Dracula, Bram Stoker’s legendary novel, is more than just fiction writing, it is a blurry reflection and critique of the Victorian era, with its thoughts, lust and decadence hidden under a pile of conservative ideas. It draws its essence from common fears of the Victorian era and from the author's own view on homosexuality and sex, at the same time relying on several sources. The novel was published in the early half of the 20th century, before the beginning of the suffragette movement (Levin 14), when the standards and expectations with regards to women were extremely limiting.
In a society that claimed to maintain strict social standards and had high expectations for men and women alike, men were allowed freedoms and pleasures that their female counterparts could never enjoy, reflecting, one more time, the patriarchal tendencies of those times. While it was natural for men to have needs and urges, and to pursue them, it was unacceptable for women to become assertive. Even scientists came up with theories condemning female sex drive and claiming that male sexual pleasure is justified, since it is necessary for reproduction, while female sexual pleasure has no purpose and should not be pursued (Weiman and Dionisapoulas 34; Lyndon 202; Bohn 25).
The three vampire mistresses in Dracula’s castle are the perfect illustration of how a woman should not be: "voluptuous and sexually aggressive” (Pektas 1). Stoker vividly portrays the reaction of Victorian men towards forward women, their mixed feelings of desire and disgust: "there was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive" (Stoker 50). He suggests that men’s sexual attraction is not entirely their fault, as women can be appealing when they deliberately tempt men to taste the forbidden fruit, associating evil with female sexuality once more. When men fall prey to temptation, it is the women's fault, as they have defied social expectations, while men could not control their natural drives. According to Victorian standards, women were not allowed to show their legs or their breasts in public, and even using the corresponding words was impolite (Levin 103), yet Dracula's vampire mistresses do it, showing no sign of the purity, vulnerability, and naïve innocence that Victorian women were supposed to embody.
Dracula himself embodies the concept of “evil”, accepting sexual temptations and aggressive sexual behaviors. His obscene tendencies are magnified by the author's own beliefs, who adversely creates a shock-factor among his Victorian audience, epically contributing to his society's controversial views on sex and sexuality.
Even more prominent than women’s rights heterosexual relationships was the ongoing debate on homosexuality, considered a very important matter, in times when everything that did not meet expectations was “unnatural”, against God’s will, therefore wrong and evil. Homosexuality was considered a crime and was punished with prison. Those found guilty of "gross indecency” risked two years of jail and hard labor (Pektas 7). Homoerotism is an underlying theme for Stoker, whose book is spread with homosexual insinuations, symbolism and references. Reflecting the Victorian society's fears and distaste of homosexuality, Dracula is the embodiment of the “abnormal” finding its place in a “normal” society. He is a sexual threat for the moral order, driving those around him towards depravation (Pektas 2). The penetration and sucking of men blood is seen as a code for homosexual behavior (Pektas 2). Through Dracula, Stoker shows how the acceptance of anything “different”, the toleration of evil in a “pure” society, leads to corruption and chaos.
An element with pronounced sexual connotation used by Stoker throughout the novel, with homosexual implications, is blood. In Dracula, blood is closely related to sexuality, starting from the Victorian association of blood with sperm. Blood sucking involves an exchange of bodily fluids, so is similar to intercourse (Pektas 2). It is important to remember that sexually transmitted diseases had just been discovered at that time and were still a mystery. The discovery that spermatic fluids, just like blood, transmitted diseases, lead to an inevitable connection between them, between sexuality, syphilis and blood. Sexually transmitted diseases, the newest and one of the most disturbing discoveries at the time, were already part of Victorian's everyday life (Anttonen 9) and, implicitly, a popular conversation and debate topic among intellectuals, spreading beliefs through repetition and occasional misinterpretations.
But Stoker drew his interest for the evils of sexuality and lust-driven behaviors from various sources. His character, Dracula, was built starting from a real-life historical figure, Vladislav Dracula, a Romanian voievode. He discovered the story while doing research for his novel, in the North Yorkshire Library (Bohn 14), and was so deeply inspired by the tyrant hero that he named both the book and its main character after him. Stoker's interest in sexuality caused him to be fascinated not by the Impaler's achievements as a ruler, but by his appalling torture methods that turned sexuality into a concept associated with evil and pain. Moral crimes like infidelity received sadistic punishments with sexual implications, like impalement or sexual organs mangling (Bohn 14). Vlad the Impaler underlined the importance granted by Victorians to remaining chaste and pure, but with an extremist approach.
