Thinking about literary novels in 1897 and vampires alike it is unlikely that the first gothic novel to come to mind is The Blood of the Vampire but rather to Bram Stoker's popular creation, Dracula. It can be stated that due to the overwhelming success of Dracula, Marryat's vampire novel can often be overlooked as a cheap imitation of Stoker's work. However, the Blood of the Vampire is in complete contrast as it shares no plot similarity to Dracula given that it is based upon a female character of Harriet Brant a young female vampire who drains the life-force from her victims rather than draining their blood. This essay will explore eugenics within society and also the social anxieties associated with the 'New Woman' of the 1890's, through Florence Marryat's The Blood OJ the Vampire particularly looking at the character of Harriet Brant as an example.
The 'New Woman' development in writing alludes to the unexpected change in ladies of the late nineteenth Century, amid which the 'suitable' ladylike goals were tested – quiet and tame individuals, dependent on men to survive, changed into solid and competent ladies, making progress toward a voice and an outlet of their possess. While this improvement has demonstrated to be a noteworthy and genuinely persuasive point in present day history, the reaction to the underlying change was not exactly agreeable – from ladies both hesitant to give up their 'Domestic Goddess' jobs, and appalled by others decisions to venture outside of the local circle, just as most by far of men, who discussed their absence of regard for the individuals who deformed themselves, physically, by methods for the new design, for example, a pantaloons suit or shorter, slicker haircut, and additionally for conveying everything that needs to be conveyed in such a stubborn and insolent way – a long way away from the Victorian lady the men of the time were acclimated with, at last sullying the convention and traditions of England for individual addition, “…..dresses like a man, as far as possible, thereby making herself hideous…..work by man’s side and on his level and still be treated with the chivalry due…..”
The essential concern and in reality reason for a lady in the eighteenth and nineteenth Century was to wed a strong suiter and mother children. Those ladies who had aspirations beyond this were felt sorry for, scorned and to a great extent shunned. At times ladies who kept up their autonomy and restricted marriage were marked 'Crazy' or 'Sexual Deviants' because of their refusal to accommodate, and were denounced, all the more in this way, by society, bringing about constrained, cold relational unions or uncertain hospitalisation. Amid this time, men were viewed as the 'head' of the family, and ladies, the 'heart'. The men controlled all advantages and assets, close by having progressively thorough training (ladies were most certainly not gifted any guidance until the late nineteenth Century, thus the conception of the 'New Woman'). In expansion to this, men settled on every one of the choices in regards to wedded life, including (lawfully) constraining their spouses into having intercourse and conceiving an offspring, and controlled the childhood of the children. Which included the choice of sending newborn children away paying little mind to the Mother's desires (eg, Wollstonecraft's 'Maria: The Wrongs Of Lady'). This treatment was advocated by the Church, the law, history and society as a rule, and a transformation began to emerge in the twentieth Century.
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Looking at the author Florence Marryat we can see that she herself could perhaps be described as a New Woman. 'The life of Florence Marryat contains all the intrigue of one of her sensation fictions - marriage, adultery, separation, numerous children, bereavement, notoriety, fame and success.' Although being the daughter of the successful novelist and navy officer Fredrick Marryat, Florence was internationally successful in her own right through an impressive collection of favourable novels. At the young age of 21 along with her husband, Marryat spent seven years travelling around India. This is an example of Marryat's life being led as a New Woman as she gained an insight into different cultural backgrounds and ways of life. This would not only have been frowned upon of a woman at the time but also would've scared middle-class men at the Fin-de-Siecle. Fears around the introduction of the New Woman and social anxieties were increasing and travelling by young women such as Marryat's trip to India threatened the eugenics theory. It is probable that Marryat's characters within her novels are based upon certain aspects of the own life and character as her work are often centred around unconventional women, like that of Harriet Brandt.
Harriet Brandt can be seen as a New Woman through no choice of her own as she is a wealthy young woman travelling independently around Europe. Harriet is the daughter of a mixed-race voodoo priestess and was raised on a plantation in Jamaica. After her father’s death, a revolution from slaves on the plantation cause Harriet to flee to Europe, along with her father’s inheritance. At first glance into the backstory of this character we can see how Harriet is already a controversial character for Marryat to introduce. It is very untypical for a young woman of this era to be in control of such wealth as Harriet is, particularly at such a young age. Due to the lack of education received by women during this century it is expected that women are usually reliant on men for income or stoop to more dangerous methods of supporting themselves such as prostitution. It is also highly uncommon for a woman to be travelling practically alone around Europe as woman not only deprived from even the idea of travelling so vastly across the world, but even denied the right to gain knowledge or background on other cultures and customs. This was due to t
This conduct and treatment of ladies was viewed as a need as they were then viewed as very hung, enthusiastic, and unequipped for persevering through the duties of life. This musing was accentuated by the high level of ailment in ladies of the period, both mental and physical, because of their less than stellar eating routine, practice routine and absence of substance or stimulation. An article distributed in a 1955 issue of 'Housekeeping Monthly' subtleties how a lady should treat her better half, mirrors the Victorian disposition to marriage, where they are told to, '… ..show truthfulness in your craving to satisfy him', 'Let him talk first – Remember his points of discussion could really compare to yours', 'Make him agreeable… ..'. In doing as such the spouse was satisfying her very own obligation, '… ..cooking for his solace will furnish you with monstrous individual satisfaction'2.
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