Gender role is a popular topic that people nowadays are still discussing. Dracula, a Victorian novel, written by Bram Stoker is a portrayal of the gender roles in Victorian places in the 19th century. In Dracula, Stoker highlights traditional masculinity and femininity, with a focus on the degrees of power, and sexuality by describing different characters’ behaviors and thoughts. Meanwhile, some characters are used to project certain changes in these traditional gender norms. Simultaneously, Dracula associated with the theme, of vampires, also demonstrates the destruction of Victorian expected gender norms.
Bram Stoker presents that masculine men in the Victorian period were expected to be (physically) strong to protect and save women from dangers and any troubles, whereas Victorian women were considered weak, or fragile. In Dracula, while the female characters, Lucy and Mina, being the victims of Dracula show the weakness of Victorian women, the heroism of Victorian men is shown through the reaction of the male characters attempting to save the women. For example, when the men attempt to save Lucy by transfusing blood, Van Helsing tells Seward, “A brave man’s blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in trouble. You’re a man, and no mistake” (186). This statement expresses Stoker’s emphasis on the importance of men to women when women are in trouble. On the other hand, when the men decide to proceed with the blood transfusion, Seward says, “I fear to trust those women, even if they would have the courage to submit [their blood]” (185). The refusal to transfuse a woman’s blood to a woman represents the powerlessness of Victorian women, in other words, the women’s reliance, or dependence on men.
In addition to portraying the strength of men and the weakness of women, Stoker depicts the sexuality of Victorian men and women. To explain, Dracula reflects that Victorian men are sexual ventures, whereas women are expected to be pure and virginal. For example, Seward claims, “Oh, Lucy, Lucy, I cannot be angry with you, nor can I be angry with my friend whose happiness is yours; but I must only wait on hopeless and work. Work! Work!” (104). This claim means that even Seward knows that he is not the one Lucy loves the most, he is fine if Lucy is happy with whom she loves; additionally, he still wants to be the one Lucy falls in love with, even though he knows that it is impossible. Seward’s perseverance toward love shows that the Victoria men are aggressive toward sexuality. In contrast, regarding women, when Lucy receives three marriage proposals in one day (89), she writes a letter to Mina to complain, “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it” (91). The situation in which Lucy received proposals from three men demonstrates that Victorian women were sexually passive. On the other hand, the use of the word, “heresy” (91) to describe the complaint reflects that women in the Victorian era should not be promiscuous.
While Stoker portrays the traditional gender norms in Victorian society, he outlines the progression of gender norms, specifically on women, through Dracula.
Although Stoker portrays the powerless, or dependent on men of Victorian women in Dracula, he indicates that Victorian women may have been progressive in the late 19th century. First, the characteristics surrounding Mina (at the beginning of the story) demonstrate progressive Victorian women. That is, Mina is an “assistant schoolmistress” (86); she said, “I have been working very hard lately because I want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies … When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan” (86). Mina’s being well-educated, hard-working, and willing to help her husband, which was an unexpected norm for women in Victorian society, illustrates what Stoker thinks about how progressive women are likely to be. Moreover, Mina introduces the term “New Woman” (123); she explains,
Some of the “New Women” writers will someday start the idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But I suppose the New Woman won’t condescend in the future to accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it, too! (123-124).
The term “New Woman” (123) symbolizes the destruction of the expected women norms in Victorian society. Particularly, the claim, “[The “New Woman”] will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it too!” (124) refers to one day, women perhaps can pursue men reflecting Stoker’s view that some Victorian women in the late 19th century may have began exceeding the traditional gender (women) norms; in other words, they began actively seeking out sexual relationship and being less dependent on men.
Besides portraying the progression of Victorian women, Stoker insinuates the threat of gender roles through the description of vampires. As mentioned, in the Victorian era, men were sexually aggressive, whereas women had to be passive. However, vampires illustrate the threat of this norm, especially on the women's side. For example, when Jonathan encounters three vampire women in Dracula’s castle, one vampire woman gets close to Jonathan:
The fair girl went on her knees, and bent over me, fairly gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness that was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she licked her lips like an animal, till I could see in the moonlight the moisture shining on the scarlet lips and the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth. (70)
The reaction of the vampire woman to Jonathan is described in a sexual way using terms such as “scarlet lips” (70), “red tongue” (70), and “voluptuousness” (70). This technique presents that the vampires illustrating women becoming increasingly sexualized and being sexually aggressive symbolize the traditional norm regarding sexuality. Additionally, Lucy becomes more sexualized once she turns into a vampire. Seward states the change of Lucy, “Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed … the purity [was turned] to voluptuous wantonness” (249). The change after Lucy turns into a vampire, from “purity to voluptuous wantonness” (249), clearly represents the threat of this norm, whereas women should be pure, and should not have sexual excitement.
Despite that Dracula presents some progressive gender norms of women, it emphasizes that this progression eventually was not accepted in the Victorian era. For example, after Van Helsing meets Mina, he tells Jonathan:
[Mina] is one of God’s women, fashioned by His hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter and that its light can be here on the earth. So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoist – and that, let me tell you, is much in this age, so skeptical and selfish (226).
This statement, again, portrays the ideal women in the Victorian period, who are pure, noble, nurturing, and generous; the movement from describing Mina as against the traditional norms to as an ideal woman shows the ‘New women’, or progressive women were unacceptable at that time. Moreover, the death of vampire Lucy projects the death of sexual-aggressive women, in turn, emphasizes the fact that Victorian women were not allowed to be sexually aggressive.
To sum up, Stoker portrays the gender roles in Victorian society regarding the degrees of power and sexuality through Dracula. Meanwhile, he illustrates some challenges of these traditional gender norms. Nevertheless, he emphasizes that this progression would have not been accepted at that time. Indeed, these traditional gender roles still exist in many families, or even in certain countries causing social problems, for example, unequal treatment in the workplace.
Work Cited
- Stoker, Bram, and Glennis Byron. Dracula. Broadview Press, 2000.
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Essay on Weaknesses in ‘Dracula’.
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