Egan 1

Nick Egan Mr. Brashears Myth/Folk Lit 2/25/14 Blurring of Gender in Bram Stokers Dracula As the Victorian era came to its close, newer and more progressive concepts of gender began to emerge, and this can be prominently seen in Bram Stokers Dracula. The necessity of each gender to stay to their stereotypical roles, the man as masculine and the woman as feminine, began to weaken in its bind, and this can be seen in the actions of Jonathon and Mina. Most notably, the absolutely most unconventional view of gender in that era can be seen in the highly ambiguous Dracula; presumably a man with a vaguely human and frighteningly foreign history and bloodline, he shifts between the natures of the dominant and aggressively sexual man, and the caring, maternal female throughout the story. Jonathon, in accordance to Victorian custom, was to be strong, but formal; elegant, but courageous, and under no circumstances is he to falter. However, under a number of circumstances, Jonathon falls short of exemplifying this idealistic view of man, and instead becomes incredibly feminized, dominated by others. In one instances, he is captured by Draculas brides, and finds himself completely at their will, [closing his] eyes in a languorous ecstasy and [waiting] (Stoker 41) for their embrace; fully passive and powerless to them. He only manages to escape these creatures after being saved by the protection and power of Count Dracula. Later on, after escaping from Draculas castle, he is found by nuns and nurtured back

Egan 2

to health by them, in an almost childlike manner. Additionally, the violent brain fever (Stoker 107) that Jonathon suffers under bears symptoms very similar to that of hysteria (Encyclopedia Britannica) which, during the Victorian era, was a syndrome almost entirely confined to women. Having both the fragile mind of a woman, as well as the stereotypically rescued demeanor of one, makes sure that status of his gender, at least in the Victorian mindset, is not one of masculinity. On the other hand, while Jonathon portrays his contradictorily vulnerable nature, Mina displays a strength and superiority that greatly distorts the gender roles commonly seen in that age. Educated enough to be able to use a typewriter and incredibly strong hearted, she already dismisses many conventional labels of gender of the time through her educational and spiritual ability; as well as the lack of a child that would otherwise reinforce a maternal nature. Not only that, but many of her actions, such as typing out both her own diary and [her] husbands (Stoker 238) aided the group immensely in killing Dracula, playing a highly dominant and important role among the vampire-killers. In fact, at the end of the novel as Dracula is being killed, Mina stands at the highest point during the battle upon a cliff, physically and possibly figuratively above all the other combatants. However, those who believe that Dracula reinforces Victorian gender roles would more likely focus on the fact that Mina was also imprisoned in that towering location, kept within a Holy circle (Stoker 399), showing that she is still dominated and caged by man. I believe, in opposition to that, that Minas general attitude and ability throughout the novel, rather than her moments of weakness near the end, are what truly exemplify the intentions of Minas gender reversal. Dracula, however, shows a highly ambiguous and unique mixture between both of the two commonly seen gender roles. Both an incredibly strong and courageous man, a nurturing and protective maternal-esque figure, and a number of other erotic deviants in between, he

Egan 3

embodies the contrast between both of the common views of gender at the time. Through this ambiguity, he is most able to showcase the emerging progressive lens upon gender roles. One such example of his ambiguous nature is seen as Jonathon first encounters his brides, where Dracula exclaims that this man [Jonathon] belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, (Stoker 42) showing an incredibly protective nature. This is not in the maternal or paternal sense, but more in the manner one protects his mate, and, considering both subjects are evidently male, the possible homosexual context is very prevalent, especially when Dracula turns to Jonathon and says to him in a soft whisper: Yes, I too can love; (Stoker 42) an incredibly sensual maneuver. Not only that, but Dracula, in the sense of his propagation, is incredibly fertile. While we are only aware of a few vampires that were converted under his control, it means that he had performed the process with at least five women: the brides, Lucy, and Mina; a statistic which at the time would have been horrifyingly extensive. Furthering the example of his fertility, Dracula is the propagator of all the vampires the novel covers, thus setting Dracula up to be both a hermaphroditic maternal and paternal character; giving figurative birth to all these characters in a way that practically showcases his virility. The maternal aspect is especially emphasized as he transforms Mina into a vampire by forcing her face down on his bosom (Stoker 304) almost like aggressive breastfeeding. This maternal aspect of Dracula is an absolute role reversal from what would typically be expected of a horrifically monstrous male character. Some, however, would argue that the brutal and bloody ways in which he attacks and affects his victims is far more akin to rape than a motherly sort of propagation. To this, I say that the two are not mutually exclusive; Dracula is incredibly forceful in his methodology of reproducing his vampire race, but he sacrifices himself, in a way a mother would, in creating these new vampires, as he gave his own blood to his new children to complete

Egan 4

the process of their transformation. Dracula, through all this, plays an incredibly unique and, in that era, absurd gender role, and greatly distorts the newly emerging progressive concepts of gender so that the furthest extents of these nuances may be displayed. Throughout Bram Stokers Dracula, the typical concepts of Victorian gender are flipped upon its head both this way and that. Jonathon, one of the main male protagonists and ideally incredibly masculine, proves himself to be in need of a high level of nurturing, and often falls to the grasp of any who attempt to dominate him. Mina, on the other hand, while ideally weak and unimportant, proves to hold a major and dominant role in the killing of Dracula, and in numerous ways leads the party to achieve their final goals. As for Dracula, his strange, maternal-esque caring for Jonathon, immense fertility, and the ability to reproduce his vampire race despite his male gender all display the strangely hermaphroditic gender role that Dracula plays in the novel. All these aspects act together to expand the then-growing views of gender in Victorian society, heavily pushing the acceptable boundaries of sexuality and gender under the guise of fiction so that the extents of these ideas can be seen by all.