Category: 2018 Blog Post

While there are many passages in Dracula that are filled with sexual undertones, the section where Mina describes the Count forcing her to drink his blood is one that comes across as very explicitly sexual.  Mina states, “When the blood began to spurt out, he took my hands in one of his, holding them tight, and with the other seized my neck and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that I must either suffocate or swallow some of the-Oh my God” (307).  Blood has many different meanings within the novel, yet in this scene the most obvious interpretation of it seems to be semen.  This scene reads as very sexually violent and nonconsensual especially with the use of words such as, “seized,” “pressed,” and “suffocate.”  Dracula is forcing Mina to become a vampire but making her drink his own blood, in a way he is converting, or corrupting her.  Throughout the novel, both Mina and Lucy are described as pure, innocent, and wholesome beings.  In this particular moment, Dracula can be seen as someone disrupting Mina’s purity and innocence especially when Mina herself cannot even bear to tell the men that she was forced to swallow some of Dracula’s blood.  By doing this, Dracula has permanently violated and altered Mina and she can no longer be perceived as virtuous, innocent, or entirely human.

Carol Senf’s article “Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror” focuses on how the main English characters and Dracula are similar rather than different.  She brings up the point that the novel never includes a chapter told from Dracula’s perspective and she questions the belief that Dracula is the only villain in the story. Senf particularly analyzes Dracula’s role as a sexual threat and what his thirst for blood can be interpreted as. In the scene above, it appears that Dracula is a violent individual who wants to corrupt the pure, innocent human body with blood, which in this instance seems to represent either semen or some kind of poison.  Senf writes, “his thirst for blood and the manner in which he satisfies this thirst can be interpreted as sexual desire which fails to observe any of society’s attempts to control it” (428).  The scene above does express Dracula’s sexual desire because he wants Mina to drink his blood that is coming out of the wound in his chest, which he opened himself. Dracula himself does not want to drink his own blood, but instead wants to convert Mina to a vampire so that she too will share this sexual desire and thirst for blood, which is such a stark deviation from her purity.  Dracula uses his thirst for blood as an act of defiance and particularly in the scene with Mina, uses her as a mechanism for blatantly destroying the societal norms that Mina so clearly embodies.  Senf’s challenge that Dracula may not be the only villain in the novel is also on display here because he himself is not drinking human blood, Mina is.  If Dracula uses his sexual desire to combat a society that condemns his sexuality, then maybe he is not the true villain and those who support such a society are.

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Vernon Lee’s “Dionea” both authors depict women as beautiful creatures. Stoker does this through the three female vampires and Lee achieves this with his titular character. Within these two texts, the beauty of those characters leads to destruction. Stoker depicts this when Van Helsing must murder the female vampires, whose vampirism is visible through their beauty. On the other hand, Lee demonstrates destruction through Waldemar’s failed attempt to capture Dionea’s beauty in his sculpture. Within both of these texts, beauty is used as the conduit in which women are given power over men. However, in order to maintain the social decorum of the 19^th century, that power and subsequently that beauty must be destroyed so men can stay in power.

Within Dracula, the female vampires are seen as beautiful as a result of their vampirism. Van Helsing knows that youthfulness and beauty is a characteristic of vampirism, but the female vampires beauty still stops him when he is trying to kill them. Van Helsing recognizes that “the mere beauty and fascination of the wanton Un-dead have hypnotize him” and that if he were to keep dawdling in his task he could become “one more victim in the Vampire fold” (Stoker 393). In this quote, the vampires’ beauty is so strong that it has “hypnotized him” and stopped him from completing his task. The power of the vampires’ beauty demonstrates the potential danger for Van Helsing. If he keeps staring at them, the sun will eventually set, and he will become “one more [of their] victim[s]”. In order to prevent that, Van Helsing must destroy the vampires and their beauty in order to be free from their power. This interaction between Van Helsing and the female vampires shows that the kind of power women had over men had to do with looks. The female vampire would only be successful in turning Van Helsing if he succumbed to their beauty. He is able to prevent that though by killing them, which demonstrates Stoker correcting the power dynamics within the novel by transferring it back to the man.

