Analyzing the Greatest Horror Novel - Dracula by Bram Stoker - The Blue Flame & Arrival Before the Gates of Hell

There is an interesting detail in the second part of the journey to Dracula’s Hellish-Keep that of the Blue Flame. It is a detail that is easy to miss, or to dismiss for that matter. The reason for which it is easy to dismiss, is because of how it seems more like a passing note, than a particularly important event in the course of the novel.

And yet, there is something to it. What I mean by it, is that it was kept in the book after many drafts, and was evidently of some literary and story-importance. One could very well compare it with may of the visions that later haunt Van Helsing and Mina when they visit Transylvania, and find it a land of horror and nightmares.

At this time though Jonathan Harker is very much in the grips of horror, as he goes from a determined young man, resolved to do his duty and foolishly unaware of what awaits him despite the many warnings, to a passive, frightened child. It is interesting how quickly this transformation overtakes him.

Jonathan in the book is a youth who has a boldness about him, despite his somewhat shy and hesitant mannerisms. He is polite almost to the point of being docile, and yet there is a primordial courage about him. That great Northern Courage of which Tolkien often spoke can be found in almost every chapter that includes this great hero. It would be Harker who would brave the Dracul-Castle walls, he who would throw himself against Dracula time and again, and only he who could have endured the horrors of the castle.

So to depict him as a weakling, or a bumbling buffoon as the movies have done is not only a great slight to this superhuman character, but an insult to Englishmen everywhere. This is because Harker ought to be regarded as a veritable superman, one who could by dint of valour alone strike dead the likes of characters such as Batman or Captain America.

It is for this reason that, for him to cede completely to mortal terror and to simply stare all around him is a testament to how frightful the situation truly is. The situation is one in which he finds himself in the bewildering power of his literary foe. Though he doesn’t yet realize the depths of Dracula’s depravity, coddled and sheltered as he is by modernity, Harker does however have a feeling of powerlessness. This feeling ought to be compared to when say a bird-seller in a pet-store grasps a hold of a certain bird to clip its wings or to put it in a separate cage. The cage in this case is the coach while the bird, well I needn’t continue.

Harker’s uncertainty leads him to looking all about himself and out the window. It is through the windows of the coach that he first sets eyes upon the blue flame. By itself it ought not to have aroused much more than nervousness, but after having been grasped by the strong hand of the coach-driver and dark and terrible as the night is, wtih wolves-howlign and dogs barking Jonathan is stricken with terror.

“Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment; he at once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness.”

This is the first appearance of the burst of fire. Fire by its nature is red and orange in colour, a reflection in a way of the greatest ball of flames of them all, the sun. In this case though the blue flame is a mockery of the real thing.

What is so interesting is that Toriyama in his award winning comic series Dragonball, would re-use a portion of this scene to an extent. In that series there comes a point when the villain of one of the major arcs of the story would fashion from his spiritual energy called ki, a miniature false moon with which to transform into a giant monkey (Dragonball is a bit odd in this way as transformations of this sort are common in that series, see my brother Dan’s commentaries on it for more).

It happens though that in this case the blue flame is meant both as a shadow of a proper fire, and a mockery of it true. But it is in reality a cursed location, this is explained in a later chapter of the book, and it is later implied that Dracula went back for it later.

“He then explained to me that it was commonly believed that on a certain night of the year, last night, in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway, a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been concealed.”

This is the exact quote. What is more is that the gold and location is said to be cursed, so that the peasants refuse to dig it up even when they do see the blue-flame, preferring instead to hide from it. Fire sparks blue when lit with brimstone, but this phenomenon is unlikely to be what sparked these flames to life so that there’s more likely to be given the novel, a supernatural explanation for what happened.

This begs the question whether Dracula was the one who originally buried it, or if it was gold buried by some of his enemies. If it was him, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, while if it is the latter it explains a few things. His scornfulness of it being cursed though hints at a great deal of greed on his part, as he sees too much value in gold to give much thought to the ‘supersitions of peasants’.

