Female Sexuality In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a novel notorious for its ability to strike fear into the hearts of its audience. However, the fear of evil or anti-Christian movements isn’t Stoker’s main concern; the fear of female sexuality is the most powerful threat to the power of men and Christian faith in Dracula. In the novel, Lucy and Mina are both accurate depictions of the traditional Victorian woman. Both women are obedient, naïve and innocent. Van Helsing describes Mina as “so true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoist.” This characterization is merely an afterthought of the fact that both women remained powerless in their relationships with men and in society. We don’t see any shift in power in the novel until Mina asks Lucy “Why can’t they let a girl marry …show more content…
Even further, Mina rebukes this idea in her next sentence calling the thought of polygamy “heresy”. Stoker uses this language to set female sexuality opposite of Christian tradition. Thus female sexuality stands in opposition to the power of men and the power of Christianity. This power divide is more clearly seen when Lucy in particular is transformed by Dracula. After her transformation Lucy uses seduction to attempt to lure Arthur into biting him. It seems as though Lucy foregoes all conviction as a vampire and is ruled by her own sexuality and lust for blood. The power of Lucy’s sexuality and lust overcome both her convictions and the convictions of a perfectly sane man. Arthur can barely resist the temptation of being transformed by Lucy until Van Helsing wields a cross against her. ‘Blood’ is used as a symbol in Dracula to create a distinction between sexuality and faith. In the Christian faith, God demands “the lifeblood of every man”. (Genesis 5) Lucy survives of the blood of her victims. Before her complete transformation Van Helsing and Arthur try numerous blood transfusions to save Lucy’s life but

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