Sexuality In Bram Stokers Dracula - 1082 Words

Sexuality in Bram Stoker s DraculaBram Stoker s Dracula, favorably received by critics upon publication in 1897, entertained its Victorian audience with unspeakable horrors such as vampires invading bedrooms to prey on beautiful maidens under the guise of night. The novel s eroticism proved even more unspeakable. Received in the era of repression, it remains questionable whether Dracula s readership perceived the sexuality flowing from the page. An advocate for the censorship of sexual material, Stoker himself may have been unconscious of his own novel s sexual qualities. Perhaps if he knew of the Dracula criticism written in the last thirty years, he would turn in his grave from personal horror. Since the 1970s, with its†¦show more content†¦A comparison between the two clearly shows the superiority of Williams essay in regard to support, insights, and authoritative voice. Comparable to Williams, Sian Macfie argues that female sexuality negates maternity. She adds, Sexually transmitted diseases and menstruation causes moral madness that destroys maternal instincts (239). Using Williams essay as a model, Macfie needs to incorporate more textual support, although her strength lies in her relation of other vampire texts to Dracula s sexuality. Andrea Griffin agrees with Bentley s claim that blood symbolizes menstruation, and she develops his assertion more fully with the addition of Freudian texts on menstrual taboos to her support from Dracula. Despite her well supported position on Stoker s development of women characters as sexual, animalistic creatures in heat, Griffin makes an incorrect reference to a particular scene: Lucy s eyes became hard when she attacked Jonathan on her deathbed (465), yet in the novel, Jonathan and Lucy never meet. Although a glaring error, many critics fail to comment on it, choosing instead to focus on Griffin s insights into Dracula s mythic female sexuality. 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