Dracula by Bram Stoker has captivated an audience; the audience is one that seeks thrilling excitement and sexual experience. Stoker captures the audience by a well planed out story. One exemplifying theme, showing exuberant characters, recurring patters otherwise known as motif, roaring symbolism, and a captivating conflict. These points can all be looked through a critical lens and analyses. Dracula captures the farthest reaches of the brain and has a reader carefully looking and dissecting Bram Stokers work.
The threat of female expression is an important theme of Bram Stoker Dracula. Stoker first introduces this theme first with in the first chapter, "The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous
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One masculine characteristics would be her intelligent level. "Ah, wonderful Madam Mina! She has man's brain- a brain that a man should have were he gifted- and a woman's heart" Showing her that a high intelligent level is that of a man's, who are them most intelligent and physical gender. A one more feminine quality for Mina would be her purity. "Now good be thanked that all has been in vain! See! The show is not more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away"(Stoker 365). This was in celebration of the return of Mina's purity and saint stature. Even other source found the same purity "An example of which in the book men surrounds women with garlic and holy water, because of Dracula's effect upon women- their sexualisation" (Scott 1) Rebecca the article by expressed that, the men were protecting the women, like the characters: Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Quincy Morris, and others helped protect and save Mina from a terrible fate of, becoming no longer the women of purity and intelligence, but be an evil temptress of sexual …show more content…
Throughout the woman is an object and by no means a person, “I am here to do your bidding Master. I am your slave… (Stoker 113).” Clearly the woman are known to be the “slave” and are brainwashed to be that way after years of discrimination. Yet, as powerless as the women are made out to be they still hold men in their sands like pudding, “No man knows till he experiences it, what it is like to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the woman he loves(Stoker 141).” Woman have the power of love although it is the only power they have it is an astonishing dominance. Giving the men pride in what can be accomplished repulsive or not, “I believe we should have shocked the New Woman with our Appetites (Stocker 100).” Again giving the women a weak aspect even if it just happens to be the stomach. The Feminist or Gender Theory played a imperium role in the entire book
He describes Johnathan as the womanly figure in the story and Dracula the man. Making him feel like he’s in control is a way to make Johnathan feel even more
The topic I have chosen for my essay is how Dracula is meant to remind society of the importance of religion, specifically Christianity, in Stoker’s time. I intend to do this through analyzing symbols in Dracula, drawing connections between these symbols and Christianity, and analyzing the implications Stoker attempts to make. I chose this topic because vampires and their sacrilegious implications, such as burning when touching a cross, have always been of interest to me, hence why I chose to study Dracula in the first place. My thesis is: Stoker uses Count Dracula as symbol to represent what society may become if they abandon religious beliefs.
The notion of separate spheres seen throughout the Victorian period was set up to distinguish the roles of men and women in society. Women fulfilled the domestic sphere and were generally seen as emotionally sensitive and submissive individuals. Conversely, men were held to be intelligent, stable, and fulfill all of the work outside of the home. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, the Count seems to actually embody the fear of the breakdown of such separate spheres. However, Bram Stoker breaks down these separate spheres and the fear associated with their breakdown through the theme of the “New Woman” intertwined with the actions and behaviors of the characters in the novel.
For many centuries in our society women have been confined into a stereotypical idea of a patriarchal society. In today 's society the idea isn’t as much viewed upon with all the rights women have been given, but the concept still lingers in some of men 's minds. More so, than today, in the 19th century women were obligated to abide to the principle of gender roles and a male dominated culture. Women were seen as to be a slave and to act a certain way towards men as well as be able to gratify man 's lust of expectations of a perfect woman. These presumptions of women had been very much portrayed in short story , The Chaser by John Collier, in which a boy name Alan Austen seeks for a love potion from an old man, for a girl he likes name Diana.
