How illuminating is it to see vampires in Dracula as enacting a ,'blurring of gender boundaries’ ?
Dracula was initially published in 1897 by Bram Stoker. Many critics view the novel as exploring the fears society had and then presenting them in the form of the vampire. One of the fears presented in the characterisation of the vampire is gender transgression and the blurring of the gender boundaries which the Victorians upheld. In this essay I am looking to explore the many ways that the vampires reflect this fear of breaking gender norm society has and how Stoker does this.
In Dracula many readers do reflect that there is blurring of gender lines in the portrayal of the vampires in regarding to female sexuality In Victorian society there
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was a fear of the sexually empowered women; it played on the fear of prostitutes as vehicles for sexually transmitted diseases. It was seen as abnormal and against gender boundaries as a Victorian woman was supposed to be submissive and their sexual activities were to satisfy their husband not themselves. Stoker uses vampire woman as a metaphor for the sexually empowered woman and uses them to display his views on this blurring of gender lines. This is explored in the novel when Harker encounters with three female vampires and they decide to feed on him. Stoker presents them as empowered and permissive women with them calling the feeding , “Kisses,”. “The fair girl advanced and bent over me till I could feel the movement of her breath upon me. Sweet it was in one sense, honey-sweet… but with a bitter underlying the sweet, a bitter offensiveness, as one smells in blood.” This line reinforces the idea that she is dominant and in control of the situation with Harker having no influence; Stoker maintains that this is unnatural saying it is saying there is a, “bitter offensiveness.” Stoker writes the description of the woman in a similar way, “There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive… she actually licked her lips like an animal… moisture on her scarlet lips and red tongue.” First thing the reader notices is the repetition of the colour red when describing her lips both of which has connotations of passion and romance. The vampires are described as very passionate beings in the extract; which as I said previously is unusual as women were not seen as sexual beings by the vast perception of society. Using the adjective, “Voluptuous,” To describe the vampires also adds the sexualisation of her. She is also then described as licking her lips like a “, animal.” The vampire here has been sexualised so much that they have been dehumanises adding to the horror in the novel and ending a on a message about the fate of a woman if they become sexually empowered. Similarly, the character Lucy is sexualised like the other vampire women. Stoker uses Lucy’s transformation into a vampire to show the contrast between the sexual empowered and the women comfortable and conforming to their gender position. This transformation can be seen in extract from Seward’s Diary, where he says “She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained mouth – which it made one shudder to see – the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity.” Again, “Voluptuous,” is used to describe a vampire linking them with the sexually empowered. We have reference to her, “bloodstained mouth,” which creates the idea of her being tainted and impure and as wrote earlier the red image which has connotations with passion. Lucy is turned from a virtuous woman into a woman described as “carnal” and, “unspiritual.” This Stoker is giving the reader a warning to those of the transformation that happens when a woman steps over the gender boundaries and becomes sexually empowered. This warning against gender transgression is reinforced by Lucy’s death in the novel; as Bram Dijkstra says, “The polyandrous virago, has been transformed into that ideal creature of feminine virtue of the mid-nineteenth century: the dead woman.” What Dijkstra is saying is that to demonstrate the ideal female In Victorian society that Stoker kills her in the novel viewing this as the only way to purify her. Lucy’s death is set as an example of the fate of sexually empowered woman who try to change her perception of a woman. There is also a, ‘blurring of gender boundaries’ when it came to women being empowered more generally. Stoker wrote also wrote the characters of the vampire’s to reflect the Victorian reader’s fear of women becoming more empowered as individuals. This fear in Victorian society of the empowered female was sparked by the rise of first wave feminism in the 19th Century. A group called the “New Women,” were campaigning for various rights such as suffrage, access to higher education, access to ‘male’ professions. They wanted a role in society for women’s that went beyond just being a wife and mother. This was viewed with anxiety by conservatives who warned of a, “breakdown in society with women opting for independence and self-fulfillment rather than wanting to marry and have families.” (see Senf 1982: 35) The novel includes critical references to the” New Women” and these references show Stoker’s negative attitude towards the movement. Stoker compares Lucy and Mina throughout the novel. Lucy is the ‘bad’ sexualised, “New Woman,” and Mina the one who to her gender role. Mina is an educated woman who although she is dedicating in better herself in acquiring practical skills such writing in shorthand she only does it to assist her husband. .This technique of juxtaposing the two girls is used throughout the novel. One way that Lucy is symbolic of the bad sexualised New Woman is that she presents the main fear that Victorian society have of the new woman; the idea that woman would turn their back on the responsibility as a mother in the home.
This idea of the new woman rejecting her role of a mother is presented in Lucy when she is caught sucking the blood of a child; “She flung to the ground, callous as a devil, the child that up to now she had clutched strenuously to her breast, growling over it as a dog growls over a bone. The child gave a sharp cry, and lay there moaning.” This evokes the maternal image of mother clutching her child and yet the child is dead. This is be Stoker portraying the message that female empowerment will have a negative effect on the future generations as the women will neglect their roles. As Stoker has done before he dehumanises Lucy by using the simile of her, “growling over it (the child) as a dog growls over a bone.” This dehumanisation of Lucy is Stoker demonstrating the unnaturalness of female empowerment and of the new women’s …show more content…
ideals. When talking about feminism in Dracula – says “Vampirism, in this case, symbolizes feminism, which affects every person whether male or female - that comes into contact with its supernatural powers. It blurs fixed gender boundaries and challenges Victorian society. Therefore, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a feminist novel, especially concerning sexuality.” i agree with this in the idea that vampires on one level symbolises feminism but i disagree with the statement that it is a feminist novel as that has that connotations of the novel validating or glorifying feminism. When In fact Stoker has the opposite intention. the objective towards the end of novel is to save Mina from the vampire's and eradicate all the vampires preventing the spread of the vampire population. In a way the vampires hunt becomes can be viewed as an attempt to re-establish patriarchal control over women. When considering the vampire Dracula some critic’s view there to be a blurring of gender boundaries. This view is due to the fact that many view there to be a subtext of homosexuality within the novel. There are many aspects to the novel which critics have pointed out to indicating a homosexual subtext. Dracula assumes a feminine role in tending to Jonathan’s needs when he is visiting the castle which in itself shows a blurring of the gender boundaries. The idea of homosexuality itself completely broke down the traditional gender roles in Victorian society and There was a fear in Victorian society of homosexual men becoming feminine in nature and degenerating there masculinity. Dracula’s also shows a physical attraction to Jonathan in the shaving scene when he has to fight against his instincts to feed on his blood.
