Unseen Forces: Lesbian Relationships in Stoker's Dracula and Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula
Though it appears on the surface to be an engaging horror story about a blood-sucking Transylvanian man, upon diving deeper into Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, one can find issues of female sexuality, homoeroticism, and gender roles. Many read Dracula as an entertaining story full of scary castles, seductive vampires, and mysterious forces, yet at the same time, they are being bombarded with descriptions of sex, images of rape, and homosexual relationships. In Francis Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, Stoker's presentation of homoeroticism is taken, reworked, and presented in a different, stronger light. Coppola does much in the area of emphasizing a homoerotic relationship between Mina Harker and Lucy Westerna: a relationship Bram Stoker only hinted at in his novel Dracula, but one that is needed to maintain the disturbing quality of the story for present day viewers. In this essay I will argue that Stoker portrays a sexual relationship between the women in the novel and the scenes in Coppola's film adaptation accentuate the relationship. I will then explain what the director's purpose was in presenting the homoerotic relationship in the manner he did.
In the novel Dracula, Stoker presents Mina and Lucy as having a sister-like relationship, yet their affection and manner towards each other suggests a deeper attraction. This implication of a deeper relationship is noticeable in letters the two write, expressing their fondness for one another. One letter from Lucy to Mina opens with the words "oceans of love and millions of kisses" (Stoker 101). This very affectionate manner of speaking, though common in Victorian times between women, is still arguably very romantic in its nature. Lovers would easily write letters beginning in this manner, and ending in, " from your loving Lucy" (Stoker 101), just as is the case in this note.
But since the greeting and farewell of letters is not enough to warrant a claim to a gay relationship, we must look closer at the body of the
In the novel Dracula, Stoker presents Mina and Lucy as having a sister-like relationship, yet their affection and manner towards each other suggests a deeper attraction. This implication of a deeper relationship is noticeable in letters the two write, expressing their fondness for one another. One letter from Lucy to Mina opens with the words "oceans of love and millions of kisses" (Stoker 101). This very affectionate manner of speaking, though common in Victorian times between women, is still arguably very romantic in its nature. Lovers would easily write letters beginning in this manner, and ending in, " from your loving Lucy" (Stoker 101), just as is the case in this note.
But since the greeting and farewell of letters is not enough to warrant a claim to a gay relationship, we must look closer at the body of the