Vernon Lee’s “Dionea” depicts beauty in a similar way to Dracula. Dionea is seen as a witch or possessing the evil eye, but the doctor always describes her as beautiful. While Dionea’s evilness is never given a name like vampirism, it is clear through her interactions with Waldemar that her beauty has power over men. This is seen when Waldemar is attempting to model a sculpture after her but is not successful: “she is far, far more beautiful than Waldemar’s statue of her. He said so angrily, only yesterday…as he spoke that odd spark of ferocity dilated in his eyes, and seizing the largest of his modelling tools, he obliterated at one swoop the whole exquisite face” (Lee 23). Waldemar knows that his sculpture is not doing Dionea’s beauty justice, which is represented through his saying that in real life Dionea is “far, far more beautiful” than what his sculpture currently depicts. The power of Dionea’s beauty creates an “odd spark of ferocity” within Waldemar, which drives him to destroy his sculpture. While Stoker was able to fix the power dynamics in his novel, Lee is not able to do the same. Instead, Waldemar dies as a result of Dionea’s power and beauty and she is left standing triumphant in the end.

While both of these texts represent beautiful women who are subsequently given power, they have very different results. Stoker corrects the power dynamics in Dracula when Van Helsing successfully kills the female vampires. However, Lee’s Waldemar fails fatally to Dionea’s beauty and power. Both representations of characters though goes against the social codes of the 19^th century by giving women power over men, even if it is through shallow descriptions of beauty.

Sigmund Freud claims in his piece “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming” that “the adult…is ashamed of his phantasies and hides them from other people” (422). The infamous Count Dracula falls victim to this more than anyone else in Bram Stoker’s gothic tale. Superficially, Dracula is a terrifying character. But he is also one of the most lost characters in the book. He doesn’t fit into any socially formed category, thus stripping him of any humanizing characteristic. What does one do when society denies you of your humanity?

Dracula and his fellow vampires are characterized throughout the book as the “Un-Dead.” At night, Dracula walks around and talks to people as if he were alive. But as the sun rises he falls asleep in a coffin, not a bed. He exists in a limbo space of neither dead nor alive. This space between two categories is uncomfortable for society, and thus effectively characterizes Dracula as an “Other.” Dracula reacts, as anyone would, by hiding from his true desires and hating himself for it, thus completely aligning with Freudian theory.

This pattern is evident again through Dracula’s sexuality. When stopping the three female vampires from biting, and thus successfully seducing Jonathan, Dracula shouts, “How dare you touch him, any of you” (46) and forbids vampire women from “cast[ing] eyes on him” (46). He yells “this man belongs to me” (46)! One might assume Dracula means that he has reserved Jonathan for himself to bite. However, the vampire women begin to ridicule Dracula, yelling: “you yourself have never loved; you never love!” To which Dracula turns to Jonathan and reassures him that he “too can love” (46). The fact that Dracula turns to Jonathan to offer this reassurance suggests Dracula desires Jonathan in a romantic manner. Not only does Dracula want to have sex with Jonathan in this moment, but he wants to love him. The repetition of the phrase “you have never loved” is jarring. It signals that Dracula has never had anyone in his life who he has felt he could love. Alternatively, this suggests that there has never been anyone in Dracula’s life who has offered to love him. It is sad to watch Dracula offer his love here, even if the situation is twisted, when it is so obvious that he will never get it in return.

Dracula then compensates for this undesirable sexuality by mistreating women. The gruesome scene in which Dracula turns Mina into a vampire is evidence of this. Dracula grabs Mina with a “mocking smile” while he “bared [her] throat with” his hand and “placed his reeking lips upon [her] throat” (306). Dracula’s “mocking smile” has nothing to do with Mina and everything to do with his sexuality. He is replacing his fear of his sexuality (and his hurt from Jonathan’s rejection) by making fun of the one person most important to Jonathan: his wife. He further violates Mina by exposing one of the most fragile and intimate parts of her body (her neck), and places his lips to it. The sharing of bodily fluids (the blood) is a metaphor for sex. Dracula looks to Mina after and says, “you…are now to me, flesh of my flesh; blood of my blood; kin of my kin” (306). Dracula, left with no other choice, forces Mina to become the only family member of his he has ever had and will ever have. Suddenly, Dracula has someone there for him no matter what.

