Religion And Morality In Bram Stoker's Dracula

Every great literary source has the ability to provide a majestic getaway for your mind. With each significant piece of literature, readers are transported into a different dimension through the pages of alluring romances, perplexing mysteries, and sublime fantasies. While reading Dracula, by Bram Stoker, readers are transported into the Victorian Era, where controversial topics, such as religion and sexuality, are masked behind the riveting fictional work. Not only does Stoker place emphasis on the gender role issues circulating the 1800’s, but focuses on sexual morality as well. Written in 1897, the book takes place between a series of letters and journal entries recorded by the characters. It shifts between the perspectives of Jonathan Harker

Dracula, the antagonist, is depicted as a blood-thirsty vampire who transforms wholesome men and women into the like. Throughout the book, Stoker covers many feminist theories, while primarily focusing on female sexuality, showing the perception of women during the 1800’s.

Events in Stoker’s life, as well as the impact of the Victorian era, lead Stoker to develop characters portraying the different ideals of women. Because Stoker shared such an affiliation with his mother, one could assume that the supernatural tales, told to him as a child, could have been a plausible inspiration for Stoker's, Dracula: “Stoker was a sickly child, mostly bedridden during his early years. During this time, his mother entertained him with stories and legends from Sligo, which included supernatural tales and accounts of death and disease”

While in a meeting, held by Van Helsing, in which Mina took much interest in, Van Helsing and the other men tell Mina she cannot take part in bringing down Dracula. “We men are determined—nay, are we not pledged?—to destroy this monster; but it is no part for a woman,” Van Helsing says. Later, when speaking of the generality of women to Dr. Seward, Helsing says “the good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when he made that so good combination. Friend John, up to now fortune has made that woman of help to us” (Stoker 267). Van Helsing, loved by all the characters, was chosen to take note of these gender roles in order to prove that this sexist belief was a common conviction of the time. By no means does Van Helsing say this to offend Mina, but instead, to protect her, by pointing out her misconception of these roles. These ideals, though horrid and discriminatory, were how many people of this time viewed societal roles. Women soon began to lose their individuality, and instead were “treated as a necessity for men” (Gender Roles of Victorian Era for Men and Women). Although women were expected to remain pure until marriage, “This requirement of chastity and absolute purity was not expected of men, as the potential husband had the freedom to participate in premarital and extramarital sexual relationships” (Women as “the