Category: 2023 Blog Post

In Dr. Steward’s diary entry in chapter 16, he discusses Lucy in her vampire form. This description conflicts with the view of women in the Victorian era. During this era, women were regarded as pure and angelic. When Lucy is a vampire, she is described as having “eyes unclean and full of hell fire, instead of the pure gentle orbs we knew” (Stoker, 302). In readings, eyes are often described as looking into one’s soul and by describing them as ‘unclean’ Dr. Stewards is taking femininity away from Lucy’s character. Within gothic fiction, readers enjoy the idea of the unusual. Stoker uses the stereotypes of women at the time to go beyond what people would normally expect from Lucy. Novels such as Dracula gain this level of popularity because they reach into the impulsivities and unnatural desires that society requires, we hide because judgment will follow. Watching Lucy devolve into ‘hell fire’ allows the reader’s urges of anger and impurity to be validated through reading opposed to acting out and getting judged by society.

While Lucy is primarily seen as a flawed woman during the Victorian Era, she also offers a sex appeal that women want. Within the same paragraph, Dr. Steward comments on her smile, describing it as “voluptuous” (Stoker, 302). In this sense, her evilness has made her more attractive. This comes from another common idea during the Victorian era that women only have power when they are evil or trying to gain something. It’s her power that makes her more sexualized even when she is committing ungodly acts against children. This comparison between purity and sex is a major theme within Dracula that Lucy encapsulates.

“And now, my child, you may kiss her. Kiss her dead lips if you will, as she would have you to, if for her to choose”. The kiss, traditionally a symbol of romantic love and physical desire, here takes on an unconventional and eerie aspect. It is a macabre display of Arthur’s affection for Lucy, transcending the boundary between life and death. This eroticized connection highlights the allure of the vampire mythology, where sensuality and danger are closely intertwined. Throughout the novel, the idea of a vampire’s kiss is often associated with both pleasure and peril, adding a layer of forbidden desire to the narrative.

At the same time, the passage underscores the religious aspect of the story. Van Helsing’s words infuse the scene with spiritual symbolism. The contrast between “the devil’s Un-Dead” and “God’s true dead” speaks to the battle between the forces of darkness and those of divine purity. The act of kissing Lucy’s “dead lips” can be seen as a form of religious sacrament, where Arthur is making a final connection with his beloved, almost as if he is participating in a last rite. This moment embodies the Christian notion of redemption and resurrection, where Lucy’s soul is released from the curse of vampirism and welcomed by God. The passage reflects the overarching theme of salvation and the triumph of faith over evil.

The convergence of eroticism and religion in this passage adds depth to the narrative. It underscores the idea that the vampire myth is not just about horror and bloodlust but also about the allure of forbidden desires. It portrays the human struggle between earthly passions and spiritual salvation. In “Dracula,” the boundaries between the sacred and the profane are blurred, and the kiss, which can be a symbol of both eroticism and religious devotion, serves as a powerful focal point for these complex themes. The passage encapsulates the novel’s exploration of the human psyche, where the boundaries between desire and morality are tested, and where love, lust, and spirituality intermingle in a captivating and thought-provoking way.

Within the novel Dracula, the transformation of Lucy into a vampire gives the reader a lot of insight into how much it  looks into the Victorian obsession with forbidden desire and the anxiety associated with the unknown. Therefore, through Lucy’s gory and shocking depiction,  “Dracula” reflects the core Victorian ideas of dual morality, the destruction of purity and the sexual lure of the supernatural and women. The passage describes Lucy’s physical transformation, highlighting the drastic change from her previous form. The text states, “The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness,”(Brahms, chapter 16) indicating a significant alteration in her demeanor and physical attributes. This theme of transformation and the exploration of the duality of human nature were recurrent motifs in Victorian literature. Furthermore, the contrast between Lucy’s previous gentle nature and her current state, with her eyes now unclean and full of hell-fire, alludes to the concept of the “fallen woman” prevalent in Victorian society. The characters’ reactions, their horror and Van Helsing’s momentary failure of nerve, highlight the profound impact of witnessing such a transformation, evoking the Victorian fascination with the macabre and the inexplicable like the text states” My own heart grew cold as ice”(Brahms, chapter 16) . There’s also a theme of gore such as “lips were crimson with fresh blood”(Brahms, chapter 16) that may indicate the true of transformation of Mina but it also have some correlation with blood transfusion, the loss of innocence within Mina, and the fascination of bodies and medical things within the Victorian era. This moment within novel truly encapsulate how the Victorian public were interested with themes of corruption within a woman so much that she changed every single aspects about her but also how it taps into the sexual desire of the unknown and the fascination with supernatural beings as a medium to explore their morality and identity.

