Category: 2021 Blog Post

What do Lucy and the Vampire women have in common? Desire. Nowhere is it more clear than when Lucy is about to die or the ladies attempt to drink Johnathan’s blood. What makes them monsters to the Victorian age is that these women control their own sexuality and express their own desire. As Lucy lays dying, she speaks in “a soft, voluptuous voice, such as [Seward] had never heard from her lips” (Stoker, 172). Up until this point this was “never heard from her.” She was not a monster and then immediately when she has begun to become a vampire, she starts expressing her desire and attempts to leverage it to get what she wants, saying “Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss Me!” (Stoker, 172). She openly tells him what she wants from him before the world, w hen even Mina and Johnathan, married, holding hands in public is considered in bad form, she tries to get him to kiss her before an audience. Her tone as “soft” and “voluptuous” implies a sensuality which is then seemed to be almost irresistible to Arthur. Similarly, it may be this feeling that women who express their desire are irresistible that is what makes them so scary to Victorian men. As “Arthur bent eagerly over to kiss her” just as Johnathan when faced with the vampire women, “Felt in [his] heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss [him] with those red lips” (Stoker, 45). In both cases the men desire and are depicted as powerless against the women, because of their own “desire” or eagerness. Johnathan even describes his own desire as “wicked”, showing how desire is viewed as bad, and it almost seems as though the typical expected outcome is for women to be the one to deny desire. Therefore, it is seen as monstrous when they do not, as the men seem incapable of it. In fact, the parallels between Dracula and Van Helsing are quite strong. Both grab the one attempting by the neck. Both with previously unimaginable fury for the individual witnessing and both hurl the offender across the room. Almost as though the only thing that can stop those enthralled and giving into desire is violence.

Seward’s inability to diagnose or relieve Lucy’s illness indicated the effectiveness of Dracula’s assault on Victorian social order while exposing the limits of Western science and technology then. In his letter to Holmwood, Seward appeared to be both hopeful and hopeless at the same time. He was relieved at the thought of having Van Helsing joining him in taking care of Lucy, yet when looking at Lucy’s weak condition, he had to resort to God for his blessing. Consecutively strong words that described Lucy’s unpromising progress, such as her “ghastly, chalkily pale” skin, with the “red seemed to have gone” from her lips and skin, and “bones of her face [standing] out prominently” well-explained Van Helsing’s face expression of horror and helpless. Even the many advancements of medical science had proven to be useless and the only way to cope with the situation was to maintain an open mind and acknowledge the power of superstition. Another prominent theme that emerged from this passage is the binary between human power and the spiritual pathology speaking to God and Mother Nature. According to Seward’s anecdote, although Van Helsing proved himself a competent modern surgeon with one blood transfusion after another, neither his methods nor his knowledge was effective. The transition from reason and science to legend and superstition was made apparent as he placed garlic flowers around Lucy’s room. This detail reflected an irony of the novel pointing at the power of spiritual pathology against Dracula’s attacks when in reality, the Victorian society encouraged them to dismiss such supernatural predators as powerless in a civilized society.

After indulging in Stoker’s Dracula, I have come to the conclusion that Stoker believes Victorian women are unnaturally powerful. Stoker develops this idea through the “thrilling and repulsive” ways in which the three vampire women at Dracula’s Castle sensually desire to consume Johnathan’s blood (45). One of the three women was described as sensually moving “like an animal” (Stoker 45). This imagery suggests that the sex appeal of women is strong enough to make honest men, like Johnathan, desire them. It renders ‘strong’ men powerless, while at the same time villanizing these women for this unpure and demoralizing effect they have on men.

In addition to the power that sex grants Victorian women, Dracula himself represents the highest level of sexual power. His sex appeal is the most unnatural and controlling. With Dracula, Stoker makes the claim that powerful Victorian men see women as objects and use them to their desires. Mina finds something “long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure” (Stoker 101). Here, Mina seems to be oblivious to the sexual assault by Dracula on Lucy. After this initial occurrence, Lucy seems to worsen in health when Dracula visits her in the nights that pass. The more he sees her, the greater her neck scar gets in injury, and the more “ill” she appears. However, when she cannot return to him, Lucy begins to heal. Here, Stoker suggests that in addition to the claim that powerful Victorian men see no need for consent, once sexually ‘liberated’, women will become sexually inclined and filled with uncontrollable desire. Not only does Stoker acknowledge gender inequalities, but he reveals that Victorian women are powerful only when they can bend ‘honest’ and ‘pure’ men to their will, and even then, this is evil and unnatural.

