It is necessary only to substitute kisses for intercourse and semen for blood to be left with a novel as sexually explicit as any of the time" [1] Bram Stokers Dracula has held a fascination for both the public

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“It is necessary only to substitute kisses for intercourse and semen for blood to be left with a novel as sexually explicit as any of the time”  

Bram Stokers Dracula has held a fascination for both the public and literary professionals alike for over a century, in fact, since it was first published in 1897; it has never been out of print. No other Gothic character has been able to hold universal appeal in quite the same way, but why society should find this morose, rigid and monstrous creature so alluring is a mystery that has compelled many to attempt to solve.

In the 1970s there were only a few articles on Dracula and a long, tedious biography of the author Bram Stoker. Consequently most peoples’ perceptions of Dracula were wholly influenced by the Hammer Horror films in which Dracula was portrayed as a two dimensional, out and out evildoer. Not many people had seriously read the actual book or questioned its message. However, by the late Eighties and, more importantly, the Nineties, (which celebrated the centenary in 1997 of Stokers classic); there came a surge of interest in the actual sub-text of Dracula. Many respected writers and academics have uncovered fascinating themes within the book that appear to reflect the fin-de-siecle anxieties of the times especially the issues surrounding sex and sexuality.

Dracula’s conception in 1897 coincided with the peak of British expansion and Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Britain also experienced a high influx of Jewish immigrants, fuelling concerns about “racial pollution” and stirring xenophobic feelings in society. It must be noted that anti-Semitic feeling is as old as the Jews themselves and not a Nazi invention.  The rise of the proto- Feminist added to Victorian tensions. Such women were regarded, on the whole, as yet another new (invading) species and represented a threat, a cultural shift away from the patriarchal order. Another threat to patriarchal order was the fear of homosexuality (“the love that dare not speak its name”) following the highly publicized trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895 on charges of sodomy. Dracula feeds on all these fears and more. The novel is literally seething with sexual metaphor, “seduction, rape, necrophilia, paedophilia, incest, adultery, oral sex, group sex, menstruation, venereal disease, voyeurism – enough to titillate any sexual appetite”  The erotic appeal of the novel is therefore obvious. It allows the reader to explore, without prejudice, any number of inner desires and fantasies. Dracula becomes a form of delicious escapism.

The erotic undercurrents of Dracula begin with Jonathan Harkers encounter with the three “mistresses”.  These women seemed to be in possession of an unbridled libido as they urge each other on, “He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all.” Although this potential orgy would, at first, seem to be the ultimate fulfilment of male fantasy, Jonathan has misgivings. “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear”.He is transformed by their sexual ascendancy into the role of the coquettish maiden, “I lay quiet, looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation”. The whole language of this passage describes Harkers seduction and, more significantly, the image of women initiating sexual advances. The Victorian moral code could not comprehend the thought of female sexuality, “there is only one libido and that is male”, but throughout the entire text of Dracula it is the female vampires who have the sexual drive thus overturning “the idea that men possessed insatiable sexual appetites, while the female function is to passively appease it”. 

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The Victorians would have balked at the radical concept that women could be sexual and Stoker himself gives Dracula’s women no middle ground. They are not portrayed as being empowered. Dracula’s women are defined as Saints (or Mother) and Whores. The mistresses (and later, Lucy) are Whores (concubines) in contrast to the Saint (mother) Mina and, while it is made clear that Jonathan has desire for the Whores, morally he knows it is wrong for him to do so. “I am alone in the castle with those awful women. Faugh! Mina is a woman, and there is naught in ...

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