Throughout the first eleven chapters of Dracula there have been a number of reoccurring themes and messages. What I want to draw your attention to is the character of Dracula and how Stoker uses him as a vessel to write about the cultural anxieties and fears that many people felt especially in regard to their view of sexuality, and foreigners. I believe that Stoker uses Dracula as a symbol for social anxieties in the nineteenth century. One of the biggest fears in Europe in the nineteenth was a fear of immigrants coming into your country as well as a fear of foreigners especially Eastern Europeans. This can be seen early on in the novel when Jonathan Harker first travels to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula. As he is traveling there he starts to feel uneasy and paranoid as he says “, “I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool,” For me this reaffirms my thesis about how people in the nineteenth century especially those from the UK viewed many foreigners as strange and in a sense not even human. The use of the word superstition absolutely confirms the negative stereotypes that many people across Europe felt towards foreigners, and I believe that Dracula is a symbol used by Stoker to manifest the images of what many people believed immigrants to be. Another reoccurring theme in the novel that is the sexualizing of Dracula and the other vampires. This is especially prominent in the scene when Jonathan encounters one of the female vampires. “The fair girl went on her knees and bent over me, fairly gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck, she actually licked her lips like an animal…” This quote clearly represents how Dracula and the other vampires sexualization is used as a reflection of the Victorian era’s sexual repression and treatment of women. In the end Dracula’s character is really a symbol to illustrate the fears and thoughts of many people in the Victorian era.

” Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness. Van Helsing stepped out, and, obedient to his gesture, we all advanced too; the four of us ranged in a line before the door of the tomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew the slide; by the concentrated light that fell on Lucy’s face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.” (Stoker,Chapter 16)

In this blog post, I will discuss the femme fatale as it’s relation to Lucy and the rest of the book. As there is no exact origin to the femme fatale, the differences have been boiled down to four types. In terms of the 4 kinds femme fatale, the one I will be focusing on is the witch as it has the most pertinent relation to the story. The witch is basically any woman with power over/superior of that of a man (fucked up i know). In this quotation, this is after Lucy drains a bunch of kids of blood, and is visibly stained with blood. Only in figure resembling a woman, but not in soul or emotion. The power that Lucy has over the men is that of fear. Fear is a strong power in Dracula, it motivates a lot of the plot as it goes along, whether it’s presence or absence is felt. The reason that it is important to bring up the fact that Lucy, in this moment, is a femme fatale or a female with any semblance of power is the brutal scene to follow.  It is very important to note that this scene was written by a man, who either didn’t understand, know or care that this scene reads like a terribly brutal rape scene. It should not be understated that the only woman who was given a ‘power’ albeit considered ‘evil’ is murdered in such a way. To add insult to injury, Mina is kept in the relative dark about all of this, indirectly causing her eventual, unfortunate demise.

From the moment that British solicitor Jonathan Harker steps foot in Dracula’s fictionalized Eastern Europe, he is far out of his depth. He is blindsided at every turn by mysterious and unusual sights and experiences, forewarned by those on his path to not continue, and tossed about until he lands in the hands of one Count Dracula in his Transylvanian castle. The Count himself is a rather peculiar individual and one whose charming looks are often portrayed as part of his appeal–and while later events within the novel provide a basis for this appearance, it is a supposedly hideous and monstrous old man that Jonathan encounters when he first arrives in Transylvania. He details the count’s features, such as his “lofty domed forehead” (chapter 2) and hair that “[grew] scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere” (2) and “seemed to curl in its own profusion” (2). Altogether, Stoker illustrates to his readers that Dracula, put simply, does not look like our heroic British protagonists. Furthermore, when this passage is put into conversation with the text’s fixation on physiognomy, I would argue that Stoker’s grotesque description of Dracula’s Eastern European features in relation to his vampirism serves to alienate him from the “good” British characters he is juxtaposed against. The linkage of Dracula’s non-British appearance to his sinister nature suggests deeper underlying beliefs regarding physiognomy and Britain in the Age of Empire.

Dracula’s emphasis on physiognomy makes it impossible to ignore the deliberate word choices employed by Stoker: the Count’s initial features are intentionally not those the remainder of the work associates with beauty. In fact, before this description, Jonathan outwardly claims that his host is of a “marked physiognomy” (2), establishing that he considers Dracula’s features to be of some importance to his personality and morality. When a man who is by all means a “good” British citizen is faced with an aquiline nose, curly hair, and coarse hands, the implication of malice or immorality is undeniably present. To Jonathan, Dracula’s appearance is “strange,” “peculiar,” and “cruel,” altogether words that are undeniably negative; and when Dracula turns out to be sinister, it is revealed that his appearance has said so all along. A valiant crusade is led against this hideous Eastern European man by brave British men and women, and once more, through Stoker’s narrative, physiognomy is proven justified.

“This man belongs to me!” Dracula shouts at the three vampire maids in defense of Jonathan. But this defense isn’t done out of kindness or love, even though Dracula admits “Yes, I too can love,” while looking directly at Jonathan. It’s defense because Jonathan is Dracula’s possession. He belongs to Dracula, and he clarifies that this ownership will be transferred to the three maids after Dracula leaves for England. The possessiveness, the intense gregariousness he displays when for Jonathan alone when he first arrives– all of these are hall marks of “Dark Romance” novels, in which the main character, usually a woman, is captured by a dangerous or cruel man who makes her fall in love with him. The reason why these stories are so popular, especially among woman, is because  minority groups for whom desire is vilified often can only safely feel desire through forms of art where the character they identify with has no choice. Without autonomy, you aren’t sinful for your desire: it is happening to you, instead of you pursuing it.

