Course Blog

By the end of the 19^th century, Britain was in major decline of power. The poverty and mortality rates were uncontrollably high and the people were filled with “anxiety of cultural decay” (Anxiety of Reverse Colonization pg 623). Stoker uses his novel, Dracula to emphasize the fears of Victorian culture in the 19^th century. In particular, sexuality acts as a major fear of Victorian people and also acts as a major motif in the novel.

There is no coincidence in the fates of Lucy and Mina by the end of the novel. Lucy, who desires three husbands, has the blood of three men pulsing through her and gives in to Dracula’s temptation, dies a horribly painful death when her husband drives a stake through her heart. This scene of Arthur stabbing Lucy is like a punishment for not being a loyal, Victorian wife. Mina, on the other hand, escapes punishment. Throughout the novel she is a dutiful, motherly figure. She takes care of Jonathan when he is ill, comforts Van Helsing when he cries and remains true to her Victorian virtues even when tempted by Dracula. It is because of this that she survives. Therefore, it is quite apparent that Stoker despises the idea of a sexualized woman. To put it simply, to be voluptuous means death (Lucy), and to be traditional/ non-sexualized means life. This could also have implications connecting sex with disease.

As mentioned in “Dracula; Vampires, Perversity and Victorian Anxieties”, the use of vampires in a text suggest the fear of sexually transmitted diseases. With vampires comes tainted blood and with that comes disease and with disease comes death. The more promiscuous women are, the more likely diseases like syphilis will spread. The spread of sexually transmitted diseases suggest not only health troubles but moral as well. No man wants to be the husband of a cheater. It ruins their reputation and their health all at once.

In the Victorian era, a new type of woman evolved. This woman defied social norms, as they did not want children or to be married. In the article “Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle” Greg Buzwell says that these woman, called New Woman, were increasingly more publically interested in sex. The exploration into sex was another way of redefining themselves and giving them a new type of power in their lives.

Similarly in Dracula, as Lucy is beign turned into a vampire, she is described to be more sexual: “In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips:— “Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me” (Stoker 172)! Lucy is seen here in a new role, one that has given her power and a new look of being sexual. Arthur is taken aback, but is also overcome with his desire for her.

It is not a conscience that as Lucy is being transformed into a vampire, she is becoming increasingly more sexual. This transformation relates back to the age of New Woman, and the power that they New Woman seem to have with their findings of their desire to be sexual. Stoker seems to play this key transformation in the society into his novel to further explore it, and show the changes in society. With his male characters, Stoker is also showing a slight power shift, as they are helpless around the sexual explicit female vampires, just like how Jonathan was unable to control himself when he met the three female vampires.

Contrary to the prim and proper society that most individuals call to mind when they think of England in the Victorian Era, Bram Stoker’s Dracula presents a vision of the time dominated by anxieties of hypersexualized women and the dangers it presented to otherwise accepted norms. Such a depiction is greatly odds with established gendered orthodoxy, as conventional customs dictate that the man is to be the aggressor, penetrator, perpetrator, etc. Females, on the other hand, are generally expected to be much more submissive. The fact that Dracula flips this on its head in more than one occasion, then, must have some significance. In fact, what if the reason the novel inverts these expectations is because sex is being used as a metaphor for the change in gendered power relations that occurred during the Era?

We’ve all heard the Oscar Wilde quote that “Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” I find this to be particularly applicable to the situations found in the novel. First, we have already established that much of the novel is clearly readable as sex through subtext. We have already discussed that penetration of the fangs and of the stake can be read as sexual penetration, blood is semen, etc., and this would fulfill the former component of the Wilde quote. As to the latter half, Christopher Craft wrote in “’Kiss Me with those Red Lips’: Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” that during Jonathan Harker’s encounter with the three vampire women he “enjoys a ‘feminine’ passivity and awaits a delicious penetration from a woman” (109). Later on, in Chapter 21, we find Mina Harker being the aggressor, albeit coerced, when she is actively sucking the blood of Count Dracula (300). Between these two scenes, I would argue that the latter half of the Wilde quote is being validated. In the first instance, Jonathan is clearly rendered submissive to the women. In the second, Mina is fulfilling the active sexual role usually assigned to men. What do they have in common? They both have women maintaining power over the men in that moment, a phenomenon that so clearly worried real life Victorian men at the time. Thus, in this novel, inversion of sexual roles is clearly used as a tool and a mirror to explore the larger inversion of power taking place at the time.

The Vampire; a superstitious being that we as a society continue to both fear and have a desiring curiosity for. This character is the perfect conjunction of life and death. Among its many traits, sexuality stands out as a key component from them all. Vampires are lustful, desirable, and pleasant-looking to the human eye. This is why vampires have control over humans; not from the superstitious “power” standpoint, but the fact that they can control with their attractiveness and sexual drive.

