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Dracula women's sexuality
Analysis of character of dracula
Dracula sexuality
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Dracula women's sexuality
Analysis of character of dracula
Dracula sexuality
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Puritan society in The Crucible The Puritans were English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices. They were also historically known to be hyper-religious and judgmental, believing themselves to be the Hebraic God’s chosen people and abiding by strict social rules. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an example of this, especially when the situation was taken to extremities through the Salem witchcrafts. Because of their strongly biased religious government being easily swayed by the lies from some other people, the sole individual was left with no chance of defending themselves from accusations when the public had already decided their fate. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Puritan theology derived in New England after an exodus from England during the English Protestant Reformation.
Thus, the second category of Stoker’s violence is evident here – the visual aspect. The female vampires, with an immaculate mix of violence and sex, entrance their victims and prey on them. This seems to be a frightening portrayal of a “monster” since we do not expect a monster to attract the victims in using their beauty. However, it is for the same reason, that Stoker’s theme of violence has to be
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).
He is considered to be a “threat” to a Victorian woman such as Mina, she becomes his victim by force, which some see as rape. Mina feels violated after being “penetrated” by Dracula. There’s a scene in which helps support the idea of Mina being raped. “With his left hand, he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension: his right hand gripped the back of her neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white night dress was smeared with blood, a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which shone by hi torn-open dress.”
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.
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.
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
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
The novel containing the most famous vampire that has ever existed is a product of its time. It contains elements of Victorian ideas on sexuality, the height of commercial and military expansion, Victorian medical practices, the struggle between science and religion, and the relationship between Bram Stoker and Henry Irving. Even though the classic story may be a part of its time the story of Dracula lives on even today because according to Thomas Foster a work “…that thinks about human problems, including those in the social and political realm, that addresses the rights of persons and the wrongs of those in power-…” (Foster, 117). In 2010, a modernized version of the classic tale called iDrakula by Bekka Black exists.
Dracula meant a turning point in the vampire genre, Dracula breaks with the ideals of intimacy that were forbidden at the time it was published, after this novel, vampires became rulers and moved to America. Due to American democracy, monarchs were taken apart from the vampiric literature, in the same way that Victorian patriarchal precepts forbade citizens to long for friendship. It is in the twentieth century when vampires implicated themselves in the sources of power; and thus, defining the new concept of the psychic vampire, which do not simply drink blood of their victim, but drain the energy out of them: “They drink energy, emotional generosity, self-control, creativity, talent, memories even (in a recent story) as mundane a life fluid
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,
In the novel Dracula, author Bram Stoker creates a peculiar situation that pushes the main characters to decipher the supernatural from reality. Originally thought of as a myth, Dracula quickly becomes something more than the supernatural. By slowly building the conflict of Dracula himself, Stoker depicts all stages of the change from believing that Dracula is a fictitious character to being face to face with Dracula himself. As he terrorizes the lives of the characters in the novel, they soon come to the realization that Dracula is more than what they formerly believed, and in actuality he is their harsh reality.
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
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.
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.