Sunday, September 9, 2018

Why did some Victorians want to ban Bram Stoker's Dracula?

Victorian society was repressive in many ways towards women, particularly where expression of emotion, economic independence, and, especially, sexuality were concerned. Remember, at the time Dracula was published, women did not yet have the right to vote, the roles that they were allowed to occupy in society were extremely limited by the dominant male establishment, and the behavioral ideal for women was basically one of silent, helpful complacency.
Mina’s character exemplifies the ideal Victorian woman. Although a teacher at the novel’s beginning (one of the few career paths open to single women of that era), upon her marriage, she abandons that position in order to further her husband’s career. Unlike her aristocratic friend, Lucy, Mina is woefully naive in matters pertaining to intimacy.
Sexuality was a particularly taboo subject in Victorian society: the less the “proper” woman of the time knew of it, the better, and the lengths to which Victorians went to avoid any references to anything even remotely sexual seem comical today. Take Podonsky’s citation of Levin (2010) for example: “A woman could not show her legs or even say ‘leg.’ Even pianos had ‘limbs,’ and those (wore) fluffy coverings so as not to be seen.”
The vampire is, at its core, a sexual predator, a stranger (foreigner) who invades homes, takes whatever he desires, and leaves his victims infected (in this case, with blood lust). This is exactly what Dracula does. He intrudes into the private sanctuaries of his unsuspecting victims (the bedroom Mina occupies at Dr. Seward’s being an excellent example) and captures his prey via temptation and seduction. Even the act of infecting his victims with vampirism recalls the sexual act in its penetrative nature, and once infected, those victims shed all mortal inhibitions. Think of the three women vampires who prey upon Jonathan in Dracula’s castle. All are beautiful, voluptuous, sexually assertive (if not overtly aggressive), and, because of their uninhibited nature, all are deemed unnatural, devils possessed by demonic influence—as were women of this time who threw off the yoke of submission and dared assert their sexual independence.
Given the restrictive attitudes to sexuality at the time, it is not surprising that some Victorian readers found Stoker’s novel so shocking.
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1678/bram-stokers-dracula-a-reflection-and-rebuke-of-victorian-society

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/dracula

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