Essay on Dracula and Women in Bram Stokers Dracula

In the 19th century Bram Stoker wrote the infamous novel, Dracula. This novel was composed in the style of letters, journal entries, newspaper articles and telegrams in order to convey to the reader a realistic story. The story of Dracula is about an ancient vampire who moves to London from his native country of Transylvania. In London, Dracula seduces and bites a young woman by the name of Lucy Westenra. When Lucy falls sick, no one knows how to help her because while Dracula has bitten her many times she has always been in a trance. Lucy?s friends decide to join together to combat what ever is ailing Lucy. In hopes of some help, Lucy?s friend Dr. Seward asks an old mentor of his by the name of Dr. Van Helsing to come to London†¦show more content†¦During the many times that Dracula visits Lucy he never shows his human form. On one occasion Lucy says ?The air seems full of specks, floating and circling in the draught from the window, and the lights burn blue and dim? (Stoker 158). This is Dracula and for Lucy this would be even more terrifying because she doesn?t know what has happened to her in the first place. However because the reader knows what Dracula is, it makes his character all the more evil and horrifying which is exactly what Stoker was aiming for. While the absence of Dracula?s character does convey him to be frightening it also makes him dangerous because you do not know when or where he will strike next. Bram Stoker makes Dracula such a mysteriously evil creature lurking in the shadows, yet Dracula is always the focus of the novel. Another example of this would be when Mina is staying in Dr. Seward?s insane asylum while the men are out trying to destroy Dracula. At this point in the story Dracula?s main focus is getting to Mina, which she doesn?t know. At one point during the night Mina notices the window is open when she is positive she shut it. Right away she sees a kind of mist that floats into the room. Then she noti ces that it ?got thicker and thicker, till it seemed as if it became concentrated into a sort of pillar of cloud in the room through the top of which I could see the light of the gas shining like a red eye?Show MoreRelated The Treatment of Women in Bram Stokers Dracula Essay1053 Words   |  5 PagesThe Treatment of Women in Bram Stokers Dracula  Ã‚   In reading Bram Stokers Dracula, I find the treatment of the two main female characters-- Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker-- especially intriguing. These two women are two opposite archetypes created by a society of threatened men trying to protect themselves. Lucy is the Medusa archetype. She is physically attractive, and wins the heart of any man who comes near her (e.g. Arthur, Quincey, Jack, and Van Helsing). Her chief quality is sensualRead MoreVictorian Women And Feminism In Bram Stokers Dracula1979 Words   |  8 Pagesâ€Å"Monstrous women do not adhere to standards† (Swartz-Levine). The late Victorian era demonstrates the unfamiliar social shift in society. Depictions of traditional Victorian woman’s standards can be seen as sexist, as the new crowd of feminist emerges. Feminism explores the double standard of projecting sexual desires to society, however, the women who accompanied these uncommon ideas, were often seen as some sort of monster. From this, anxiety was displaced around women who seeked sexuality as itRead MoreThe Oppression Of Women In Shakespeare And Bram Stokers Dracula1073 Words   |  5 Pages Shakespeare and Bram Stoker write suppression and madness into their female characters who represent the condition of women during their time. Ophelia from Hamlet and Lucy from Dracula are a symbol for all women from both the Renaissance and Victorian era and their actions portray the suppression of the patriarchal system. Throughout the whole play, Ophelia and Lucy walk down the same path as both of them get oppressed by their families and go through an extreme character development while expressingRead MoreDracula Movie Comparison Essay1444 Words   |  6 PagesDracula the novel or Bram Stoker’s Dracula movie? Dracula, the most famous vampire of all time, which readers were ï ¬ rst introduced to by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 with his novel Dracula, which tells the story of the mysterious person named Count Dracula (Stoker). The book is an outstanding masterpiece of work, which is why it has been a prototype for various movie releases over the decades. Whenever a film director decides to make a movie based on a novel the hope is that the characters concurRead MoreA Comparison Of Dracula And Dracula1429 Words   |  6 PagesDracula is the infamous vampire that readers were ï ¬ rst introduced to by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 when they read his novel Dracula (Stoker). The author conveys the story of Count Dracula, a mysterious being that is half man, half vampire that sucks blood from the neck of his victims to stay alive (Stoker). This novel is an outstanding masterpiece of work, which is why it has been a prototype for various movie releases over the decades, such as Nosfera tu, Horror of Dracula, Dracula A Love StoryRead MoreComparison Of Count Dracula In Bram Stokers Dracula And Dracula1449 Words   |  6 PagesDracula is the infamous vampire, that readers were ï ¬ rst introduced to by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 when they read his novel Dracula (Stoker). The author conveys the story of Count Dracula, a mysterious being that is half man, half vampire that sucks blood from the neck of his victims to stay alive (Stoker). This novel is an outstanding masterpiece of work, which is why it has been a prototype for various movie releases over the decades, such as Nosferatu, Horror of Dracula, Dracula A LoveRead MoreDracula, By Bram Stoker1291 Words   |  6 Pages ​Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, not only creates the early depiction of vampire stories; but writes more to contradict the age old beliefs of women and their role in society. Dracula is more that just a vampire story. There is a deeper level to this. A level in which it can incite change in the way one percieves women. There is a noition that all women were to be the same but Dracula refutes that. Vampire sexuality, as represented in Bram Stoker s Dracula, reveals itself as both a phenomenon thatRead MoreDracula by Bram Stoker: Modern Man to Enduring Romance1688 Words   |  7 PagesIn Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula is representative of the superhuman ideal that man is striving to achieve. Dracula is a strong willed, powerful, brilliant masculine figure, and through these characteristics, he appeals to the contemporary reader. By the late 20th and early 21st century, vampires have been transformed into creatures that offer endless happiness and immortality on earth. S uch a transformation can be seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. InsteadRead MoreInverted Gender Roles: Dracula by Bram Stoker1465 Words   |  6 PagesThere’s a Hidden â€Å"Monster† in Everyone In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker’s use of inverted gender roles allows readers to grasp the sense of obscureness throughout, eventually leading to the reader’s realization that these characters are rather similar to the â€Å"monster† which they call Dracula. Despite being in the Victorian era, Stoker’s use of sexuality in the novel contributes to the reasoning of obscureness going against the Victorian morals and values. Throughout the novel the stereotypicalRead MoreDracula, By Bram Stoker1166 Words   |  5 PagesThe story of Dracula is well documented and has stood the test of time since it’s Victorian age creation. More times than not, literature writings are a reflection of the era from which they are produced. In the case of Dracula, Vampire literature expresses the fears of a society. Which leads me to the topic I chose to review: sexuality. The Victorian Era was viewed as a period diluted in intense sexual repression and I bel ieve that Dracula effectively exploited this as the fear of sexuality was