However, as a vampire, Lucy openly exhibits the sensations of orgasmic pleasure: 'The Thing in the coffin writhed…The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions…' (Stoker pp.258-259). Therefore, Lucy clearly exhibits anarchistic behaviour, from which Victorian women were meant to abstain. Van Helsing's men attempt to quell a feminist sexual uprising and assert male domination, by ending Lucy's rampant female sexuality. As Fred Botting says: 'the band of men symbolically subject her to phallic law by driving a stake through her heart and decapitating her' (Botting p.151). This is established in the text, after Lucy’s destruction as a female vampire, by an overtly phallic instrument. In the text, Lucy is described in terms of an absolute antithesis, for example: 'voluptuous wantonness' (Stoker p.252) relates to the vampire. In contrast to Lucy after the destruction of her vampirism, she is described as: 'unequalled sweetness and purity' (Stoker p.259). As Bram Dijkstra says: 'Dracula is a very carefully constructed cautionary tale directed to men of the modern temper, warning them not to yield to the bloodlust of the feminist, the New Woman embodied by Lucy' (Dijkstra p.348). Thus, Dracula endorses a male dogma concerning the accepted social position and sexuality of women in the Victorian era.
However, the text offers an explanation of the violent censure of Lucy's rampant female sexuality from a male perspective. This is supplied by Jonathan Harker when he comes across three female vampires at Castle Dracula. The provocative appearance and behaviour of three vampire women provide a catalyst that juxtaposes Harker's sexual awareness. Jonathan's account of the women in: 'There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear' (Stoker p.51) is clearly contradictory, since his 'longing' and 'fear' disclose a man in turmoil with his sexual psyche. Certainly, Harker is attempting to control and rationalise his obvious sexual arousal, as the: 'wicked burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips' (Stoker p.51) indicates suppressed male sexuality in his encounter with the vampire women. An interpretation of Jonathan's character before entering Castle Dracula is offered through analyses of Harker's journal entries. The novel begins with the journal, and the dates, time and places indicate significant traits, revealing the nature of Harker. For instance, the very first sentence of the text indicates the pedantic nature of Jonathan: '3 May. Bistritz. Left Munich at 8.35p.m. on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6.46, but train was an hour late' (Stoker p.9). In fact, the entire first paragraph of the text is organised in this way. Furthermore, the first reference to Mina is written in the form of a memorandum: '…(mem., get recipe for Mina.)' (Stoker p.9) indicating a lifestyle of organised conformity, along with the arrogant assumption that Mina will is an acquiescent woman. Importantly, this reveals Jonathan Harker's perception of women as one of a male appendage, thus belonging to the domestic sphere. Harker then, is characterised symbolically as the epitome of the civilised western male and the three women vampires represent the sexually liberated New Woman, later reflected in the characters of Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker. The apparent confusion of Jonathan Harker in the bizarre tryst with the female vampires can be explained as conflict within Harker's sexual psyche. My suggestion here is that Harker is faced with a real view of innate male sexuality, in contrast to the extrinsically instituted social rhetoric of sexuality. Stoker then, writes of a form of sexual cruelty through social indoctrination, as clearly Jonathan Harker finds issues of sexuality problematical. Then the encounter with the three vampire women, juxtaposes natural sexual arousal with a socially fostered view. In the text, Harker suppresses visible signs of sexuality, endorsing rather than opposing the moral code propounded by Victorian society.
Internal conflicts are not an issue in Dracula, as Count Dracula's autonomy is never seriously under threat from other vampires. Yet, in Interview With The Vampire antagonism is an omnipresent threat within vampire society since internal power struggles continually occur. The New World vampires commonly experience discord amongst their own kind, as they compete for power. Thus establishing amongst them a hierarchical order, as well as an omnipresent fear of rebellion from the subordinate vampire. Therefore, when Lestat indulges in grotesque forms of sexuality it is used as a mechanism to maintain superiority over Louis. Lestat clearly glories in sexual perversity when he realises he has found a way to keep Louis, and relishes sexual voyeurism, as he secretly observes Louis take Claudia. Lestat's perverse sexual pleasure shocks Louis: 'It was Lestat…laughing, his body bent as he danced in the mud street….he taunted me …he'd caught me in the act' (Rice p.83). However, both participate in sexual cruelty, when Claudia is made into a vampire, as Lestat and Louis both engage in paedophile and incestuous activities. This is seen as Louis and Lestat claim Claudia their as daughter and bed partner, offering to share their coffin with her during the day. By making Louis, the synthetic mother of Claudia, Lestat continues as dominant male vampire, because Louis is now trapped by his 'maternal' responsibilities for the child. Here, Anne Rice's text reveals a feminist agenda connected to sexuality and power. The vampire relationship bears comparison to the mortal world, since the birth of children, has been a device with which to entrap women. Therefore, the dilemma of Louis, is doubled with that of subjugated mortal women.