The theme of sexuality/sexualness is prevalent throughout Dracula in a variety of ways. Jonathan Harker almost engages in an erotic encounter with one of the three female vampires. On page 45, there are numerous sexual innuendos. “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, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth” (45). This situation sounds just like individuals about to engage in (to put it frankly) some type of foreplay. The key note in this passage is the phrase “both thrilling and repulsive”. That is the exact description of a vampire; our society despises them for what they are, but are intrigued and their alluring demeanor.

An example of the vampire and sexuality in present day is Twilight. Edward Cullen is a blood-sucking creature, yet draws in every female that eyes him with his impressive looks. He especially does with Bella Swan who is forever pulled to his side. He is both dangerous but sexy; almost like the ideal “bad boy” that girls shouldn’t want, but always chase after. The attraction to vampires is still very much alive, and there’s no sight of that creature disappearing in future societies.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is cluttered with references to cutting edge technologies of the late Victorian era. For modern audiences this might seem quaint or superficial, but there is a deeper significance to these references. Stoker utilizes technology in his narrative to strengthen the novel’s thematic struggle between science and spiritualism. Stoker’s character’s alternating use of modern technology and rudimentary tools creates an effective foil to convey the contrasting impulse to modernize and the necessity of traditional items. This struggle is important to recognize and discuss because it gives modern audiences a sense of confusion and unease felt during late Victorian and Edwardian era debates over technological advancements and the displacement of man.

Technology, the application of science and engineering for the betterment of humanity, figures into the novel through Dr. Seward’s phonograph, telegrams, blood transfusions, and trains. Technology even becomes part of a competition within the novel as our heroes race Dracula’s sail-powered ship with a steam-powered locomotive (Stoker, 354). Needless to say, the locomotive prevails. Technology aids the heroic band on their quest to destroy the titular character, yet there is a concern voiced by Dr. Van Helsing that for all its worth, when science cannot explain something it disregards it as an anomaly (Stoker, 204). After this speech, the characters vow to “believe” and a shadow of doubt is cast over the centrality of scientific method and reasoning. This doubt is difficult for modern audiences considering the advances made in the century since Dracula’s publishing. After all, should there not be more doubt placed upon the existence of omnipotent, evil-doing, undead counts than on the limits of scientific comprehension. At this point, it is necessary to introduce the foil for technology found within spiritualism and its associated motifs.

To compensate for science’s limitations, Van Helsing utilizes religious objects and hypnotism in the pursuit of Dracula. Armed with crucifixes, garlic, communion wafers, and a Nepalese knife, Van Helsing’s band of gentlemen attack Dracula and force him from London (Stoker, 326). While preparing to depart, Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina as a means to stay in contact with the count and reveal his location (Stoker, 332). This blend of science and pseudoscience must have bewildered Victorian audience as much as it bemuses modern ones. The gothic motifs found in crucifixes strike a curious contrast to phonographs. On a more metaphysical and historical level, this contrast represents a tension found in Victorian society. Victorians found themselves on the cutting edge of technological development, but had yet to rid themselves of pseudoscience and superstition. This brackish conflation made it difficult to demarcate where knowledge or truth could be found in their society. There also seems to be an apprehension for technological development. Although some of the characters are reliant on modern gear, whether it is a phonograph or repeating rifle, they still need the aid of hypnotism, a spiritualist relic, to guide them to their quarry and simple communion wafers for protection. In this context, Stoker is able to convey the struggle between modernity and spiritualism.

In Dracula, Stoker has told an epic tale about the battles between our Anglican heroes and their foreign foe. Throughout this novel, Stoker has also told a less obvious story, but just as prominent and important: the complicated dynamic of sexuality in Victorian England. Dracula’s female characters exist in an England where they can be both independent and educated. After all, Lucy has the freedom to choose her husband and Mina greatly assists in compelling a manuscript on the Count. However, while some freedoms exist, women are still constrained by a suffocating patriarchy. This is evident when our male characters refuse tell Lucy why she’s ill and in keeping Mina away from their investigation. Not only this, but even our undead male villain’s only known concubines are all female: the three sisters, Lucy, and Mina. In this way, Dracula is a story characterized by complicated male-female gender dynamics.

To further illustrate this tension between male-female gender dynamics, let’s assess a specific incident. While compiling a manuscript, Mina is confronted by a distressed Lord Godalming. In her diary, Mina recounted that the Lord broke down in front of her, and she wrote that “I suppose there is something in woman’s nature that makes a man free to break down before her and express his feelings on the tender or emotional side without feeling it derogatory to his manhood” (p. 244). In concluding this episode, Lord Godalming conveys his appreciation for her comfort, and calls her a “little girl” (p. 246).

Here Mina is contributing equally to the work of our male leads. And while this may be true, Lord Godalming and others do not appreciate the work she does, but merely her gender for its assumed motherly and nurturing qualities. Lord Godalming does not express his concerns or grievances to those he directly works with, other males, but someone he seldom interacts with, a female. Effectively, by being a woman, Mina’s work goes unacknowledged and her emotional intelligence and sensitivity are overemphasized. In this way, Mina is able to stay close to the investigation, only insomuch as her presence provides comfort and vulnerability in the face of danger. This is why Mina is kept out of the loop on the specific work being done, yet still around our male characters. Effectively, Dracula demonstrates that while women have gained some opportunities, much of their livelihood is still subordinated to the comfort and bidding of men.

