More handpicked essays just for you.
What is stokers view on femininity in dracula
Women in dracula
What is stokers view on femininity in dracula
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Victorian Sexuality in Stoker’s Dracula, LeFanu’s Carmilla, and Polidori’s Vampyre
Literature is representative of the time in which it is produced. Literature can reflect societal views, attitudes, and fears.Vampire literature, in particular, often represents the fears of a society.In the Victorian Era, a time of intense sexual repression, it was common for vampire stories to reflect the fear of sexuality that was rampant in society.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrated fears about sexual women in contrast to the woman who respected and abided by society’s sexual norms. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s “Carmilla” represented not only the fear of feminine sexuality, but also the fear of sexuality between women. John William Polidori’s “The Vampyre” showed society’s fear of sexuality in terms of the seductive man who could “ruin” a young girl.These texts are representative of vampire stories in the Victorian Era, and will be the focus here.
Victorian society dictated harsh restraints on sexuality, especially female sexuality. Members of Victorian society believed that sexual repression was a sign of good breeding. This was the time of the “cult of true womanhood,” the “code of chivalry,” and the Social Purity Movement.
To “be a lady” in Victorian times, women had to repress their “instincts,” meaning that they must not have sex. Lead by the “cult of true womanhood,” which dictated piety, purity and submissiveness in women, females were directed to become almost asexual. Women went into sexuality thinking that it was something not to be talked about, that women were not supposed to have a libido, and that the act of sexual intercourse was not something that they should enjoy.
As women’s sexuality became more and more...
... middle of paper ...
...rongmore’s past behavior, Aubrey fears for his sister.
Strongmore is described as alluring and seductive, making him appear as the sexual man that women of the Victorian Era tried to help to control their desires.Men were encouraged to repress their sexuality as well as women, and men who could not were permitted to see prostitutes.The young unmarried girl was the last person that a man should be seen with, but Strongmore violated this became a foil for young women desiring marriage.This story illustrated the fears of unrestrained sexuality and sedutive men who could ruin young girls, and both fears are embodied by Lord Strongmore.
Works Cited
Auerbach, Nina. Our Vampires, Ourselves. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1995.
LeFanu, Joseph Sheridan. Best Ghost Stories. New York: Dover, 1964.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. New York: Penguin, 1993.
Each chapter contains numerous sources which complement the aforementioned themes, to create a new study on cultural history in general but women specifically. Her approach is reminiscent of Foucault, with a poststructural outlook on social definitions and similar ideas on sexuality and agency. Power cannot be absolute and is difficult to control, however Victorian men and women were able to grasp command of the sexual narrative. She includes the inequalities of class and gender, incorporating socioeconomic rhetic into the
J. Gordon Melton, in the excerpt “Sexuality and the Vampire” published in his The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (1998), explains that vampires have a sexual appearance that started from their origin in Dracula. Melton supports his statement by analyzing the monsters' transition to sexual beings through the stories of Dracula’s desires, multiple countries’ erotic tales revolving around vampire-like beings, the manifestation of sensual themes in literary, stage, and screen works, and their current evolution of the once terrified immortals to loved heroes. The purpose of this essay was to outline the seductiveness of the written immortal creatures in order to explain the fanged-mammals’ appeal beyond their terrifying monster abilities.
Soyokaze. "Thread: Female Sexuality in Bram Stoker's Dracula." Urch Forums RSS. N.p., 8 Mar. 2008. Web. 6 May 2014. .
As certain types of pollution damages our atmosphere, our natural protection from the sun weakens and as a result the Earth gets warmer with time, impacting the temperature of our seas. The unfortunate results of global warming and the co...
Stevenson, John Allen. A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula. 2nd ed. Vol. 103. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1988. JSTOR. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
Sex Discrimination in the American Workplace: Still a Fact of Life. (2000, July 01). Retrieved from National Women's Law Center : www.nwlc.org
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).