This is a strange angle for the book to take since Jonathan Harker has very little similarities to the usual protagonists of that genre: he is a man, happily engaged to the woman of his dreams, and certainly doesn’t fall in love with Dracula. But if we look at Dracula with the context of Bram Stoker likely being a queer man, the dissonant becomes more clear.

I believe Stoker is purposely making Dracula subtextually queer, both to explore his own desires safely in fiction, and also to push his creepiness that much farther. In this Dark Romance novels the dangerous man always has the most power in the relationship, which is portrayed as attractive, but in Dracula, the trope is taken more realistically. Jonathan is trapped, powerless, completely reliant on Dracula who tells him little and terrifies him daily. Nothing about it is hot.

Dracula is a foreign character invading the familiar, good British Empire, and the queer subtext makes him even more foreign, his infiltration even more serious. The discord between what readers expect from these tropes, and what follows, makes the horror all the more impactful.

Bram Stokers Dracula incorporates themes of danger and sexuality through the text’s characterizations of women and careful use of descriptive words. In the beginning chapters of the novel, we are introduced to three young women who seduce our protagonist, Jonathan Harker. The women are intensely sexual and predatory in their pursuit of Harker. “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear” (Stoker 13). It’s a strange contradictory description which perfectly encapsulates Harker’s reluctance to give into their glamor. “There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive” (Stoker 14). The danger of these women is conveyed through their wolfish sensual behavior that is both terrifying and enticing. It not only heightens the stakes but cultivates an interesting dynamic between Dracula and Harker since Dracula shares in their lustful history. “How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you’ll deal with me” (Stoker 15). This moment confirms the hierarchy that exists between the women and Dracula while also displaying a growing possessiveness over his prisoner Johnathan Harker. It is only after witnessing the terror of the women that we can truly recognize Dracula’s dominance. It’s an important moment for understanding Dracula but it also creates a juxtaposition between these women and then Lucy and Mina who the reader can now identify as protagonists. “Lucy always wakes prettily, and even at such a time, when her body must have been chilled with cold, and her mind somewhat appalled at waking unclad in a churchyard at night, she did not lose her grace” (Stoker 79). It’s impossible not to draw a comparison drawn between Lucy and Dracula’s brides when looking at the descriptors of the two of them. No matter how horrid the circumstance Lucy is always lovely and docile giving the reader and Harker motivation to prevail against Dracula.  

The element of mystery is prominent and a very big factor in helping the story of Dracula become a fan favorite. The basis behind this claim is that at the time, Dracula was a very new story, so unlike nowadays, people were not as familiar with the story and what was going on. With this story being new and unprecedented, there needed to be a way to draw in the readers and mystery was used as that way to draw them in. In chapter 14 there is mention of “‘What kind of shock was it?’ ‘He thought he saw someone who recalled something terrible, which led to his brain fever,’” this conveys how mystery is a factor in helping fans enjoy Dracula because at this time we are unsure of what is going on and what exactly this guy saw. With this mystery it becomes a good stoping place for readers while also being a way to induce discussion about said mystery. With people coming up with different ideas and discussing them it allows for Dracula to build an audience of people who hear the argument and decide to read it but it also encourages fan engagement as the people who read it get more into the arguments and start to read closer so that they believe they have the right answers.

Lucy’s experiences in Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an interesting depiction of society’s view on female sexuality during the Victorian Era. When Lucy is bitten by Dracula, Dracula continues to pursue her even as great efforts are being made by Van Helsing to keep him away. This contrasts heavily with Harker’s experience; he escapes Dracula’s grasp and is never bothered again, in fact, his life seems to get better as Lucy’s gets worse. This is because of the ties of sexuality to vampirism. The text states, “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.” (Stoker, Chapter 3). Language like “desire” and “longing” suggest that Harker viewed what was happening as a sexual act, which implies that Lucy and Harker were experiencing sexual violence at the hands of Dracula. According to Victorian beliefs, once a woman has lost her purity, she has lost her value as a human being. So after Lucy was bitten by Dracula, Bram Stoker may not have been able to conceive another ending for her other than her demise.

There is an added strain on the idea of Lucy’s purity when she is given blood transfusions. Arthur believes “that the transfusion of his blood to her veins had made her truly his bride?” (Stoker, Chapter 13). This implies that Arthur views the transfusion as a sexual act, because in Victorian society a marriage was viewed as valid only when it was consummated. However, the blood transfusions being sexualized implies that after she has undergone them, she has been with multiple partners, because she received transfusions from multiple men. Somewhat shortly after this, Lucy becomes a vampire, and essentially loses her humanity. This implies that her humanity was tied to her purity.