Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written during the Victorian period. This was a period that had a lot of restrictions on someone expressing their own sexual desires, especially Victorian women. In Stoker’s Dracula, it showed the fear of feminine sexuality within the Victorians. Stocker was able to give sexual freedom to women through the creation of a creature such as Dracula, who is viewed as the villain as being capable of exposing all the hidden sexual desires of all the characters to play on these fears, especially the way Dracula had an influence over women. Victorian women only had two options either to stay a virgin or be married and a mother. If she decided to not follow these rules made by society she was marked a whore. Women were to have …show more content…
no sexual desires and only were to fulfill the needs of men. During this period, women were starting to make a change which was the emergence of the “New Woman.” The New woman posed as a threat and was viewed as unfeminine within the Victorian society towards how women should behave (Parsons, 1). The “New Woman” was confident, educated, wore pants, rode bicycles, spoke up for herself and amongst other things. This started to catch on upon women and started to give them the ability to see that they are able to be just as equal as men and have sexual freedom. In Dracula, a woman being open of her sexual desires or being sexually aggressive played into the “evil” behaviors of Dracula. In this paper I will be talking about how Bram Stoker’s Dracula focused on the controversial behaviors of Dracula himself and created an uproar within the Victorian society’s controversial views of female sexuality and how Stoker’s use of vampirism was able to play into the hidden desires of women. Women were viewed as sexless beings, they only had the desire to fulfill the men’s needs. Dr. William Acton states that “as a general rule, a modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself. She submits to her husband, but only to please him; and, but for the desire of maternity, would far rather be relieved from his attentions. No nervous or feeble young man need, therefore, be deterred from marriage by any exaggerated notion of the duties required from him. The married woman has no wish to be treated on the footing of a mistress” (Acton, 180). Dr. Acton believed women just were there for the pleasure to serve men and to bare children. He believed they had no sexual fantasies or wanted to be treated as sexual being but as a slave to men. If women tried to act on their own desires it would be a shock to society. There was a term used a lot that a women was to be the “Angel of the house” (Auerbach, 66.) The saying was the start of the stereotyping of the ideal Victorian woman that a woman is suppose a perfect angel that her only roles were only to be a daughter, mother, and wife (Auerbach,66). The home is supposed to be their haven for their men. Women’s had dismissed any feeling of sexual desire and it became unknown. A forward woman in the Victorian society was not natural. As to when Jonathan entered the locked room in Dracula’s castle and was confronted by the three women who were Dracula’s sisters. “The fair girl went on her knees and bent over me, fairly gloating. There was a deliverate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive and as she arched her neck, she actually licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the white, sharp, teeth” (Stoker, 50). Jonathon had mixed feelings of the forward woman in this passage that they were unnatural and to his view point that sexual forwardness was compared to being almost animalistic and just evil. Showing that the Jonathan’s attraction to the girl was not his fault that it was the girl’s fault that she was attractive and how even if Jonathan were to give into the temptation it was entirely the woman’s fault because she is going against social standards for a proper woman. In this society if there were women who were more open about their sexuality were tainted and were filled with the deadly sin of lust and were on the path of evil. When Lucy falls to the evils of Dracula she is described as to have a “cold-bloodedness” (Stoker, 240) which completely is opposite to when she was described as the ideal Victorian woman who had a loving demeanor when she was closed off and followed society rules. In Dracula it showed that women desired more than just being the “Angel of the House” where they projected their dreams and made them a reality through Dracula. Dracula’s ability to empower the three vampire sisters, Mina, and Lucy through vampirism and it gives them the ability to fulfill their hidden desires and be sexualized women.
