Representation Of Vampires In Dracula

The authors state that the vampire combines lust and death. The passage Bram Stoker’s Dracula (pg. 196) combines both of these elements by the three beautiful vampire sisters being aggressive, insatiable and sensual, wanting to turn Jonathan Harker into one of them. Also, Harker being sexually stimulated by the attention of these three women. Our current cultural attitudes towards lust and death influences more recent vampire stories because men and women’s sexual behavior has been brought down and forbidden. If a male or female is sexually adventurous and their behavior is against social norms, they’re seen and considered dangerous. Also, vampires embody that desire and represent other attractive qualities that go beyond limits and

Firstly, Dracula’s bite represents sexual intercourse because the biting of the teeth into skin mimics penetration, thus creating homoerotic undertones that pervade Dracula’s interactions with Jonathon that prove Dracula’s representation of homosexuality. For example, when Jonathan cuts himself while shaving, Dracula reveals an animalistic urge to bite him (29). This desire to bite—penetrate—Jonathan, who is male, provides the foundation for a homosexual representation of Dracula. Dracula furthers this implied homoeroticism by expressing fury when the three vampire women nearly bite Jonathan, saying, “How dare you touch him, any of you? This man belongs to me!” (44). This possessiveness and sole ownership of Jonathan solidify the case for Dracula’s representation of homosexuality. Furthermore, because the mingling of fluids through Dracula’s bite also simulates sexual intercourse, Dracula’s representation of homosexuality becomes even more apparent as he drinks four out of five of the Gang’s blood through Lucy. Dracula cements this reality by saying to the Gang of Five, “Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine” (330). In other words,

However, it is not only the women in the narrative that besmirch the mother figure. Dracula himself defiles the image of motherhood when he not only "births" the texts vampires, but he also gives blood to Mina in one of the more gruesome scenes of the novel:

him succumb into being their victim. This example shows how the roles of both genders of vampires come into play when seducing a victim. Dracula traps his victims with swiftness. The female vampire such as his three brides and Carmilla use a different technique. Rather than seduce him himself, Dracula uses his brides to get the job done more rapidly using manipulation and their sexual appeal.

In the two classic gothic vampire tales, Carmilla and Dracula, both novels have similarities through their displays of sexuality. Sexuallity isn’t just displaying sexual intentions towards other people. The two novels explore how vampirism represents female sexuality as a disease through different means. In Carmilla, the character of Carmilla’s vampirism is linked with disease because she has bitten Laura, one of her many victims, and fed off of her. Through Carmilla’s action of biting Laura and displaying deep affection for her, Carmilla’s female sexuality was linked to a disease. In Dracula Mina and Lucy are two females who are both victims of vampirism and showcase how vampirism is a disease. The novel explores how they deal with the effects of vampirism and how the men in the novel treat vampirism. This essay explores, compares and contrasts Carmilla and Dracula through their use of vampirism to represent female sexuality as an illness that affects the women in the novels.

Arthur sacrifices his love for Lucy to save her soul and his own, but as a result he must kill her gruesomely; also, the men (Morris, Billington, Van Helsing and Seward) sacrifice their blood in transfusions to keep Lucy alive. This is foreshadowed by Lucy as she previously exclaimed ‘if only I could have them all’ when she was deciding her lover between these men; this gives the blood sexuality to it (sexual innuendo) and this is an example of gothic romance with the presence of rival lover and multiple suitors. This sexuality of the blood is present in quotes such as: ‘the girl went on her knees…’ and ‘away with you, he’s mine’ and these show the ruling and empowerment of the male characters in a patriarchal society. The sexuality given to blood in Dracula is again subtly echoed into Shadow of the Vampire, with Orlock’s lust and desperation for Greta being portrayed in the sexual sense as he is given blood from bats and other sources throughout the film but none satisfied him like Greta with him falling asleep soon after to lighten the mood with black humour before the action-packed ending is aroused.