One cannot help noticing the irony in Stoker's use of such an extremist inspiration source for his character. However, his purpose is accomplished when he adds that sinister twist to the obvious contrast between the “good and pure” and the “vile and unholy” according to the Victorian standards.
Another strong influence for the author's mixed portrayal of sexual behavior notions of good and evil was the prosecution of his dear friend, Oscar Wilde, for homosexuality. Considering Stoker's past intimacy with Wilde, this event surely contributed to the representation of sex as counterproductive and evil (Pektas 6). Given his own homosexual tendencies and his helplessness in aiding Wilde, Stoker must have felt guilty and started loathing his own sexuality (Pektas 7). He probably started suppressing his own sexuality, beginning to write Dracula only one month after Wilde's conviction for sodomy, in 1895. The book secretly describes Wilde (Pektas 7), seeming an underlying “tribute” to him and to the community the very writer was part of, and condemns the “strictly heterosexual” society with its harsh standards and limited
The underlying homoerotic symbols (blood symbolizing semen) could be considered the consequence of the author's fear and loath towards the brutal society that forced him to repress his sexuality. The evils of homosexuality are justified with references to Christian beliefs and Dracula is the author's strive to express the homosexual identity he was forced to repress (Auerbach 7; Antonnen 4). However, at some point, the Count also becomes the reflection of the virile man the author would have maybe liked to be, a dominant, powerful heterosexual, embodying the perfect Victorian male. When feeding on women (especially on those officially belonging to other men), Dracula embodies “male dominance”, shows insatiable lust and constantly uses his power to pursue that lust, regardless of the others' well-being. He threatens the Victorian female ideal embodied by Mina, who becomes his victim by force, (Pektas 14).
“With his left hand, he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped the back of her neck, forcing her facedown on his bosom. Her white night dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shone by hi torn-open dress.” (Stoker 319)
The image of the man holding the woman hostage is surely an illustration of rape. Dracula exchanging bodily fluids (blood) with Mina by force is an exaggerated depiction of how Victorian men forced their bonds with women through sexual intercourse. Another exaggeration of Victorian heterosexual masculinity is the Count's participation in bigotry. His brides are vampires themselves, have already exchanged blood with him, and the Count dominates them physically, portraying the idea of women as inferior to men.
“With a fierce sweep of his arm, he hurled the woman from him, and then motioned to the others as though he were beating them back; it was the very same imperious gesture that I had seen used to the wolves.” (Stoker 50-51)
Bram Stoker’s way of releasing sexual frustration and despair, Dracula depicts behaviors and personalities known back then as the three main sexual perversions: sexually active and assertive women, rapists (exaggerations of the powerful and dominant male figure), and homosexual men.
Whether to honor his friend or to rebel against and shock those who forced him to repress his own nature, Stoker spreads his novel with sexual connotations and references that intentionally defy the standards of the 19th century society. His work is a message that, hidden from the censorship of those days (Pektas 7), protests against the unrealistic expectations of a limiting society.
Works Cited
Antonnen, Romona. “The Savage and the Gentleman; a Comparative Analysis of Two Vampire Characters in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat”. Vaxjo University: School of Humanities. 2000. Print.
Bohn, Michelle L. “Shadow of the Vampire: Understanding the Transformations of an Icon in Pop Culture”. Texas State University College; Mitte Honors Program. 2007. Print.
Craft, Christopher. “Kiss Me with Those Red Lips; Gender and Inversion in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”.Bram Stoker. Dracula. Ed. Glennis Byron. New York: MacMillian, 1999. Print.
Levin, Judith. The Victorians. Missouri: Andrews and McMeel, 1996. Print.
Pektas, Nilifer. “The Importance of Blood During the Victorian Era: Blood as a Sexual Signifier in Bram Stoker’s Dracula”. Soderton University Colleges English Department. Autumn 2005. Print.
Podonsky, Amanda M. "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society."Student Pulse 2.02 (2010). http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=184. 25 July 2015.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula: New York: Archibald Constable and Company, 1897. Print.
