Double psyche

Psychoanalytic criticism allows us to believe it is our “uncanny self who stands behind us but casts no reflection in the mirror of [our] unconsciousness” (484) that draws us to crave for something we want, like “Dracula [who] knows what he wants and moves relentlessly towards it” (489). In some sense psychoanalytic criticism provides a ‘scapegoat’ for adults to relieve ourselves of the consequences of our actions by allowing us to believe we are not to blame for our actions in life because it’s the repressed child of our unconsciousness that is desiring these cravings that wouldn’t be displayed by our “adult, rational self” (476). Take Mina Harker for example, a very rational adult woman with her head on her shoulders. Why would she fall under the influence of the monster her rational mind sought out to destroy? Was it because her unconscious “bad child” (476) longed or craved for the desire to be kissed by Dracula himself as Lucy was or to become superior as a man un-caged by restrictions because of their gender. Or was it as Dennis Foster pointed out, she wanted to “enjoy the pleasure normally reserved for the vampire” (489) – her true desire.