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 …show more content…
His main victims, Lucy and Mina, are the best examples of how he expresses these desires. Lucy Westenra is the first victim and the first point of emphasis for Dracula's desire to create in the novel. Once Dracula arrives in Whitby a mysteriousness comes about Lucy. She is sleep walking and seems like she has someplace to go or someone to get to. Mina observes this unusual sleepwalking “Strangely enough, Lucy did not wake; but she got up twice and dressed herself” (Stoker 74). The notion of sleepwalking describes the fact that Dracula is somehow trying to draw Lucy to give in and execute his creative desires. Eventually, Lucy escapes from her room, not seen by Mina and is later found in the middle of a graveyard. This is where Dracula executes his desires and makes Lucy his victim: “There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure….I could see a white face and red, gleaming eyes” (79). This mysterious figure is Dracula and his making of vampire Lucy was marked with two hole punctures in her neck. These punctures are made from a bite. This action of biting someone's neck is both aggressive and sexual. A pleasure spot on a human beings body is the neck, it is sensitive to the touch of fingers/lips. It is an arousal technique and it just so happens that this is the common method for Dracula to create his vampires. This is a direct evidence to the unleashing of Dracula`s sexual repressions. Dracula’s desire to create and releasing of sexual repressions is also evident when he victimizes Mina. After Lucy’s death, Dracula goes after Mina and the first major event evident to this is when he makes her drink his blood through his chest. “Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shown by his torn open dress” (242). The notion of blood and Mina being victimized by having to suck
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.
“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...
Lucy, who is considered promiscuous by Victorian standards, becomes a vampire because she is scandalous, which is what Bram Stoker is trying to say. If you are “loose” and have four different men’s fluids running through you, you become un-pure, which is appalling in the Victorian people’s minds.
Dracula is a mythical creature designed to wreak havoc on the lives of mortals through the terror and intimidation of death by bite. Vampires are undead beings that kill humans for their blood to survive. Human blood is the vampire’s sustenance, and only way of staying alive. Throughout time, humans have come up with ways to repel vampires, such as lighting jack-o-lanterns on All Hallows Eve, placing garlic around the neck, a stake through the heart, sunlight, etc. Both beings have a survival instinct, whether it be hunger or safety, both are strong emotions. In the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the characters Lucy, John, and Van Helsing strive for survival, therefore killing Dracula.
Bram Stroker's Dracula(1897) setting and characters depicts of late nineteen century Britain had failing Victorian social systems. The story also tells of class system, values, technological advancement, and intellectual understanding of British people. This new change in end of nineteen century have impacted Dracula's writing. Studying this can enrich our understanding of historical implication of the book by observing locations, Characters, and important symbolism within it.
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.
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.
Anna Julia Cooper once said, "Peace produced by suppression is neither natural nor desirable". The Victorian era was a time when men's rights were high above those of women and when concealing sexuality was the social norm. Sexuality was often suppressed because of the restraints put on women. The characters in Dracula were comfortable in this situation, until a rather supernatural disturbance arises and changes the ideology of the Victorian era. The character Dracula is the component needed to counter these limitations, but the fear associated with change lead to people reacting with violence and going against their moral compasses, in order to restore a sense of normality. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the
Lucy enjoys the attention of her male suitors and even indecently jokes about polygamy, expressing a hidden want for sexual autonomy. Once Dracula arrives in England, Lucy becomes his initial target. Lucy’s sleepwalking shapes her into an ideal victim, as she is exposed in a vulnerable state in which her subconscious yearnings are more accessible and she is also physically available to Dracula. For her break of social protocol, she is transformed into a vampire, characterized by “voluptuous wantonness” (Stoker 231). She becomes even more beautiful in her undeath, in a state where she can embrace her sexuality, which enforces the belief that visible sensuality in women is unorthodox. In addition, the traditional view of what a woman should be, a nurturer, mother, and wife, is drastically inverted for a woman who does not wish to stay confined. Lucy is denied the opportunity to be married and instead develops into a child-feasting fiend. Her susceptibility to seduction is punished with an unnatural, vulgar monstrosity. Subsequently, Lucy is finally killed and reverted to her original, pre-vampiric state, when her fiancee, the male figure she was to be subordinate to, stakes her. This action cements a patriarchal figure’s control over Lucy once again, who only then, can be returned to a peaceful state of purity, while the other two prospective suitors watch as Arthur exert his dominance over Lucy. Comparatively, the female character who survives the Dracula’s tactics is Mina who does not succumb by maintaining the socially demanded
