Homosexuality In Bram Stoker's Dracula

During the Victorian era, sexually transmitted diseases were rampant because of the prevalence of prostitution. This outbreak provoked a feeling of consternation amongst people, and there grew a stigma around women's sexual expression. In Dracula, Bram Stoker addresses this issue and suggests that women should remain chaste and suppress their dangerous sexuality, which wreaks havoc if unleashed. In the novel, Mina’s innocence is juxtaposed to Lucy’s coquettish behavior. The characters reflect how the loss of a woman’s virginity transforms her into a monstrous being. A sexually aggressive woman poses a threat to society and a man’s dominant role. Nevertheless, a woman must be punished for being overtly sexual and stepping out of her expected
This transformation is apparent in Lucy, who is at first a sweet little girl. After each encounter with Dracula, Lucy’s “canine teeth grow longer and sharper than the rest” (Stoker). Lucy begins to develop traits of an animal when she loosens her sexuality each time she ventures out into the night to meet Dracula. Lucy’s metamorphosis into a grotesque vampire is meant to discourage sexual women, since Lucy begins to look repulsive when she crosses the line of sexual propriety. Also, it becomes evident that hypersexuality dehumanizes a woman. The vampire woman “licks her lips like an animal” and laps it against “her white sharp teeth” in order to seduce Jonathan (Stoker). The three vampire sisters that prey on Jonathan are mesmerizing but possess animal-like qualities that are associated with hypersexual women. A woman that is too promiscuous turns into a bloodthirsty beast, a reason why her sexuality must be repressed. In addition, critics state that the way Stoker describes sexual women suggests that they are not true women. Stoker portrays sexual women as “Un-Dead, fragmenting them into disembodied physical features” (Swartz-Levine). A woman’s sexuality is what turns her into a vampire, stripping her womanhood from her. Therefore, as women unveil their sexuality, they transform into monstrous beings that stray from the standards of Victorian