Realism, horror and the Gothic in Dracula and Thomas Hardy\u2019s \u201cThe fiddler of the reels\u201d

Abstract

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) and Bram Stoker (1847–1912) were contemporaries as well as members of the same literary circles (Hardy often attended performances at the Lyceum Theater, which Stoker managed). The two are rarely compared, however, because Hardy is generally regarded as a writer of realistic fiction and as a poet while Stoker is remembered as the writer of Dracula as well as other Gothic works even though he actually wrote more romances. Realism, Horror and the Gothic in Dracula and “The Fiddler of the Reels” points to the fact that these two works are representative of the kinds of fiction created at the end of the nineteenth century and that both writers comment on the times in which they live. Specifically, both adapt a trope from traditional balladry, The Daemon Lover, to reveal that the forces of the primitive past continue to lurk beneath their progressive and confident present and emerge to influence the present. Their emphasis on the continued power of the past serves to criticize the overconfidence that was common at the turn of the twentieth century when England dominated the world in science, economics and industry. What the two writers created, however, is quite different, and exploring Hardy’s “The Fiddler of the Reels” and Dracula moves beyond these two works to reveal the extent to which the realistic fiction of the nineteenth century came to incorporate Gothic tropes and materials without becoming fully Gothic, as well as the fact that the Gothic often explores real social problems. Moreover, examining these two works also reveals how knowledge of science led to the emphasis on horror rather than terror in the Gothic of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Of particular relevance to students of the Gothic is the way this article explores a critical period in the evolution of the Gothic and points to the fact that the Gothic became increasingly domesticated at this time, a trend that continues to the present day. Students of Hardy’s fiction will be especially interested to read this exploration of a story that is rarely discussed even by Hardy experts, and students of Dracula will gain an additional appreciation of the fact that Stoker was influenced by what was happening around him when he wrote his best-known novel.