undeniably bifurcated the biological differences between men and women socially and spatially. Any woman who did not fit within a patriarchal concept of what constituted the proper woman became a female pariah, ostracised from society. In the novels Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and The Blood of the Vampire, by Florence Marryat, the characterisations of the female vampires seem to either support unfavourable criticism
Throughout Dracula, it is clear that the vampire is a force to be reckoned with, worthy of the fear accompanying its label. It is also apparent that the Count is a supernatural creature. The townspeople strongly advise Renfield against travelling at night and become aghast when they realize that he intends to travel to Castle Dracula. Despite their warnings, Renfield believes that all of their concern simply stems from superstition. Later in the movie, Dracula himself subtly confirms that he is a
was mentioned in the book, Dracula, the people living in the 20th century did not think so. Women inparticular were under the belief, “good women tell all their lives.” Mina Harker, the main woman character in Dracula, brought about a new idea. Through the strong, independent, trustworthy, and intelligent character, Mina Harker, Bram Stoker depicts the ideal “new woman” and illustrates the importance and effectiveness of this woman, in his twentieth century novel, Dracula. "She is one of God's women
In the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, the role of Christianity and Catholicism is evident throughout the novel. The actions taken by one of the characters in particular, Dracula, the antagonist and vampire of the story are quite similar to many of the characteristics seen in Christianity yet they seem to be darkly distorted. The character of Dracula can be interpreted as the anti-christ of the tale, even his name "Dracula" translates to "Son of the Dragon". Contrary to the actions and beliefs of anti-Christian
individuality and freedom. Victorian society in its time period took on an extremely conservative behavior. Sex and womanly freedoms were strongly controversial topics. The society encouraged an overall chaste and modest lifestyle. Since Stoker wrote Dracula in the late 19th century, it left the expectations and standards for women immeasurably limiting. From this, stemmed gender roles and other inequalities between the sexes which meant
During the Victorian era people enjoyed gothic horror because of the industrialization of the time in which they lived. Dracula is a very popular book that rivals Frankenstein in popularity. The book sold 3,000 copies in the first printing. Dracula is a dark gothic horror novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897. Stoker uses many setting elements to add to the gothic nature of the novel which are a ruined castle, fog/mist, and blood. To start with, an example of Stoker’s use to set the setting in a gothic
Victorian Time period, when gender roles were challenged, Bram Stoker wrote his novel Dracula. The Victorian culture often suppressed women and their value, and instead they glorified the role of a man. Stoker used his novel to express typical gender roles of the Victorian time period. Those characters involved all represented examples of how gender roles were challenged and reinforced during that time period. In Dracula, Lucy Westerna challenges the female gender stereotype when she goes on a long walk
The way by which Dracula feeds, for instance, echo the mechanics of sexual intercourse: he waits to be beckoned into his victim’s bedroom, then he pierces her body in a way that makes her bleed. In the mind of men, this act has the same effect as a real sexual encounter—it
two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wrote Carmilla. It was first published in 1872 as part of the collection of short stories titles ‘In a Glass Darkly.’ Carmilla predates the publishing of Dracula by 25 years. Laura, who is also
and Homosexuality were definitely considered very taboo topics and were never mentioned publicly. Nonetheless, Stoker still managed to incorporate a lot of sexual connotations and even explicitly targets concepts of lust. The sexual references in Dracula are expressed through the symbolism of blood, where blood transfusions or blood sucking indicates sexual intercourse. Considering the sexual symbolism of blood itself and the count exchanging blood with Mina against her will, we can see how this