Thomas Victorian Influences in Dracula Morgan Erin Thomas Professor Demarco English 2122-500 November 13, 2011 I. Draculais a gothic horror novel written in 1897 by Bram Stoker that exhibits Victorian ideals. A. The legendary novel,Dracula, contains various beliefs, thoughts, and ideas central to the Victorian era. B. The female characters in Dracula exemplify the ideals projected on women of the Victorian era. II. The Victorian era was a period marked by prudishness and sexual repression. A.Gender roles during this period portrayed women as “gentle and ladylike and,most of all, subservient to men” B. The biggest threat to Victorian society was the fear of female sexual expression. III. InDracula, Mina Murray represents the idealistic woman during the Victorian era. A. Mina is characterized as a woman who has given hope “that there are good women still left to make life happy – good women, whose lives and whose truths may make good
Thomas lesson for the children that are to be”. B. Mina reveals her subservient propensity toward men in stating that once married her only intentions are to “be able to be useful to Jonathan”. IV. When Lucy is first introduced in the novel, she too possesses a sense of innocence and purity which was pursued by women of the Victorian era. However, at times she serves as “a foil to Mina's virtues” A. ThroughoutDracula, there are discrepancies in Lucy’s judgment which suggest that she does not uphold the same level of moral respectability that Mina maintains. It becomes evident to the reader that “there is a darker side to Lucy's character” B. Once bitten by Dracula, Lucy sheds her innocent inhibitions. From this point on Lucy is incessantly referred to as “voluptuous” and her once enigmatic sexual desires are now blatantly broadcasted. V. The three female vampires inDracula represent sexually independent women, which the Victorian society was extremely fearful of. A. The three vampire seductresses are described as possessing a “deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive” B. In contrast to the matronly ideals of the Victorian woman, the female vampires display “a lack of maternal feelings”. VI. Critics may argue that despite the prevalent theme of sexual repression,Draculais a gothic novel that contains elements typical of Romanticism. A.Romantic novels typically characterized by blood, murder, violence, an eerie setting and are centered on supernatural beings or happenings. B. However, despite supernatural elements and reoccurring images of blood and gore,Draculais clearly a Victorian novel.Dracula“is an extreme version of the stereotypically Victorian attitudes toward sexual roles” VII. Although the Victorian era is a period of time represented by sexual repression and prudishness, the threat of female sexual expression was widely feared. The woman characters in Dracula“are not only virginal victims in the novel, but they serve to illustrate the contradictions and ironic tensions within the Victorian value system as a whole”.
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