That being said, Dracula then reacts to this in the most peculiar way. He tears his shirt open and with “his long sharp nails opened a vein in his breast” (307), forcing Mina to drink the blood pouring from his chest. Dracula hates himself for forcing Mina to become his family he turns to self-harm, and uses his own body part to hurt himself. He takes this even one step further by forcing Mina to take something (blood) from him, even though he has just violated her in the most awful way possible. This solidifies the idea that Dracula needs someone to feel as though they can depend on him, in the hopes that he can reciprocate this dependence.

This behavior makes sense according to Freud. Dracula had never perfectly fit into any societally-constructed box his entire life. He is an aristocrat living in a castle, but lacks a servant. He has homoerotic desires but rapes women. He has animalistic features but behaves mostly as a human. He is “Un-Dead.” When one exists in this in-between space, what happens? According to Stoker, chaos happens. And violence. And death. And self-hatred. All of which are characterized through Dracula. It is clear that social constructs do more harm than good. It is no wonder that Dracula felt at peace when he faced his ultimate death. If I were him, I would have too.

Note: I am not at all trying to undermine what is clearly a rape scene and all of the violence Mina faces because of that. It’s horrible. I just wanted to attempt to find some humanity in Dracula, as I think society did horrible things to him as well.

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.)

(Sorry-not-sorry for the image: I couldn’t NOT include it)

In this blog post I want to examine the very last text in Bram Stoker’s Dracula:

“We want no proofs; we ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care; later he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake” (402).

As I was reading this text for the second time in class, I recognized an interesting connection to be made between it and Carol Senf’s critique of the novel, “By the conclusion of the novel, all the characters who have been accused of expressing individual desire have been appropriately punished” (430). Senf’s perspective presents a completely different understanding of the “hero” plot we have understood so far.

Senf’s argument seems to follow the connections we have been making to Christianity, whereby there is some god-like figure who deals out justice to the characters who have committed sin. Dracula, his disciples, and even Mina suffer due to their connection to and involvement in the dark side, which completely undo’s the “men banding together to defeat the enemy” plot line of Dracula. It almost seems as if their actions did not really matter because the Count, as a beacon of evil, was meant to be punished anyways. The idea of free will is undermined and the destiny of Dracula’s defeat is made definitive.

This seems to play into the Victorian “era of fears”. The Victorians were worried that somehow their society could be attacked and contaminated regardless of the actions they might take to prevent it. The English empire would last because it was destined to; God himself looked highly upon the queen and her nation. Yet in Dracula we see a different answer; it is not who we are, nor where we are from, but our good or bad actions that will save or demolish us. Lucy dies along with Dracula, and it has naught to do with her being a woman, or being English, but with her attachment to sin.

I think more broadly this introduces the idea of what I will call the Mirage of Choice; grandly, our actions are inconsequential. God will decide to make things wright or wrong accordingly. The plot of the novel would suggest that men are capable of deciding for themselves these differences – Senf calls them self-proclaimed “agents of God” (430) – while Carol suggests that they are just the opposite, blips of flesh in a universe of God’s bidding.

I think Senf does not present a necessarily negative perspective on choice and justice, however. If we accept that the characters of the novel have free will, we are presented with a group of murderers and rapists. Allowing for destiny to have brought these men together and destroy the Count and his following sheds a more positive light on the events of the novel, at least from a Christian perspective. This is not to excuse responsibility in the novel; I don’t think Senf is making that argument here. I do believe that we cannot ignore the ideas of good versus evil in a religious context just because the novel may not explicitly say so.

Mina’s characterization of being a proper Victorian wife is best exemplified in her focus of keeping up appearances at all hours of the day and night. This anxiety is unwittingly present at all times in Mina’s narrative. While staying with Lucy and Mrs. Westenra in Whitby, her concern for herself and Lucy’s reputation was evident during Lucy’s sleepwalking episodes. On page 100, Mina expects Lucy to adhere to the social standard of being appropriately dressed both in and out of doors: “As I was leaving the room it struck me that the clothes she wore might give me some clue to her dreaming intention. Dressing-gown would mean house; dress, outside”. She justified this hypothesis due to the fact that she herself had taken the time to get dressed, and that any rational woman, awake or asleep, must have also taken these steps.

