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Feminism In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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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

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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.

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Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' characterizes the preface of a cult-fostering generation - It remains descriptive of a time capsule engaging with the convention and popular broodings of the Victorian era lasting through 1837 to 1901. It was an era of primitive, antediluvian notions and demeanors. The novel, in its entirety, is set in Transylvania - a place which typically harbors suspense and a loom of double-stitched ambiguity. The book was written in the form of individual journal entries which prepended a sense of idiosyncratic connections for the readers to be acquainted with.

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a timeless gothic horror novel that has fascinated readers for over 125 years. Using an epistolary format, Stoker creates a first-hand look at a world full of complex characters troubled in one way or another by the influence of the vampire, Count Dracula. Throughout the book, Stoker creates a sense of terror and unease by portraying the vampire as a dark and evil force threatening society's very fabric. This fear of the unknown and the supernatural is a common theme in horror literature, but Stoker takes it one step further to highlight the importance of faith and belief in a higher power.

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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.

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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. (!!!) ”

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu both challenge and endorse the norms of the societies that produced them. (paragraph 3 topic). The norms of xenophobia were challenged by Dracula as Count Dracula, the foreigner, was illustrated as attractive and alluring while Nosferatu endorsed the norms by Count Orlok, the foreigner, portraying a negative jewish stereotype. Dracula both endorses and challenges the gender stereotypes as Mina was the depiction of a typical Victorian woman but she was pivotal in the resolution of the story. Nosferatu more so endorses than challenges the gender stereotypes, as Ellen was the only female character but she was the key to Count Orlok’s defeat.

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In Dracula, Bram Stoker makes a contrast between two types of women in this novel. Women who are in the vampire state are vastly more powerful than the everyday human woman, but seem to still be subordinate. Towards the end of late 19th Century, the new woman develops toward the economic change as well as the sexual changes in society, with both men and women struggling to find a sense of this new order. The new woman was strong, finding a sense of independence and men were beginning to become terrified of their own woman. Stoker explains his idea behind the characters of the women in Dracula, he believes that “for women to deny their traditional role was to deny their womanhood, to challenge the distinctions between women and men upon which

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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,

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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.

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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.

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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