Gender Roles In Bram Stoker's Dracula
Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written just before the turn of the 19th century; the beginning of this new era threatened a conservative, unchanging culture, and had people of all classes and religions in England on edge. Social fears such as the fall of the British Empire, the beginning of a new movement that would become what we now know as feminism, and changes in gender roles, gripped the nation. It is interesting the note that this not too dissimilar to the fear that gripped the world of the ‘millennium bug’ in 1999. Written and published in 1897, Dracula contains many of the fears that were in the minds of the Victorian public in this dawning age of social change. The British Empire was threatened by unrest and calls for independence in its
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These women can suddenly take the male prerogative to instate an encounter that is inherently sexual, and penetrate their victim (with their fangs). This destabilisation of gender roles is not limited to female people receiving phallic symbols however; the vampire itself completely reverses the stereotypical roles of men and women in the Gothic story. The women become predators, dangerous creatures to be hunted and feared; the men are the prey and they crack under the pressure and become hysterical on several occasions, the “stalwart manhood seemed to have shrunk somewhat under the strain of his much tired emotions” [Stoker, p.181]. After Lucy is killed, Dr. Seward must comfort Arthur Holmwood in the funeral parlour when he “suddenly [breaks] down, and threw his arms round my shoulders and laid his head on my breast, crying,” [Stoker, p.181]. Whereas when Mina is told of Lucy’s death, she shows “courage and resolution in her bearing” [Stoker, p.240], and is determined to tell the full story of their fight against Dracula, even if recording the death of her friend upsets
These women can suddenly take the male prerogative to instate an encounter that is inherently sexual, and penetrate their victim (with their fangs). This destabilisation of gender roles is not limited to female people receiving phallic symbols however; the vampire itself completely reverses the stereotypical roles of men and women in the Gothic story. The women become predators, dangerous creatures to be hunted and feared; the men are the prey and they crack under the pressure and become hysterical on several occasions, the “stalwart manhood seemed to have shrunk somewhat under the strain of his much tired emotions” [Stoker, p.181]. After Lucy is killed, Dr. Seward must comfort Arthur Holmwood in the funeral parlour when he “suddenly [breaks] down, and threw his arms round my shoulders and laid his head on my breast, crying,” [Stoker, p.181]. Whereas when Mina is told of Lucy’s death, she shows “courage and resolution in her bearing” [Stoker, p.240], and is determined to tell the full story of their fight against Dracula, even if recording the death of her friend upsets