Mina, however, was horrified and embarrassed when she finds that Lucy went outside dressed only in her nightgown, and states that she was, “filled with anxiety about Lucy, not only for her health, lest she should suffer from the exposure, but for her reputation in case our story should get wind” (pg 103). Mina is afraid that Lucy is potentially involving her in a scandal, and is all the more resolved to improve Lucy’s health.

Mina’s care of Lucy is also indicative of the trope of ideal Victorian women to be “pure, selflessly motivated by the desire to serve others rather than fulfill her own needs” (1061). In contrast, Lucy does not fit this description, as she is unable to care for anyone, and especially not herself. Mina is also extremely devoted to Jonathan, even before he officially became her husband.

In the first inclusion of one of her journal entries, she writes in reference to the goal of learning to write shorthand, “When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan” (62). She also delights in being his nursemaid when he returns mentally damaged to England. “I am busy, I need not tell you, arranging things and housekeeping…. I wish I could run up to town for a day or two to see you, dear, but I dare not go yet, with so much on my shoulders; and Jonathan wants looking after still” (165). Caring specifically for husbands is echoed in The Longman Anthology as women were expected to “soothe the savage beast her husband might become as he fought in the jungle of free trade” (1061), especially when considering that Jonathan visited Dracula on business and in hopes of it helping to further his career.

There is an element of Mina that almost seems to rejoice that Jonathan is not completely mentally sound, as she delights in him being dependent on her, and enjoys being needed, “The poor dear was evidently terrified at something – very greatly terrified, I do believe that if he had not had me to lean on and to support him he would have sunk down” (184). As stated in The Longman’s Anthology on page 1061, “Only in their much vaunted ‘femininity’ did women have an edge, as nurturers of children and men’s better instincts” and Mina clearly revels in the role of being a caregiver.  

In their “Introduction: Reading the ‘Fin de Siècle,’” Ledger and Luckhurst assert that “[p]opular culture of the time was fascinated by exotic, imperial terrors,” which is directly seen through the composition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (xvi).  Characterized as a bestial ‘other’ from old money, Count Dracula embodies the role of a predatory upper-class individual that profits off of the suffering of the helpless lower class.

Jonathan Harker describes Count Dracula as having “peculiarly sharp white teeth,” “ears [that are] pale and at the tops extremely pointed,” “broad… squat fingers” with “hairs in the centre of the palm,” and “nails [that are] long and fine, and cut to a sharp point” (24-25).  In noting features that are “sharp,” “extremely pointed,” and “cut to a sharp point,” Stoker emphasizes the innate danger that Dracula’s image holds. His ability to incite fear in Harker, in the forms of a “shudder” that cannot be “repress[ed]” and a “horrible feeling of nausea,” with only physical proximity demonstrates his predatory aura and appearance (25). Not only does the Count have a dangerous aura, he also embodies the mystery and danger associated with foreign individuals during the fin de siècle. Ledger and Luckhurst note that the alluring “exotic, imperial terrors” of the time included “fantasies of reverse invasion by the French or Germans” (xvi). In Dracula, the Count fulfills this fantasy because of his Transylvanian heritage and his transfer from Transylvania to England.  As an Eastern European individual, Dracula would have been considered an outsider in terms of language, culture, and race.

Count Dracula’s characterization as a predatory creature rings true through his victimization of the innocent. To appease the three female vampires who try to “kiss” Jonathan Harker, Dracula gifts them a bag which produces a “gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child” (47). Lucy, Dracula’s other notable victim, also fulfills this ideal of innocence. In the throws of fighting her fate of transforming into a vampire herself, Lucy’s “breast heaved softly, and her breath came and went like a tired child’s” (171). In describing Count Dracula’s victims as innocent children, Stoker makes him more villainous, as only a monster would prey on children.

