Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present good and evil. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors. (Total for Question 10 = 40 marks)

In both Dracula and Little Stranger, good and evil is a prominent theme which is not only showcased through the characters in each novel, rather through other aspects like setting and narrative voice. Thus, both novels showcase the themes in similar ways, echoing social views of the time, despite the novels being written over 100 years apart. Firstly, in both novels, setting is used to highlight the theme of good and evil. In the Little Stranger, Waters does this by focusing and detailing Hundreds Hall for a reader, whilst in Dracula, Stoker does this with focus on the East and Dracula’s castle. In both novels, these settings mentioned embody the evil aspects of the novel. This can be seen in Dracula via the contrast between East and West and thus, this embodies the Victorian fears of the other, and immigration. The setting showcases evil instantly in Jonathan Harker’s travel Eastwards into Transylvania and notices how “the further East you go, the more unpunctual are the trains”. The use of the hyperbaton in the sentence mirrors the way in which the trains lose their punctuality the further East Jonathan goes, and this plays into the hands of the Victorian reader who, in the first place, would have feared the foreign, but losing track of time would have also caused a deep fear of the Victorian era as this era was a time of scientific advancement with the telephone, electric lighting and more having been invented prior to Stoker’s writings. The trains in the novel are used by Stoker almost as a symbol of deterioration, playing into the Victorian readers’ fears. The train schedules symbolize how the man-made constructs and civilized society don’t hold sway in the world of the foreign (embodied by the setting of the East), and instantly this sets the theme of evil as it is almost as though rational minds hold no sway in a world governed by superstitions and folklore magic which is reinforced by how the old lady in the beginning of the novel tells Jonathan of how “when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world are going to have full stray” which foreshadows the later events in the novel where Jonathan arrives at Dracula’s castle. During the Victorian era, the invention of the first train had occurred and this evidently means an increase in movement world wide, however, this invention lead to a deepened fear of reverse colonization in England as the British felt superiority in a time in which they were believed to be the greatest Empire. For this reason, Stoker personifies Dracula’s castle and the setting of Transylvania, making it out to be evil in comparison to that of the West, firstly with the symbols of time and the trains, but also with the castle having “frowning walls and dark window openings” and the castle being on the “edge of a terrible precipe”. Stoker here employs gothic tropes to present the evil of the foreign by personifying the walls, using dark imagery and using the metaphor of the precipice almost signifying the dangers of the castle. The East embodying the evil is also seen through the deterioration of Jonathan’s language the longer he stays in the East and with Dracula, thus the epistolary novel aids a reader in tracking the deterioration of his language in his letters as seen with the hyperbaton aforementioned. Thus, in Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, the evil in society is presented in the East and in Dracula’s castle to play into the Victorian readers fear of reverse colonization and fear of the foreign. In the Little Stranger, Waters echoes Stoker’s use of setting to play into societal fears of the time in which the novel was set by also employing gothic tropes into the setting of Hundreds Hall. The novel is set in a time after World War 2 where the aristocracy were finally experiencing their downfall however they were in denial, attempting to shut out the working class as much as possible in order to prevent their complete destruction of wealth. However, the election of Attlee's Labour Government essentially marked this final downfall of the aristocracy as Clement Attlee enlarged and improved social services, creating the NHS and nationalising major industries and public utilities to improve the public sector in post war Britain. Therefore, as Waters’ novel is written in hindsight, the novel is set in a time well before the novel was written, Waters’ employs the downfall of the aristocracy using the deterioration of Hundreds Hall as Dr Faraday describes the “signs of decay” as horrifying, with “sections of the lovely weathered edgings” seeming to have “fallen completely away”. “Ivy had spread, then patchily died, and hung like tangled rat’s tail hair”. The use of the semantic field of deterioration mirrors the end of the upper class in post war Britain. The way in which this is symbolic of evil however is with Waters’ use of gothic tropes, almost illustrating the house, like Count Dracula’s castle, as an evil setting where all goes wrong like what Stoker writes. The use of “ivy” for describing the house highlights this as this plant has many superstitions and beliefs attached to it which were existent during post war Britain. Ivy was believed to be very powerful by the Druids, quite sinister, it is also associated with immortality, thus, the growing of the ivy once the aristocracy is declining almost hints at the deterioration of the classes being inevitable. Thus by employing gothic tropes in Hundreds Hall, like in Dracula, both settings instantly set the tone and foreshadow later events in the novel where the supernatural takes place. This can be seen with the mention of the simile “hung like tangled