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Gender in 20th century English literature
Ways in which stoker portrays women in dracula
Gender in 20th century English literature
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During the Victorian Age, there was an inequality between men and women. During which people valued bravery among men and weakness among women. Reason being is, Men have been seen as more superior and capable beings than women. In the novel, Dracula By Bram Stoker you are commencing to realize how these gender inequalities are portrayed in the novel. This constructs men like the more dominant genders. Even now, years from the Victorian Age there are still a disparity between men and women. Although there is modifications that have compelled today’s society to be equal between genders, the differences always seem to be promulgated.
Through out the Victorian Age the ideal natural characteristics of men and women consisted of men being the leading
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gender. Women were considered physically weaker yet morally superior to men, which meant that they were best suited to the domestic sphere. It was the job of the women to rectify the moral defects of the public sphere and preparing the next generations for life while the men labored all day. The fact that women made such great influences at home made it physically easier to preserve the great influence and on account that women were weaker than men. It was a situation that was presumed as beneficial to all. Rights and privileges of Victorian women were limited, and both single and married women had hardships and disadvantages they had to live with. Victorian women had disadvantages both financially and sexually, enduring inequalities within their marriages and social statuses, distinct differences in men and women’s rights took place during this Era. Providing men with more stability, financial status and power over their homes and women. Many woman back in the Victorian age resigned oneself to the control of their husband while the husbands would be encountering themselves in many of their own affairs. In this time period women were very pure, and had good etiquette and manners and evidently men were men. To conclude, the Victorian Age was when men and women were not equal; it was a time of unfairness and limitation for women who lived in this era. In the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, people valued bravery among men and weakness among women.
This is a reflection on the Victorian life, when women were unequal to men, and people valued the sight of a women’s weakness. Mina Harker; Jonathan Harker’s wife, helps develop such truth in the novel by her lack of advancement in herself and more preferably success in the service’s of men. She is the Ideal Victorian women Intelligent and Innocent. Mina surrounds her life with her husband, as most Victorian women do. She even memorized the train schedules to be handy to Jonathan in case he was ever in a hurry or emergency. Mina makes every effort to aid to Jonathan and to be a good women demonstrating Victorian values. Jonathan is Mina’s top concern as she is always thinking of what she could do to be of more use to Jonathan. We note that she almost never speaks of her personal goals or wishes or does anything for her own fulfillment other than marrying and being useful to Jonathan. Interestingly enough, Mina physical description is never given at any point in the novel because Mina stays a mystery in a manner that she always will endure her purity and not act on any sexual desires and impulses. This evidently shows how women of the Victorian period have much the same as Mina have been valued for the weakness. Mina is valued for her weakness as a result of the time period. Her weakness being that she is the perfect ideal Victorian women, intelligent, diligent, virtuous, motherly, nurturing, conservative and reserved; all of these being in services to others. Valuing bravery among men during the Victorian Period was a considerable major component even in the novel Dracula. For instance when Dr. Van Helsing, the Dutch professor; Jonathan, the solicitor or lawyer, John Seward, a talented young doctor once Dr. Van Helsing’s pupil; Arthur Holmwood, Lucy’s Fianceé, Quincey Morris, a plainspoken American from Texas and Mina Harker have finally collected all the necessary
information from the journals accordingly. All are about to set out to search for Dracula, when they come to a conclusion that Mina should stay behind. Everyone agreed espescially Jonathan. This was an act of brave men, first, considering the fact that each one of the men were brave enough to go after the bloodsucking vampire, Dracula. Then second to leave to Mina behind was a brave act because with her there, they were more in numbers. The men considered Mina as the weak link in the group in light that she was a woman. She was seen as weak not because of her absolute strength but nevertheless, her gender. From the Victorian Age to Today, things have changed immensely. Advancements in new technology, women now having the right to vote and etc.. We have many new modifications that have forced society to make women and men equal. That means that by law, all men and women are equal. I’m convinced that it’s all a state of opinion, because take at one’s word that gender roles can never be outdated as long as men and women are biologically different. Men are biologically stronger, which makes then feel like protectors. Women are the child-bearers, so they will forever have the care-giving maternal instinct. Men and women are built differently. I have come to the conclusion that although women and men are physically different and gender roles can never be outdated it doesn’t signify that certain women and men can’t do what the other can. Inclusive, through the representation of the Victorian Age, the novel Dracula displays many understandings about men and women place in society. What is adequate and what isn’t, what is expected from them and the consequences of their actions. Dracula was written in a time of Victorian Age, that is the reason for hidden inequalities in the midst of men and women. The Statement between made about gender roles are debatable as intellectuals can argue and still see them a number of different ways.
...sitive depiction of their sexual relationship. For Mina, however, renunciation of Dracula's evil must include the renunciation of her own physical needs and desires. The roles played by social mores and conceptions of gender and sexuality are, in the end, more than incidental. Indeed, the difference between Victorian England and 1990s America causes the subtle -- but significant -- valuation of the connections between good and evil and women and sexuality in two in many ways similar texts.