Aside from being a dangerous predator, Count Dracula is also exceptionally wealthy. He is a count, owns a castle, is buying another property in England, and has literal old money in his room. Harker describes in his diary that

“[t]he only thing [he] found was a great heap of gold in one corner – gold of all kinds, Roman, and British, and Austrian, and Hungarian, and Greek and Turkish money, covered with a film of dust, as though it had lain long in the ground. None of it that [he] had noticed was less than three hundred years old. There were also chains and ornaments, some jeweled, but all of them old and stained” (55).

This extreme amount of gold and his nobility ranks Count Dracula above all of the other characters in class and wealth.

Ledger and Luckhurst provide a framework to map Dracula’s relationships with the other characters in Stoker’s novel. The “often unsympathetic accounts of working-class city dwellers” Ledger and Luckhurst write about is mimicked by Dracula’s predation of the innocent individuals that are of lower classes than him. As a wealthy, upper-class individual, Dracula’s infiltration of England and of Lucy’s life, as the catalyst of her change, marks him as a controlling figure who profits off of the suffering of others.

Sigmund Freud’s article “Creative Writers and Day Dreaming” explores the concept that “mental activity is directed toward inventing a situation in which unsatisfied wishes will be fulfilled” (419). Freud argues that as children become adults, their imaginative play gets replaced with phantasies. While children do not conceal their play, the adult on the other hand strives to conceal their phantasies. As stated by Freud, “the adult is ashamed of his phantasies, and hides them from other people” (422). Freud’s ideas about phantasies and shame complicate the scene on pages 44-47 in Dracula where the three women try to suck Jonathan Harker’s blood. Upon seeing the women for the first time, Jonathan states his reaction as: “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” (45). Throughout the passage Jonathan seems torn between “thrill and repulsion” (45). The very things that he is repulsed by, like the woman’s animalistic tendencies, are the same things that he finds himself desiring. Interestingly, Jonathan begins this scene by writing that the encounter with these women might have been a dream. According to Freud’s argument, it makes perfect sense for Jonathan to suggest the scene is a dream because he is ashamed of his desires. The sexual things happening in the scene are not at all the traditional desires that a heterosexual man about to be married during the fin de siècle should be having. Some of the exotic things that happen in this scene are a sexual encounter with multiple women, biting, enjoying pain, seeing the repulsive as attractive, and enjoying fear. While these sexual desires were definitely shared by many during the fin de siècle, it was not common to discuss them or admit to having them. According to Freud, a man “would rather confess his misdeeds than tell anyone his phantasies” (422). I believe that because it was so taboo to discuss phantasies openly, many of the novels written during the fin de siècle engage in these “kinky” sexual desires as a way for writers and readers to gain comfort in identifying with the “weird”.

Freud’s arguments from “Creative Writers and Day Dreaming” give a clear reason as to why Jonathan would write this specific scene as a dream. By claiming he might have been asleep, Jonathan can write about the unusual sexual desires he is having without having to feel ashamed. This concept of Freud’s does not always seem plausible in all of the dream scenes mentioned in Dracula however. On page 19, Jonathan also begins his telling of a scene by stating, “I think I must have fallen asleep”. The scene encompasses Jonathan’s trip to Dracula’s house, where the driver repeatedly stops and investigates blue flames. If we were to read this scene according to Freud, Jonathan would state that the scene is a dream so he could hide hidden desires. However, I believe there is a totally different reason that Jonathan suggests he was dreaming at this moment. In many of the novels that were written during the fin de siècle, there is an emphasis from the narrator that what they are writing is the truth. By Jonathan suggesting this scene could have been a dream, he is essentially telling the readers “This scene seems unbelievable, and because I am striving to be as truthful as possible in my telling of this story, it is feasible I could have been asleep.” In this moment in the text, Jonathan’s use of the dream is not stemming from the shame of sexual desire, but is a way for him to tell a very implausible part of the story while still seeming like a trustworthy narrator.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula features representations of many late 19^th century anxieties in England. One of the most prominent themes is the nationalistic fear of foreign encroachment to the nation. Using a cultural lens, as well as with knowledge of historical circumstances like the rising economic status of Germany mentioned in the introduction to The Fin de Siècle, the overarching theme of fear of foreign dominance in the novel becomes evident.

