Gender Roles In Dracula By Bram Stoker

Gender Roles during the Victorian era and in Dracula

In Bram Stokers novel Dracula, he portrays women as wanting to become a new woman. In 1897 this book was written, the Victorian age was about women becoming free. Women want to breakthrough the ideals that men had placed into them for years. All that they thought they could be were a child barrier or a housewife. Stoker projects women as different objects throughout his novel. There is the Pure woman, with no stains on her name or herself, and the impure women or the sex-crazed women. Bram Stoker also writes about the women that was once pure but now has a stain on her. When saying stain, it is meant to account for a women being impure or doing something to hurt her reputation, like being

divorced. Stoker foreshadows pretty early on that women want a change to become a “New Women.” The three Vampires that attack Johnathan Harker in the novel are proof of this. The way that Stoker portrayed these women were from his surroundings in 1897, during the Victorian age. He shows woman as these sexual creatures which happened to be very taboo for that time period. During the Victorian age many women did not even show their ankles yet alone talk about sex. His writing could portray to certain reader that woman look very aggressive and very sexual. The gender roles were the same in the book as in Victorian Society and they are very different. There are many objectionable topics that Bram Stoker wrote about in Dracula in relation to sexuality. Stoker appeared to be challenging the Victorian society about their ideals on sex and gender roles.
Gender roles during the 1890s in Britain were very opposite of each other.

Men had this ideal of women always being the caregiver and needing to stay home to look after their kids. Women were not viewed as sexual creatures but as mothers. They did not have the rights of men and had only one place they needed to be, and that was at home. Men treated women as delicate flowers so they were protective of them. According to Emma Dominquez “the virgin and the whore the saint and the vampire: these two contradictory definitions of woman pervaded Victorian popular culture, haunting men’s imagination – and destroying woman’s lives.” (300) This is also a good interpretation of Bram Stokers Dracula because it shows how women were portrayed in the novel. These were two very different extremes and transitions. Two females from the novel made the transition between good and evil. Lucy and Mina, were these women. Lucy made the transition from saint to vampire which lead to her death. Mina made the transition from a virgin to a whore. Only after Draculas’ death was she later to recover from her vampire state; but she is now impure. According to Nancy Armstrong in the Journal Feminism, fiction, and the utopian Promise of Dracula she states

Feminist literary theory made a swift and telling intervention in the way of reading British fiction when it created a reader willing to consider what a female protagonist laced and how that lack could be satisfied. Feminist identified the feminine lack of terms of “agency.” By which they usually meant the authority enabling men to effect some kind of social change.

