Discourse in Dracula

756 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Portrayal of women in literature

No work of literature is ever written without consideration of the context of the time period of which it was constructed. Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and the film adaptation of the same text by Francis Coppola, differ greatly in attitudes, values and beliefs despite the fact that the film is based on the text. Furthermore, the added embellishments which no doubt make the film more pleasing to the viewer such as increased gore drown out the symbols of values and beliefs conveyed through the individual text. For this reason, the transition of medium and the change in context has highly warped the values and meaning imbued within Dracula.

It is clear from analysis of the original text that it is very much built within the framework of the patriarchal and repressed 19th century context. In Victorian England, expression of female sexuality was very much frowned upon and only two polar opposite states of sexuality existed – that of the pure, chaste virgin, and of the somewhat soiled wife and mother. When considering the main female characters, the first discrepancy between the movie and the book appears. In the book it is quite apparent throughout that Dracula is attempting to turn the chaste Lucy and Mina into their opposites – into Nosferatu, vampires and embodiments of the suppressed sexuality that in many ways defines the original text. However, in the movie Lucy is almost shockingly sexually aware, and is very forward with Quincey in particular before she is under the influence of Dracula. Blatant sexual imagery is shown in the movie where Lucy attempts to seduce Quincey, as evident in her appraisal of his dagger. As she moans in sultry tones, “Oh please let me touch it, it’s so big” referring to the phallic symbol of his dagger we ...

... middle of paper ...

...ucy’s personalities in the second excerpt scratches the surface of this particular value. What the movie certainly does not lack is discourse on class structure. Mina and Lucy several times mention ideas based on their class, which ties in with the discourse in the original text on social values and class. Mina and Dracula are the first vampires in the series, and both are members of the aristocracy. Perhaps this is a direct reference to an underlying view in both the director and Stoker’s mind that the aristocracy is in fact a parasitic entity that “drinks the living blood of others to grow strong”. The fact that religion is a vampire’s only weakness, a point echoed both in the book and the play in the “purification” of Lucy could also be an indication that one political point has not changed throughout the ages – religion is the only check upon the aristocracy.

Show More
Related

  • Impurity In Dracula

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dracula: A Simple Tale of Good vs. Evil

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    Religion was the core of his tale, and modeled it. On one side were the humans and on the other Dracula. Through their struggles to defeat the monster, they experienced changes in gender roles, which was also present in real time.

    Read More

  • Violence in Dracula

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout many types of literature, violence exists to enhance the reader’s interest in order to add a sense of excitement or conflict to a novel. This statement withholds much truthfulness due to the fact that without violence in a piece of literature such as Dracula by Bram Stoker, the plot would not have the same impact if it were lacking violence. So to holds true to that of the movie. The movie bares different characteristics then that of the book. First off, the whole ordeal with the wolf escaping and jumping into Lucy’s, room and Lucy’s mom having a heart attacked is never even mention in the movie. Second, The night when the four men go to Lucy’s grave and find it empty is stated both in the book and in the movie however what unfolds after this is different. Finally, the end of the book differs severely from what Francis Ford Copolas rendition and that of the Bram Stoker see it to be. The differences are as follows…

    Read More

  • Dracula and the Threat of Female Sexual Expression by Bram Stoker

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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...

    Read More

  • Comparing Gender Roles In Dracula And The Lady Of The House Of Love

    2299 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Inverted Gender Roles: Dracula by Bram Stoker

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dracula: The Effect of Women’s Role Change

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    In society, the significance of social status and role is observable with both genders. This includes the acceptable behaviors and responsibilities for both men and women within one’s culture. It is a constant struggle to follow these established guidelines in order to preserve a good reputation and not possess a low social status. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, the different characters each represent a different stand in the transformation from “True Woman” to the “New Woman” that surfaced in the late nineteenth century. This new idea made women more independent, with their lives no longer revolving around their husbands, and most importantly created a big change in social expectations. The characters Lucy, Mina, and the three brides of Dracula play a part in revealing Stoker’s belief that social status is changed for the worse with this change in women’s roles.

    Read More

  • Stoker's Portrayal of Women in "Dracula"

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ny other novels of the time, Stoker’s Dracula purposely highlights the superiority of men, while simultaneously belittling women. After only a few pages of this novel, the reader should understand just how helpless the females become. No matter what the issue or controversy, they are unable to find any sort of solution, successful or not, without the help of the male characters. Stoker even goes as far as almost teasing Mina, by allowing her to aid in the hunt for Dracula, yet giving her trivial duties. Lucy on the other hand creates the novel’s most blatant case for male superiority. She is forced to constantly depend on four men for her survival. All blood transfusions she received were from men and even that could not save her life. Stoker manages to make a bold statement by pinpointing the inferiority of the two female main characters in the novel.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Feminism In Dracula

    657 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Such A Beast!: Sexuality And Humanization In Dracula

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the course of cinematic history, many filmmakers have attempted to recreate the chilling, unprecedented world of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Arguably very few have succeeded, for the majority of directors tend to avoid the pervasive sexuality inherent in the novel. It is a difficult task to achieve, considering the blatant imagery surrounding sex and vampirism, such as the reproduction following a vampiric encounter and the phallocentric nature of the violence committed both by and against these creatures: penetration is involved in their hunting, and one must impale them with a stake in order to destroy them. Readers are thereby forced to admit that Dracula is, in fact, a highly eroticized piece of literature, though whether or not Stoker himself was aware of this suggestiveness, we cannot be sure. The most successful effort at capturing that sexual energy on film has been Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, it has often been proposed that Coppola’s version is too carnally focused in comparison to the original work, which leads a viewer to wonder about the purpose in this overt sexualization. It can be concluded that adding copious amounts of eroticism to the film is directly related to Coppola’s strive to depict Count Dracula as more human rather than monster, and sexuality in his film serves as a balance so that the lines between good and evil are blurred. Evidence for this deduction is found in three scenes in particular: Jonathan’s seduction by Dracula’s vampiric wives, Lucy’s demonic transformation, and Mina and Van Helsing’s relationship during the climax of the story.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Bram Stoker's Dracula And Dracula

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre; These factors include setting, actions of each vampire, the initial reactions to news of them, and how their presence affects the people who live within the region the vampires inhabit.

    Read More

  • Comparing Sexuality and Power in Dracula and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    1644 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Repression In Dracula

    2232 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Dracula by Bram Stoker

    971 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Case's article “Tasting the Original Apple,” it talks about the role that now the new woman has and how it comes into conflict with how men react towards it as stated “Dracula is often read as a largely reactionary response to the threat of autonomous female sexuality posed by the phenomenon of the "New Woman," with its anxieties about female sexuality being most clearly visible in Lucy Westenra's story. Particularly once she has been "vamped," Lucy's sexual assertiveness seems to link her with the New Woman. But Lucy's actions as a vampire, like those of the "awful women" (42) Jonathan encounters at Dracula's castle, perhaps owe less to the specific threat posed by the New Woman's insistence on sexual autonomy than to the ambivalences built into the model of Victorian womanhood from the start. Since ideal womanhood (and the ground of male desire) was characterized by a combination of total sexual purity and at least the potential for passionate devotion to a man, this model...

    Read More

  • Dracula

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    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’.

    Read More

More about Discourse in Dracula

Open Document