{"id":1097,"date":"2023-10-01T23:26:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T03:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=1097"},"modified":"2023-10-01T23:26:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T03:26:53","slug":"new-women-and-illegitimate-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2023\/10\/01\/new-women-and-illegitimate-children\/","title":{"rendered":"“New Women” and Illegitimate children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Dracula <\/em>has surprisingly brought up many questions around religion, race, gender and much more. One article that added interesting context to Dracula <\/em>was the excerpt from Emily Gerard titled Transylvanian Superstitions<\/em>. In this article from Emily Gerard, she introduces the concept of the living vampire who is \u201cthe illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons\u201d and having a \u201cflawless pedigree will not ensure anyone against the intrusion of a vampire into his family vault\u201d because whoever the vampire feeds on is doomed to feed on other innocent people (Gerard, 332). This introduces the basis for how Dracula came to be which is being the \u201cbastard\u201d child of two other \u201cbastards\u201d and how he operates by \u201cintrusion\u201d on the purity of someone\u2019s bloodline through sucking and feeding on his victim.<\/p>\n

This context in useful in analyzing one of Dracula\u2019s victims named Lucy. Lucy was killed by Dracula leading to the band of men \u201cexorcising\u201d her but her death and the violence at her grave, portrayed Lucy as contaminated by impurities spiritually and physically. The body of Lucy at the grave was described as a \u201cfoul Thing which had taken Lucy\u2019s shape without her soul\u201d and \u201ca nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth\u2026the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy\u2019s sweet purity\u201d (page 221). Therefore, in this description Lucy\u2019s body is shown as invaded by a \u201cThing\u201d and became a devil because Dracula has feasted on her. From Gerard\u2019s reading, it is understood that vampires are or become flaws within a bloodline. This description of Lucy upholds the notion of vampires being able to compromise the purity of a person spiritually and physically by reducing a person to a \u201ccarnal and unspiritual\u201d entity in need of an exorcism. Ultimately, causing a \u201cmockery\u201d of even the most innocent and\/or sweet person by taking complete possession of the body thus disrupting purity on every facet of a victim.<\/p>\n

However, there are also undertones of misogyny during Lucy\u2019s transformation and exorcism. Prior to becoming a vampire, Lucy experiences the blood transfusion using the blood multiple men and she also expresses the desire for multiple men. In the Journal of Mina, Lucy\u2019s friend, she talks about the existence of \u201cNew Women\u201d in relation to Lucy where women will \u201cwon\u2019t condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself\u201d (chapter 8). Mina expresses more modern ideas of marriage and companionship and Lucy\u2019s actions have displayed the existence of the \u201cNew Women\u201d that bends gender roles in marriage. While this may seem positive, Lucy\u2019s untimely death which comes in the following chapters suggests the longevity of the \u201cNew Women\u201d might not be the best. Meaning that by challenging traditional heterosexual marriage roles by taking charge in acts like proposing or being enticed by multiple men will lead to an \u201cunspiritual\u201d existence since Lucy\u2019s soul was replaced by a vampire\u2019s hunger and will. \u00a0In making Lucy the first victim, Stoker makes the \u201cNew Woman\u201d comparable to that of a 2nd<\/sup> generation \u201cbastard\u201d because both are flaws within a bloodline or more accurately a disruption in the order of things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Dracula has surprisingly brought up many questions around religion, race, gender and much more. One article that added interesting context to Dracula was the excerpt from Emily Gerard titled Transylvanian Superstitions. In this article from Emily Gerard, she introduces the concept of the living vampire who is \u201cthe illegitimate offspring of two illegitimate persons\u201d … Continue reading “New Women” and Illegitimate children<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125361],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1097","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\/1097","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\/5321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}