Duality In Dracula

The way in which Stoker distinguishes a duality present in Lucy is through the shifting perspectives told by multiple characters, the structure of the novel is heavily based on intertextuality in this light.

The male characters, specifically, project the idea of a duality in Lucy in order to comprehend how she so easily shifts states between being ‘the pure woman’ and ‘the fallen woman’ - terms first established in the Victorian era.

This projection is not only endorsed by the male figures of the book, but the character of Mina Harker as well confirms the notion, whom Stoker constructed to represent the ideal standard of women, retrospective of ideologies concerning gender during the Victorian period.

These journal entries reveal how

“Stoker does not ascribe sexual traits to women without either turning them into the Un-Dead or fragmenting them into disembodied physical features. Sexuality, then, is not associated with real women but rather with debased aberrations of the category of woman.” (3).

“Of course, Dracula had to be prevented from assailing other vulnerable young Englishwomen, but it had to be done because Englishmen could not count on their countrywomen to be strong enough to deter the menace on their own. The men save England from an invading peril and protect her women from a hazard that—simply because they are female—they are too weak to resist. As a result, English values are codified: the men are manly protectors once more, and the women have returned to their role as the domestic angel.”

Lucy's human identity is most vehemently denied in the symptomatic expression: "The Thing" (192). Eroticized and dehumanized, she is sacrificed to consolidate the male bonding. Only then can the former rivals in love transform their desire for Lucy into a firm, selfless friendship and into the love of ascetic hard work as a team, or as what Daly calls it, the "male, professional, homosocial order" (198). The description of Lucy's face after the staking as "of unequalled sweetness and purity" reassures the male "professionals" that the murder is not only necessary but merciful.” (9).

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Sins of the flesh: anorexia, eroticism and the female vampire in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

“Dracula’s diabolical kiss unleashes in Lucy an aggressive and overtly sexual voracity that represents a threat to the adoring males around her. The fact that the male characters regard Lucy in such different ways illustrates their fear at her capacity to transform and the terrifying power it entails.” (7).

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Women then are not only virginal victims in the novel, they serve to illustrate the contradictions and ironic tensions within the Victorian value system