Bram Stoker penned his novel Dracula at a period when women had restricted gender roles. The Victorian culture restrained women and their significance. The past Victorian women were considered to be clean, as well as innocent. However, Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula, disclosed another side of women that was never noticed. These qualities revealed by Bram Stoker are of the new woman feminist culture. The idea of sexual category roles in the 1890s differed a lot, and Dracula disputed the traditional feminist as well as masculine roles. In the Victorian period, gender roles were that of being caring and obedient. In the novel Dracula, women are expected to be respectful, to their husbands and the society. The theme of gender roles in Dracula
Have you ever wondered why females were placed on specific restrictions and guarded by their husbands in the Victorian period? Men were afraid of the manifestation that females would undergo; females would display horrific characteristics that could incinerate a man’s soul, engage in lustful activities that were unimaginable, and created an atmosphere that contained both despair and lust. However, men assumed that the female’s pure soul was being corrupted by a demonic force, which was out of their grip and understanding. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stoker illustrates a group of men (Van Helsing, Johnathan Harker, John Seward, and Quincy Morris) who were afraid of Lucy’s transformation, and were willing to go so far just to end or destroy the manifestation entirely.
At first glance, Dracula is a typical vampire. He gangs all the typical qualities; sucks blood, transforms into a bat, pale with teeth, has no reflection, and is nighttime. In any case, burrowing further we see that Dracula is more than a straightforward vampire in what he speaks to. With regards to the Victorian age, Dracula speaks to the risks of secularism and the takeoff from christian esteems. Vampires have dependably been related with the Fiend, yet Stoker makes it one stride further. Dracula lives in eastern Europe among wanderers, who have dependably been
The Victorian Era has a large impact on the evil’s that is Dracula. The fears of society at the time as well as Stoker’s own beliefs on sex and homosexuality impact this as well. During the mid 20th century there were a lot of limitations for women. Everyone during this time was held to a high social standard but men had more lenience in the social world with freedom and pleasures that females did not get to experience. In this patriarchal society, men were becoming dominant over women which cause excuses for men’s sexual urges. Women were to refrain and dismiss sexuality altogether. They were to never be seen as assertive as this would be both alarming and unnatural. A “lady” should never act in such a way. “The theory justifying
Bram Stoker uses to Mina to create a very innocent character that is violated to invoke emotion in the reader. To further this emotion, she begins to regret something that was out of her mortal control. “Unclean!”(Stoker 313). The very idea that she has been violated disgusts her down to her very bone. The men of the story seem to want to save Mina more than they ever did Lucy. This could be due to the fact that she is very innocent and they do not want Dracula to go there or because they wanted to avenge Lucy and save Mina. All of this caused because of violation. Sigrid Anderson Cordell, author of the article Sex, Terror, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Coppola’s Reinvention of Film History, analyzes a film that is based on Dracula. “Likewise, he associates Dracula’s desire for Mina with the use of film to put female sexuality on public display” (Cordell 2). This supports Stoker’s symbolism for sexuality as public display further violation in a large way. Stoker uses Mina to appall the reader when he violates Mina. Joan Acocella perfectly describes this in her article, “In the Blood”. “A terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink” (Acocella 1). There is not much of a difference between the reactions to Dracula forcing Mina to suck Jonathan’s blood and if he had instead violated her sexually..The fact that these two actions are interchangeable, clearly supports the point that the whole time the world thought Dracula was about vampires(which it still partly is), it was really talking about
Podonsky, Amanda M. "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society." Student Pulse: The International Student Journal. N.p., 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.