{"id":1004,"date":"2023-09-21T12:16:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2023-09-21T12:16:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:16:24","slug":"lucy-and-purity-in-dracula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2023\/09\/21\/lucy-and-purity-in-dracula\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucy and Purity in “Dracula”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The goal of this blog post will be to analyze the similarities and differences between the description of Dracula and lucy\u2019s mouths. Through this the reader will gain an understanding of how female character\u2019s a sexualized and valued in Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula. <\/em><\/p>\n

The reader is presented with several descriptions of Count Dracula\u2019s mouth, and face. One of which comes in Chapter 21 while Renfield is describing his attack to Dr. Seward, \u201cHe was laughing with his red mouth; the sharp white teeth glinted in the moonlight when he turned back over the belt of trees, to where the dogs were barking.\u201d (297). In these lines Stoker provides no specific of Dracula\u2019s lips. He instead gives a broad description of healthy lips, and then goes into the aspects of the Count\u2019s mouth which make him uncanny: the long white fangs. Rather than focus on the human aspects of Dracula, Stoker chooses instead to emphasize the features which make Dracula see odd and different to the rest of the characters in the novel.<\/p>\n

Stoker\u2019s descriptions of Lucy are full of sexual language regarding her mouth. On page 228 the author provides the following description:<\/p>\n

\u201cShe seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth \u2013 which it made one shudder to see \u2013 the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy\u2019s sweet purity.\u201d (228).<\/p>\n

In both cases Stoker puts heavy emphasis on the uncanny aspects of their mouths. He quickly mentions the long fangs and the lips that look almost too red in Dracula\u2019s case, or the bloodstains in Lucy\u2019s. \u00a0The major difference between the illustrations is the use of the word \u201cvoluptuous\u201d which is inherently sexual in nature. Only the descriptions of Lucy contain this sexualized language. This, in turn, changes the emphasis of the physical depiction of Lucy from one which focuses solely on the uncanny to one which is sexually charged. This is further supported by Stoker\u2019s use of the words \u201ccarnal\u201d and \u201cunspiritual.\u201d The author emphasizes Lucy\u2019s loss of purity, or virginity in her transition into vampirism and the uncanny. This creates an interesting disparity between Lucy and Dracula, the two named vampires in the novel thus far. Stoker and his character\u2019s lament the loss of Lucy\u2019s \u201csweet purity\u201d whereas Dracula is simply evil incarnate. His description has nothing to do with his sexuality.<\/p>\n

These depictions of Dracula and Lucy are given from the male perspective. Lucy\u2019s by Dr. Seward, and Dracula\u2019s by Renfield. Time and time again Mina and Lucy\u2019s value as people, and to the men in the novel, is based upon their purity. Through this the reader gains insight into another aspect of what makes Dracula so terrifying: he robs his victims of what society deems the most valuable part of their identity. That is not to say that Mina and Lucy are only valued because of their purity, but rather this is a critical part of their identity. The implication is that Dracula, in turning them into vampires, is stealing for them their claims to being considered proper women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The goal of this blog post will be to analyze the similarities and differences between the description of Dracula and lucy\u2019s mouths. Through this the reader will gain an understanding of how female character\u2019s a sexualized and valued in Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula. The reader is presented with several descriptions of Count Dracula\u2019s mouth, and face. … Continue reading Lucy and Purity in “Dracula”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125361],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}