At first glance, the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker appears to be a typical gothic horror novel set in the late 1890s that gives readers an exciting look into the fight between good and evil. Upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Dracula is a statement piece about gender roles and expectations for men and women during the Victorian age. Looking at the personalities, actions, and character development of each of the characters in Dracula bring to light startling revelations about Victorian society and how Stoker viewed the roles of men and women during this time period. To really understand Dracula, it is important to note that this novel was written during a time “of political and social upheaval, with anxieties not just about the
Feminist Reading: Dracula between Beauvoir’s and Roth’s Ideas In her article, “Suddenly Sexual Women in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” Phyllis Roth argues that Dracula is a misogynistic novel which is obvious in the system of power in which men are dominant and active figures whereas women are just followers and obedient to their system. She draws on Simon de Beauvoir’s idea that “ambivalence as an intrinsic quality of Eternal Feminine”, in order to show that women are victims to men powers. In her chapter, “Myth and Reality”, Beauvoir discusses the way that anybody in the society, specially men, doesn’t do their job in taking a step towards the oppressed women, but to act just like what the system of myth impose them to act.
As she is sick, Arthur gives her a blood transfusion to try to help her become better but when it does not work, she is stabbed in the heart to go back to her original beauty and die. Lucy in the book shows how the ideal Victorian woman can so suddenly turn into the bad, evil, sexual woman that was unacceptable. Throughout the novel, Bram Stoker showed in detail what was considered to be the ideal Victorian woman through the character Mina. He also showed how women were sexualized, misbehaved, and evil through the behaviors of Dracula’s three daughters.
Throughout the excerpt from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Stoker utilizes diction to convey the central idea that peoples’ worst fears lie in the unknown. In this section, the narrator is being held captive by an unknown entity. He begins to feel that his only hope is to understand the captor and starts to question the manner of the individual. In an effort to express the central idea, Stoker employs diction.
Thus, the second category of Stoker’s violence is evident here – the visual aspect. The female vampires, with an immaculate mix of violence and sex, entrance their victims and prey on them. This seems to be a frightening portrayal of a “monster” since we do not expect a monster to attract the victims in using their beauty. However, it is for the same reason, that Stoker’s theme of violence has to be
During the Victorian period in which Dracula was written, morals and ethics were often strictly enforced. Some of the morals that were upheld had to do with personal duty, hard work, honesty, as well as sexual proprietary. It was very important during this period that one was proper in their sexual behaviors and conventional in whom they had sexual relations with. However, during this period, many authors sought to challenge the ‘norm’ with ideas of reform and change and Bram Stoker was no exception to this. In his novel, Dracula, Stoker provides a critique of this rigidity in his portrayal of Dracula and Dracula’s relationship with Jonathan Harker.
Gothic horror novel Dracula, the title character makes only several relatively short appearances, some of which are while in disguise. Throughout the novel, Stoker keeps Count Dracula in the shadows, both literally and figuratively. This essay will describe these appearances and analyze Stoker’s use of them to determine what effect they might have on the impression of the character and the novel overall. It will be claimed that by keeping his title character hidden for much of the novel, Stoker’s Dracula is made much more frightening to the reader. Human beings tend to fear the unknown, and by leaving Dracula to the imagination,
Go quick, dearest, the time is getting close.’” (Stoker, 265). Van Helsing believes that the count is scared since the group is coming in closed to his location. Van Helsing wants to hypnotize Mina to trace Dracula’s movements. Stated by Mark Perry in “Fear of the Unknown: How Can I Overcome It?”, “In some cases, the fear of the unknown would be based on specific factors that are beyond our control.
Mina Murray Harker is a woman to inspire many. Bram Stoker, author of the classic gothic horror novel Dracula, intentionally creates the character of Mina Murray Harker to do just that - inspire women. Throughout Dracula, Mina goes through a multitude of ups and downs, like any character in a book. However, Mina is not like any other book character.
Within Dracula, Van Helsing discovers new material about vampires by witnessing them in the flesh. During one of these instances, Van Helsing says to Mina, “‘Will you not come over to the fire?’ for I wished to make a test of what she could. She rose obedient, but when she have made a step she stopped” (Stoker 325). Van Helsing is testing Mina through an experiment with a ring of holy wafer around her.
“Fear can challenge our sense of humanity and understanding of the world” This is a broad statement and in a book with over 300 pages, I will be focusing on certain parts in each of the books. Proving that fear can and really does challenge our sense of humanity and understanding in the world, from the start of the book where they tried to make up a rational solution to make this all seem like it wasn’t real, to actively fight against the evil they had so vehemently protested against existing. Bram stokers 19th-century fictitious Gothic novel 'Dracula ' is incredibly complex with many different characters from the meek and underestimated Mina, to the courageous and respected Van Helsing.