Timothy Grivell

The Personality of Dracula and his Brides

In this essay, the personality of Dracula himself, the three brides in his
castle, and the fourth bride who becomes so during the course of the
book, Lucy Westenra, will be investigated in relation to Freuds
psychoanalytic model of personality. Themes of the id, the ego and their
interaction in characters in the book will be picked up, and the possible
fixations and defence mechanisms shown throughout the story will be
shown. Finally, these will all be put in relation to each other, to examine
the links between them.
Early on in the book, Dracula displays some tendencies of the id when
interacting with Jonathan. Harker is in his room shaving, when he feels the
Counts hand on his shoulder. This shocks him, as he had not seen Dracula
in his shaving mirror, and he accidentally cuts himself. Upon seeing the
blood his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly
made a grab at my throat (Stoker, 1994, p. 37-38). Freud (1991a) argued
that the id is a collection of our cravings, our need for instant satisfaction.
Thus, when Dracula sees the blood (which he craves) on Jonathans face
he cannot control himself, which adds weight to the idea that vampires, in
Bram Stokers classic portrayal, are creatures ruled entirely by their id.
The demoniac fury mentioned is also in keeping with this, as the id is not
purely pleasure; it is also anger. We need the ego and superego to stop us
from lashing out when we get angry, as if we were entirely id-ruled we
would act on the impulse every time.
The anger here displayed may not necessarily be due to Draculas iddriven nature, however. Karl Abraham (1927) made a distinction between
the early oral phase, in which the infant primarily sucks things, and the
oral sadistic phase, at the onset of teething, characterised by biting
things. To become stuck in this psychosexual stage could result in an oralaggressive character. This is associated with, as the name suggests, an
aggressive personality, also displaying traits such as envy, ambition, and
exploitativeness (Colman, 2009). All of these traits can be seen
throughout the book; Draculas entire plan shows his ambition, as well as
the glimpses we get of his conquering history. He is also shown to exploit
people (and animals) in order to achieve his ends. A good example is his
use of the character Renfield; using gifts and displays of power he enlists
him as a servant, convinces him to allow him access to the asylum, and
then, when he eventually turns on him, Dracula destroys him. It is also
noteworthy that not only does he appear to envy the residents of London,
fuelling his plan to move there (I long to go through the crowded streets
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of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of

humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what
it is [Stoker, 1994, p. 31]), but also in his choice of victims he appears to
be envious; Lucy Westenra is recently engaged, and Mina Harker a
newlywed. Lucy is stolen away from her fianc Arthur by the Count, and a
similar fate is narrowly avoided by Mina. Thus, it is easy to say that
Dracula displays an oral-aggressive character.
Continuing the theme of vampires as slaves to the id, creatures of lust and
violence, the brides of Dracula, which make few appearances in the book,
can be seen to manifest those qualities of the id which Dracula does not
necessarily himself display. Their primary appearance, aside from the very
end of the story, is in Castle Dracula, where they appear to Jonathan. They
hypnotise him, and he is taken in by their beauty. Indeed, just as the
Count frequently reacts on impulses of anger, so the three brides
brilliantly exemplify Freuds theory that the id is the great reservoir of
libido (Freud, 1991b, p. 369). The way they talk suggests they have a
very wanton sexual appetite (He is young and strong; there are kisses for
us all. [Stoker, 1994, p. 51]), and the one who almost bites Harker is slow
and sensuous in the way she combines sexual desire and bloodlust,
kissing his neck and hovering her teeth just on the skin. This display of id
behaviour could also be viewed as quite childlike; the idea of playing with
ones food, drawing things out longer than necessary, enhancing the
thrill. This notion of regression to childhood in vampires is one that will be
picked up again later in this essay.
The scene previously mentioned, the attack of the brides, is a particularly
interesting one in terms of Freudian personality theory. It is the only time
we are shown Dracula interacting with his brides, and in that interaction
we see a brilliant depiction of the internal balancing between the id and
the ego. Freuds psychoanalysis reasons that the ego mediates the desires
of the id, aiming to fulfil its urges in such a way that will not cause harm
(Noam et al., 1984). Just as the vampiress is about to bite Jonathan, the
Count bursts in and, in a show of aggression and dominance, snatches the
woman away from him. His wrath is directed towards the brides for
ignoring his order not to touch his guest; however, he does make a
promise to them: Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him,
you shall kiss him at your will. (Stoker, 1994, p. 53). In that moment
Dracula has stepped into the role of the ego, while the three women
remain the manifestation of the id. They long to kiss Jonathan and to drain
his blood; the Count, just like the internal ego prevents them doing so in
the moment, with the assurance that their desires and impulses will be
sated later, when the time is right.