Johnathan Harker goes to visit the Count in his home in Transylvania to discuss property that the Count wishes to purchase. Harker is immediately struck by the Count’s animalistic physical qualities. The distinctive physical attributes of the Count indicate the prevalence of racial pseudoscience in the fin de siècle, which posited that the common physical characteristics found in different ethnicities are tied to universal intellectual traits in that race as well. The Count, with his sharp fangs, pointy ears, and hairy palms, is described in animalistic terms, specifically a predatory animal.

This predatory characterization is manifested not just in his literal thirst for blood, but in the fact that his primary goal to spread his domain to England by buying property in London. The Count is a wealthy aristocrat of an Eastern European nation, proud of his heritage and customs. He hungers for the blood of English people, masked by an interest in English culture. The Count’s nature as a vampire is to literally consume blood. Blood is traditionally a nationalistic marker of identity, indicating the shared heritage of a people that is in their genes. Dracula’s thirst for the blood of English people solidifies him as a symbol for foreign races that will erase English heritage, “sucking the blood” from England.

Count Dracula as a metaphor for foreign domination is also supported by his intense aversion to Christianity. The pronounced division between Catholics and Protestants in England that is mentioned in The Longman Anthology of British Literature on page 1056 is acknowledged in this novel. Johnathan Harker is given a Catholic crucifix from villagers outside of Dracula’s castle to defend him against the Count. Despite Harker being an Anglican who regards crucifixes as idolatrous, he begins to take comfort in the symbol of Christianity despite its conflict with his beliefs. Stoker, who was an Irish Catholic, may have been trying to bridge the divide between Catholics and Protestants. If both groups united in their belief in the Christian God, they would have greater power to defend themselves against the heretical beliefs of foreigners.

Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst’s “Reading the ‘Fin De Siecle’” they note that the historicization of sexuality in the Victorian Era as a thoroughly social rather than natural category encouraged further research. In 1885 the act of “gross indecency” between men was criminalized. Meanwhile, the characters in Dracula seem to display such acts of “gross indecency” between men throughout the entire book. The Count himself seems to hold tendencies of one who is interested in the same sex, his words often revealing his true intent.

“How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it?” Dracula questions in a moment of anger when his man is ‘stolen’. Yes, his man. Count Dracula claims that Jonathan Harker is his property, which seemingly puts Jonathan in a female role. During this time period, women were often seen as the property of their husbands, only furthering the issue that Count Dracula views his prisoner Jonathan Harker as his property. Although never explicitly stated by the Count, Dracula often displays many tendencies of someone who is interested in men rather than women. According to the Fin De Siecle “Many literacy histories have begun to seek hidden lines between contemporary ‘queer’ identities and those of the late Victorian period, … emerging modern sexualities.” 

Throughout the beginning chapters of the novel, the Count shows various forms of forcing Jonathan Harker into what was seemingly a feminine role. During the time that Harker stays with the Count, he is forced to stay in the house at all times. Women held a role in the house, while men were expected to work. The Count proves that he can provide for Harker, cooking meals, cleaning, and maintaining financial stability all at the same time without any help from his male companion. By treating Harker in this role, the count would be deviating from normalcy, which in Ledger and Luckhurst’s terms would consider him a degenerate.

Without Harker’s compliance, the Count easily manipulates him into a feminine role in which he is seen as only good for amusement or perhaps penetrating. Later in the scene in which the female vampires try to suck Harker’s blood, the count saves him and claims “I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him at your will.” This put Harker, not in a state of property, but a state of property that has no true owner. The Count doesn’t see Jonathan as a human being that needs dedication, yet a human that can be disposed of when he grows bored with him, just as many men of the time had seen women.

One other moment where the Count’s sexuality is questioned is when the female vampires claim that he does not love, yet he turns to Harker and claims that the fact is untrue. “You yourself never loved; you never love!” The women claim, clearly resenting the fact that he does not love them as they are female. Yet without hesitation, Dracula turns to face Harker, claiming “Yes, I too can love” as if to prove himself or reassure Harker, the one he seems to see as his partner.

The topic of emerging sexuality in Ledger and Luckhurst’s article is key in Dracula as it brings to light the conflict that Count Dracula is dealing with. As they coin Oscar Wilde as ‘Queer as Fuck’ perhaps, Dracula too, is “Queer as fuck”