Bersicker - Tumblr Posts

Of wolves and bats*...

*actually I'll do two posts because otherwise hello novel-length musings.

Anyway. Wolves. I'm puzzled. That's an understatement.

First of all, I love wolves so I was never very happy with their association to evil in Dracula. Imagine my pleasant surprise when Mr. Bilder and the count were chatting about them and Drac said that wolves *wouldn't* like him.

This is so interesting to me.

It made sense for Stoker to cast them in the role of evil children of the night. I'd have been more surprised if he portrayed them positively because there's such a long history of fear of wolves in all corners of Europe. Just consider the fairytales! Of *course* they'd be vampire familiars.

And now, they're not?

I think this is Stoker's way of saying that all natural animals hate Dracula on sight. I wonder if bats and rats hate him too?

Then Dracula mindcontrols them. *He's* the one choosing animals that creep humans out. There's nothing inherently evil about wolves, it's Dracula that chooses to make them evil!

Honestly Stoker really exceeds all my expectations if that's the case.

What do you all think happened to poor Bersicker ? Speculation only, please, no spoilers.

Turns out I was so convinced the wolf that broke into Lucy's room was Dracula himself that I barely registered it as a wolf and made no connection to Bersicker.

I am, however, still missing Mina's letter giving the news of Mr. Hawkins' death??

Help. Someone quoted a letter from Mina for September 18, but I didn't receive it. I got two emails for September 18... Am I missing one or did the blogger get the date wrong?

Also, tangentially, y'all are either a lot smarter than me (likely) or this potentially missing email bridges some gaps bc y'all are putting stuff together I am missing.

Mina not telling Jonathan or anyone else her "dream" makes perfect sense to me. When they kicked her out of the clubhouse they broke trust with her. Even if she doesn't articulate it that's what happened. She's was the one most emphatically encouraging openness and trust. She was so confident. Their well-meaning rejection destroyed that confidence.

I'm not especially disturbed that Jonathan hasn't connected the dots wrt Mina's paleness. Of course he hasn't. He's convinced that order has been restored to the universe because the men have taken charge. Experts are experting. This, in all of their minds, makes Mina *safer*. They will all have to overcome their self-satisfaction and wishful thinking before they'll be able to recognize the clues.

I'm infuriated, but not surprised, on a general level, at the idiots for cutting her out and leaving her vulnerable. And I'm a little disappointed in Mina for not realizing right away that it wasn't a dream and Dracula is hunting her, honestly. She should at least be worried about it, and maybe trying to rationalize it ("Reading Lucy's diary put this nightmare in my head").

On a meta level, though, kudos to Stoker.

I'm so impressed with his messages, whether they were intentional or not.

Lucy's story: raising ladies to be submissive is bad, actually.

Mina's story: men are wrong to sideline women, and their machismo puts the women they're supposed to protect in more danger.

Bersicker's story: wolves are good bois and the long history of their villainization isn't their fault.

Stoker is *way* more enlightened than I expected.