In the world of horror fiction, the “monster” that is the most overtly associated with sexuality and eroticism is the vampire. The blood-sucking exchange between the vampire and the victim is often presented as a type of stand-in for “traditional” sexual encounters, seeing as both create a bond or a unity between two individuals. Dracula and I Am Legend are two key works of fiction in the tradition of viewing the vampire through an erotic lens. Both works play on the concept that vampires are a unity of contradictions for their victims, or more succinctly the victims are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the vampires. In I Am Legend this is the key concept for understanding how Robert Neville views the female vampires he experiments

Vampires are known as mythical beings with white pale glittery skin that drain the essence of life known as blood. As unbelievable as it sounds they actually did exist centuries ago. They weren’t anything like the vampires we see in movies, shows, books, and video games today. A vampire or something analogous to it can be found in most culture and folklores going back to the beginning of time, but it is a mistake to think they have familiar attributes of Count Dracula. The term “vampire” appeared in literature since the 18th century. Vampires might be viewed as either blood-sucking creatures or sexy ones, but they represent much more than that. Vampires represent fear and contempt of people with different beliefs.

One of the most consistently enduring features of the vampire is its teeth, the quasi-animalistic extension by which they penetrate their victims. Indeed, a reading of Berenicë as a

If you were to ask people 10 years ago what came to mind when they thought about vampires, you would probably get answers that described frightening creatures that lurk in the night in search of human blood. These perceptions are usually brought on from one of the most famous vampire stories ever written; Dracula. Bram Stoker’s Dracula tells the story of Count Dracula and his bloodthirsty journey from his castle in Transylvania to the shores of London. Where he searches for blood from both men and women, while his enemies seek to destroy him and rid the world of his evil. In more recent years the tables have turned due to the widespread popularity of the Twilight series novels as well as the film adaptions. The Twilight series originally written by Stephanie Meyer, recounts the love story of Isabella Swan a human teenager who risks it all when she falls for Edward Cullen a vampire forever frozen at the age of 17. Due to its popularity, lots of people visualize the main vampire in the series, Edward Cullen, when they think of the undead. With his devilishly handsome features, bad boy allure, and ability to make all the girls of Forks high school swoon, Edward Cullen and his family of “vegetarian vampires” are redefining the modern view of vampires.

The defining characteristics of female vampires, such as bloodsucking, rebellious and with an open eroticism, were representations of everything that conventional women in patriarchal society were not supposed to be. Le Fanu developed in 'Carmilla ' a tale about a dangerous and destructive female vampire, who is emotionally and physically engaged in a relationship with her victim Laura, while mirroring Victorian society’s angst of female sexuality. Le Fanu’s story ‘Carmilla’ treats vampirism as the means

The Vampire myth may partly have its origins in the feeding practices of some species of this little mammal. These kinds of bat are native to central and south America, and are sanguivorous, which means they feed on blood. They prey on animals and attack during the night, tearing a small part of the skin near a vain and lapping up the blood that flows. Their saliva contains compounds that prevent the blood from clotting, so it will run freely for them to drink their fill. The amount of blood an individual consumes rarely exceeds the capacity of a tablespoon , therefore the animal cannot die because of it. However, owing to the fact that the blood cannot clot the animal may continue haemorrhaging for some time, which weakens it . The real

Louis explains Daniel how Lestat who is another vampire in the novel, transforms him into a Vampire. In the novel, Louis says, “[Lestat] lay down beside me now on the steps, his movement so graceful and so personal that at once it made me think of a lover” (18). Rice has expressed the process of sucking human blood by vampires itself as well as exchange of blood between vampires in an extremely erotic way. During the process of killing, Vampires frequently move their lips over the necks of mortals before they kill them. They kiss mortals’ necks to seduce them and finally pull them very close to their chests.

Although there is no actual physical acts of sex in either of the two novels, the idea and lustfulness of sexuality is extremely present throughout both. One way that this can be seen is through the process of blood-sucking, because of how intimate the process is. Whoever is having their blood sucked is so vulnerable at the time that it can be seen as the equivalency of losing their innocence and purity. This act also creates a bond between the vampire and their victim, and whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the novel you are reading. For example, in Twilight, Edward is forced to suck Bella’s blood to rid her of the poison that has been inflicted on her by another vampire, and because Bella is a human who has particular desirable

But what neither vampire counted on was finding something within each other that draws them together in a sexually charged connection—one that binds them, obsesses them, and ultimately goes deeper than vengeance…