularly the fear of foreign influence—embodied by the strict refusal to accept Dracula as a symbol of foreign invasion, this study takes a different approach. Adopting Abraham Maslow's (1943) theory of the Hierarchy of Needs, the paper shifts the focus onto Dracula himself, analyzing his personal hierarchal needs; that is physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs. The paper also analyzes the novel from the specific historical and cultural context of the fin-de-siècle era, which was characterized by rapid urbanization, societal upheaval, and a sense of secularity. By doing this, Dracula's states of paranoia, destructive impulses—with a focus on the blood imperative—and contradictory behaviors such as his desire for both isolation and connection could be reexamined from a new standpoint. Hence, Stoker's vampire narrative will be reconsidered as a tale of ungratified needs. The paper compromises two major parts: it first illustrates the traditional perceptions of Dracula as a representation of the fin de siècle society's xenophobia (Dracula as seen by the society), and then introduces a new approach through analyzing the character of Dracula through the lens of Maslow's theoretical framework to see the society's effect on Dracula.
 

DOI

10.21608/jfab.2024.406040

Keywords

Dracula, Fin de Siècle, social anxiety, Abraham Maslow, Theory of The Hierarchy of Needs

Authors

First Name

Mona Gad

Last Name

Ali

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Faculty of Arts,- Delta university for Science and Technology

Email

mona.gad@deltauniv.edu.eg

City

Mansoura

Orcid

-

Volume

62

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

46766

Issue Date

2024-10-01

Receive Date

2025-01-19

Publish Date

2024-10-01

Page Start

163

Page End

217

Print ISSN

1687-2525

Online ISSN

3009-6162

Link

https://jfab.journals.ekb.eg/article_406040.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=406040

Order

406,040

Type

المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

918

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

مجلة کلية الآداب.جامعة بنها

Publication Link

https://jfab.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Exploring the Count’s Psychological Yearnings in the Fin-de-Siècle Britain Through Abraham Maslow’s The Hierarchy of Needs

Details

Type

Article

Created At

20 Jan 2025