They defy the Victorian standards of female sexuality and expose them. Each of these five women represent a different of side of the society. The three vampire sisters are the most feared among Victorians because of their sexual desire is greater than any man. On the other hand, Lucy was the perfect picture of an “Angel of the House” Lucy was described by Mina as the perfect Victorian woman as she states “Lucy was looking sweetly pretty in her white lawn frock; she has got a beautiful color since she has been here. I noticed that the old men did not lose anytime coming up and sitting near her when we sat down…I think they all fell in love with her on the spot” (Stocker 73). When Lucy tells Mina that she was proposed by three different men in one day she states in the letter a taboo idea “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it” (Stocker 67). This passage was simple but shows a hidden desire. But she is quick to take it back because of Victorian views but as Dracula manipulates her dreams she was able to express her needs through Dracula and becomes too sexualized as she discovers her dormant sexuality through becoming a …show more content…
vampire. Mina is a strong woman who was admired by men. Mina is labeled as the “New Woman” (Stocker, 29). According to Parson “The New Woman not only posed a threat to the social order but also to the natural order, and was represented as 'simultaneously non-female, unfeminine, and ultra-feminine.” (Parson,1). The New Woman was independent and aware of her sexual desires. Through Dracula Mina and Lucy started to fully become the “New Woman”. Even though Mina never becomes a complete vampire she still shows the same characteristics as Lucy during her interaction with Dracula and she progressively changes from a Victorian woman to a New Woman as the vampirism spreads through her. Throughout the story Mina is the mother figure which is part of Victorian standards for women but Dracula changes that as he starts to feed on her strong motherly persona to being helpless. “There now, crying again I had been crying twice in one morning I, who never cried on my own account and whom he has never shed a tear” (Stoker, 274). Dracula weakens her strong persona by manipulating her dreams. As Dracula continues to manipulate her dreams there is a part where Van Helsing catches Dracula and her in a sexual act which is very disturbing because she is doing this act while her husband is there. Both Lucy and Mina were the perfect Victorian women but as they started to become more aware of their dormant sexual desires and started being able to act on them through the manipulation of Dracula both these women were able to be completely sexually free.
Through the Victorian era there were a lot of restraints and women were treated as unequal. Dracula is everything evil in that society which is a woman expressing herself sexually. “Women then are not only virginal victims in the novel, they serve to illustrate the contradictions and ironic tensions within the Victorian value system as a whole.” (Frost,
3). The villain in the story is Dracula but the real villain are the characters. He is only the one that helps them realize their inner demons through his manipulation. The real monstrosity in the story are characters not being able to confront their own sexuality. Dracula confronts the fear of women sexuality within the story.
...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.
...have a strong desire to maintain control within and outside of marriage, they also have the support of a male dominated society. Stoker displays this struggle in the main characters of Dracula. Lucy Westerna is the obtuse, innocent, fragile, yet sultry siren of male desire; her aggressive sexual power is threatening to the Victorian man, making her not quite pure enough of mind or strong enough of will to be saved. On the other hand, Mina Murray Harker is a clever, unadulterated, strong, yet motherly woman, the kind of woman all women should strive to be. Therefore she is deemed superlative and worthy of salvage.
The passage depicts the unnatural occurrence of the female’s sexual advances, and establishes the link between vampirism and sex that is seen throughout the novel: unlike Mina and Lucy, who are idyllically virtuous and pure, these un-dead women are insatiable and dominant. Stoker takes the fantastic image of the sexual woman to its most extreme manifestation, and suggests that Harker would not only lose his reputation by indulging in these sexual acts, but also his life. The three vampires that Harker encounters in Dracula’s castle are embodiments of the ‘beautiful nightmare’ of the male Victorians; they are representations of everything that the Victorian society states that women should not be – they are sexually aggressive, ‘voluptuous’, and seductive. This sexual proficiency, though appealing, is rebuked and seen to undermine the male dominancy within the patriarchal society, and therefore must be destroyed. The notion that a woman can be both attractive and repulsive is also presented by Angela Carter in The Lady of the House of Love. The character of the countess is presented as both the predator and the prey – the victim and the vixen. Just as the female vampire in Dracula is described as “thrilling and repulsive”, the countess is described as “beautiful and ghastly”. Despite her beauty and “fragility”, the countess
“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.
