{"id":1579,"date":"2024-11-18T16:24:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T21:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2024-11-18T16:24:09","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T21:24:09","slug":"female-sexuality-in-dracula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/11\/18\/female-sexuality-in-dracula\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Sexuality in Dracula"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray are two of my favorite characters of Bram Stoker\u2019s <\/span>Dracula<\/span><\/i>, in part due to how they illuminate the text\u2019s perspective on female sexuality. Vampirism, in <\/span>Dracula<\/span><\/i>, is metaphorically linked to a number of socially frightening images, from ethnic stereotypes to a growing fascination with blood-sucking creatures. Sexuality is another such frightening image, and there is a notable contrast between how human women and vampiric women act. <\/span>Dracula <\/span><\/i>vampires, in general, are creatures of overt sexuality and lust. Dracula himself reflects the vampire tropes of Bram Stoker\u2019s time, including the pervasive fears of foreigners preying on local women; Dracula has multiple female vampires at his estate that he has turned undead and kidnapped.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for how the women act after becoming vampires, their desire to feed bears strong resemblances to sexual desire. When Jonathan Harker encounters them while staying at Dracula\u2019s estate, it is because of his failure to follow the Count\u2019s warning to only sleep in his designated room. By failing to heed this warning, Jonathan opens himself to the insatiable lust of these women, an attribute so strong that they might find him anywhere in the estate to indulge themselves. They are described with starkly white teeth and unnaturally red, \u201cvoluptuous\u201d lips, and Jonathan describes himself as feeling not only fear, but \u201cecstasy\u201d at the touch of the women (Chapter 3). The women\u2019s \u201cvoluptuousness\u201d is a clear reference to their sexuality, but it is not the attractiveness of these women that is seen as frightening, is it that Jonathan describes their sensuality as \u201cdeliberate\u201d (Chapter 3)\u2014in other words, purposefully acting untoward and improper. In addition, the women awaken these sexual feelings in him unwillingly, something uncharacteristic of an ideal gentleman. In combination with their violent feeding habits, the sexuality of vampiric women is part of what makes them monstrous, as they represent unwanted parts of 1890\u2019s society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The stark differences between human women and vampire women are seen most plainly through Lucy. In her letters, she is innocent and polite enough that the men of <\/span>Dracula<\/span><\/i> are tripping over themselves courting her. She is comfortable in her attractiveness, and teases about it\u2014she jokes with Mina about her indecision between suitors by saying, \u201cWhy can\u2019t they let a girl marry three men\u201d\u2014but never blatantly inappropriate. Even this comment causes her to take back her words, noting them as \u201cheresy\u201d (Chapter 5). But when Lucy is turned to a vampire (spoilers!), she is purposefully using her allure. In fact, she has a bottomless sexual appetite, and is said to pose a threat not only to human lives, but in diminishing the self-control of men (Chapter 16).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, vampirism is not a surefire path to a woman\u2019s sexual corruption. Rather, vampirism represents (for women) the threat of becoming unclean or impure, something that has the potential to cause their inhibitions to vanish. Mina Murray, for example, is never fully vampiric, and is returned to humanity at the end of <\/span>Dracula<\/span><\/i>. Throughout the novel, she has remained even \u201cpurer\u201d than Lucy. She is the ideal Victorian woman: she never expresses any sexual thought, need, or suggestion, not even in the privacy of letters. Additionally, she has a strong desire to be of use to her husband, Jonathan. Despite her intense sympathy and kindness (she mentions the progressive \u201cNew Women\u201d of England, and demonstrates an understanding of them), she is also dutiful, and remains a conservative housewife. Because of this dramatic escape from vampirism at the end of the novel, the binary of vampiric women is not entirely strict. Women such as Mina, who are paragons of Victorian womanhood, have the capability to resist this fate. Additionally, women in the novel are seen as important for upholding the morality of society, allowing vampires to represent multiple \u201cevils.\u201d Dracula is attempting to access and turn the men of England <\/span>through <\/span><\/i>the women he targets, painting Mina as an important figure not just in containing her sexual impulses, but in her empathy, her intelligence, and other positive qualities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the text\u2019s perspective on male sexuality complicates the notion that only female vampires are sexually ravenous creatures. Men, too, are seen to fall prey to impurity, as demonstrated by Dracula\u2019s plan to tempt them, and Jonathan\u2019s attraction to the three vampires at the Count\u2019s estate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited:<\/span><\/p>\n

Stoker, Bram. <\/span>Dracula. <\/span><\/i>New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1897.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray are two of my favorite characters of Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula, in part due to how they illuminate the text\u2019s perspective on female sexuality. Vampirism, in Dracula, is metaphorically linked to a number of socially frightening images, from ethnic stereotypes to a growing fascination with blood-sucking creatures. Sexuality is another such … Continue reading Female Sexuality in Dracula<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}