Bram Stoker’s, Dracula, emphasizes sexuality throughout the novel.  One passage that this occurs in is Chapter three on pages 45 and 46 where Jonathan Harker is awoken by three women standing next to him.  The three of them try and seduce him to almost draining his blood, “the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the supersensitive skin of my throat.. ,” (46) until Dracula intrudes and declares that he belongs to him. 

This is the first act in the novel that is close to supernatural where Jonathan is the victim of these vampire women. Jonathan begins to comment on their beauty and his lust for them, yet with each positive description, it is followed with conflicting thoughts, “There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive..” (45).  These conflicting thoughts that Jonathan is having shows that he is afraid of what they could do to him due to the aggression that females can withhold.  However, it seems that this quality both attracts yet frightens him, and he still pursues their attention. I think that Dracula inhibits the idea of beauty, sexuality, and power.  In the victorian literature we have read so far; Lady Audley, My Last Duchess, etc., women seem to have an underlying power over men due to their beauty and sexuality.  Victorians emphasised the importance of women’s beauty in the social aspect with how they had to appear to the public eye   These women definitely have power over Jonathan due to his heightened feeling of fear and the attraction it brings, “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear, “(46). Thus explaining that he feels uneasy and unsatisfied towards these women, yet he still desires the sexual tension and potential relationships with them. It will be interesting to see how women and sexuality play a role, especially in a more fantasy/horror and gothic novel.

Dracula represents a complete inversion of the Victorian worldview. The Count’s impossible physiology turns science on its head -quite literally in the case of his “lizard” (41) crawl- and any vessel containing his powers moves with an unnatural, lurching awkwardness. Dracula’s physiognomy is equally alien: his glaring red eyes (151) are a complete departure from the limpid blues, stormy grays, and passionate violets of other contemporary texts. Similarly, his skeletal, bone-white face (143) is incapable of a Victorian protagonist’s perpetual flush. Despite these obvious physical reversals, the most telling inversions of Victorian thought lie in the spheres of Dracula’s moral character and the religion of Transylvania.

Dracula subtly upends ideas of Victorian morality. He is superficially polite, but unable to serve as an honest host. His active hours are inverted, and his physiology forbids the suppers and smokes so crucial to Victorian society (24). He contradicts the class system, acting as both master and servant (17, 23). The Count is immune to the Victorian fascination with technology and progress (30). He places no importance in hygiene, shaving, or toiletries, as he has no need for them (33). Dracula possesses a sense of honor, but his morals are perverted into a hunter’s code of predator and prey (37). Dracula respects his ancient Christian heritage and the conversion or else eradication of heathen Turkic peoples (36), but only as a sanguine history, not unlike Renfield’s account of consumed souls (80).

Religious expression in Transylvania is in direct opposition to the Anglican doctrine. The means of defeating Dracula, the customs of the Transylvanian people, are as bizarre to Johnathan as the monster himself. Johnathan is baffled by the strange gifts given to him in the carriage (15) and equally bewildered by the comfort he later takes in them (35, 50). As an Anglican, he sees the Catholic Rosary as an idolatrous adoration of Mary, but cannot help but feel comfort in some conduit of Christian belief in a world ruled only by the superstition of the boyar and his Szgany (49). However, Jonathan and others remain wary of Catholicism, and some of this fear can is made manifest in Dracula. Vampirism can be compared to the Catholic belief of transubstantiation: the literal belief that the bread and wine of the eucharist become flesh and blood. Protestants, including Anglicans, believe only in a symbolic transformation. While Anglicans drink wine as if it were blood, both Catholics and Dracula (very differently) practice the reverse: drinking blood as if it were wine.

