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What is stokers view on femininity in dracula
A Feminist Interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula
A Feminist Interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula
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Slut shaming in Literature Slut shaming; A form of social stigma applied to women and girls, who are perceived to violate traditional expectations or sexual behaviors. Vampire stories existed before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This story dates back during the victorian society. Significantly, the Victorian era was the era of objectifying and degrading women if they did not meet the certain standards. Bram Stoker uses the weird sisters and Lucy; whom are female vampires as a way of symbolism. This work of literature is significant to european vampire stories. The europeans are the only one's who wrote these stories and mastered the story's underlying message. Bram Stoker's Dracula creates the signature way how to become a vampire and how to kill a vampire. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the author uses the symbolism of the weird sisters to display the double standard and unfair treatment of female sexuality. Prejudice; meaning to have a preconceived opinion not based on actual reason. Van helsing explains Lucy’s desperate feel for blood and or sex. Lucy wants sex and these wants are unnatural to victorian women.“She will die for sheer want of blood …show more content…
Jonathan gives his account with weird sisters. Jonathan was willing to risk it all for some randoms and a basic. Jonathan states that he feels they are going to kiss him and bite his neck and he waits for it (40-41). Jonathan has a fiance and is about to risk it all for one little one night stand with a group full of michelles. Just sad. Mina punishes herself for her rape. In addition to, Mina punishes herself and talks about her violation. Mina states that she wants God to pity her and those around her (311). Mina becomes insecure about herself and feels less of a woman because society teaches her to be this way. Bottom line is that double standards continue to
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,
In the 19th century Bram Stoker wrote the infamous novel, Dracula. This novel was composed in the style of letters, journal entries, newspaper articles and telegrams in order to convey to the reader a realistic story. The story of Dracula is about an ancient vampire who moves to London from his native country of Transylvania. In London, Dracula seduces and bites a young woman by the name of Lucy Westenra. When Lucy falls sick, no one knows how to help her because while Dracula has bitten her many times she has always been in a trance. Lucy?s friends decide to join together to combat what ever is ailing Lucy. In hopes of some help, Lucy?s friend Dr. Seward asks an old mentor of his by the name of Dr. Van Helsing to come to London and solve this puzzling illness. When Dr. Van Helsing arrives in London and sees Lucy he is the only one that knows almost immediately what has happened and what they are up against. The character of Dracula rarely appears in the story because this creates suspense and magnifies the fear of the unknown. The theme of good versus evil is developed throughout the book in many ways. One of the most important examples is Dracula and Mina. Dracula is the ultimate evil and Mina is full of goodness and purity. The Victorian view of women was not helpful to the characters in Dracula. For example, every time the male characters in the story decide not to tell Mina some particular type of information, things end up going terribly wrong. Even though Mina ends up being the key to destroying Dracula she is still a women and the Victorian view gets in the way.
We are introduced to two particular women in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. These two women are Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra. These women were presented to serve as Foil characters and show the two types of women: the pure and the vulnerable.Early in to the novel, they were described as the stereotypical perfect women in this era. As the story progresses , significant differences are shown by both women. Lucy will show the difference between which allows Dracula to capture her with his spell first. This will show the similarities and differences of MIna Harker and Lucy Westenra.
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
In the late 19th century, when Dracula by Bram Stoker is written, women were only perceived as conservative housewives, only tending to their family’s needs and being solely dependent of their husbands to provide for them. This novel portrays that completely in accordance to Mina Harker, but Lucy Westenra is the complete opposite. Lucy parades around in just her demeanor as a promiscuous and sexual person. While Mina only cares about learning new things in order to assist her soon-to-be husband Jonathan Harker. Lucy and Mina both become victims of vampirism in the novel. Mina is fortunate but Lucy is not. Overall, the assumption of women as the weaker specimen is greatly immense in the late 19th century. There are also many underlying sexual messages throughout the story. The topic of anything sexual, in the late 19th century, was not a topic to be discussed openly. This explains why Stoker decodes all of his references. The late 19th century was the era of the American Renaissance so the novel includes many gothic and Poe-etic elements. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, the author depicts women in a vulgar and promiscuous way to represent the weakness and dependency of women on men, includes many gothic and Poe-etic elements to relate the novel to American Renaissance and makes many sexual references to add some edge to the story to the delight of men but the horror to women.
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.
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 play along to fit into society.
Throughout decades of cheesy horror movies, the image of vampires have been misconstrued as sparkly, angsty teenage boys or handsome men that lure in girls for the fresh blood of a virgin. Many of these stereotypical vampires are influenced by the story of Dracula, held in the Victorian era. During this period, sexuality is repressed by society, as sexual behaviors from women are viewed as unacceptable. Yet, many of the stories published about vampires diverge from the message that Bram Stoker was trying to make. In the Gothic horror novel Dracula, Bram Stoker uses the traumatic experience of Jonathan Harker at Count Dracula’s castle and the invasion of vampires in Great Britain to create a social commentary on the sexual repression occurring
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.
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.
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.
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 “Otherness” Dracula possesses reinforces our own norms and beliefs through his transgression that separates him from society and the polarity to Western norms and ideals makes him an effective device for extorting revulsion and horror. Stoker’s novel employs Gothic tradition, providing “the principle embodiments and evocations of cultural anxieties” from which the very Gothic mood and horror is produced, establishing the baseline used to distinguish the modern vampires, as part of vampire mythology within the Gothic (Botting Aftergothic 280). Differences Between Dracula and Twilight The similarities between the two novels are namely Gothic imagery and theme, but the Gothic mood predominates in Dracula over Twilight and it is this difference that makes Twilight not belong in the vampire canon. Horror is the element that Dracula possesses that Edward does not, and it is crucial in the interplay between transgression and limit.
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, published in 1897, explores various sexual erotic possibilities in the vampire's embrace, as discussed by Leonard Wolf. The novel confronts Victorian fears of homosexuality; that were current at the time due to the trial of playwright Oscar Wilde. The vampire's embrace could also be interpreted as an illustration of Victorian fears of the changing role of women. Therefore it is important to consider: the historical context of the novel; the Victorian notion of the `New Woman' specifically the character of Lucy Westenra; the inversion of gender roles; notions of sexuality; and the emasculation of men, by lessening their power over women; in the novel Dracula. In doing this I will be able to explore the effects of the vampire's embrace in depth, and achieve a wider understanding of the variety of erotic undercurrents Stoker incorporated into the novel.
The novel’s portrayal of Dracula as a character who embodies queer traits challenges the traditional gender roles and sexual mores of the time. His interactions, particularly with female characters, serve as an exploration of themes such as desire, power, and intimacy, revealing the nuanced ways in which these dynamics are negotiated within the narrative. By delving into Victorian anxieties about the Other, portraying Dracula as both an exotic and repulsive figure, Stoker reflects societal fears and fascinations with sexuality and deviance during the