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How do Shakespeare and Stoker present supernatural women in their text?
In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, the three witches have been presented as powerful and ugly. Whereas the three sisters in Bram Stoker's epistolary, Dracula, are viewed as being powerful (which is similar to Macbeth) and beautiful (which is different to Macbeth).
In Stoker's text, Dracula, the three sisters (Dracula's brides) are viewed as being young and attractive, which the quotation,' three young women... eyes like pale sapphires... and brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls' suggests. The quotation states the age of the women and the use of similes (which compares the three to jewels) implies that their physical appearance is of beauty and is perhaps
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'Her breath upon me... was... honey-sweet... but with a bitter-offensiveness' is a quotation from Stoker's text, which suggests the three sisters are not as they seem. The use of the juxtaposition of 'honey-sweet' and 'bitter offensiveness', creates a sense that Dracula's brides appear to be innocent characters, but are really not. It also creates a sense of how these vampires physically look and are, the 'honey-sweet' suggests that they seem beautiful and perfect on the outside (their appearance) but on the inside they're very deadly and evil, which the phrase 'bitter offensiveness' implies. This quotation suggests that Harker knew that they were deadly, as he did state the 'bitter offensiveness' of them, but he overlooked it because of their physical appearance and saying they were 'honey-sweet'. It also talks about the breath of the sister which could be implying that the bitterness, Harker says he can smell, could be the blood of another human, as the character is a vampire, which symbolises how deadly these sisters are. 'I could hear the churning sound of her tongue as it licked her teeth and lips...' this is another quotation from Stoker's text, which suggests the animal-like qualities the vampires possess. The quotation creates a sense that this woman is venomous and hungry, as it is describing her mouth, and this connotes that something bad is going to happen, as it seems like the vampire is hungry for Harker's blood, which creates a sense of foreboding for the reader. The word 'churning' makes me think of something that isn't human, as that isn't a word generally used to describe the mouth of a human, but more likely to describe that of an animals, which implies the animal-like qualities of the
There is a classic "good versus evil" plot to this novel. The evil of course being Count Dracula and the Good being represented by the Harkers, Dr. Seward and Lucy, Arthur, Quincy and the Professor. It is the continuing battle between Dracula and the forces of good. Good in this case is the Christian God. The battle is foretold by the landlady where she says, "It is the eve of St Georges Day. Do you no know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?" and she hands Harker a crucifix (p 12).
Dracula has many themes which are represented by the characters themselves. While the most prominent theme included the focus on the imbalance of religion and science, a very subtle but important statement was made about the impact of evil on women. The graveyard scene summarizes Lucy’s progression from an innocent girl to an evil temptress. Not only does this apply specifically to women but anyone who is turned by Dracula.
The best quote in the entire book ," 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."This quote is important because it shows the significant roles of women throughout the book.The quote stood out to me so much because it represents the Victorian era of women. Lucy and Mina were less equal to the men and couldn't go and know about the plans to kill Dracula.The women in the book played no part in the killing of Dracula. " Why can't they let a girl marry three men ", she is saying that she can't do what the men do because they aren't seen as them.Dracula targets them and makes them his prime. It was Mina's hard work, persistence and pureness that in the
Firstly, Stoker describes Dracula’s physical appearance in Chapter two, ‘a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck
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.
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...
Bram Stoker’s use of gender inversion is first evident in the novel when Dracula’s voluptuous brides attempt to seduce Johnathan Harker. “In an agony of delightful anticipation”, “The blonde girl's “deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive awaiting consummation with eyes closed in languorous ecstasy” (p. 48) Johnathan being quite coy “responds” to this occurrence by taking the approach “What happens in Transylvania stays in Transylvania.” As the three women lean over Johnathan he is attracted by their “red” succulent lips on his throat “so powerful an ambivalence, generating both errant erotic impulses”, but when the brides are about to feast and devour Johnathan, Dracula suddenly appears and puts an end to the party. Dracula openly displays his uncontrolled dominance over these women by saying “How...
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...
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most blatant and powerful symbol is blood. He takes the blood that means so much to the believers of this legend and has it represent more than even they could imagine. Blood is the main object associated with vampires and vampirism. From a mythical standpoint, it is the basis of life for the vampires as they feed off of the blood of young, vibrant souls. From a more scientific standpoint blood is what would drip out of the corpse's mouth when family members would dig up their dead kin to check for the dreaded disease. Stoker takes the significance of this symbol and puts his own unique twist to the meaning of blood. He combines the traditional folklore of vampirism and the immense sexual undertones of the Victorian era to create a simply horrific tale which completely confuses the emotions of his readers. Stoker knew bloods importance in vampire history and used the overwhelming symbolism to convey his own personal lust and sexual obsessions. The scenes where Lucy is receiving transfusions; first from Holmwood, then from Seward, and the unforgettable vampire baptism between Dracula and Mina all have these very erotic, sexual feelings associated with them. What makes these so powerful is the combination of violence and sex. As a reader, you know that what Dracula is doing are horrific and wrong, but because they are so sexually described and associated you think you should enjoy them, but you can't. This is the confusion which stoker implements into his readers minds, especially ones of the Victorian era. This is why stoker used blood as the most important symbol in the novel; to create an intense horror that was not just in the words of the book, but in the minds of the reader.
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).
While the character of Renfield is ostensively extraneous to the central plot of Dracula, he fulfils an important role in Stoker’s exploration of the central themes of the novel. This paper will examine how Renfield character is intertwined with the three central themes of invasion, blood and otherness. Firstly, through Renfield’s inner struggle we learn that he is ‘not his own master’ (Stoker, 211). The theme of invasion is revealed by the controlling and occupying powers of Count Dracula. Secondly, the recurring theme ‘the Blood is the Life’ (Stoker, 121), is portrayed throughout the novel and has been interpreted through Stoker’s character Renfield. Then finally, a look at the social construction of the ‘other’ in Dracula and how, through Renfield, who is ‘unlike the normal lunatic’ (Stoker, 52), the Count emerges as the ‘other’ of all ‘others’.
Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, is a highly controversial work of fiction that is still being read for the first time today. Dracula touches many different categories including; sci-fi horror to 1800’s English romance literature. This is the main reason why the novel Dracula can be analyzed in many different ways using many different literary theories. The theory which stuck out most to me while reading this novel was the Feminist Theory. The Feminist Theory cannot be used to analyze Dracula as a whole novel, but it can be used in order to analyze the different female characters throughout the book. Therefore, Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be analyzed through the feminist theory by focusing on the characters Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra, and the three 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.
According to Altner, “Romance between Mina Harker and Count Dracula is not a new concept. While vacationing in Whitby, Mina is instantly attracted to a handsome stranger. Mina holds secret, passionate assignations with him, although she feels guilty about her husband Jonathan (72). Stoker argues that “Mina is authority’s scapegoat; she dies to illuminate the necessity of escape. There is nothing pretty about Mina’s death or undeath. Mina doesn’t fade into robust new life: she chokes graphically to a death made more painful by the laudanum Dr. Seward idiotically gives her. There is nothing seductive about the Mina who rises: she is no swollen Hammer sexpot, but a decomposing corpse with broken, bloody teeth. This Mina is contrary to literary