rat’s tail hair”, as this almost alludes to Miss Ayres’ suicide where Faraday describes how she hung herself. For this reason, the house embodies the evil as the characters seem to appear at the mercy of a greater force. However, the life of the house as it is personified throughout the novel also suggests that its’ own death is inevitable just like that of the characters who stay in the house like Miss Ayres and Caroline. Thus, the house and all the events that occur in it seem to be presented by Waters to present the downfall of the aristocracy. The House being a greater evil force is presented right from the start to the end as almost eating the characters of the aristocratic class up, with Roderick leaving and Miss Ayres and Caroline dying, thus the house almost reflects the fears of upper class Britain and their fear of the loss in their class. Therefore, evil is presented in settings in both novels to not only play into the readers’ fears but also foreshadow later events in the novel which therefore presents both settings as an almost superior force in both novels.In the same way, the narrative voices and the structure of the novels are also used by both authors to showcase good and evil. In Dracula, this is done through the polyphonic novel and episodic structure as not only does this allow the reader to track various perspectives on what is truly evil, but it also makes the evil events in the novel realistic. The use of the polyphonic novel also reveals what is truly good in the novel and for this reason, the structure employed by Stoker allows a reader to distinguish a barrier between the good and evil. In Dracula, all those who do not have a voice in the novel are presented as evil. This can be seen with how the promiscuous women who defy social expectations do not have letters in the novel which can be seen by the three vampire women who are presented as “pale sapphires”, with “brilliant white teeth” and “red lips”, leading Jonathan to be “afraid to raise” his eyelids” as one of the women “licked her lips like an animal” and “went on her knees”. The semantic field of sexual imagery immediately sets the three women as evil for a Victorian audience as the women are defying every single social convention that was expected of a Victorian woman. Firstly, they are presented with juxtaposing color imagery of “red” and “white”, one which alludes to them being devil-like, as though they are pale which would associate them with chastity and purity, their red lips links to the color of hell and this almost echoes how Lucifer can change physical appearance to fit situations. The simile of them licking their lips like an animal furthers this promiscuity which defies ideal Victorian ‘Madonna’ conventions as animals are linked with primitive instinct thus they act on their sexual desires which was one thing that women were not supposed to do. The innuendo with one of the women going down on her knees furthers this imagery of their rebellious nature and it is for this reason that these women are not given a voice by Stoker in the novel. Stoker presents these women as evil because of what they can do to men as Jonathan describe show he felt a “burning desire that they would kiss” him. This juxtaposes greatly with Mina however, who is presented by Stoker and the male characters in the novel like Van Helsing, as “one of God’s women”. Thus instantly with the Biblical Allusion, Mina is presented as the direct contrast to the three women who are illustrated as women of the devil. It is for this reason that Mina is given a voice in the novel, because she does not defy social conventions. She is presented as the ideal Victorian woman and it is for this reason that she is the only woman in the novel who is given the ability to present her letters from beginning to the very end of the novel. Therefore, through the narrative voices and structure of the novel, Stoker allows a reader to track and distinguish what is good and vice in the novel, specifically through women. In the Little Stranger however, although the narrative voice enables a reader to witness what is good and evil, the novel being written many years after Dracula, thus in a modern society, good and evil is presented as a blur, which seems to be Waters demonstrating how all humans do bad and good in society, there is not a distinction between what is good and what is bad. This can be seen with the first person narrative in the novel as Waters only gives the reader Faraday’s perspective yet somehow a reader is able to sympathize with other characters in the novel. Faraday’s descriptions of all the events in the novel present the subjectivity of truth as a reader is able to witness how only one side is being presented, and so Dr Faraday’s account isn’t fully reliable. This can be seen with the last sentences in the novel and how Faraday states that “if the house is haunted, the ghost does not show itself to me”, which almost hints at him being “immune” to the supernatural which could almost be perceived as Faraday being almost sinister like. However, because only his perspective is presented in the novel, not like in Dracula, a reader is not able to ever really know the true events that occured because of how truth is different from different perspectives. In conclusion, in both novels good and evil is showcased in similar ways and in setting there is a clear perception of them being evil, however, the storyline in each novel reveals good and evil in distinct ways. The lack of other perspectives in the Little Stranger creates a blur between what is really good and evil whilst in Dracula the multiple perspectives presented allows a reader to distinguish the difference between the two. Despite this, good and evil in each novel reflects the societal context in which each novel was set.