Editing The Burial of the Rats (section)

== Reception and analysis ==
[[Carol Senf]] wrote that "'The Burial of the Rats,' a story of purely human evil, tells of a young man's experience when he is trapped by a group of desperate people who wish to rob and murder him. One of Stoker's courageous young men, he manages to elude his predators and even to wreak some vengeance against them. Moreover, because the predators are associated with the violence of the [[French Revolution]], this story—like ''[[Dracula]]''—suggests a conflict between past and present."<ref>Senf, Carol A. ''Introduction to The Critical Introduction to Bram Stoker'', edited by Carol. A. Senf, pp. 1-41. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.</ref>

Nida Tiranasawasdi, a researcher from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, argued that "the rats represent a middle-class, [[Victorian-era]] fear of being corrupted or overpowered by the poor." The analysis focused on a shift in [[Gothic literature]] where rats are no longer perceived as demonic forces but rather represent a "threat of contagion" to both the public health and the social order, creating cultural and societal anxieties.<ref>Tiranasawasdi, Nida. "From the City of Dust to the Waste Valley: Rats as the Threat of Social and Cultural Contagion in Bram Stoker’s 'The Burial of the Rats' and H. P. Lovecraft’s 'The Rats in the Walls'." ''The Journal of Studies in the English Language'' (jSEL), Vol. 17, No. 1 (2022): January - June 2022.</ref><ref>Tilley, Elizabeth. "Stoker, Paris and the Crisis of Identity." ''Literature & History.'' Volume 10, Issue 2, November 2001.</ref>