In Bram Stoker's Dracula and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the reader is introduced to two "men", a term applied loosely, who come to represent the realization of the last days of humanity. Victorian era. Kurtz from Heart of Darkness comes to be the representation of realization in that he sees what is required of him, as well as the rest of humanity, for them to survive. Dracula, on the other hand, is the idealization of what one must do to survive. Additionally, Dracula represents the next step, in almost evolutionary terms, in that he begins to attack England on his native soil, going so far as to transplant his own soil to England. This reverse colonization by Dracula is the resulting action he takes based on the fact that he was able to do what Kurtz is seemingly incapable of doing, sacrificing the remainder of his humanity to become a monster. As we examine Kurtz's character, we see that he comes to represent the degenerative institution of colonialism. Jonathan Dollimore notes that Kurtz "embodies the paradox that degeneration theory attempts to explain but only exacerbates, namely that civilization and progress seem to bring about their own regression and ruin" (45). We can see this through the fact that Kurtz goes to the Belgian Congo to strengthen the European world, but ultimately fails to do so as he comes face to face with the realization of what he must do to succeed and survive the war. degeneration of the world he knew. To do this, Kurtz's monstrosity, or the closest thing to it, comes from the fact that the society he is a part of and represents is slowly dying. Hence his last words of “The horror!” The horror! can be interpreted...... middle of paper ......gue of vampirism. Stoker plays on the irony of England, which at this time was one of, if not the largest, colonizing countries, being colonized not by another country but by an intangible immigrant. Dracula's intention is not for material wealth or power, but to control people and use them as livestock. We can see this when Dracula tells Jonathan Harker that he "[has] become acquainted with your great England, and to know her is to love her." I long to walk the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be amid the whirl and rush of humanity, to share in its life, its change, its death and all that makes it what it is. 'she is' (Stoker 19). Kane reiterates this by saying that Dracula is an example of "invasion literature" acting on readers about England by playing with "a considerable variety of fears about the state of England and the English themselves ».” (9).