(3)
Although this whole statement is important, the last sentence of that report is the most essential. It is significant because of the men being shown as the ones that make the change. Men did want a change or so it seemed in the novel. It was also an underlying sense that woman were seeking the change. Dracula throughout the story made women these sexual and lustful beings. So it comes into question in 1897, were the men or a man wanting the change. Most men in the Victorian Age were very set in their ways when it came to a women duties. Like stated before they want a woman to stay at home and be the house wife. The thought of a woman going out and doing manly things such as; going after a bad guy, being in charge, or being the protector, and even as far as going and finding Dracula it was unheard of. Even in the book men told the women to basically stay behind where you will be safe. Even as Bram Stoker wrote “A brave mans blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in trouble. You’re a man and no mistake. Well, the devil may work against us for all he’s worth, but god sends us men when we want them.” (144) This shows that men were superior and that they are never a mistake. And it also has insight to how men think when rescuing a woman; They can do no wrong. “You are a man and no mistake”, that one statement shows how men thought they were superior to a woman, and how a woman could never do that job. Women could never be the healer, the protector, or anything close to that.
According to Askin Haluk Yildirim
The Victorian era was a complex and paradoxical age which witnessed on the one hand a great expansion of wealth, power, and culture and on the other, poverty and conflict. ‘The Woman Question’ was a hotly debated topic that predominated the period. Victorian Britain, with its rigid gender roles, was a strictly patriarchal society where discrimination against woman was a dogmatic practice. (46)
At no point during the Victorian era did women have the same rights as men. They were completely inferior to man. To paint a picture a women was brought up basically as property of a man; from a brother, to father, to a husband. Women could only be one thing which Bram Stoker did not like. Which is why he was able to paint such a clear picture of what women could be and the roles could play. Women were not weak, Like Mina, she was strong and persevered. It seems that women in the eyes of Bram Stoker are not as fragile as Victorian Society seemed to believe.
A man’s role vs a woman’s role were very different in Victorian Society. In a lot of ways these gender roles can correlate with feminism. And Bram Stoker gave certain woman in his book the same rights as men during his novel. Women could not be a sexual creature or have the right to be lustful during the Victorian era. They could not be aggressive like men, but Bram Stoker shows us this aggressive woman. Often times women would get married in there early 20’s and chastely looked forward to marriage and having a household. The men had to be financially stable in order to marry, so often times the men would be years older then the woman he chose to unite with. Unlike men, woman had to stay pure, basically meaning no sex or any contact with a man, the only possible way to speak to a man was if you had a chaperone. Men could go as they please and do as they please. They did not have to remain pure and often times resulted in going to a prostitute or brothel type setting. Through the Victorian era a lot had changed and that would not be accepted. According to Tanya Pikula
the rising consumer culture was beginning to un balance the gendered existence of even those who did not actively seek resist traditional roles. The rise of the middle – class standards of living subsequent attempts by families and individuals to accumulate the “paraphernalia of gentility” coincided with the establishment of department stores in the 1860s, which attracted domesticated women into the public sphere (285).
More and more women were getting out there with certain advancements. They no longer had to be just a housewife. They could go and do and buy the things they wanted. During 1897 when women were inferior to most men, a lot of women felt like a doormat. According to Nancy Armstrong
Feminist literary theory had by this point come to understand ‘women’ as nothing more nor less than a place holder for just about every one who did not feel completely at ease within the category of straight white masculinity, including straight white men. (17).
Most women did not have a right or any means of a life other than her husband, or children. Bram Stoker shows us how women were nothing more then a placeholder. He uses Mina and Lucy as examples of this. It was not until Dracula came along that you saw the temptress and dangerous side of a women. Stoker often encounters gender roles when he writes from a mans perspective, for instance Harkers journal. When writing from a women’s perspective he shows the change happening, in particular Minas journal. For example, when the men take on the task of finding Dracula, they delegate the women to stay at home.
Bram Stoker appears to bring to life the Victorian era through his novel. He shares the types of women emerging and not just the pure virgin anymore. He is showing woman becoming empowered, and starting to be who they want to be. Stoker shows women becoming lustful and animalistic throughout his novel. Stoker writes “The girl went on her knees, and bent over me simply gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal. (Stoker 38). Bram Stoker used very obvious context clues throughout his novel, to portray specific gender roles. This animalistic view that a woman portrays in the quote above, was brought on by one man, Dracula. It can lead you to wonder were the men during the Victorian era wanting the transition of women. One man, Dracula, went out and made these women animalistic and lustful. During this specific time period it was the men that handled situations. They went off and took care of the “bad guy.” They insisted the woman stay behind because it is a mans job to protect a woman. Gender roles in the novel and during the Victorian age were polar opposites. Men took care of the woman and woman did their household duties. A mans role was very clear throughout the novel. They took care of the woman no matter if it be their wife or just a friend. During the novel you do not see a female doctor you saw mostly male figures that carried the higher roles. Which can give you a glimpse into how it was in 1897 when Bram Stoker wrote his novel. A lot of literature written during the Victorian age portrays how life really was, and Dracula was one of those books. It portrayed how females and males’ roles deferred greatly. It shows a woman weak and on her death bed and how a man had to help her or come to her rescue. Stoker shows the mans role in protecting a woman and rescuing her when he writes “ The Dutchman – and a fine old fellow he is; I can see that – said, that time you two cam into the room, that you must have another transfusion of blood, and that both you and he were exhausted” (stoker 148). The three men that Lucy one of the female characters had all volunteered to give blood, and they all had the chance too. And once the transfusions took place she was for better words “married” to them. Bram Stoker also show how a woman thought or would talk to her friends when he wrote “You and I, Mina dear, who are engaged and are going to settle down soberly into old married women, can despise vanity.” (55). This is how most Victorian woman thought it was marriage or nothing for most women. Stoker portrays that throughout the beginnings of the novel and that ideology changes towards the end. Woman transcend from this pure and holy figure to the complete opposite. Bram stoker shows this to us when he says this “Then the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss – and man is weak (355). Men became weak at the sight of this powerful and beautiful woman. Was a woman’s beauty a mans kryptonite back in 1897. Yes, well that is why most men always drilled it into a woman that she had to be one thing, pure. When the ideals get tested it is a scary thought for the men, or it was for the men in Bram Stokers’ Dracula. Some men do accept change and understand it well. When Bram Stoker writes “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” (226). Bram stoker has the ability through his writing to show tremendous gender roles and feminism. He shows so many different ideals of women. He also shows gender roles of males and how their mind shifts from one ideal to something opposite of traditional beliefs.
There are many objectionable topics that Bram Stoker wrote about in Dracula in relation to sexuality. Stoker appeared to be challenging the Victorian society about their ideals on sex and gender roles. During the Victorian Era gender roles were on opposing sides. Women were nothing but pure and innocent housewives. They were not considered sexual creatures by anybody in society. Men had the right to tell women what to do, like they owned them. Gender roles and feminism often correlate with each other, through the novel and the Victorian Era. Bram Stoker takes the opportunity to show a more aggressive woman and lustful women. During the time frame of the novel women had a specific purpose in society, that was to marry and be only to their husband. Bram Stoker uses Dracula to paint a different image into Old Victorian society of a New Woman. They were no longer pure and innocent but became aggressive and lustful temptresses. They had rights like men to be such things, and in time women realized they could become this type of women. Women transcended from one ideal to something completely against the grain of society, during Dracula and the Victorian Era. Men also transformed throughout this time too, they stopped having one ideal of woman and were able to be open minded of what a woman could be.