Gender Roles In Dracula Essay

The Novel Dracula written by Bram Stoker is an essential book in horror literature. Like most novels which are written by men, Dracula is more pleasing to the male audience and male fantasies. Primarily, it is more than obvious that there are strong themes of female sexuality and its symbolism. The Victorian culture is focused around the male dominance of women and their belittlement reputation is evident in scenes throughout the story. Finishing with a ‘moral’ of the story concerning these “New Victorian” views. Though Dracula makes up the horror part of the novel, the true ‘terror’ lies in the development of female sexuality and their gender roles.

In Victorian society, women were limited to their gender roles. Practically, there are

Both, the characters in this novel and the readers experience these fears, for the exchange of gender roles is simply ‘forbidden’. In this novel the female characters are shown as being sexually aggressive, and the results of their aggression vary in the novel’s three main sexual scenes: Lucy’s final death at the hands of the brothers in altruism, Jonathan being seduced by Dracula’s three brides/sisters, and Mina drinking blood from Dracula’s chest as Jonathan lies powerless close by. Lucy’s death, which was caused by three men who once desired to marry her. This was a consequence of her sexuality being released. She begins as a good woman with hair of “sunny ripples” (Ch.12) who is labeled sweet and pure. Furthermore, being contaminated by Dracula, the word used to describe her is “voluptuous.” In her transformation as Woman in White, she becomes dark haired, symbolic as good versus evil. As non-motherly, she pulls children to the cemetery and throws a baby “callous as a devil” (Ch.16) to the ground. The men’s reaction to Lucy’s transformation is divulging. When Van Helsing informs Seward of what he intends to do with Lucy’s “Un