FREE ESSAY ON SEXUAL ROLES IN DRACULA

SEXUAL ROLES IN DRACULA

Sexual Roles in Dracula
Women in Bram Stoker's Dracula are primarily presented in two ways: There is the sexual
being created solely with the aid Dracula's vampiric influence, and the device
manipulated and virtually exploited by the men throughout the novel to contribute to the
fight between Dracula and Van Helsing and his companions. This battle is not only the
literal battle between Dracula and the men, but it is primarily a battle for the
empowerment of women, both sexually and intellectually; a fight against the constricting
social boundaries which forced men and women into their respective roles.
Dracula's kiss enables women to become sexual penetrators. Using their sharp teeth to
penetrate men, the reverse the traditional gender roles and place men in the passive
position customarily reserved for women (Craft, 448). The instance when Mina drinks from
Dracula's breast is the strongest example of this; where the reader to this point is
accustomed to Dracula doing the "biting", and suddenly Mina has the power to penetrate a
male. Both Lucy and Mina, when they carry out a relationship with Dracula, become sexual
beings, as opposed to when they are mortals and are forced to obey the social boundaries
of their society. By expressing this sexuality, they become threatening to the men. Mina
is intelligent, and despite the strong aversion she has to the "New Woman" or the "Modern
Woman", she is, in fact, a sort of modern woman; connected with modern ways, a
schoolteacher with secretarial skills, she possesses a "man's brain". It is this very
brain which is ultimately used to aid in Dracula's downfall. 
Lucy, on the other hand, is presented as the temptress at the very start of the novel.
Stoker presents her as exhibiting personality traits potentially dangerous in women. She
is ever the tease, falling into the traditional female role more than Mina ever did. Her
vanity and superficiality is shown very clearly in a letter to Mina: "THREE proposals in
one day! Isn't it awful! ...But, for goodness' sake, don't tell any of the girls, or they
would be getting all sorts of extravagant ideas and imagining themselves injured and
slighted if in their very first day at home they did not get six at least. Some girls are
so vain" (Stoker, 57). As a mortal, Lucy is already a sexual being- her transformation
into a vampire only accentuates her seductiveness, making her a threat to the men. She
becomes everything she wasn't in life; maternal, mature, cunning, sly. When the vampiric
Lucy is approached by Holmwood in her tomb, his intent to destroy, she tries to seduce
him (and he finds her hard to resist), to get him to protect her from the others.
In the eyes of the men, she has become a "monster" as well, and their desire for her is
manifested in their obsession with destroying her. Lucy's unmanageable sexual penetration
is presented as inherently evil because it threatens fixed gender distinctions
(Signorottii, 623). Jonathon, Van Helsing, Seward and Holmwood are all overwhelmingly and
unavoidably attracted to the vampires, and to sexuality in general. Fearing this, they
both displace this attraction and justify their hostile reaction to it by projecting the
attraction onto the female vampires (with the rationale that it is not themselves who
want the vampires, it is the vampires who want them), and using religion to justify the
murders (Roth, 415).
The men refuse admit to this attraction, because what they are attracted to poses such a
threat to their manhood. Vampires are allowed to show their sexuality in a much more
explicit manner than the "living". One of the three vampire women who attempt to feed
form Jonathon in Dracula's castle exhibits this with surprising directness: "He is young
and strong; there are kisses for us all" (Stoker, 42). "The vampire women offer immediate
sexual gratification... a tempting alternative to the socially imposed delays and
frustrations of Jonathon's relationship with the chaste and somewhat sexless Mina"
(Wasson, 389). 
During Mina's transformation, she becomes a much more dangerous threat to the men. Her
"man's brain" is now being used to Dracula's advantage. Furthermore, Dracula is able to
give his women, Mina being no exception, what Jonathon could never give; knowledge,
power, sexuality, lust. Mina's relationship with Dracula is the envy of Jonathon, for he
is too proper and must adhere to the social boundaries of the time to strictly for him to
carry out such an impassioned relationship, even with his own wife.
Mina is used as a tool by both Dracula and Van Helsing. Dracula uses Mina as a link to
the mind of England- the new territory he plans on colonizing because his parasitic
existence has used up the people and land of Transylvania. Dracula's best chance for
survival now lies in the West, where technology, reason, and progressive democratic
ideals prevail. Mina's skills as a teacher and her ability to type and write in shorthand
give Dracula an inside link to this new territory (Wasson, 387). In fact, Dracula's
reason for "expanding" into England is to create a race of female vampires equipped with
masculine qualities (Craft, 448). 
In their quest to exterminate Dracula, Mina becomes the intermediary link to Van Helsing
and the other men. Van Helsing uses her by hypnotizes her to gain access to Dracula's
mind and find his weaknesses. She tells Van Helsing that "you can hypnotize me and so
learn that which even I myself to not know" (Stoker, 284?). Mina and Dracula's psychic
bond is exploited by Dracula's ultimate destroyers to attain their goal of both
eliminating Dracula- this creature who has sexually liberated "their" women- and saving
Mina (Signorotti, 626). 
Lucy is never used as such, nor is she as threatening as Mina is, mostly because Lucy
never possessed the aggressive, masculine attributes that Mina did. True, Lucy has the
sexual strength that Dracula wants in a companion, and both Mina and Lucy evoke the
sensuality and maternity which Dracula's brides do not, it is ultimately Mina's
intelligence, rationale, and ability to adapt to modern life that allow her to live. Lucy
dies because she is a rough draft of Dracula's ideal companion. Dracula's experiment with
Lucy reveals unpleasant results of a woman fighting to break free of the traditional
gender roles, whereas his experiment with Mina produces a much more satisfying outcome
(Signorotti, 624). Mina is viewed more as Dracula's equal, and he believes this
perfection has been attained. However, Dracula did not count on Mina's strengths to be
used against him in anyway, and is it the very "man's brain" which attracts Dracula to
Mina that causes his destruction.