Blood Libel: an antisemitic fabrication that Jewish people murder Christian boys (or other non-Jewish people) in order to use their blood in religious rituals.

When I first signed up for Victorian Monsters, I realized that I was most likely going to be running into novels that had overwhelming themes of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia. No book has highlighted these factors more than Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Though you can make a case for each problem I have listed, I will strictly be focusing on racism/xenophobia and its relations to Jewish people. Furthermore, I will be including three vampires to examine how perhaps the acknowledged antisemitic nature of vampires has been weeded out slowly throughout the modernization of film. We will start with Dracula as he is the character we have been with the longest, then we will explore The Angel from Midnight Mass to examine the religious overtones that are prevalent in both the show and the novel,  and then slowly transition to Edward Cullen who now inhibits the White American vampire with traditional values. The claims will be supported by essays I have found online titled, “The Antisemitic History of Vampires” by Rob Silverman-Ascher and “Anti-Semitism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Sarah Kersh. 

So, let’s start with Dracula. He is described by Harker in chapter 2, “His face was a strong- a very strong- aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty doomed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere” (23). He’s described again in Chapter 11 by the zookeeper who says he saw, “… a tall, thin chap, with a ‘look nose and a pointed beard…” (126). This focus on Dracula’s nose and other features are said to be highly prominent antisemitic stereotypes. Silverman- Ascher notes that the features described and his love of money exemplify Stoker setting up Dracula to be seen as a metaphor for the Jewish outsider.

The fear of the Jewish outsider became prominent in the 20th century where primarily British citizens feared Eastern Europeans coming and declining their race, morals, and spirituality in a sort of “reverse colonialism” (Sarah Kersh). Therefore, the constant fear that Dracula will corrupt the “pure” women Lucy and Mina and will continue his reign of terror in England can now be seen through the antisemitic lens. The men fear a person they do not understand and have labeled him a monster. By correlating vampires to Jewish people, the blood libel stereotype is constantly perpetuated and other stereotypes like hoarding money can continue to be used in the literature under the guise of a plot point.

I’ve included Bela Lugosi’s Dracula and Nosferatu as well because they both highlight more Jewish stereotypes that both Silverman- Ascher and Kersh have noted in their essays. Most prominently, Lugosi’s Dracula wears an ornate six-pointed star around his neck for the duration of the movie and Nosferatu has the elfin ears, long pointed fingers, and hooked nose which have been identified as stereotypes.

The Angel from Midnight Mass is seen as a savior for the people of Crockett Island. With the help of the Monsignor, The Angel converts the residents of the island in hopes to purify their soul and help welcome them into eternal life clean.

I have included The Angel in this analysis because there is an overwhelming mention of religion that becomes prominent in what I deem the second half of Dracula. The men realize that they have to use religious items such as Communion wafers and crosses in order to ward off Dracula and the other vampires. This is completely the opposite for The Angel, though, as he is seen as a helper of Christ and an assistant to the holy life. This is interesting as the use of Christian tools to defeat Dracula (who we have deemed Jewish or a Jewish stand-in) reaffirms the belief that Jewish people are inherently threats to the Christian/Catholic religion. Midnight Mass subverts this, though, by having The Angel (a very obvious vampire) operate solely through the church.

Lastly, we have Edward Cullen. He is the “modern vampire” that has been restructured to avoid Jewish stereotypes. In fact, Cullen even exhibits the American Dream by wanting to settle down with his girlfriend properly by making her his wife before having premarital sex with her. The Twilight series was written by a devout mormon who, no doubt, inserted her own religious beliefs into the narrative with its own miracle baby plot and morals about marriage. This is a huge departure from the original antisemitic vampire that is characterized as a monster through and through. He hoards wealth and he takes people’s blood. Cullen does nothing of the sort. His family made a decent living because his adopted dad works everywhere they move and he drinks the blood of animals, not humans. Cullen differs from the vampires of the past because he despises what he is- he recognizes that he is a monster and works desperately to somehow repent for a sin he didn’t commit especially by making sure his girlfriend doesn’t suffer the same fate he does. Gone are the stereotypes and inserted are the Christian moralities that are believed necessary to be upheld.

Essentially, vampires in general are “monsters” rooted in antisemitism. The use of Christian artifacts against them highlight the fear that Victorian English people had of the depletion of their spirituality. The stereotypes that the vampires inhibit only perpetuate Jewish people as monsters and work to uphold England and Western English standards as the “most right” way of living.

https://www.heyalma.com/the-antisemitic-history-of-vampires/

https://blogs.dickinson.edu/secretlives/2018/11/14/anti-semitism-in-bram-stokers-dracula/