Timothy Grivell

The latest (and most short-lived) addition to Draculas brides is Lucy

Westenra, mentioned earlier. She makes a good study, as one can see the
transformation from her regular, caring personality for which she is much
loved into the warped, uninhibited vampire id character: In a sort of
sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were
now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft voluptuous voice, such as I
had never heard from her lips: - Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you
have come! Kiss me! (Stoker, 1994, p. 194). So it is that her thoughts
and intentions are now purely those of pleasure, the impulses of the id.
That she wants to kiss her fianc is no strange thing, but the tone with
which the request is made makes her friends wary. A particularly
significant point of the above quote is but one word; unconscious. Freud
(1991a) states that the id, by its very nature, is always unconscious. As in
the case of Dracula himself, where his id-ridden nature causes him to be
prone to anger, Lucy in her dying, half-transformed state shows the same
characteristic; when Van Helsing prevents Arthur from giving her the kiss
that she craves, that her id craves, she shows a very brief spasm of anger.
The id does not like to be deprived of what it wants, which is why the ego
exists to try and satiate it as much as possible. What is different in
vampires, is that there is no evidence throughout the book of a superego
in any of them. The ego (in the rare times it is displayed) therefore
becomes more of a delaying effect; with no superego, no moral code to
balance between, it seeks to give the id exactly what it wants, merely at a
more convenient or acceptable time. Thus there is still more proof that
vampirism, as depicted by Bram Stoker, either causes one to be ruled by
their id, or else is simply a metaphor for it.
The difference between a regular, human personality, with desires that
are governed by the presence of a superego and an active ego, and a
wild, unrestrained vampire id personality are even more pronounced
upon Lucys death and her complete transformation into a vampire. To
quote from the book: we recognized the features of Lucy Westenra. Lucy
Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to
adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness
(Stoker, 1994, p. 252-253). If ever someone were to lose the guiding
influence of both their ego and superego, such a sentence could easily
apply to them. She again displays strong id characteristics and, owing to
her transformation, begins to also display traits symptomatic of one stuck
in the oral-sadistic stage. During this passage of the book she, after biting
it, hurls a child to the ground in favour of her fianc; showing at once
some oral-aggressive personality traits and also the tendency of the id to
chase the current whim or pleasure. Of course, these things are not as
highly developed as in the Count; she does not yet show envy,
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exploitativeness or ambition (though one could argue that when she calls
out to Arthur in an attempt to put him under her spell, she is exploiting his
love for her). She nonetheless displays extreme anger and aggression,
which may also be signs of displacement; as that involves redirecting
emotions caused by something to an alternative target (Colman, 2009)
the anger she feels at being caught by the group of friends might be being
redirected towards the child she carelessly tosses aside.
Lucys behaviour, in her sudden urges and brief periods of rage akin to
temper tantrums can make her seem, in a sinister and morbid way,
childish. The same is true in many ways of Dracula, and this childlike
personality is a recurring theme in the book. Indeed, the character of Van
Helsing actually makes reference to it a few times; In some faculties of
mind he has been, and is, only a child; but he is growing, and some things
that were childish at the first are now of mans stature (Stoker, 1994, p.
360). Childishness could be a sign of ego regression, whereby someone
will revert to an earlier developmental stage (often childhood), as a coping
strategy (Freud, 1991c). This could in fact be the cause for the previously
given evidence for vampires being ruled by their id; the id is the first thing
to develop in us as children (Freud, 2003), thus why babies and small
children are almost completely selfish, caring only about their own needs
being fulfilled. Throughout the whole story, Dracula is completely selfish;
he cares only about his plan to move to London and begin to spread his
influence, not caring who he must use or kill in the process. The child
metaphor is in this case quite fitting, as one becomes a vampire on death,
and so the process of becoming un-dead could be viewed as something of
a second birth. It may be then, therefore, that it is not so much that
vampires are depicted by Stoker to be childish, id-ridden creatures, but
more that vampirism is more of a drawn-out version of humanity; one is
born with all these urges and cravings and must learn to control them,
developing the ego and superego in the process. Vampires in Dracula are
immortal, never aging; despite this, they do appear to grow, as even Van
Helsing noted in the previous quote. It can also be seen by looking at the
ancient Dracula himself, his brides, and finally the significantly younger
Lucy, that there is a stronger (if still woefully inadequate by human
standards) sense of ego as the vampire gets older. Despite his flaws,
Dracula is able to come across as charming, having conversations and
dealings with various people, conducting business and almost living as a
human. This is in stark contrast to, for example, the newborn Lucy, who
cannot control her cravings or anger, and is immediately noticeable as
non-human by any who see her. It is therefore evident that vampires in
Dracula have likely regressed far back into childhood, to the extent that

Timothy Grivell

the id largely drives them and they become stuck in the oral-sadistic
phase.
The id has been shown to be prevalent in the characters of Dracula, his
three original brides and Lucy Westenra, though it manifests in slightly
different ways and to differing degrees between them; the Count displays
more the anger, and a general lack of self control, while having a more
refined sense of ego. The brides, including Lucy, show the other (and
somewhat more widely known) traits of the id; the excessive sexuality and
wantonness that comes from an id that is not being balanced by any
sense of morality. Indeed, the absence of the superego in all has been
noted, though it has been shown that Dracula has a sense of ego, even
going so far as to act as the ego for his less-developed brides. Ego
regression to childhood has been demonstrated throughout the story in all
the vampires we see; in particular, the oral-sadistic phase has been
investigated as the most likely fixation, shown as it is largely through the
personality of Dracula himself. He displays most of the symptoms
attributed to that particular fixation, and it is those same character traits
that actually drive the story and make him the antagonist he is. Finally, it
has been suggested that vampires are themselves a metaphor for humans
in childhood; after their rebirth as a vampire they return to the oral stage
where they remain id-ridden for perhaps hundreds of years, very slowly
developing a more balanced personality.

Word count: 2,284

Timothy Grivell

References

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Freud, S. (1991a). New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis (Penguin
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"Beyond the Pleasure Principle", "Ego and the Id" and Other Works
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Freud, S. (1991c). The Interpretation of Dreams (Penguin Freud Library 4).
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Freud S. (2003). An Outline of Psychoanalysis. London: Penguin.

Noam, G. G., Hauser, S. T., Santostefano, S., Garrison, W., Jacobson, A. M.,
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