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.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrated fears about sexual women in contrast to the woman who respected and abided by society’s sexual norms. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s “Carmilla” represented not only the fear of feminine sexuality, but also the fear of sexuality between women. John William Polidori’s “The Vampyre” showed society’s fear of sexuality in terms of the seductive man who could “ruin” a young girl.These texts are representative of vampire stories in the Victorian Era, and will be the focus here.
The Victorian England setting and culture of “Dracula” by: Bram Stoker attributes to many stylistic components and character behaviours in the novel. One of which is the behaviour and actions characters express that are a result of sexual repression. In Dracula, sexual repression is best expressed by the character’s desire to create. This desire is exemplified by the way Dracula creates other vampires, Lucy’s sexual desires, and the men’s expression of aggression. The creation of other Vampires is evident through events including Dracula’s aggressive encounters with Lucy and Mina, and the fact the Dracula is building up a Vampire army. Lucy’s sexual desires are exemplified through her longing to have sex with multiple men and how she compares
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...
Dracula accentuates the lust for sexuality through the main characters by contrasting it with the fears of the feminine sexuality during the Victorian period. In Victorian society, according to Dr.William Acton, a doctor during the Victorian period argued that a woman was either labelled as innocent and pure, or a wife and mother. If a woman was unable to fit in these precincts, consequently as a result she would be disdained and unfit for society and be classified as a whore (Acton, 180). The categorizing of woman is projected through the “uses the characters of Lucy and Mina as examples of the Victorian ideal of a proper woman, and the “weird sisters” as an example of women who are as bold as to ignore cultural boundaries of sexuality and societal constraints” according to Andrew Crockett from the UC Santa Barbara department of English (Andrew Cro...
...ny other novels of the time, Stoker’s Dracula purposely highlights the superiority of men, while simultaneously belittling women. After only a few pages of this novel, the reader should understand just how helpless the females become. No matter what the issue or controversy, they are unable to find any sort of solution, successful or not, without the help of the male characters. Stoker even goes as far as almost teasing Mina, by allowing her to aid in the hunt for Dracula, yet giving her trivial duties. Lucy on the other hand creates the novel’s most blatant case for male superiority. She is forced to constantly depend on four men for her survival. All blood transfusions she received were from men and even that could not save her life. Stoker manages to make a bold statement by pinpointing the inferiority of the two female main characters in the novel.
Lucy is the Medusa archetype. She is physically attractive, and wins the heart of any man who comes near her (e.g. Arthur, Quincey, Jack, and Van Helsing). Her chief quality is sensual beauty, but her sexual desire is repressed and not allowed to communicate. And yet both the spiritual side and the sexual side are in her, and when the long repressed sexuality finds a vent, it explodes and takes over completely. In other words, she is transformed into the completely voluptuous female vampire precisely because her sexual side of personality had been completely buried by her Victorian education. Her repressed self needs such expression that when Dracula came along, she went out to greet him, and then invited him into the house (by opening her window to the bat). He is her vent for sexual expression.
There are a few characters in Dracula that embody society’s views of the time towards the uprising of women for better rights. On the other hand there are also characters that portray the Victorian ideals that men are stronger than women and how it should stay that way. As author Bram Dijkstra mentions in his response essay, “Stokers work demonstrates how thoroughly the war waged by the nineteenth century male culture against the dignity and self -respect of women had been fought”.(Dijkstra , p.460).
In Bram Stokers Dracula, the Count Dracula represents a homosexual figure, which in Victorian times was seen as an inversion of the “typical” male figure. Diana Kindron states the Victorian idea of a homosexual was one of a male body being fused with a female soul. This is just what Count Dracula represents in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula. By Amanda Podonsky, “The Count seems to be an exaggerated representation of the concept concerning ‘evils’ of abnormality and how it can spread and infect.” This says how Dracula represents the fear of Victorians at that time of something abnormal, in this case homosexuality.
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.