Dracula by Bram Stoker

As the saying goes, “Women can do everything Men can do.” In the Gothic Novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, there is a constant theme of sexuality, from both male and females in society. In the Victorian era, the roles of male and females have caused a lot of tension. After reading Dracula, some would argue the roles men and women hold in society. As mentioned in Dr. Seward’s Dairy from Val Halsing., “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and a woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination” (Stoker and Hindle, 2003 250). A women’s mind is not the always the first thing on a males mind. Some would overlook what a woman really has to offer.

In Case's article “Tasting the Original Apple,” it talks about the role that now the new woman has and how it comes into conflict with how men react towards it as stated “Dracula is often read as a largely reactionary response to the threat of autonomous female sexuality posed by the phenomenon of the "New Woman," with its anxieties about female sexuality being most clearly visible in Lucy Westenra's story. Particularly once she has been "vamped," Lucy's sexual assertiveness seems to link her with the New Woman. But Lucy's actions as a vampire, like those of the "awful women" (42) Jonathan encounters at Dracula's castle, perhaps owe less to the specific threat posed by the New Woman's insistence on sexual autonomy than to the ambivalences built into the model of Victorian womanhood from the start. Since ideal womanhood (and the ground of male desire) was characterized by a combination of total sexual purity and at least the potential for passionate devotion to a man, this model...

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...if not all some. From Lucy her own words, “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” (Stoker and Hindle, 67). It shows that just like men, women were also open to the idea of having more than one relationship, but for society they choose to be with just one. Men will also have a desire that is uncontrollable when it comes down to vampire-women.

Works Cited

Alcantera, Darisa

Pennill, Erin

Case, Allison. “’Tasting the Original Apple’: Gender and the Struggle for Narrative Authority in Dracula.” Narrative 1.3 (1993): 223-243. JStor. Web. 25 Apr. 2009. Autumn; 26 (1): 33- 49. Web. 4 May 2004.

Stoker, B. and Hindle, M. (2003). Dracula. 1st ed. London: Penguin Books.

Yu, E. (2006). Productive fear: Labor, sexuality, and mimicry in bram Stoker's Dracula. Texas studies in literature and language, 48(2), pp.145--170