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Suddenly Sexual Women In Bram Stoker's Dracula Summary

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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. She shows that being immanent is what the society …show more content…

While Roth manages to show what Beauvoir discusses in “Myth and Reality”, that individuals have ambivalence which controls their choice of acting following the society roles, she just gives her point of view of how men treat women and base on women’s experience, however, she fails to show that women are, also, have ambivalence attitude. What is missing from her analysis is that Beauvoir when she discusses the ambivalence and the immanence and transcendence she shows that all individuals have these features, but Roth takes these ideas and discusses them based on men experience in the novel not women. In fact, Females, also, have ambivalence attitudes. For instance, when Lucy recognizes that there is something that is sucking her blood and she was able to describe it but she did not. Lucy just gives up by doubting what is going with her. Maybe her reason why she hides such a frightening thing is her fears of society and that she knows what will be her punishment if males, figures of power, know. Moreover, Mina is so

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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.

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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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In the book Dracula, by Bram Stoker, we see how Stoker does not hesitate at all to give us horrific details. Because this is a Gothic novel it is important for us as the readers to see all these monstrous events that happen in the book. Lucy, one of the charters in the novel Dracula, is part of many scenes that are pretty gruesome in detail. Even though Lucy is not necessarily one of the main speakers, Stoker uses her to show us how in the past women were thought to be more prone to sin than men, though all the shocking descriptions of the things Lucy does and the stuff done to her.

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To begin with women roles have changed over time and has continued to evolve over generations. In Dracula by Bram Stoker women’s roles in society has been defined very differently as of today’s society. As this book has been written in the nineteenth century the beliefs of society have focused on the gender roles of men and women. Men are often classified to be upper class in the social status who possesses authority and freedom unlike that of the women of that time. The two characters Mina Harker and Lucy have portrayed different individual characters of being a woman and have shown their strength, power, determination while conquering their fears.

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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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1461 Words | 6 Pages

Bram Stoker, describes one of the verbal taboos of the Victorian era, violence, through the representation of vampires as “monsters” through the point of view of their victims in his novel Dracula. Stoker portrays violence in three distinct categories- physical, visual and psychological. Each one of these categories is described by one of the antagonists in the Novel, with Count Dracula as the physical aspect of violence, his underlings, the female vampires as the visual and Renfield, the patient at Dr. Seward’s mental asylum, as the psychological aspect of violence. This essay looks at the portrayal of such Categorical violence as different renditions of a “monster” and considers why Stoker would segregate violence in such a manner.

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901 Words | 4 Pages

The essay I chose to compare Dracula with was “Kiss Me With Those Red Lips: Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Christopher Craft. The essay explains the sexuality in Dracula, desire, gender, and even homosexuality. Craft mentions his essay gives an account of Stoker’s “vampire metaphor” (Craft 108). He highlights certain and very valid points in the story of Dracula that breaks the Victorian gender role, writing, “a pivotal anxiety of late Victorian culture.” (Craft 108).

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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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In the novel Dracula by Bram Stocker there I an abundance of evidence that suggests that the female characters are treated differently than their male counterparts. The sources that I have read have failed to address key parts of this topic. The articles that I have read are “Feminism, Sex Role Exchanges, and Other Subliminal Fantasies in Bram Stoker's Dracula” and “Desire and Loathing in Bram Stoker's Dracula”. The articles fail to include how women have their own power. In this essay, there will be an investigation into the gender roles of men and women and how men will push down and leave women behind.

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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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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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The need to turn Dracula into a melodramatic tale of mystery taking place indoors was the reason for the costuming of Dracula in evening dress and opera cloak, making him look like the sinister hypnotists, seducers and evil aristocrats of the Victorian theatre. Browning’s Dracula is a traditional Hollywood production, emphasizing character development, romance and the final triumph over the menace of the foreign other. It also establishes a realistic framework for the novel’s story, as the vampire is to be taken real. What was new about the film was sound.

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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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