Dracula and the New Woman

Dracula and the New Woman In the Victorian era, women were viewed as subordinate to men. They often had one job: reproduction. They would become housewives and cater to their husband and children’s needs. As the era progressed, so did the role of women. The once shy women were now changing into courageous and outspoken members of society. These women were open about their sexuality and embraced their intelligence. This new found independence was a turning moment in history and was given the name

classic Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, is one of the most well known novels of the nineteenth century. The story focuses on a vampire named Dracula who travels to England in search of new blood, but who eventually is found out and driven away by a group of newly minted vampire hunters. A major social change that was going on during the late nineteenth century, around the time of that this novel was being written, was the changing roles of women in British society which constituted as the “New Woman”

The New Woman in Fanu’s Carmilla, Stoker’s Dracula, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer The correlation between the vampire, a figure that is usually regarded as the subject of social ostracism, and the New Woman, the advent of which was feared by the majority of the British Victorian patriarchy, was a prominent aspect of much mid-to-late Victorian era literature. Supplementary evidence to support the compelling Victorian era literary connection between the vampire and the New Woman can be extrapolated

(1872) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1898). This essay will explore and discuss the female characters in “Carmilla” and Dracula, emphasising their differences and similarities. It centers on the uncanny, incestuous, uncomfortably-erotic exchange of power between the old and the new woman. This essay will also discuss the temporarily abrogated in favour of tabooed deviations from the sexual norm; including homosexual relations, specifically between Carmilla and Laura, and Dracula and Harker. Lastly, this

Title: Dracula: Stoker 's Response to the New Woman Author(s): Carol A. Senf Publication Details: Victorian Studies 26.1 (Autumn 1982): p33-49. Source: Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 156. Detroit: Gale, 2006. From Literature Resource Center. Document Type: Critical essay Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale, COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale, Cengage Learning Full Text:  [(essay date autumn 1982) In the following essay, Senf contends that, contrary

Bram Stoker's Dracula During the Victorian Era, women struggled to attain gender equality by challenging the traditional roles that defined them. These women no longer wanted to remain passive and obey the demands of their husbands nor be domestic and the caretakers of their children. They strived to attain the role of a 'New Woman', an intelligent, liberated individual who was able to openly express her ideas (Eltis 452). Whereas some women were successful in attaining this new role, others

across the nations as “property”. They claim that women are weak and stupid; therefore, men treat women as if they are higher than women. Bram Stoker’s Dracula conveys the reality of Victorian, and today’s society’s prejudice toward the values of women by acknowledging only a woman’s wrongs, and how “New Women” overcomes it. For example, in Dracula, Bram Stoker is aware of the stereotypes in the Victorian era; he decides to make two different aspirations and social life of the Victorian era. Stereotypes

that the New Woman Movement is threatening to the English society because the men were losing the control they cherished while the women were struggling with their new roles, such as having a voice in family matters and working outside the home. Is experiencing the New Woman movement as frightening as Dracula himself ? The role of the Victorian Woman and her interactions with men were well defined. There are several examples of this in Stoker’s Dracula. Stoker describes Mina as a woman who any man

throughout Dracula is that of a woman’s role in society. The main female protagonist, Mina, is a delicate balance between the strong and independent “New Woman” and the quiet, proper Victorian woman that was customary in English society prior to the 1900s. She embodies the kindness, sense of duty, and femininity of a Victorian woman, while tentatively embracing the strength, bravery, and intelligence of “New Women.” Despite this slight reform, Mina still desires to be seen a meek, righteous woman. In fact

Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker’s use of inverted gender roles allows readers to grasp the sense of obscureness throughout, eventually leading to the reader’s realization that these characters are rather similar to the “monster” which they call Dracula. Despite being in the Victorian era, Stoker’s use of sexuality in the novel contributes to the reasoning of obscureness going against the Victorian morals and values. Throughout the novel the stereotypical roles of the Victorian man and woman are inverted