I haven’t read Dracula in a very long time, and I’m not sure what inspired me to pluck it from the shelf last night, but I found myself deeply engrossed in it. The book was certainly different this time than the last time I read it, or rather I have changed enough that my perspective on the book is radically different. I remembered it as being rather stuffy and cumbersome, but instead I found it a rather compelling and action-packed read.

The last time I read Dracula, I obviously hadn’t read as much feminist literature as I have now, and one thing which really intrigued me about the book was the tacit fear of female sexuality. The female vampires in the book are described in extremely sensual terms, with ruby red lips and flowing tresses. In the scene where Jonathan Harker is accosted by the three female vampires in the castle, the description of his experience is charged with sexual excitement, with lines like “the moisture shining on her scarlet lips and on the red tongue as it lapped the sharp white teeth…lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and chin…”

Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra, on the other hand, are not really described until Dracula’s influence falls upon them, at which point they, too, become highly sexualized. It was extremely intriguing to see sexuality equated with evil and bestiality, with Lucy essentially punished for her wanton thoughts of marrying three men at once. The implication there seemed to be that Lucy was more susceptible to Dracula’s sexual power because of her wantonness.

Indeed, both Lucy and Mina come across as innocent, wholesome women until they are corrupted by the influence of the vampire. In a sense, I almost felt like the book was an allegory about the effects of the modern world on women, with Stoker suggesting that the world was filled with corrupting influences which would turn perfectly nice assistant schoolmistresses into fiendish, sexualized creatures. There are even a few unfavorable references to the “modern woman” in the book, as though to ensure that readers would not miss the parallel.

The book also seemed to deal a lot with repression and dreamworlds, where anything is possible, and in that sense it was almost like an exploration of Stoker’s own mind. Perhaps I’m being a bit too Freudian here, but the book gave me the sense that Stoker had some issues to work out, especially around female sexuality. In a way, the book felt like Stoker’s attempt to reclaim his manhood, with the virile team of men ultimately triumphing over rampant sexuality, despite significant temptation in the scene where Van Helsing puts down the female vampires in the castle.

I can see why Dracula has remained a classic, not only in the horror genre, but in the fiction genre in general. There’s a lot going on in this book, and I have a feeling I’ll be reading it again in the near future to explore it even further.

Demographics:

Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Published 1897, 520 pages. Fiction.