The conscious fear of beauty seems to be a prevalent fear across history, not simply in the past but carrying over from literature all the way to the present.
Throughout the story of Dionea by Vernon Lee, the topic of demonic beauty is a constant theme and fear lingering within the minds of the society in which they live in.
This fear translates over to the fear of the beautiful vampires within Bram Stockers Dracula.
One of the biggest fears that translate directly from Dionea to Dracula is the linking of beauty and fear within the texts. Within Dionea we meet the main character who is feared for her strange actions and stunning beauty. In one section it claims, “Dionea appeared, rather out of place, an amazing little beauty, dark, lithe, with an odd ferocious gleam in her eyes, and a still odder smile, tortuous, serpentine” (9). Whereas beauty is not usually described as being so horrifying, in this case, beauty is seen as a threat, or perhaps a weapon. They create a pretense of not trusting those with strange inhumane beauty, especially in Dracula. This is the case in the scene on page 44 of Bram Stocker’s Dracula, “All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear.” Once again the reaction to beauty is related to a fear and a distrust in a strange way.
Throughout reading these texts I have related this fear to the fear and distrust of promiscuity, which although specifically looked down upon in the Victorian ages, still holds an air of taboo. This fear of promiscuity plays a role in both texts, specifically on page 20 of Dionea, “The thought of stripping for the view of a man, which would send a shudder through our most brazen village girls, seemed not to startle her, immaculate and savage as she is accounted.” Linked to the distrust by the commonplace person in society, is the breaking of standards and the blatant promiscuity and sexuality of women. This is also played out within Dracula when Jonathan portrays the scene where the vampiric women are about to sucks his blood as “there was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive” (45). Stocker’s intentions of this scene suggest, just as Vernon Lee’s, the fear of promiscuity.
Similarly, the fear of promiscuity seems to be translated into the disgust of women who are as bold as Dionea and the three vampiric ladies. This is shown by the words in which Jonathan Harker chooses, as he articulates the women as “repulsive” yet “voluptuous” and hand in hand the two seem to be implied as intertwined adjectives.
With the lingering fear of the New women in the Victorian era, it can be interpreted as the fear of women abandoning their motherly role within the household being portrayed throughout literature. This fear, although a more modern version of it, still plays a role in everyday life. Stigmas of the beautiful seem to have diminished mostly, yet the distrust of sexual women seems to be an ever prevalent thing of daily life. With slut shaming and similar acts against women, it seems that we still fear the overly sexual woman, possibly as much as Jonathan Harker may have or the townspeople against Dionea.
(Similarly “She’s so Mean” by Matchbox Twenty seems to speak of a beautiful lady in which is mildly feared and considered to be mean throughout the song.)