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Masculinity and femininity
Critical analysis of bram stoker's dracula
Masculinity and femininity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Masculinity and femininity
Critical analysis of bram stoker's dracula
Masculinity and femininity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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.
Last weekend I attended the play Dracula, based on the novel of the same title by Bram Stoker. This version was a moveable play by Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, located in nearby Ellicott City in the Ruins. Already having read the book, I noticed many differences between the book Dracula and the play itself being a moveable play made it a different, and very enjoyable, experience. In one part, the characters are inside their house, and one part of the building looks like a house. When they move outside, instead of changing around the set in the one room, they will move the entire play, including the audience, outside the building, adding a completely different setting.
Everybody knows the classic tale of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It is most famous for its introduction of the character of Count Dracula into both deep-rooted and contemporary literature and media. One critic claimed,” Bram Stoker set the ground rules for what a vampire should be.” It follows the story of Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor who visits Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania – soon realising that he is being kept as a prisoner. Dracula forms a liking to the character of Lucy which ultimately leads to her death.
The central idea of this excerpt from Dracula was the fear of the prisoner living in the castle of Count Dracula who felt trapped and alone. The authors use of first person point of view of the prisoner was able to develop this central idea of fear because prisoner was able to describe his feelings first hand living in the castle with the Count as well as emphasize the thoughts that were scattered inside of his head during this time. An example of the author using first person point of view to help develop the central idea of fear was when the prisoner had realized that he was helpless in the situation of his current living conditions. The prisoner said "I think I must have been mad for the time, for I have behaved much as a rat does in a trap" (lines 4-5).
Annotation # 3 This quote relates to one of the key terms in the novel, which is sympathy. Throughout the book, many innocent characters experience traumatizing events. For example, when Jonathan Harker was nearly attacked by the women at the castle of Dracula, or Lucy being stalked by Dracula. These events can cause the audience to feel a sort of sympathy for the characters. Mina is trying to contend while being comforted by her dear friend, that sympathy cannot change what is happening however, it can lighten up one’s mood about a situation.
Science and Religion: Dracula’s Contrast Religion has been practiced by many and continues to be a part of many households today. Individuals use it as a means of healing, meditations and a philosophy of life. In ancient times, it was the foremost practice for healing and protection against harm. As the modern era began to emerge, science began to present itself as a more reliable and highly sought after practice. People began to question religious practices and some even left it complete.
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.
A couple years later Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Claire Clairemont, Lord Byron, and Byron’s doctor were all staying in Geneva. Various sources mention how the weather was unrelentingly terrible, which is why it is often referred to as the year without summer, so they had little to nothing to do all day except sit around and read creepy German ghost stories. So naturally enough, being a circle of creative writers, a novel-writing contest ensued. The doctor wrote a story that would later be a huge influence on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Mary Shelley, still a teenager wrote Frankenstein.
When Lucy turns into a vampire, it is made a point to describe how she appears and behaves in opposition to the Lucy we were introduced to before her death. With Lucy as a vampire it gives her many virtues she didn’t possess when she was alive. In this novel she is portrayed as a predatory. The importance of being a virgin in the 19th century is perceived through Lucy’s transition into a ‘she-devil’ once Dracula takes away her purity. A person like Lucy, her sexuality is viewed as offensive, is apparent that the gender categories are challenging to gender categories more than
The ways in which Van Helsing and Seward customarily address Lucy with pet names and terms of endearment, is the same as how an adult would treat a child that denies their maturity. In spite of the fact that these appear affectionate on the surface, it is a manipulative tactic exercised frequently by the band of men. Whether or not they are aware that they are doing such, revoking Lucy of her name strips her of her identity and, essentially, her authority over her personhood. Women in Victorian could only be two things; either you were a pure woman or you were a fallen woman. Lucy can only be one or the other, it was not common for women of the time to possess the traits of both types.
In relation to Dracula, the reader is never told how Dracula became a vampire. However, Van Helsing hints that as Dracula must have battled against the Turks “he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the “land beyond the forest””(Stoker 224). In Dr Seward’s diary, Van Helsing learns from the researches of his friend Arminius of Buda-Pesth that Dracula “was in life the most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist—which latter was the highest development of the science- knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse” (Stoker 280).
Most people just love a story about blood, death, and love… well, there isn’t a better place to turn than to Dracula… as some would say, the classic story of true love- with some serious problems. Bram Stokers Dracula has been loved for many centuries by many people, for many different reasons. Some want to know who the original Dracula is… and why he is so famous, others love the writing style, and some simply indulge in it because it's got all the gory stuff. Although, a there has been a contradictory topic devoted to this book for years-- the main theme of Dracula. Many people have very different ideas as to what this is, some saying it has to do with female sexuality, others think it always has been and always will be simply a horror novel.
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
Word Count: 1188 5. Describe the appearances Dracula makes throughout the novel. What does Stoker achieve by keeping his title character in the shadows for so much of the novel? In Bram Stoker’s 1897
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.