In Dracula, there are people who portray different stereotypes of women, the sweet and innocent one, the smart but she’s like my sister one, and the femme fatale, sexy one.  During the course of the book, the way women are portrayed are typical for the time period. Lucy, who has attracted many suitors, is docile, blonde, and innocent. She is also not very smart, saying,”Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” She does not understand the societal reasons of why this could not work and has no trouble voicing her brainless opinions.  She portrays all of the traits associated with how the ideal women should act. She also plays directly into gender roles that women were supposed to poses.

When Lucy becomes a vampire, her image shifts entirely. She has been transformed into something evil, and becomes a creature that has attained a “voluptuous wantonness.” Of course after she has become a monster, she is then associated with the traits that are not associated with a woman of class and poise. On top of that she is seen eating a baby. So baby killer and being sexy are obviously just as condemnable and wrong. The monster inside of her now has taken away her naiveté and why she was coveted by so many men.

The way that Lucy is portrayed in this book give you two sides of the sexist proverbial coin. She’s either a sweet virgin dressed in white, or a sexy vampire baby killer. The positive associations that come from her being a sweet virgin, such as plenty of suitors, being likable etc. are so drastically contrasted with the negative ones such as she eats babies. The lack of subtlety is jarring.

Mina and Lucy’s characters are supposed to represent women of the Victorian era, which entails being pure, angelic, religious, and joyful; so that they may make a good wife to their husbands. In this era it is no longer common to have arranged marriages, rather women now have a say in which suitor they wish to marry. This indicates that the role of women in society is changing or evolving. Later in chapter 8 Mina touches upon the subject of how the relationship between men and women further change in the future and that “New Women won’t condescend in future to accept [marriage]; she will do the proposing herself.” In this scene Mina hopes that women of the future will have more freedom and live in a more tolerant society of women’s freedom to do as they please. However, later in the novel we may ask the question whether or not Lucy, with her freedom to choose among her suitors, made the correct choice?  Because once she becomes sick Arthur calls upon Dr. Seward for help, leaving us to ponder whether or not she made the correct choice. Lucy once she has been bitten become dependent on the men around her in order to live, which leads us further to believe that women need men in order to survive, because on their own they would perish. It may be possible that this little freedom that women have gained in the Victorian era is too much to handle, and maybe why Lucy ends up being bitten by Dracula because in her unconscious dream walking state, she secretly craves the freedom that Dracula is able to bestow upon her.  Unfortunately, this freedom causes her to evolve into a monster that resembled a “devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity”, and the only way to save this new species of women is by the hand of mortal men.  

Throughout the novel Dracula, Bram Stroker plays upon the superstitions of the people during this time. During the Victorian era, modernity was coming into the forefront of society with the industrial revolution and the invention of new technology. At the basis of modernity lays this belief of positivism: the belief that science is at the basis of all things (art, literature, etc.) From the beginning of the Renaissance period, humans started rationalizing all things in life, as if they wanted to prove that there is an explanation for everything in the world.

In this novel, it is the character of Van Helsing who questions this belief. He says: “Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? […] Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain” (204). In this passage Helsing explain that there are things in life that do not have an explanation, and that force one to look elsewhere for the answers. The doctor is, of course, referring to the idea of Lucy being bitten by a vampire, but there is more to this passage than just a direct connection the novel.

In my opinion, we can make the claim that Dracula is a novel that casts doubt on the fixed theories and scientific beliefs of this time. Thus, it is not the blood-sucking vampires that causes the fear, but it is indeed the fear of doubt the readers experience that makes this a truly horrific novel.

When Dracula was written, science and medicine was the key to understanding the world. For the characters in Dracula, this heavy importance of science left them all with a huge dilemma, as they struggled to mentally overcome the doubt they felt about the supernatural and more specifically rhe possibility of the existence of vampires. It takes the characters almost half of the novel to finally overcome their doubt and to organize their thoughts and accept that there might be something that defies science. Dr. Van Helsing explains to Dr. Steward this strange battle when he says, “Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs, which think themselves new, and which are yet but the old, which pretend to be young, like the fine ladies at the opera” (204). This is a strange conversation as it is, let alone it being between the professor and former student, both of whom are doctors of science. Later on Dr. Van Helsing also expresses his thoughts to the group when he says, “Does not the belief in vampires rest for others, though not, alas! for us, on them! A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century?” (254). The ironic nature of both of these conversations is that the one to best overcome the doubt of the supernatural and put aside all scientific reasoning is the older doctor. However by overcoming the doubt of the supernatural, the characters can begin to work together to figure out how to kill Dracula once and for all.