1
Department of English, Ta. C., Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
2
Department of English, Mara. C., Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
Abstract
This paper situates Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) within both the Gothic tradition and the cultural anxieties of the Victorian era as a means of psychoanalytic literary criticism. Interlinked motifs of madness and monstrosity lie at the heart of such an analysis, wherein Stoker's narrative serves symbolically to express social and psychological crises. Characters whose unconscious impulses disrupt rationality to embody the novel’s exploration of madness, underlining how precarious identity was within rigid codes of morality, gender roles, and social mores. It is monstrosity that best externalizes these fears, dramatizing the eruption of repressed desires and moral transgressions, a process perhaps best personified by Count Dracula and his brides. Utilizing Freud’s concepts of the id, ego, superego, defense mechanisms, and parapraxes, this study develops an analysis of how the characters’ behaviors reflect the Victorians’ own struggles with issues of sexuality, morality, and modernization. Dracula channels historical trauma and cultural transformation into Gothic symbols of psychological disturbance, offering insight into the unconscious turmoil of its era. The findings pointedly indicate that the novel remains relevant today as a masterpiece that continues to light up the hidden anxieties of society, revealing the power of Gothic fiction in uncovering these unconscious fears.
Chodari Milani, A. and Ebadi Asayesh, M. (2026). Psychoanalysis and Gothic Literature: Madness and Monstrosity as Social Symptoms in Dracula. Critical Literary Studies, (), -.
MLA
Chodari Milani, A. , and Ebadi Asayesh, M. . "Psychoanalysis and Gothic Literature: Madness and Monstrosity as Social Symptoms in Dracula", Critical Literary Studies, , , 2026, -.
HARVARD
Chodari Milani, A., Ebadi Asayesh, M. (2026). 'Psychoanalysis and Gothic Literature: Madness and Monstrosity as Social Symptoms in Dracula', Critical Literary Studies, (), pp. -.
CHICAGO
A. Chodari Milani and M. Ebadi Asayesh, "Psychoanalysis and Gothic Literature: Madness and Monstrosity as Social Symptoms in Dracula," Critical Literary Studies, (2026): -,
VANCOUVER
Chodari Milani, A., Ebadi Asayesh, M. Psychoanalysis and Gothic Literature: Madness and Monstrosity as Social Symptoms in Dracula. Critical Literary Studies, 2026; (): -.
)