ipl-logo

Feminism In Bram Stoker's Dracula

1991 Words8 Pages

It’s A Man’s World
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a highly controversial work of fiction. Bram Stoker’s Dracula touches on many different categories of literature which is why it can be analyzed in many different ways using an assortment of different criticisms. Throughout this piece, however, it is only focused on the patriarchal society and how women are portrayed throughout, leading to the expectations of women during this time period. Amongst this novel a feminist approach comes into play, but cannot be used to analyze Dracula as a whole but, more so to analyze multiple female characters. Bram’s stoker’s Dracula can be seen through a feminist and patriarchal lens, analyzing Lucy Westenra, Mina Harker, and the three brides of Dracula and how …show more content…

However, this does not mean that the bride’s do not represent patriarchies. From the start of this novel, the three brides are trapped in Dracula’s castle. Jonathan Harker is confronted by the brides who mesmerize him into a daze of “anticipation” and “desire”. This is because, when hunting their prey, the bride’s seem to arise sexual intent to take their prey ‘off guard’. This much can be concluded when Jonathan writes “I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” (42). In the lens of a feminist approach, in a patriarchal society, there are “good girls”, like Lucy and Mina, who are pure and useful to their husbands, and there are “bad girls” who are sexually explicit in nature and seen as impure as well as not the “marrying type”. In this case, due to their sexual nature, the brides would fall under the category of “bad girls”. However, a feminist approach would argue that both types of categories are patriarchal in that they objectify women instead of treating them as individuals. In other words, seen as though the bride’s should be considered more dangerous than anything due to the fact that they suck people’s blood and hold them hostage to weaken then. Instead they are portrayed as sexual in nature because they are seen as

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Homosexuality In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    901 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Thesis On Dracula And Religion

    332 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Women's Role In Society In Dracula By Bram Stoker

    213 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout the Victorian era, probably one of the biggest worries was the role of women in society. In “Dracula”, Bram Stoker makes most of the women in his story as very sexual and some as pure. The pure women in society were liked and the impure were considered evil and tempting. Throughout the story, Mina is the perfect fit for the “angel of the house” by remaining smart and loyal and she is seen as heroic and strong in the end because of it. Mina’s relationship with Harker represents the traditional part in society that women should play in the Victorian age.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    1350 Words  | 6 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Desire In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    1160 Words  | 5 Pages

    The horror genre of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, combined with mild eroticism is able to draw in readers due to the fact that Stoker is able to intricately weave suspenseful sexual scenes/scenes of desire throughout the novel—making it clear that

    Read More

  • Suddenly Sexual Women In Bram Stoker's Dracula Summary

    1830 Words  | 8 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Sexuality And Gender Roles In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    858 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dracula is about vampires in general, the myth, the mystery and the horror. Even though Dracula wasn’t the first vampire story, it was the first really popular one. Throughout the novel, the author, Bram Stoker, portrays many different aspects of women's roles in the 19th century. With the use of imagery and symbolism, the theme of sexuality and gender roles has an enormous presence in the novel. Social gender roles of women and men during the Victorian Era were very strict and looked upon differently than any other time period.

    Read More

  • Women In Dracula Essay

    696 Words  | 3 Pages

    The major theme in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker is the threat of female sexual expression. During this time period, female sexual behavior was frowned upon. Women were said to have to be either a virgin or a wife and mother. Social standards were very strict during this time, making it unheard of for women to show sexual expressions. In is era, the main concern was the role women had in society.

    Read More

  • Violence In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    1461 Words  | 6 Pages

    These vampires encompass one of the major sub-themes of the Novel - sex. This topic was considered rude to discuss in public and could only be propagated through the medium of writing. These vampires are portrayed as “air, as fair as can be, with great masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires. (!!!) ”

    Read More

  • Morality And Morality In Dracula

    1329 Words  | 6 Pages

    This sheds a light on Dracula as a figure who truly does feel homosexual affection towards Harker. When Harker disobeys Dracula he finds himself in a room where Dracula’s three wives are. Harker journal entry recalling this event describes it in very close details. He describes the women in a very erotic way, saying “I could feel the hot breath on my neck. Then the skin of my throat began to tingle” (Stoker, 48), and the “soft shivering touch of lips.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Dracula In Stoker's Dracula

    1253 Words  | 6 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Mina Murray Harker In Dracula By Bram Stoker

    1008 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Fear In Dracula

    811 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dracula’s castle was just the beginning of what was to come. Jonathan 's meeting of the three female vampires it was a catalyst for what he believed was right and wrong. With the 3 women being polar opposites of what was expected from a 19th-century Victorian woman compared to the pure and proper Mina the 3 vampires are straight forward and dominant. Something that he had never experienced before and he can 't help that he is both attracted and repulsed by them. “ There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear.

    Read More

  • The Supernatural And Reality In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    1072 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel Dracula, author Bram Stoker creates a peculiar situation that pushes the main characters to decipher the supernatural from reality. Originally thought of as a myth, Dracula quickly becomes something more than the supernatural. By slowly building the conflict of Dracula himself, Stoker depicts all stages of the change from believing that Dracula is a fictitious character to being face to face with Dracula himself. As he terrorizes the lives of the characters in the novel, they soon come to the realization that Dracula is more than what they formerly believed, and in actuality he is their harsh reality.

    Read More

  • Sexual Anxieties In Bram Stoker's Dracula

    650 Words  | 3 Pages

    Indeed, the work condemns the expression of sexuality, particularly deviant sexuality, as in the case of Lucy, who is eventually destroyed and transformed into a voluptuous vampire. Dracula is the immoral foreigner; he contains and conveys a sexually transmittable disease, perhaps akin to syphilis in its internal and external transformation of the afflicted. In this novel, Stoker stands by the ideal woman, Mina, who resists temptation and becomes a submissive and dedicated wife and mother. Finally, Abraham Van Helsing and his group of men defend the patriarchal pillars of society and try to contain, at all costs, the sexually dominant behavior that attempts to contaminate society. The anxieties surrounding and permeated by the characters of the novel emulate a literary culture inspired by Gothic literature.

    Read More

More about Feminism In Bram Stoker's Dracula

Open Document