Gender Roles In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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Throughout the novel both women and men are portrayed sort of like a juxtaposition. Women are to be innocent, pure, devoted, and educated individuals. On other hand, there is a sexual nature to them that the author, Bram Stoker, hints to in certain chapters, especially the latter chapters. In particular, readers can see this sexuality illustrated in Chapter Sixteen when Lucy’s friends discover her in vampire form; she is portrayed as a sexual, seductive woman. As written in Dr. Seward’s diary, Lucy’s purity had turned into impurity, or in other words, wantonness (Stoker p.). Lucy calls for Arthur to join her and even call him her husband, but in reality they are not married (Stoker p. ). Her suggestive manner towards Arthur displayed the conflict …show more content…
Yet, what stood out the most to me the most was how Stoker used Mina’s character to reflect both, female and male roles in society. Mina possessed all the qualities of a Victorian woman, but at the same time took up the role of a man. She is strong, educated, and so far the “real” backbone for this journey to hunt down Dracula. In fact, Van Helsing stated and glorified Mina by saying that “she has [been gifted] man's brain …and a woman's heart,” (Stoker p.). It’s interesting to note that Van Helsing didn’t praise her for her OWN brain (woman), but instead said that she had the intelligence of a man, thus devaluing the overall essence of …show more content…
She is portrayed as a strong, but suffers from the weaknesses of having to be a woman —staying pure. Purity is a weakness in the sense that it’s always targeted in Dracula. She has fallen to the very thing she was trying to get rid of (kill). It contributes to my understanding that Stocker will always doubt the true value that a female can have. Mina has taken on a manly role, which is contradictory to Victorian ideals. Maybe Stocker is trying to hint to us that women should stay in their place—if they step out of the norms of society, such as taking on the motherly role, then they will have to suffer the consequences, which in this case was to be bitten by
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