This passage is interesting because Dracula is referred to as a variety of pronouns, a person, a thing, and maybe even a supernatural deity. He is given a godlike status by the use of pronouns from the first mate’s perspective just before jumping overboard. The first mate had just witnessed Dracula in a scene the readers do not know about, and now is crazed by the experience. The “He/Him” (Stoker 95) pronouns used referring to Dracula are capitalized, usually only used this way when referring to a deity such as the Judeo-Christian God. This could mean that the mate has started wholeheartedly believing in the existence of Dracula as a supernatural figure, and sees fit to use godlike pronouns to suit Dracula. However, when the captain puts together that a monster has been killing his men, he addresses Dracula with “he”/ “him” (Stoker 95) pronouns (not capitalized). This humanizes Dracula in the small moment, making him a man and not an otherworldly being. In the following paragraph, when the captain sees Dracula with his own eyes, the captain exclaims he “saw It-Him” which again switches the way people view Dracula. The Him in this instance is capitalized, again perhaps indicating the deity status. Even later in the novel, when Mina first sees Dracula bent over Lucy, she refers to Dracula as “something” (Stoker 101). This is yet another way the vampire is perceived because, in this case, Mina only sees his outline and red eyes. She is not convinced by any pretend humanity Dracula shows so she is unsure of the nature of him altogether. So, we have Mina referring to Dracula as a “something” (Stoker 101), we have the captain referring to Dracula as “him” then “It” and then “Him”, and the mate referring to Dracula as “Him”. None of these characters are entirely sure of Dracula’s true form, so they range from calling him something otherworldly or godly, to a thing, to a man. It also makes Dracula all the more complex of a character to the readers because the story is written entirely through the eyes of other characters. As readers, we do not know a true unbiased view of Dracula, we only know what he looks like from characters that may have biases or not have a clear view of what he looks like

Revealing and strange are continued with Dracula’s blazed eyes with fury. As he was about to eat and strangle Jonathan a touch by the crucifix saved everything. “It made an instant change in him”(pg 28). Dracula wants to make an appearance to make it known that he is here but does not want anyone to be in charge of him. The theme that Dracula tends to have is to show up at random points of Jonathan’s life and continuously disappear. The strange part about the crucifix was stopping Dracula from eating Jonathan’s brain but the readers know that it is a crucial part of his nature. This is a crucial part of his nature because although he is a demon who wants to rip people’s guts out, he knows that he needs to make the appearance of a good host before anything happens. The fear that Jonathan has is another claim that can be made towards the novel. “And he suddenly made a grab at my throat” (pg 28). The sense of fear and the lack of knowledge of what to do in this situation puts Jonathan in an unwanting moment. This claim of fear was the first point in which he knew that he needed to get out of the house. The sense of unreal moments and Dracula showing up in an instant but then “he passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there” (pg 28). This passing so quickly made Jonathan confused on why he was in his room for a moment but then left in such a hurry. This theme of Dracula wanting to be known but not wanting to be in charge shows up again. Dracula made the claim of the evil and that without the crucifix he could kill him in a second. This all wraps up with the evil presence of Dracula and how he can continuously scare and take a person’s throat in one moment. What this all means, in the end, is that Dracula’s nature is to maintain the need of serving people but lives ruthlessly with the meaning of evil.

The passage that I chose to look at is on page 32. It is one of Harkers journal entries with the date May 28. In the passage he is talking about how he wants to escape and send letters home to Mina. He sees gipsies outside of the castle and wants them to send the letters home for him so Count Dracula doesn’t see the letters. He describes them in his journal entry and says that he has notes on them. In his descriptions his sort of bashes the gipsies a little bit by saying “who are almost outside all law”(pg 32).  He also says that he has been talking to them a little to try to make them friends so that they will be more inclined to do this favor for him. 

I feel like this passage really shows Harkers whole situation and how much he wants to get out of the castle. It shows how he is really willing to trust anybody with very important tasks if it means that he might be able to get out. This is important because it shows how scared Harker is and how desperate he is to get out that he is willing to trust people that he doesn’t know. This shows the true amount of fear and torture that Count Dracula can put on someone and what it can do to your mind. This is important because at the beginning of the book Dracula seemed like a good person being a good host but then after a while he showed his true self, and this shows what his true self can do to someone.

