Bram Stoker's "Dracula"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how, in Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Dracula represents evil and how underlying this evil are the mores of Victorian England, which created stereotypes for women that centered on purity, motherhood and a lack of choice in their sexuality and the rest of their lives. It points out that this novel is often seen as an analogy of the two distinct roles of women in the Victorian society---the mother-wife and the whore. The paper concludes that this novel may be a classic horror tale but reading it from a woman's point of view it is even more frightening.

From the Paper:

"Stoker introduces the two women, Mina and Lucy, as chaste and good ladies who hold a decent place in society. Mina is a working class schoolmistress, while Lucy is an upper-class lady of leisure. The most either can hope for in their lives is to marry and become respectable wives and mothers. Lucy writes to Mina, "You and I, Mina dear, who are engaged and are going to settle down soon soberly into old married women, can despise vanity." Thus, Lucy writes what most women felt in Victorian times. Their only goal was to remain true (pure) to one man, raise children, and be seen but rarely heard."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gisborne, Thomas. "Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex." Early Liberal Thought and Practice. 100-106.
• Mill, J. S. and Harriet Taylor. "Essays on Marriage and Divorce." Early Liberal Thought and Practice. 106-121.
• Stoker, Bram. Dracula. (Revised Edition). New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.

More papers on Bram Stoker's "Dracula":

• Analytical Essay # 7573 : "The Bram Stoker/Peter Cushing Alliance"
• Essay # 137840 : "A Psychoanalysis of Bram Stoker’s Dracula"
• Analytical Essay # 141406 : "Literary Analysis: Bram Stoker and "Dracula"
• Book Review # 109985 : "Renfield in Bram Stoker's "Dracula"."

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