The dominate and central symbol within the story of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is the color red. It is used widely throughout the entire story and develops the main ideas located around the topic of pregnancy, the handmaid’s, and life and death. One example of this color red is found in the beginning of the story, where it states that “Everything except the wings around my face is read the color blood, which defines us.” (Atwood 8). In this novel, the handmaids always where uniforms that are only the color of a deep red. The interesting part of this color choice, is that the color reed normally stands out but these women are meant to stand out but fade into the background. The red in the case of the handmaid’s uniform is thought to symbolize many
Blue symbolizes numerous things, but in this instance its association to faith and heaven connect well with the type of religious society that rules Gilead. Consequently, blue is often considered to be beneficial to the mind and body, so surrounding handmaids with blue makes sense, because Gilead want these women to be in the best possible health. The camera starts to zoom in closer to the shadow of Offred, and then cuts to a medium shot of her hunched over holding her hands. The camera is angled so that the viewer gets a side profile view of Offred. The light is still shining in from the window behind her casting rays of light in a few directions. No light is casted on Offred’s face and it remains covered in shadows. This is done to show Offred’s anxiety and dread about finding out that there is an Eye in the house she resides in. The director keeps the light off her face to create a somber atmosphere. Then, there is a cut to a medium frontal view of Offred as she is looking down. There is a slight high angle looking down on Offred that makes her appear to be smaller and oppressed in the current
Carmilla, the title character and the vampire of the work, is especially important to the definition of vampirism in literature, not only because she threatens to take young women from their religious societies, but also because her victims are all women. A vampire’s victim is often synonymous with his or her lover. Both sex and homosexuality are considered taboo in Western society, because it presents both of these topics, the work is especially deviant from the time in which it was written. Le Fanu in particular was inspired by the near obsession the British Empire had with morality in the 17th century. While sex and sexuality was not necessarily suppressed during the time, and most of society was beginning to come to terms with their own agreement the topic was still banned from polite conversation. Homosexual acts, like those depicted in Carmilla were still considered extremely taboo, and often times illegal, as homosexuality was a crime punishable by death up to ten years before the work was written. Carmilla, like most of the other works in the time it was written is the product of strictly religious society and represents the amoral. Carmilla however was exceptional in the fact that the vampire is female, rather than a male vampire that has remained present throughout most vampire-centered work since their creation. Women were
When a society is faced with problems, leaders seek ways to change for the better. As a result of an increase in birth control, abortions, AIDS and other reasons causing prenatal complications, the birth rate in Gilead was declining. The citizens with high power decided to establish a new society to help resolve this problem by introducing a system that utilizes fertile women to increase the birth rate back to normal. In Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, the color red signifies many different ways in which a change in society can control a person’s actions, however, can not fully control the way in which the individual thinks.
Gender discrimination is defined as prejudice against an individual due to his or her gender or sex. Discrimination against women has been occurring for years and continues to pose an issue today, especially in institutions such as the workforce. In the past, women were limited to very few rights; they were not permitted to vote and were considered as “property”. The only real jobs they had were housewives.and only a handful of women were in the labor force. In today’s society, women compose more than half of the workforce, yet they earn a significantly less amount compared to their male counterparts for completing the same tasks. Due to the subtleness of the issue, many still continue to be unaware of the discrimination which occurs. Though the issues regarding gender discrimination have gone through improvements recently, the issue at hand
Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu’s texts, Dracula (1898) and “Carmilla” (1872), use gothic tropes in similar ways to captivate readers with horror and terror. This essay will illustrate how, in comparison, both texts include gothic tropes: the New Woman, sexuality and setting, in order to provoke emotions and reactions from the readers. To achieve this, this essay will focus on the women that challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and deconstruct each text in regards to the very strong undertones of homosexuality; specifically between Carmilla and Laura, and Dracula and Harker. By discussing the harshness and darkness of the environments described, including ruined castles and isolated landscapes; this essay will also explore the
It has been proven that the carbon cycle is essential to the Earth’s Biogeochemical cycles, but much is still to be learned about the processes that go on in the Earth’s oceans. Whether it be through natural transference from the atmosphere, or anthropogenic pumping, the CO2 levels in the oceans are increasing. Many studies have taken place to try and understand the effects that this increase will have on oceans and its biogeochemical cycling, and most have proven to be negative. These negative effects, such as dissolution of calcium carbonates and hypercapnia on water breathing organisms, can have long term effects on populations, species and the overall food web of the ocean.
Discrimination against women in the workplace is an unfortunate reality even in this day and age. It has a significant negative impact not only economically but also on women 's confidence, sense of self worth, and can also cause them to lose motivation and morale which is required to perform their jobs. Although there are a number of laws in place to protect women in the workplace in the United States, such as the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act, discrimination still occurs. It can take many forms such as sexual harassment, age discrimination and gender discrimination.