Original post by beefreyahere is a comparative section i did like last week on Dracula and The Little Stranger. The question was how is menace presented:
In TLS, the clear hierarchy of classes was breaking down after the war. The contrast between the life the Ayres had when Dr Faraday first visited as a child, and afterwards shows this breakdown of the class system. Faraday notices the “extraordinary amount of people” working at HH: a sign of their high-class lifestyle of having kitchen staff and servants. This would have been surprising for Dr Faraday as we know that his mother was friends with these kitchen staff, meaning they were of a lower class. Faraday creates an attachment to the house because of this experience; he wanted to “possess a piece” of the house, but in prying an acorn out the wall, it began crumbling, and the “imagined” lavish lifestyle he pictured, with the walls “made of marble” also crumbles with this. Using the word “imagined” represents how throughout the novel, Faraday becomes delusional because he clings attaches himself to this “imagined” lifestyle of the Ayres’. This moment is foreshadowing the decline of the class system itself, the “extraordinary” number of maids reduces into just Betty, and the house that Faraday “admired” was already falling apart. This plaster acorn symbolises the class system that was also collapsing at the time. Through this metaphor of the walls of hierarchy, we can see how Waters presents social change as a menace to the “admired” way of life that the Ayres had before the war.
Contrastingly, in Dracula the change happening in England was viewed as a benefit to society, for example the technological revolution in England helped the country to become a global powerhouse, with the British Empire spreading over many countries including India and parts of Africa. However, one place that this British science had not touched, was eastern Europe, namely Transylvania, and the menace that threatens the characters, is the danger of this unknown and less developed part of the world invading their revolutionised and scientific country. There is a contrast in technology between the two settings shows through the scientific way the protagonists defeat the danger and menace of the vampires; through the blood transfusions they carry out several times. The group uses the medical advancements that the Transylvanians wouldn’t have had to their advantage. Stoker used this technological advancement to convey to the reader his fears of these unknown countries and the safety of the science of England. Furthermore, the difference between science and superstition is also seen through the fear of the unknown at Castle Dracula and the area surrounding it. Jonathan is presented with ‘gifts,’ given to ward off the evil near Dracula’s Castle, these gifts portray the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism, as Catholics would use charms to ward off evil. This portrays Stoker’s beliefs that Catholicism is based in superstition, like the Transylvanians were also portrayed to be, in doing so sharing his views on Catholics. Jonathan immediately feels “uneasy” at these gifts, portraying the difference in the religion, and in the science of the two settings. This idolatry unknown presents itself as a menace and a sign of danger to the people of England and their safe technological way of life. In both texts the menace presents itself through the threat of invasion to their way of life, whether that is social change in TLS or the lack of social and scientific change in Dracula.