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Really good papers often have something very obvious about them, so that you cannot quite believe that they have not been written before. Barbara Almond's analysis of Bram Stoker's book Dracula is one such.
Almond's analysis focuses on the developmental issues-the primitive, pre-Oedipal, greedy, monster baby and the enthralling, vampyric mother-that lie behind the story and give it its enthralling, seductive, horror. Whilst previous analyses of the book have concentrated on the perverse sexuality, Almond focuses on Dracula as the monster baby, the women in the story who become vampire mothers, and the vampire mother aspect of Dracula himself-introducing others to the lust for blood so that there is a merging between them and he will be able to continue to prey on them.
Almond begins by giving us the details of Stoker's own life that might have unconsciously fed into the story: he was a bed-ridden invalid until the age of eight, cared for by his mother and then, in his twenties, he met the charismatic actor, Sir Henry Irving, and became his devoted personal manager for the next 27 years (although he did manage to marry, have a son and write a number of books, of which Dracula is the only one to have remained popular).
Almond draws the links between the weakened boy in his bed and the weakened vampire in his coffin clearly, then contrasts it with the disgust at the satiated vampire, gouts of fresh blood trickling from the corners of its mouth. This is Dracula as the monster baby, ruthlessly feeding on and using the others as a part-object, not considered in their own right. These are intense oral needs experienced in the context of passivity and helplessness, with the vampire, weakened and vulnerable before the feed, and powerful and predatory at other times. Almond suggests that the fear and uncertainty in respect of his survival (the baby's and Dracula's)-not knowing where