Gender Roles In Dracula

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Published in the late 19th century, Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ is a text that is continuously studied and examined in various ways. Its countless analysis’ are not only important in regards to understanding the contemporary time but are also relevant to the current zeitgeist; in particular, the novels focus on the treatment and depiction of women has great significance. The infamous ‘separate spheres’ placed a clear division of boundaries, behaviour and virtues between the genders, thus, many opposing opinions were illuminated in response to her beginning. Stoker was one of the first authors to respond to the introduction of ‘The New Woman’ and in doing so touched upon many anxieties of the Victorian era involving her desire of independence, …show more content…
Her ‘white lawn frock’, ‘sweet purity’ and persistent reliance on men creates the marital and domesticated Her that many woman were, during the 1800s. S.L.Moore claims in her thesis on ‘The “New” New Woman’, that Lucy is an example of the way in which Stoker “completely reviles the older Victorian ideals of womanhood and gender expectations” during her transformation to vampirism. It is at this point that the novel changes Lucy’s characters to exhibit the freedom and sexual promiscuity that was somewhat suppressed by the spheres. The moment Mina ‘recognised [...] Lucy Westenra’ whom was clutching a ‘fair-haired child’ is the point at which Stoker evidently uses motherly characteristics of a Victorian woman as a metaphor to present the destruction of boundaries of the genders, as Lucy decides to feed on the child than nurture it. A constant negative comparison is made throughout the scene, that juxtaposes the ‘pure, gentle orbs’ to the ‘eyes [that are] unclean and full of hell fire’ as a means to portray the sudden change in physical appearance which can be seen as a symbolic annihilation of the ideal traditional woman that Stoker initially presented in Lucy. The manifestation of women being objects of delicate beauty, virtue and chastity, is a picture of perfection that Dracula can effortlessly prey upon, therefore, Stoker, uses Lucy as the first to be …show more content…
Bram Stoker again depicts Lucy with an apparent distinction to what she previously was to how she is post transformation. ‘The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty and the purity to voluptuous wantonness’, ensures the image of sexual desirability and attraction to be prominent in her new behaviour and physical appearance. Carol. A. Senf, comments on ‘Lucy's seductive behaviour and her refusal to wait passively for Arthur’ suggesting she is ‘familiar with the aggression of the New Woman’ which proposes the idea that Stoker is attempting to display the reversal of gender roles, where the female is taking control and being overtly obvious about her wants and needs. Furthermore, Lucy’s ‘soft voluptuous voice’ and ‘languorous, voluptuous grace’ reinforces the estranged, engaging but dangerous appeal that the modern woman also encompassed. In ‘Suddenly Sexual Women in Bram Stoker’s Dracula,’ Phyllis Roth comments that ‘only when Lucy becomes a vampire is she allowed to be ‘voluptuous’’ suggesting that he is allowing the ‘The New Women’ to be expressed, however in such a way that the depiction is focused on exaggerated characteristics caused by a horrific act. Therefore, the depiction would appear as unjust and
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