What is so interesting is that the power of his greed would push him to disregard the common wisdom of his people and ancestors. Especially since his ancestors are a point of obsession for him, so that it is a fairly funny reaction on his part. But it is one that makes a great deal of sense, when one considers the commentary Stoker was making on modernity.

By its nature modernity has stupified, and weakened all people. It has offered little in the way of good, and much in the way of bad, if one thinks about the industrialization of war, the genocide of entire populations and the weakening of women’s femininity and men’s masculinity among other great tragedies of our era. Modern men have a tendency of looking on the past and sneering in disdain, proclaiming themselves smarter and more advanced in some way than their Medieval contemporaries.

What’s also interesting is that the generations of the Middle-Ages didn’t do this, but rather held high hopes for their children and grandchildren and revered their ancestors. So that in this regard they are more advanced than we are, as we refuse to plant the proverbial Greek tree so that our grandchildren might enjoy solace from the sun’s rays and heat.

Dracula’s scorn is one that makes sense under these circumstances. While a great many have romanticized him, as the ideal foreigner or as belonging to some mystical past. In some ways he does not. He is the ultimate modern man, deracinated and favouring English over his real native tongue, longing for large urban centres, hungry for a quick fix and having only disdain for the notion of curses and superstitions.

So that it must be asked; given the blue-flame’s presence and peculiarity, is the gold cursed?

At first glance one would be tempted to laugh with Dracula. But he’s proven throughout the book to be a liar and someone who clings to his appetites even as they bring about his destruction. It is given how quickly he meets his end after his first meeting with Harker, highly likely that it is.

The curse could be one that extends even to the undead, and the wicked especially since it was likely Dracula who slew the original owner. What this could hint at is a restless spirit, one that has not been afforded the proper burial rights, and who in death haunts the gold still. In this way, by bringing the gold into his house Dracula would be ushering in his own demise.

It could be that as he uses this gold to buy his way into England, he is in reality buying his own way to his own doom.

What is also curious is how Dracula buys into this gold being present there, based on peasants’ superstitions yet refuses to believe in the power of the curse. This shows a strange short-sightedness and closed-mindedness that doesn’t seem to sit well with one who is familiar with the ancient Slavic customs and beliefs of the region.

The blue flame could also be said to symbolize the subversion of the flame, as all know as said a flame should be red, in this case it is a flame that lacks the consistency of traditional flames. So that in a way it is a ‘modern flame’ so that maybe it isn’t simply that we are heading with Harker into a place that is opposite to modernity, but one that still holds some of the trappings of such things. The reason it inspires fright is because it is unnatural, yet the man the most enraptured by modernity, Dracula cannot see how unnatural and unsightly such a thing is. Hinting at the inherent corruption contained within his person.

Blue is also the colour of comfort, peace and relaxation. It is these very notions that modernity obsesses over and seeks to instill in everyone, so that they are sedated and hardly able to properly feel or take stock of the world around them. It is interesting that terror wields such a power over Harker, so as to kill his ability to think properly and in a way sedates him, much like meditation might do under other circumstances.

Blue is also a royal colour, one associated with the French Monarchy, which for centuries associated the colour with their Kingship. This association is one that can be made with Dracula to an extent.

As the ‘revived’ corpse of the Romanian hero Vlad Tepes, he is technically as he boasts of royal stock. So that it isn’t an unbecoming colour to associate with him. Or unbecoming to associate with the land near his keep, so that the gold which he later digs up is treated here as a ‘royal gift’ of sorts. The trouble is the cursed element, so that though it is a royal gift it is a malevolent one.

“He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose— it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all— and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical effect: when he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same.”

The blue light doesn’t cast much light, which should be regarded as a further oddity about it. One that is quite interesting and that signals to us the readers just how out of place this light is.