Claudia is a crazy mixed up (vampire) kid, for she presents a number of paradoxes. Firstly, she has a considerable amount in common with her 'father' Lestat. Therefore, a Freudian psychoanalysis, where a child and parent of opposite sexes form a close bond is a particularly appropriate analysis of the relationship between Lestat and Claudia. This is evident since the seduction of entire families by Claudia, and Lestat's daily menu of young woman as entree and young man as desert, show both vampires enjoy engaging in ritualistic sexual depravity. However, Claudia loves her 'mother' Louis more than she loves her ‘father’ Lestat and by exploiting the brutal nature 'inherited' from Lestat, Claudia and Louis escape, albeit temporarily. Consequently, the result of Claudia's inherent nature of her 'father' has an inverse effect on Lestat's power upon Louis. As instead of keeping Louis submissive, it is Claudia's defiance that temporarily liberates them both. To secure liberty, Claudia engages in activities which parallel the earlier paedophile and voyeuristic activities of the two male vampires as Claudia destroys Lestat in what Doane and Hodges justly name: 'an erotic scene of violence…' (Doane and Hodges p.161). Clearly, Lestat is aroused by his savage lust for young boys. The paedophile-homoerotic sexual appetite of Lestat is found in Louis description: 'His lips moved over…the tiny nipple…And Lestat knelt, the boy pressed against him, sucking hard, his own back arched and rigid, his body rocking back…' (Rice pp. 148 & 149). Besides which, as Claudia watches the scene with sadistic relish, both she and Lestat indulge in a doubling of cruel sexuality. However, the: 'rage of a monstrous girl vampire against her infantilization' (Doane and Hodges p.169) shows Claudia the more Machiavellian and astute of the two dominant vampires, as she has succeeded in exploiting the weaknesses of Lestat in order to destroy him. Therefore, the fusion of child and vampire bears shrewd sexual cruelty.
When Lestat seduces then kills the two whores in the hotel room, he delights in sexual cruelty. This is displayed in Louis narrative describing Lestat as both: 'masterfully clever and utterly vicious…, he drank his fill without the other woman even knowing' (Rice p.89) and 'he played with his victims, made friends with them, seduced them into trusting and liking him, even loving him' (Rice p141). Lestat clearly plays with his victims when he invokes sexual competition from the second woman as she says: 'I can warm that cold skin of yours better than she can' (Rice p.87) Lestat shows he is the master of mockery combined with sadism. My argument here is focused on sadism defined as 'male with a low sense of self-worth since childhood, trying to prove importance and superiority by punishing others'. As far as we know, Lestat has had no life-choices, either in his education or in becoming immortal, as both decisions were taken without consent. Therefore, Lestat's indulgence in sadistic sexual pleasure can be credited to an indiscriminate motive of revenge. But Lestat has no conception of his sadistic nature and so does not appear to manifest any sense of rationality since he says to Louis: 'I like to do it…I enjoy it' (Rice p.93) without explaining. As Michel Foucault says of sadism: 'In Sade, sex is without any norm or intrinsic rule that might be formulated from its own nature: but it is subject to the unrestricted law of power which itself knows no other law but its own' (Foucault p.149). However, Louis does offer some reasoning for Lestat's senseless carnage of the young or attractive in: 'You see they represented the greatest loss to Lestat, because they stood on the threshold of the maximum possibility of life' (Rice p.47) Lestat's rationale in killing the two beautiful whores, the young, rich Freniere and dooming a five year old girl to an eternity of childhood is symptomatic of Lestat's sadistic nature, but in some way related to his past. Consequently, Lestat unconsciously transgresses from conflicts within vampire relationships to avenge his past, and he achieves this through sadistic redress.
