Texts Can Be Modified or Appropriated to Suit Different...

Texts can be modified or appropriated to suit different audiences or purposes, yet still remain firmly within the genre. Discuss Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ and at least one of the films you have studied. FW Murnau’s 1921 film Nosferatu is an appropriation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. Despite it being an appropriation, explicit gothic conventions remain evident, which explore societal fears and values. These fears and values differ from Dracula, due to distinct contextual influences of different time periods. Stoker’s novel Dracula, presents the fear of female promiscuity, for which vampirism is a metaphor. Such fear can be related to the time in which Dracula was written, where strict Victorian gender norms and sexual mores stipulated†¦show more content†¦This is because most people were trying to come to terms with the notion of evil, after the effects of the war, and feared vampirism. Murnau addresses these fears not only through the shadow motif, but through various camera shots, negative film and the use of fast motion, which create all create disconcertment. Low-angle shots, portraying Orlok as a dominant force, are example of a technique used that would have created terror and distress for the audience of Murnau’s time. Nosferatu is far less sexually explicit than Dracula, focusing on the fear of inexplicable evil intruding on the unified love of a married couple, rather than a women’s sexual position in society. Murnau explores this through the sleep walking, balcony scene, where Ellen reaches out with her arms, possessed, and the responder is left to question whether she is reaching for Orlok, or her husband Hutter. The fear of being controlled whilst subconscious, and unaware of what is happening – the notion of the supernatural, is a gothic convention employed by Murnau. Murnau in this scene also uses colour imagery to highlight the notion of duality, being another gothic convention. Ellen’s white robe, symbolising innocence and purity is a contrast to the black surroundings, emphasising the good versus evil convention. The fear of social contagion is also a differing value to that of Dracula. Murnau explores this through the rat motif. The plague of rats symbolically parallels with the plague in