Comparing Dracula And I Am Legend

Stoker’s novel Dracula, presents the fear of female promiscuity, for which vampirism is a metaphor. Such fear can be related to the time in which Dracula was written, where strict Victorian gender norms and sexual mores stipulated

Neville didn’t have the average life growing up, he was even born under a palm tree due to the indigenous population having to be out of the towns before sunset. This prevented his mother attending the town’s hospital which led to his mother giving birth to him under a palm tree. (Government, 2014) This was just one of the many rules presented to indigenous people at the time which made their life almost impossible to live. After his mother died, he and his brother moved in with their grandparents. Neville hadn’t gone to school until him and his family moved to Brisbane between the ages of 14 and 15. He had only had a formal education of around a year and had to attend to the only

Are there still connections between Bram Stokers famous novel Dracula and modern day society? In Dracula, Stoker expands on many themes that indeed exist today. Not only does he touch on the most obvious theme, sex. He expands on gender division and good versus evil. Some say since times have changed the themes I introduced have changed as well, leaving connections between then and now irrelevant. However, I feel that although times have changed they still have roots from the time of the novel to now. In this essay I will expand on the themes of this novel while connecting them to modern day society, the critical texts I have chosen and will mention later on in the essay are a good representation of the commonalities between the chill, dark Victorian days in which the era that Dracula was written in and modern day.

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is a story about a Vampire named Count Dracula and his journey to satisfy his lust for blood. The story is told through a series of individuals’ journal entries and a letters sent back and forth between characters. Bram Stoker shows the roll in which a certain gender plays in the Victorian era through the works of Dracula. This discussion not only consists of the roll a certain gender takes, but will be discussing how a certain gender fits into the culture of that time period as well as how males and females interact among each other. The Victorian era was extremely conservative when it came to the female, however there are signs of the changing into the New Woman inside of Dracula. Essentially the woman was to be assistance to a man and stay pure inside of their ways.

Self Conflict: This quote is especially important as it shows the disintegration of Neville’s mental state. Neville wishes to die because of all the pain and suffering he feels, additionally his attempts relieve some of the pain but only hide them for the time being. On the contrary, his internal drive prevents him from taking his own life no matter how much he wants to. This conflict shows the purpose of the author of how isolation really diminishes the mental capacity of a human, thus driving deeper into the human mind. It helps the reader understand what Neville is going through after analyzing thoroughly the remainder of the

    Perhaps no work of literature has ever been composed without being a product of its era, mainly because the human being responsible for writing it develops their worldview within a particular era.  Thus, with Bram Stoker's Dracula, though we have a vampire myth novel filled with terror, horror, and evil, the story is a thinly veiled disguise of the repressed sexual mores of the Victorian era.  If we look to critical interpretation and commentary to win support for such a thesis, we find it aplenty "For erotic Dracula certainly is.  'Quasi-pornography' one critic labels it.  Another describes it as a 'kind of incestuous, necrophilious, oral-anal-sadistic all-in-wrestling matching'.  A

Although in modern times people are exposed to sexuality from a young age through advertisements, media, and pop culture, during the Victorian era in England, the only acceptable exploration of repressed sexual desire was through a book that upholds the Christian belief of sexuality’s corruptive effects on society. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a gothic, horror novel, Dracula, a vampire from Transylvania, preys on Mina Harker, a devoted Christian and intelligent woman, and Lucy Westenra, an innocent, young woman pursued by three suitors, by luring them and sucking their blood; the women and their suitors form a gang of vampire fighters who track and eventually kill Dracula defeating his devilry with the forces of

The first relationship explored in the novel, that of Dracula and Jonathan, defies the constraints of heteronormative sexuality. Dracula’s interest in seducing, penetrating and draining another male are desires that are acted out in the novel, however not solely by the Count himself, but instead by his three vampiric paramours. The homoerotic desire between Dracula and Jonathan is offered a feminine form for the masculine penetration that is being detailed (Craft,

In contrast, there is a fear of becoming the “Other.” In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the charismatic figure seems benevolent; however, his deceiving appearance turns out to be a creature that corrupts mankind – his attractiveness acts as a lure to display vice in people. Dracula targets virgins to become his lamias – so that innocent women

With the purpose of avoiding the temptation, Neville listens to music and occupies himself by reading. Such frustration is so great, that he even almost got him killed when he got out of the house in fury. Apart from the sexual frustration, what Neville really needs is companionship, a matter shown through his desperate efforts and the huge amount of time spent to befriend with the dog, in such a desperate way the he leaves apart his research for that purpose. He feels so isolated that when he finds another survivor, he thinks it is a product of his mind, a hallucination. This lack of companionship and socialization is reflected as well in the living vampires of the novel, who at first apparently do not talk to each other, and the undead vampires that do not even have the ability to speak.

Neville lives in a world turned upside down which makes it all the more easier to live in denial. Denial is a

Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, published in 1897, explores various sexual erotic possibilities in the vampire's embrace, as discussed by Leonard Wolf. The novel confronts Victorian fears of homosexuality; that were current at the time due to the trial of playwright Oscar Wilde. The vampire's embrace could also be interpreted as an illustration of Victorian fears of the changing role of women. Therefore it is important to consider: the historical context of the novel; the Victorian notion of the `New Woman' specifically the character of Lucy Westenra; the inversion of gender roles; notions of sexuality; and the emasculation of men, by lessening their power over women; in the novel Dracula. In doing this I will be able to explore the effects

Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrated fears about sexual women in contrast to the woman who respected and abided by society’s sexual norms. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s “Carmilla” represented not only the fear of feminine sexuality, but also the fear of sexuality between women. John William Polidori’s “The

With several illicit subjects listed throughout Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the book becomes a playground for psychoanalysts. Whether it be to see a subjects as simple as the conscious take over a character, or a character’s surroundings corrupting its victims, Dracula intrigues in more ways than just its vampiristic features. The following is a psychoanalytic study with a focus on vampirism imitating sexual practice and drug usage today while shining a light on the complex psychology of characters, and how even the author can influence the course of its story.

Punter and Byron reinforce this claim by stating that, “Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits and boundaries” (231). It is relevant to consider the aggressive behavior of Dracula towards his victims while he is on the prowl to fulfill his thirst for blood, especially with Lucy and Reinfield and the image of female vampires feeding on young children (Lucy). This bolsters the notion that the depiction of vampires in early portrays was violent. Also, as a sexually powerful creature, he preyed on men and women to fulfill his desires. The sexual representation of vampires is also evident from Ernest Jones’ early analysis of folktales, including the vampire. He proceeded to conclude that vampire’s and their counterparts, namely the Churel (India) and the Drud (vampires that prey exclusively on other vampires), do not confine themselves to sucking blood; rather “in the unconscious mind, blood is commonly associated with semen” (106). It would be inaccurate to associate these references to anything but the erotic nature of older folktales. Even in Dracula, the Count is portrayed as a seductive aristocrat who sucks on the blood of men and women, alike. The homosexual aspect of vampire tales is also apparent in “Carmilla” (Joseph le- Fanu 1872). As pointed out by Punter and Byron, Laura experiences intense erotic advances from the female vampire, to the extent of being puzzled