Science has proven that anatomically, women’s physical strength is generally less in comparison to men’s enhanced muscularity. This anatomic disadvantage that women suffer has led to negative stereotypes of gender. Women are considered weaker, or less intelligent than men based on an impression that women are minuscule in comparison to men. In the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker sheds light on gender inequality, establishing that not all women are inferior to men, in fact, they should be seen as equals. Notably, Stoker reveals society’s ambivalence to women’s fortitude by providing an abundance of Victorian gender stereotypes and their inaccuracies throughout the novel. In addition, Stoker downplays female cliché’s, disclosing that women
In order to discuss the decline in masculinity (or manhood) and moral values, synonym of religious values in both books, it becomes necessary to define what Late-Victorian society considered them to be. In Dracula, masculinity is defined almost exclusively by contrasting it with femininity. The men in the book are praised when they show the opposite qualities that women are described as possessing. While women are shown as obedient and complacent, men are stern and in command of themselves and situations. Men are expected to protect women while women expect and cherish the protection of men. While men are expected to face the unpleasant facts of life, the darkness and the evil, with integrity and courage, women are to be sheltered from danger to avoid the breakdown of their fragile characters. When the group headed by Van Helsing starts their mission of vanishing the Count and all the dangers he brings for England, the men unanimously decide to hide all the unpleasant facts f...
To conclude, Mina Harker is not quite a gothic damsel nor is she a heroine but a blend of the two. She is the ultimate Victorian woman and Van Helsing’s praise of Mina testifies to the fact that she is indeed the embodiment of the virtues of the age. She is
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” came to print in 1897, at the height of nineteenth century Victorian life in Europe, a progressively modern era that saw much medical and technological advancement. This era brought with it the contentious idea of an empowered woman, the “New Woman,” a woman who aspires to be educated as well as sexually and economically independent. Stoker gives a contrasting view of this notion in “Dracula.” While the main characters, Lucy and Mina, are clearly opposite in personality, they are both portrayed as unequal, defenseless objects that are to be protected and desired. However, one woman’s fate is determined by her weakness, while the other is determined by her strength.
In Dracula, Bram Stoker explores the fantastic image of a sexually dominant woman within a patriarchal society. The battle between good and evil within the novel very much hinges upon feminine sexuality: Lucy and Nina are embodiments of the Victorian virtues, which Dracula threatens to corrupt,
“Dracula, in one aspect, is a novel about the types of Victorian women and the representation of them in Victorian English society” (Humphrey). Through Mina, Lucy and the daughters of Dracula, Stoker symbolizes three different types of woman: the pure, the tempted and the impure. “Although Mina and Lucy possess similar qualities there is striking difference between the two” (Humphrey). Mina is the ideal 19th century Victorian woman; she is chaste, loyal and intelligent. On the other hand, Lucy’s ideal Victorian characteristics began to fade as she transformed from human to vampire and eventually those characteristics disappeared altogether. Lucy no longer embodied the Victorian woman and instead, “the swe...
Victorian Women were highly held back in their full potential. Their main role in the household was to “be happy - a sunbeam in the house, making others happy” (Hardy, E.J. 1887). On top of this, Women in the Victorian era were not allowed to display their sexuality or “tempt” men in public; they were meant to be submissive and meek (Causey S., 2008). The Victorian era lasted from 1837 til 1901, with women being punished everyday for crimes that are nowadays just part of living for a woman. Bram Stoker was born during this era and wrote his most famous novel, Dracula (Miller, E. unknown). One of the main discourses in this novel is that of Women and their Morality of the time.
One of the major themes of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is the triumph of the masculine over the feminine, but also the slowly rising influence of female involvement within society. Victorian society had certain expectations of different genders, which were fundamentally different. The traditional
In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker’s use of inverted gender roles allows readers to grasp the sense of obscureness throughout, eventually leading to the reader’s realization that these characters are rather similar to the “monster” which they call Dracula. Despite being in the Victorian era, Stoker’s use of sexuality in the novel contributes to the reasoning of obscureness going against the Victorian morals and values. Throughout the novel the stereotypical roles of the Victorian man and woman are inverted to draw attention to the similarities between Dracula and the characters. Vague to a majority of readers, Bram Stoker uses Dracula as a negative connotation on society being that the values of the Victorian culture are inverted amongst the sexes of characters, thus pointing out the similarities of the characters and the so called “monster” which they call Dracula.
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.
Stoker uses phenomenal imagery to produce a late nineteenth century setting, located somewhere within eastern Europe. Transylvania, the infamous home to Dracula himself, is described in great detail in Harker’s journal. There, Stoker purposely and meticulously outlines Dracula’s castle and the surrounding town. Stoker manages to do this with a very gothic tone, immediately lowering the societal status of women. In conjunction with Dracula’s gothic tone comes the understanding of male and female traditional roles of the era. The reader sees that there is no hesitation differentiating between the two, as Stoker “ cast[s] men as rational, strong, protective and decisive…[and] women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and submissive.” (Tyson, 82).
In reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, I find the treatment of the two main female characters-- Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker-- especially intriguing. These two women are two opposite archetypes created by a society of threatened men trying to protect themselves.
A reader’s anxiety accelerates from altering the story from Jonathan Harker’s journal to Mina Murray’s letter when Jonathan commits to escape from Dracula’s castle. While Jonathan stays at Dracula’s castle coercively, as he depicts himself as “a veritable prisoner, but without that protection of the law which is even a criminal’s right and consolation” (40), he always seeks for an opportunity to g...
Despite popular culture today with shows like The Vampire Diaries where vampires are often continuing their daily lives as if they are human and being the heroes to their friends and/or family, Dracula is a depiction of how vampires have, for centuries, been exposed as bloodthirsty, supernatural beings with sexual appeal. The way women are portrayed in Bram Stoker’s, Dracula, is a result of the Victorian ideals. Once Dracula begins to feed on the women, they become bloodthirsty temptresses which are exactly what society fears and try to prevent. In Dracula, Stoker makes sexuality directly linked to the vampirism in the novel. This is seen through the change of Lucy’s somewhat modest behavior into a temptress, the blood-sharing between characters in the novel, and the description of the way Lucy was killed.