It seems to reflect rather than cast light, and this is an important notion made all the clearer by the following phrase when the driver stands near it. He fails to obstruct Harker’s vision of it, so that we get the first hint here of the undead. It also shows us to an extent not only that, but that Dracula is himself a shadow in a way of the man he once was, failing to obstruct a man’s vision of this strange ‘shadow mirror’ of sorts.

“At last there came a time when the driver went further afield than he had yet gone, and during his absence, the horses began to tremble worse than ever and to snort and scream with fright. I could not see any cause for it, for the howling of the wolves had ceased altogether; but just then the moon, sailing through the black clouds, appeared behind the jagged crest of a beetling, pine-clad rock, and by its light I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, with long, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terrible in the grim silence which held them than even when they howled. For myself, I felt a sort of paralysis of fear. It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import.”

This is the section that follows and shows the ‘man’ hunting for more of the blue flames as he travels further off the beaten path. It isn’t long before the horses freeze with fear, and the wolves come ever nearer in the hopes of snatching a quick snack or three.

It is interesting that the official modern man of this part of the story is one who freezes with fear at the sight of the wolves. Taking note of their flashing white teeth and their crimson tongues that are lolling out. This is a natural response to wolves, who are ordinarily an animal easily frightened off. In the case of Harker there are no wolves to be found anymore in most places in Britain so that he is quite reasonably unfamiliar with them personally.

That said, these wolves are hardly ordinary subject as they are to the strange otherworldly influence of Dracula.

“All at once the wolves began to howl as though the moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them. The horses jumped about and reared, and looked helplessly round with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see; but the living ring of terror encompassed them on every side; and they had perforce to remain within it. I called to the coachman to come, for it seemed to me that our only chance was to try to break out through the ring and to aid his approach. I shouted and beat the side of the calèche, hoping by the noise to scare the wolves from that side, so as to give him a chance of reaching the trap. How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further still. Just then a heavy cloud passed across the face of the moon, so that we were again in darkness.”

So over-wrought is Harker that he calls to the Coachman, screaming for him to rescue him, recognizing that he is truly within the man’s grasp and power. It is because of this that he has no pride, no thought to male dignity so intrinsic to British life in the 19th century. At this moment he is not a gentleman, or an exemplar of heroism but a terrified man, sick with fear and make no mistake at this time it is a sickness.

Dracula of course returns dismisses the wolves commanding them in his native tongue and acting as might a master with his servants. It begs the question; what was the purpose of this incident? Was it happenstance?

Certainly he needed to find the gold, and mark the locations but it was also important in that it helped inspire fright in Jonathan Harker. It tore apart what thoughts he had for independence then and served to tame him ever so slightly.

A dark cloud comes out though and blots out the moon’s light hinting at just how far into the shadows Jonathan has fallen, and how he is now truly within the power of Dracula.

“We kept on ascending, with occasional periods of quick descent, but in the main always ascending. Suddenly, I became conscious of the fact that the driver was in the act of pulling up the horses in the courtyard of a vast ruined castle, from whose tall black windows came no ray of light, and whose broken battlements showed a jagged line against the moonlit sky.”

They ascend and ascend, because they are no longer racing along the countryside but rather rising ever higher up a mountain-path. It is a dreadful thing, but it is clear that they are leaving the safety of the land of the peasants of Transylvania in favour of the cold, remote home of Dracula. In this way, it is similar to the ascent up Mount-Olympos or up to the realm of Kronos, both being locations where mythological tyrants rule and keep their remote perverse courts that glower down upon their subjects.

In the case of Dracula though, the castle they pull up to, is a vast and ruined thing, one that has been depicted in countless images and paintings. It is a horrible site to visit, and one that is jagged and broken and a shadow of former glories.

This is a clear reflection of Dracula, who is but a shadow of Vlad.

In this way, the castle serves not only to unnerve Harker and the readers, but also to reflect the interior being of our villain.