Foreignness in "Dracula" and "Goblin Market"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Rossetti's 'Goblin Market' and Stoker's "Dracula" and in particular looks at how in "Dracula" foreignness is explicit and necessary to the plot while in "Goblin Market" it is implicit. It shows how both use language subtly to highlight pre-conceptions and fears about foreignness that were very common in Victorian society. It analyzes how language is used in the two texts to convey foreignness and attitudes towards it, arguing that in both texts the main characters find foreignness both attractive and abhorrent.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps some of the sexuality of foreignness in the texts comes from the exoticness of foreign countries. In Dracula, Jonathan is given 'a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty' (p. 9), adding later that 'I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty' (p. 10). The connotation to intense heat combines the appeal of foreignness with its threat: Jonathan finds the chicken 'very good', but at the same time it causes him discomfort. Hot foreign food could easily be interpreted as a reference to hot foreign climate. In 'Goblin Market', references to exotic weather are more obvious: 'how warm the wind must blow / Thro' those fruit bushes' (ll. 62-63) and 'where summer ripens at all hours' (l. 152) suggest an unrealistically perfect environment."

More papers on Foreignness in "Dracula" and "Goblin Market":

• Poem Review # 112922 : "Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"
• Analytical Essay # 34225 : "Goblin Market": Children's Poem or Erotic Allegory?"
• Poem Review # 107161 : "Christina Georgina Rossetti's Poem "Goblin Market"

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