Female sexuality in dracula. The Concept Of Female Sexuality In Dracula By Bram Stoker 2022-10-28
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Female sexuality is a significant theme in Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula." Throughout the novel, the female characters' sexual desires and behaviors are depicted in a way that reflects the Victorian era's attitudes towards women and their sexuality.
One of the central themes of "Dracula" is the concept of chastity and the importance of preserving a woman's sexual purity. This is evident in the character of Mina Murray, who is portrayed as a chaste and virtuous woman. Mina is a strong and intelligent character, but her sexuality is depicted as being controlled and subdued. Mina's husband, Jonathan Harker, is depicted as the protector of her chastity and is portrayed as being deeply concerned about her sexual purity.
In contrast, the character of Lucy Westenra is portrayed as a sexually liberated woman. Lucy is depicted as being promiscuous and sexually aggressive, and she is seen as a threat to the social order because of her sexual behavior. Lucy's sexual behavior is depicted as being dangerous and destructive, and she is eventually punished for her promiscuity by being turned into a vampire.
The character of Count Dracula is also significant in the novel's portrayal of female sexuality. Dracula is depicted as a sexually predatory figure who seeks to seduce and control the female characters in the novel. He uses his sexual power and charisma to lure the women in the novel into his grasp, and he is seen as a symbol of male sexual dominance.
Overall, "Dracula" portrays female sexuality in a way that reflects the Victorian era's attitudes towards women and their sexual desires. The female characters in the novel are depicted as being either chaste and virtuous or sexually promiscuous, and their sexual behavior is depicted as being either acceptable or dangerous. The novel's portrayal of female sexuality highlights the social and cultural expectations placed on women during the Victorian era, and it reflects the fear and anxiety that many people had about female sexuality.
The Feminine Roles In Dracula English Literature Essay
Instead of the monogamous relationship suggested by Mina and Jonathan, Lucy has three suitors, all young, noble, well-off men. Then looking towards the staking of Lucy, this passage connotates a deep sexual meaning. For more information, see our. It seems there is more to feel threatened by than female sexuality. Bram Stoker 's Dracula describes a post dated European setting in which most women are subject to explicit gender roles and stereotypes. This personal information such as your browsing data and your IP address may be used to present you with personalized content; to measure advertising and content performance, and to learn more about your use of the site.
The Lady is a Vamp: Fearing Female Sexuality in Dracula
Copy to Clipboard Reference Copied to Clipboard. The story starts when Jonathan set off to travel to Transylvania in order settle real estate matters to a Count Dracula. Stoker uses Lucy to illustrate that sexually aggressive women who use their beauty to gain a certain power over men will not last in the Victorian culture. Yet her transition into a vampire and subsequent time spent amongst the Undead changes her physical characteristics. Mina Murray serves as a contrast to these hungry temptresses and illustrates something of Victorian values regarding women.
Both the characters and the male reader experience these fears, for the crossing of genders are simply unthinkable. Dracula as a story may be seen as a classic horror tale of a bloodsucking monster who dines on the blood of the living, an embodiment of Satan himself getting the weak to bow down to him. Where Lucy is seen as the innocent and playful, Mina is viewed as a practical, down-to-earth, figure. This strengthens that arguments and relevance of these arguments introduced by the literary critics mentioned in this discussion. Dracula himself represents the sole opposite of god.
Sexuality In Bram Stokers Dracula Character Analysis Essay Example
Eventually, he gives way to helplessness, paralysis, screaming, and crying. This theme again connects vampirism and sexuality. I just got my essay back and it wasn't marked!! But in disgracing this influential ceremony, vampires do not drink holy blood but human blood, thus not gaining an eternal sacramental life but merely a perpetual bodily life. Indeed after the novel was explored it was seen as full of all forms of sexual symbolism. Secondly, in the progress of science, one should not forget the teachings of faith lest one day that knowledge is needed. Stoker brings out many fears in Dracula , perhaps the most notable are feminaphobia the male fear of being feminine and gynephobia fear of women in general. But an underlying meaning of the character and what he represents is what I feel Bram Stoker was genuinely trying to get across to his readers, the hope to display woman as having the same desires as men through sexuality in his writing.
Dracula forms a liking to the character of Lucy which ultimately leads to her death. He juxtaposes Mina and Lucy throughout his novel to describe and contrast the two different categories of women that he believed existed in the Victorian era: the ideal, innocent, submissive women and the dangerous, rebellious women who wish to take risks and break free from the confining features of society. At this point in time, Stoker writes Dracula when the New Victorian Women are beginning to emerge ex. Yet, it is also an indication that men in general, enjoy this sexual aspect of women to purely to satisfy themselves. However, as I work with students who study under many different English teachers, I can tell you that it's pretty much impossible to estimate what grade another English teacher would give without seeing previous gradings by that teacher. Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, … a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink. The person that actually stakes Lucy is her fiancé, Arthur Holmwood.
However, the further from Britain and 'civilization' he gets, the more his gender becomes confused. She is passive becoming a vampire, and that is why she transforms into the monster in short period of time. Like most novels written by men, Dracula appeals more to the male audience and fantasy. Work Cited Stoker, Bram. Hants, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999.
Gender & Sexuality Issues on Bram Stoker’s Dracula Essay Example
Where Lucy is seen as the innocent and playful, Mina is viewed as a practical, down-to-earth, figure. Each re-make uses the vampire for itself and re-invents the idea of the vampire, some being cruel others even romantic and sexual. Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, … a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink. Typical ideology of society during this time in history is for women to be kept pure and innocent in order to appeal to a possible suitor. Count Dracula moved in into his newly acquired estate in London where he sought after human beings as provisions. She is on her way from the perfect woman to the New Woman.
Not only is it contrary to the normative heterosexual monogamy encouraged by Victorian society, but through this very lack of procreation it also becomes atemporal; by denying the children, it essentially denies the future. From this came the term New Woman, an independent, fashionable, educated woman who rejected traditional female roles in favor of work outside the home. Being an example of horror fiction, the novel hides a great number of underlying messages, deals with many social problems of Victorian England, and makes the reader think about the relationship between men and women in general through the portrayal of the main male and female characters. As Lucy dies, Dr. Every possible corner of the book is exhausted with the phallocentric motifs of successive generations of men believing in their "divine" Christian autonomy over the reproductive rights of women.
The three Vampiresses This scene is one of the most widely discussed, because of its supposedly extreme sexual conflicts cf Kline 101. Sexuality in the novel There are many scenes in the novel which despite Bram Stokers denial to admit it appear to have many sexual connotations. For wives to have sex was associated with duty and for hus- bands with a necessity, rather than a joyful act cf Middeke 62. The dominance and power exhibited by the character of Mina do not come from the dynamics of female sexuality but from the strength of character as a person and as a woman. They came close to me and looked at me for some time and then whispered together. With his ability to usurp the female role of creating life, his bite a kind of demonic procreation in creating more vampires, and with his consumption of blood as a triumph over fears of menstruation, it may be that Dracula is the ultimate patriarchal fantasy.
There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. These two characters portray two father figures, which differ in personality and temperament. As such, it portrays a reversal of the temporary transformation and a restoration to her earlier sweet and pure essence. In literature, Dracula would be not only classified as a Gothic novel but also an epistolary novel. The character of Lucy becomes acutely confident in expressing her intimate emotions and begins to lose the ideal characteristics of a traditional woman.
