Separate Spheres In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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. The behaviors and characteristics of Mina Harker, along with the transformation

At the beginning of the novel, Lucy is constantly preoccupied with trivial, love affair matters: “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?”(Stoker 50). In other words, Lucy is lustful. She fancies the love and affection she gets from all of the men that she does. She is the epitome of the Victorian women that is emotionally unstable: “…I feel so miserable, though I am so happy” (Stoker 50). Her contradicting emotional state is part of what makes her vulnerable to Count’s wrath in the novel, but after she is attacked by the Count, she undergoes a transformation into the “New Woman” ideology. For example, she becomes much more sexualized and frightening to those around her: “She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth—which it made one shudder to see—the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity” (Stoker183). This appearance that Stoker gives Lucy helps him break down the separate sphere that confines women to look and be pure like the “angel of the house”. Lucy also seems to lose all of her emotionality and even ends up preying on children: “There is, however, possibly a serious side to the question, for some of the children, indeed all who have been missed at night, have been slightly torn or wounded in the throat” (Stoker 152). Through having Lucy undergo such a transformation, Stoker gives the message that women do not necessarily have to be motherly creatures. In other words, they can be completely ruthless and spiteful even towards those that society holds they should love. For instance, Lucy even tries to seduce Arthur into her wrath and attack him: “‘Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest