Gender

Gender

1. Women

   • Mina
     • Ellen Terry is the inspiration for the unattainable good woman
     • For Stoker Mina was the ideal motherly woman, although unconsciously he preferred Lucy
     • The stereotypical New Woman was middle-class, educated, often working as a typist
       • As Whitman predicted the decadent dandy and the New Woman were twin apostles of social apocalypse
         • Dorian Gray is a dandy
     • Mina sees liberated women as aggressors (as did Stoker) making a muddle of things
     • Stoker's female characters frequently have names beginning with M, perhaps a tribute to 'Mother' and his sisters
     • I have been working very hard lately - and I have been practising shorthand very assiduously. When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan,
       • repetition of the pronoun ‘I’
         • demonstrates that she is the main subject of the sentence
           • however despite being most important in terms of accomplishments they are diminished by the fact that she is doing it in order to be second to Jonathan
       • use of the first name ‘Jonathan’
         • demonstrates informal formality
           • respectable victorian behaviour between fiancees, as they would know each other yet would still be very innocent
       • adverbs ‘very hard’ and ‘assiduously’ have connotations of hardworking, persistent and loyal
         • these qualities allow her to be respected as a mother figure by the group of the five men
         • moreover in this period these qualities would have been viewed as masculine
   • Lucy
     • She echoes his socially ambitious fiancee Florence Balcombe
     • The staking of Lucy could depict passionate intercourse ending in orgasm
     • Lucy's name could symbolise light or lucifer
     • Stoker uses Lucy's sleepwalking to exonerate her from making a pact with the devil, she's in a trance when she's vamped and when she dies, making her different from the other undead
     • Stoker is careful not to sully the sweet Lucy (the transfusions always occur when she's asleep)
       • Substitution of transfusions for sexual penetration are, in critic Nina Auerbach's words, 'the most convincing epithalamiums in the novel'
     • Lucy identifies with both Ophelia and Desdemona
   • The three vampire women
     • They reverse the maternal role by eating rather than nourishing babies
     • Stoker's Irish heritage imbued him with stories of succubus, who seduces young men in their sleep, and her male counterpart, the incubus
     • Once Dracula vamps his women he is no longer interested in them, only in the women of other men
     • All three had brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some losing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.
       • uses imagery of the colours red and white
         • also used in Dorian Gray
         • adjective 'red' has connotations of passion and danger
           • perhaps demonstrating the appeal of the girls through the adjective 'white' as it has connotations of purity and innocence
             • ideal characteristics in this period
         • shows Jonathan's conflicting emotions and desires, he's attracted to them despite his recognition that not only are they improper but dangerous
       • the noun 'pearls' and adjective 'ruby' have connotations of precious beauty and rare, as well as 'pearl' connoting innocent
         • demonstrates the beauty and unusualness/rarity of these girls
           • links to Dorian, particularly the blonde one (more innocent)
         • presentation of the gothic feature of something being fatally attractive, as well as the gothic theme of beautiful appearances hiding something hideous and unnatural within
           • In Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' there are images of the femme fatale
           • also used in Dorian
     • There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal.
       • Harker discovers hidden wells of sexuality and acts out the worst nightmare - and dearest fantasy - of Victorian men: union with a pure girl transformed into a sexually aggressive woman
       • juxtaposition between the adjectives 'thrilling' and 'repulsive'
         • shows Jonathan's conflicting emotions between what ordinary British victorian society deems acceptable and the new pleasures of this exotic country
           • perhaps a reflection upon the many explorers who were attracted to the east
       • the simile 'like an animal' creates animalistic imagery
         • similar to that created in reference to Dracula
         • emphasises the inhuman nature of the vampires, makes it easier to hate them and lack sympathy
         • also emphasises the danger by presenting them as hunters/predators
         • quite one dimensional characters

2. Men

   • Stoker's victorian code was for brave men to serve good women - like Mina, not Lucy
     • Even for victorian times Stoker was overly courteous and gallant
   • Jonathan
     • I closed my eyes in languorous ecstasy and waited - waited with beating heart
       • adjective 'languorous' means dreamlike
         • demonstrating the willingness of Jonathan to be seduced, he offers no fight whatsoever
         • reflects how he's constantly in a dream world due to his unusual sleep pattern
           • allows him to present the unbelievable as believable
       • repetition of the verb 'waited' increases tension by prolonging the action
         • show his increasing excitement
       • the noun 'heart' has connotations of romance and passion
         • makes it almost romantic
       • the verb 'beating' has connotations of a drum roll, loud and music
       • presents Jonathan as extremely feminine by reversing the roles as he, the man, is being seduced by the woman
         • The one constant/pivotal dramatic point throughout the working notes is Jonathan Harker's dream of passive seduction
         • The structure used is very similar to romance novels often describing the excitement of a virginal young girl being seduced by her lover
     • Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious.
       • very feminine
       • although the verb 'fainted' isn't used, it does use the verb 'overwhelmed'
         • this type of action is most commonly used in relation to women
           • particularly in the victorian period as well as in the previous century, it was used as women were perceived as both physically and mentally weaker than men
       • similar presentation to Dorian
         • the typically female, yet in both these cases male, naive young person who's tempted and/or corrupted by a more powerful, older aristocrats.g Lord Henry and Dracula, presented as a stock feature of gothic fiction
   • When Stoker plotted Dracula, he planned a mythic power struggle between two men, which eventually symbolised the struggle for dominance among all men
   • Both Othello and Dracula articulate the male anxiety over female sexuality
   • Dorian
     • similar presentation to Jonathan - both masculine and feminine