Your perception of Dracula by Bram Stoker please?

Question

Is it that Bram had issues with homosexuality?
Or is it more to do with his issues with women?

The popular theory on Dracula is the stuff about homsexuality. However, when I read it, I saw a fascination with female sexuality and a horror in women being both virginial and sexual beings (Virgin Whore theory?).

What's your view?

Answer 1

Coming from the New Historian school of literary theory, I'd say the Virgin/Whore idea is much closer. It's an incredibly sensual if not outright sexual book, but I'm not one for the popular practice of ascribing homosexuality to every novel that comes along. The Virgin/Whore idea would have been more fitting to the time period and the beginnings of changing roles for women. (And this is coming from someone who spent a good amount of time studying Wilde, and would happily write "gay gay gay" all over most of his works--but I really don't think it's there in Dracula.)

Answer 2

I read for enjoyment. Bram Stoker is a very good author which I've had the pleasure to read some of his other stories as well.
I think Dracula was written to frighten readers. It's a work of fiction, why must people read so far between the lines that they come up with theories rather than enjoy the story?

Answer 3

Dracula does have a line where he says to his "brides": "This man is mine!" This segment of the novel was based on a dream Bram Stoker had. It is supposed to represent Stoker's relationship with the actor Sir Henry Irving, Stoker apparently had some sort of passionate fit the first time Irving performed a speech for him.

I have also heard a theory that the novel is all about suppressing the "foreigner" i.e. Dracula, who comes to London and infects English women with his "virus" (you could read that as being foreign sperm and outdoing the English male or infecting her with a sexual disease as "foreigners" are dirty) making the woman into a lascivious, uncontrollable "whore" (or like women from the foreigner's land in other words).

Answer 4

The idea that I was left with is that Dracula is a powerful sexual energy source for all the women he gets close to. He makes them aware of their sexuality and demolishes the social prejudices and barriers pertaining to Victorian England.
I would also like to note that I am Romanian, but, unlike Cristina, don't feel offended by the book, which I consider a very good one - Bram Stoker has the power of words.

Answer 5

I think it's more the latter - he definitely ascribes to the Virgin Whore Theory. All of the female characters start out as pure, undefiled innocents, but he slowly reveals their deep-seated and seemingly inherent sexuality. But is the revealed sexuality something planted in them by Dracula's enchantment, or is it something that existed in their natures pre-Dracula? Even the with seduction of Jonathan in the castle, the vampiresses appear harmless and innocent, but they soon graduate to their true natures; only this transformation happens faster than with the human females in the story.

The male to male interactions in the story are more about the struggle for power and dominance than about they about sexuality.

Answer 6

Wow - I never got any gay vibe from Dracula at all. In fact, the way he preys upon women seems distinctly hetero to me. He takses his three "brides" together when he feeds them the baby and makes a distinct point of telling them that they know full well that he knows how to love - having loved each of them. Jonathan Harker is crucial to his plans, rather than to his bed.
Overall Dracula is a tragic hero, with pride having led him down the path of evil hundreds of years before. His pride in himself as invincible being proves ill founded and leads him to his downfall.
So a novel about pride, power and the overcoming of evil for me, not nearly as deep as some would have it. I suppose the most potent theme for me is science versus superstition, as Van Helsing thwarts Dracula with knowledge.
Cheers, Steve.

Answer 7

Judith Halberstam's Skin Shows gives a very good overview on Stoker's Dracula, including questions of representation!

http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Shows-Gothic-Technology-Monsters/dp/0822316633/sr=8-2/qid=1169243117/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-0181969-5039976?ie=UTF8&s=books

It definitely is worth reading for anyone who is interested in such interesting questions.

Answer 8

Dracula by Bram Stoker never existed... Which is why I'd rather not study such a poor fiction book... I'm a Romanian, I know who Dracula was... :)

Answer 9

That is one of the only two books in history that I"ve read that put me to sleep after the first chapter. Don't get me wrong, I tried my hardest to love it, but I couldn't.