Female Monsters In Dracula, By Bram Stoker

“Fear and euphoria are dominant forces, and fear is many multiples the size of euphoria” - Alan Greenspan. New York author, Alan Greenspan, here is explaining that the threat fear presents is really no different than the state of intensity caused by euphoria. In Andrew J. Hoffman’s anthology, Monsters, there is substantial evidence that both fear and euphoria are inflicted upon men, by female monsters. The two threats men typically face against women are temptation and emasculation. Thus, in mythology and folklore, female monsters exemplify the impulse of desire (sexually) for men, and male weakness. These are creature that are lusted after and yet, still feared because of their power. Men find female monsters both fearsome and euphoric and will always threaten their dominance and control.

Despite the creature’s account that he was initially benevolent, kind and timid, Victor is convinced that if women gained the same knowledge as the creature did, she would be uncontrollable and make her own decision. Shelley enforces the idea that women are usually stigmatized as to have the tendency of being mentally disturbed, thus will make the world goes haywire.

Throughout the years, different forms of literature  have generally shown women as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother archetype or the lover which have traits less desirable than the roles that men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero. Stereotypes for women have affected these archetypes, but throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.

In Dracula, Stoker portrays the typical women: The new woman, the femme fatale and the damsel in distress, all common concepts in gothic literature. There are three predominant female roles within Dracula: Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra and the three vampire brides, all of which possess different attributes and play different roles within the novel. It is apparent that the feminine portrayal within this novel, especially the sexual nature, is an un-doubtable strong, reoccurring theme.

Upon further probing, there is perhaps a deeper terror rooted in Frankenstein, which subtly appears to stem his hesitancy at creating not just another monster, but specifically a female monster. Because Victor Frankenstein fears the existence of a female free of restrictions that he cannot impose, he destroys her, thus eliminating the female’s options of becoming either completely feminine through becoming a mother and mate, or totally unfeminine by opting to leave her partner and face the world alone.

In his Literary Theory: The Basics, H. Bertens classifies stereotypes of women in literature into a number of categories; dangerous seductress, self-sacrificing angel, dissatisfied shrew, and defenseless lamb, completely incapable of self-sufficiency, or self-control, and dependent on male intervention. Bertens concludes that the primary objective of these women – or “constructions” – is to serve a “not-so-hidden purpose: the continued cultural and social domination of males”. One such novel that came under feminist scrutiny for these particular reasons was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although this perlustration didn’t occur until 70 years after Stoker originally penned his masterpiece. However, during the mid-1960s, the rise of the feminist

There is a power struggle in Dracula over what gender is dominating the events and the characters in the novel. These first two critics believe that the women of the novel primarily control the plot and even take the role a man usually plays. Eric Kwan-Wai Yu says that women in the novel, such as Mina Harker are not given as much credit as they should be in regard to their influence on the plot and male characters in the novel. Mina makes significant contributions, if not more significant than the males in the novel, in the destruction of Dracula. In his criticism, "Productive Fear: Labor,

In the late 19th century, when Dracula by Bram Stoker is written, women were only perceived as conservative housewives, only tending to their family’s needs and being solely dependent of their husbands to provide for them. This novel portrays that completely in accordance to Mina Harker, but Lucy Westenra is the complete opposite. Lucy parades around in just her demeanor as a promiscuous and sexual person. While Mina only cares about learning new things in order to assist her soon-to-be husband Jonathan Harker. Lucy and Mina both become victims of vampirism in the novel. Mina is fortunate but Lucy is not. Overall, the assumption of women as the weaker specimen is greatly immense in the late 19th century. There are also many underlying

I’ve killed two-- The vampire who said he was you”. The powerful imagery of these

The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different

Women in Frankenstein are portrayed as passive and are seen to be supporters and nurturers. Victor contemplates creating a companion for his monster because he feels like a man needs a women to care and look after just as the women in his life tried to do with him. The creature is in search for compassion and feels that he will find it with a woman. 2. Victor becomes ill multiple times as following confrontations with his creation. Victor uses his illness to avoid the problems and his creature. Ultimately though, Victor’s illnesses make things worse and have the problems carry on for a while instead of handling the situation. 3. All the monster really needs and wants is attention and affection like any other. The audience of the book can somewhat

One of the main depictions of women in the novel is that are either both sexually promiscuous and overtly sexual, or they are pure and chaste. In Victorian society, you were either a virgin or a married woman, if women were neither then they were not of much moral worth to society. Much like this Victorian ideal, the overtly promiscuous and sexual females of Dracula are depicted as evil and monstrous, while the pure and chaste women are displayed as strong and heroic.

hybrid monsters are scary because they can have the intellect of man but an animalistic nature. They are also unnatural and present the question of where they originated. Additionally, man-animal hybrid monsters are scary because they imply that a human can become part animal. This is, it may be possible, either willingly or unwillingly, to become a man-animal hybrid.

Fact: According to Dijkstra, women became dangerous to the image of men. Therefore, the female desires have become problematic when modifying their current status of dependence. To show their seductive, strategic and instinctive powers becomes a threat to males. Powerful women became a threat

Femme fatale. Every culture has a mystical femme fatale that is known for being beautiful, enticing and deadly. A female being that has the ability to entice a man with the intent to destroy his very being. The Mermaids, Nymphs, Undines and Sirens, these beautiful and deadly creatures are known all over the world. The alluring charms of these creatures are legendary and have been known globally for centuries. The femme fatale is known for being able to charm and lure wayward men for safety into an out of element location. These men have been away from the company of women or just wanting the female company. The idea of a beautiful and seductive female looking for carnal pleasure is usually desired when a person is in need of physical and