{"id":1838,"date":"2021-10-23T11:09:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-23T15:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1838"},"modified":"2021-10-23T11:09:43","modified_gmt":"2021-10-23T15:09:43","slug":"sexy-women-are-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/10\/23\/sexy-women-are-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexy Women are Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In reading Bram Stoker’s <\/span>Dracula<\/span><\/i>, I have reached the conclusion that through his depiction of the three vampiric women who attempted to suck Jonathon Harker\u2019s blood, Stoker believes that Victorian women having power, especially sexual power over men, is unnatural.\u00a0 As Jonathon wakes to find three women talking about \u201ckissing\u201d him, he first describes them to be fair and beautiful, but then claims that something about them makes him \u201cuneasy,\u201d and he feels an uncontrollable \u201clonging\u201d and \u201cdeadly fear\u201d (Stroker, 45).\u00a0 The three women have a strong sexual allure that makes Jonathon want to receive their kisses, but this uncharacteristic yearning also terrifies Jonathon.\u00a0 He has a fiance, and would never wish to be involved with any other woman.\u00a0 I believe that in writing this scene, Stoker intends to portray women who are seductive as evil beings who can convince perfectly honest men to leave their wives\/girlfriends\/etc.\u00a0 To drive home the point that they are evil, he writes the goal of the vampires to be obtaining blood, rather than just having a sexual experience.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 As one of the women descends upon Jonathon to suck his blood, he notes that she possesses a \u201cdeliberate voluptuousness…both thrilling and repulsive,\u201d and she behaves \u201clike an animal\u201d (Stoker 45).\u00a0 Stoker emphasizes the point that women who exercise sexual power are unseemly when he includes how the vampire\u2019s actions repulse Jonathon.\u00a0 This quote also hints that not only are seductive women evil, but in Victorian society, a woman who can cause a man\u2019s loyalty to waver is inhuman.\u00a0 In comparing the lady to an animal and making her a vampire, Stoker insinuates that the only type of woman who could actually influence a man could not possibly be human, because in Victorian society, men have all the authority.\u00a0 In addition, Stoker seems to believe that Victorian men are loyal and morally sound people, so cheating on their significant other could only be the fault of some unnatural force produced by an inhuman woman, just like how Jonathon appears to be under hypnosis when he has thoughts of kissing the vampires.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I believe this inclusion to the book is a result of Stoker\u2019s fear of changing gender roles in the Victorian era.\u00a0 Women who gain more influence during this time must be witches or vampires, and Stoker worries that men will become adulterous, and innocent, proper Victorian women will get cheated on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I have reached the conclusion that through his depiction of the three vampiric women who attempted to suck Jonathon Harker\u2019s blood, Stoker believes that Victorian women having power, especially sexual power over men, is unnatural.\u00a0 As Jonathon wakes to find three women talking about \u201ckissing\u201d … Continue reading Sexy Women are Evil<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4747,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4747"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}