“I laid down the razor, turning as I did so half round to look for some sticking plaster. When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat.” Finally, Dracula’s (which can be viewed as jealous) fury at the vampire women’s when they caught ready to feed on Harker. "How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him…This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me." The use of exclamation marks and rhetorical questions helps to portray the anger and to reinforce the possessiveness of Dracula who goes as far as to treat Harker as object. For many critics this possessiveness introduces the idea of a homosexual subtext within the novel as Edward Carpenter says, “Dracula claims Jonathan Harker and establishes his homosexuality within the
novel.” Stoker treats this breach of gender roles in the same way as he treats the other people who do not conform to their gender boundaries. He kills them to act as warning against gender transgression. On the topic of homosexuality in Dracula, Chirstopher craft says, “[T]his sexual threat this novel first evokes, manipulates, sustains, but never finally represents is that Dracula will seduce, penetrate, drain another male. The suspense and power of Dracula’s opening section, of that phase of the narrative which we have called the invitation to monstrosity, proceeds precisely from this unfulfilled sexual ambition.”(Craft 1997: 446) This reinforces the idea that while it is unacknowledged in the text Dracula will seduce and drain the blood of the men just as well as women. But as it is unacknowledged in the text this interpretation only goes so far in portraying the blurring of gender boundaries. In conclusion, It is illuminating is it to see vampires in Dracula as enacting a ,'blurring of gender boundaries. It helps a modern reader understands the conflict and social change happening at the time particularly in regard to gender roles. You also can also understand the various ways in which Stoker has used his own and societies views on gender confides in the novel. He establishes the vampires as breaking the gender boundaries using a variety of method such as imagery, description and juxtaposition. Once he has established and shown them to be breaking the gender stereotypes he sends the reader a message by showing them having retribution for their transgressions. Though this view of feminism and homosexuality in particular is vastly different in modern days this shows the change there has been in society since then.
...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.
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,
Soyokaze. "Thread: Female Sexuality in Bram Stoker's Dracula." Urch Forums RSS. N.p., 8 Mar. 2008. Web. 6 May 2014. .
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
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.
Gothic literature is a genre fashioned to portray concealed fantasies and unsocial behaviours, only to go against social boundaries and emphasise these by the end. This chapter focuses on the representation of male characters in the gothic text, Dracula by Bram Stoker. Gothic texts not only violate social norms but throughout the nineteenth century male characters have had a persistent need to conform to the high standards of society. Several writers within the Victorian era expressed feelings of repressed sexuality and issues surrounding gender, Dracula is one of many gothic novels that hold these issues central. Men have had to ignore their individual needs for sexual relations and playing along to fit into society. The gothic characterises this emotional war fought within the anxious males and expresses these ideas of homosexuality and violating social norms in a negative light. One of the major themes of Dracula is the triumph of the masculine over the feminine. This interpretation is not limited to the treatment of the characters. Even though the men – Van Helsing, Seward, Godalming, Morris and Harker do rescue the female character, Mina Harker, from the evil hands of another male, Count Dracula, their real triumph is over the feminine forces that he represents. In Dracula anxiety is displayed when the male characters are left alone with the females – Harker writes in his journal ‘I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Faugh! Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common. They are devils of the Pit!’ (p.46) here we see Mina contrasted to the three Brides of Dracula, Harker portrays them as complete opposites. Masculinity remains as the more powerful position, despite the depiction of powerful females on the surfac...
Conclusively, while Bram Stokers novel Dracula is seen as a gothic and horror story, I argue that it is a novel that seeks to address female sexuality directly. Seen through numerous passages, Stoker confronts and battles the views between sexuality during the Victorian era though his genius of characterization of characters present within the novel. As it seems highly intentional to me, I respect the way in which he criticizes and critiques upon female sexuality by bringing into light new ideas regarding female desires. When contrasting his text upon today’s culture, the differences to how one perceived the vampire has changed significantly.
This essay will attempt to discuss the two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power.
In terms of feminist theory, Dracula is much like that of Henry Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; both portraying the role of women (or lack thereof) in a Victorian setting. During the turn of the century women did not have the freedom granted to them today and not much was expected of them in terms of masculine obligations. Men were expected to be smart and strong while women were supposed to be motherly, gentle, and nurturing. For example: the superiority of men over women in Dracula is made clear when Lucy addresses Mina: “why are men so noble when women are so little worthy of them?” (Stoker 54). Stoker portrays all of his female characters’ vulnerability against evil when each one of them seems to have a weakness to a male character. Dracula can be analyzed through and against feminist theory by relating the stereotypes of the three female characters: Mina Murray Harker, Lucy Westenra, and the three vampire “brides” of Dracula.
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).
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).
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has plentiful examples of key concepts we have examined in class including: Purity and impurity, magical thinking, strong emotions such as disgust and shame, , formalization, and myth. In this essay I will summarize events that take place within the novel when the protagonists deal with Dracula and then relate these events to the key concepts to demonstrate why the characters view him as dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided completely.