 

The juxtaposition of Dracula’s tender love for Jonathan with his aggressive control over the female vampires simultaneously questions and reinforces Victorian notions of sexuality and gender roles. Stoker pushes against heteronormativity while maintaining the subordination of women, potentially suggesting an expression of his own homosexuality within a patriarchal society. Dracula vehemently scolds the female vampires’ advances on Jonathan, marked by a cluster of violent words including “fury,” “strong,” “power,” “rage,” “wrath,” “hurled,” “beating,” and “beware.” (p. 46). These threatening descriptions boldly contrast with the cluster of caring words surrounding Dracula’s feelings towards Jonathan, such as “love,” “attentively,” “soft,” and “passion” (p. 46). Thus, Stoker creates a binary between Dracula’s love for Jonathan and his animosity towards the female vampires, both rejecting and supporting Victorian gender roles. Dracula’s obstruction of romantic/sexual encounters between Jonathan and the female vampires and his affirmation that he is capable of love after “looking at [Jonathan’s] face attentively” (p. 46), defies Victorian propriety about sexuality by suggesting homoerotic attraction. However, Dracula’s use of physical force to control the females, exemplified when “with a fierce sweep of his arm, he hurled the woman away from him, and then motioned to the others, as if he were beating them back…” (p. 46), seems like a step backwards, and detracts from prior progressive ideas of sexuality by conforming to age-old practices of female oppression.

By exploring new paths of sexuality while perpetuating patriarchal values, Stoker may be projecting himself onto Dracula, expressing his own homosexuality while reinforcing his masculine power. After Dracula tells the female vampires, “I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past,” he immediately follows with the question “Is it not so?” (p. 46). This might be risky, but I think that under the assumption that Dracula is a projection of Stoker’s sexuality, Dracula (and Stoker) may be insinuating that they’ve previously been with women, but now question their sexuality. This interpretation puts Dracula’s prey on Lucy in tension, and makes me wonder if Dracula is using Lucy to force a rekindled love for women, perhaps paralleling some aspect of Stoker’s personal life. Alternatively, Stoker may be implying bisexuality. In any case, Dracula’s contrasting treatment of love towards Jonathan and aggression towards the female vampires produces a simultaneous challenging of and conformance to Victorian gender roles, while also raising questions about Stoker’s own sexuality. 

Victorian society praised conformity in their ridged ideas of gender roles.  In this passage of Dracula by Bram Stoker, Andrew Holmwood arrives just in time to provide his fiancée, Lucy Westenra with blood that she needs to recover from her latest encounter with what the audience can only assume to be Dracula.  The men who accompany the scene, Drs. Seward and Van Helsing worship his sacrifice of blood for Lucy’s revival.  In this text, the over-glorification of the man’s position in a woman’s life is evidenced by Van Helsing’s coercion based the premise that he “can do more than any that love, and your courage is your best help” (Stoker 115).  Though the science of blood transfusion was still in its more experimental stages, Van Helsing’s argument that his courage would be the most important asset of the blood is interesting.  The interaction between the lovers upholds the rigidly structured gender roles of society based on the theoretical premise that a woman needs a male rescuer, and in a more severe sense that Lucy’s imminent peril can be solved by a man’s life-giving substance in order to be revived into her formerly youthful and vibrant self.  There is a gradient of involvement at play in this passage in that Van Helsing is suggesting that the slightest gift of a man’s courage would be enough to save his fiancée from the horrible tortures that lie in death. 

The melodrama of this haunting scene depicts Andrew as a valiant champion of love.  At the mere suggestion that he provide aid, he proclaims enthusiasm: “‘My life is hers and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her…If you knew how gladly I would die for her you would understand-” (Stoker 116).  The result of Van Helsing’s diminishment of his sacrifice and amplification of his youthful merit cause a dramatic, desperate response.  Andrew’s masculinity is the asset which makes this sacrifice worthy because, ultimately, Lucy is to become his property, so he would naturally see her as a part of himself.  This raises questions about autonomy and the construction of gender roles around masculinity as a saving entity within a Victorian setting.  In this display of passion comparable to Shakespeare’s Romeo’s passionate ballads, Andrew proclaims his duty to Lucy as a man, fittingly exemplifying the supremely Victorian virtue of melodrama manifested by his glorified masculinity.