The performance at the Theatre des Vampires is where both vampires and humans gather to mutually experience: 'A highly erotic, somewhat disturbing scene' (Gelder p.112). The vampires masquerade as vampires. The audience indulge in ‘simulation’ of sexuality and death. The audience believe the performance is a theatrical illusion and are there to be: 'mesmerised by the performance...titillated' (Gelder p.112). So I want to argue here that the relationship between sexuality and cruelty works on a number of levels as both the vampires and audience are involved in a type of sexual perversity. For the vampires, the scene represents reality, as killing and drinking human blood is pertinent to vampire nature. In contrast, the audience are an antithesis to human nature in comparison to other mortals in the text, such as Babette, who have shown disdain for vampiric sexual evil. But further perversity exists, since vampires openly kill a mortal in front of other humans thereby increasing vampire pleasure in killing. Louis attests to vampiric pleasure when he recalls an instinctive sexual longing at the performance: 'I wanted her. Wanted her. My mouth full of the taste of her, my veins in torment' (Rice pp242-243). Conversely, it could also be argued that the vampires perform at the Theatre de Vampires to acquire legitimacy for their communal home. So, I also suggest that the theatre provides both a façade and sanctuary to enable the vampires from arousing suspicion from mortals. Therefore, these vile heterogeneous gatherings between vampires and mortals have irony but fundamental to the existence of the Parisian vampires.
Earlier in this essay, I argued that conflict is generally located externally or internally within vampire cultures. Yet in the two texts, overtly sexual female vampires are destroyed by threatened males. Examples of internal conflict and female sexuality appear in the text of Interview With The Vampire when Claudia and Madeleine are destroyed. Both Claudia and Madeleine are sexually aggressive, and this is apparent when the female vampires are created. Firstly, Claudia is insatiable in her desire to drink the blood of Lestat: 'He was trying to push her off, and she wouldn't let go…she held the wrist to her mouth, a growl coming out of her' (Rice p.102). The untamed lust of Claudia is prophetic, signaling superior female sexual power in comparison to Lestat and Louis. Accordingly then, it is natural that the greater sexual potency of Claudia, usurps Lestat in the affections of Louis. As Louis clearly views Claudia as flagrantly sexual: 'I loved her, must have her, must keep her' (Rice p. 127) and later 'I knew I loved her only too well, that the passion for her was as great as the passion for Armand' (Rice p.277). Then Louis’ view of Claudia shows she is a significant sexual rival to both Lestat and Armand. Madeleine is created by demand, the demand of Claudia. Furthermore, Louis acquiesces to Claudia, to avoid yet another doomed menage-a-trois. Female brutality and sexual craving are visible when Louis makes Madeleine into a vampire, and is comparable to the making of Claudia. As Louis recalls Madeleine's insatiable lust was painful: 'it was cutting me, scoring me, so I all but cried out as it went on and on…' (Rice p.292). Therefore, a close alliance between the two female vampires must present an enormous risk to the domination of sexuality by male vampires. As a consequence, both Claudia and Madeleine die whilst Louis survives. Furthermore, this is not convincing justice for the death of Lestat, as Madeleine is innocent. Clearly, the vampires are motivated by fear of the potent liaison between Claudia and Madeleine. Furthermore, Louis is rescued from death, because of the homoerotic desire of Armand. A relationship that is now possible, as the two overtly lasciviousness female vampires and their, powerful natures are extinguished. Therefore, in Interview With The Vampire, sexuality and cruelty function principally to sustain male sexual domination and homoerotic relationships.
One of the main points I have argued in this essay, is that power and sexual cruelty prevail through conflict. My assertion in Dracula is that conflict is external to vampire existence, whereas in contrast, internal conflicts exist in Interview With The Vampire. Therefore in conclusion, it is essential to say that although both narratives are told in the first person, the viewpoints in the text are endorsed by use of opposing narrative strategies. In Dracula the text is narrated by mortals, therefore the reader is greatly influenced by the mortal perspective. Whilst in contrast, the narrative of Interview With The Vampire is recounted from a vampire's perspective. Accordingly, then, Dracula and Interview With The Vampire, present the reader with a textual biased perspective. The narrators present their own ideologies relating to power and sexual cruelty projecting their own identities and environment. As Michel Foucault argues: 'We must conceptualize the deployment of sexuality on the basis of the techniques of power that are contemporary with it (Foucault p.150). Therefore, sexuality and cruelty, operate by reflecting the personal, political and social opinions of their narrators. Consequently, Dracula reflects mortal ethics, in contrast to Interview With The Vampire, which through a single narrative is unmistakably opinionated but applies vampiric reasoning.
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