In Victorian England, everyone was forced to repress any sexual ideas or feelings they had. Woman were either considered good and clean, or were seductive. Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, expresses the two-dimensional view of Victorian society as a group of young adults quest to kill the vampire, Count Dracula. Throughout the story, society's fear of sexuality is presented through the perversion of purity.
One example of the perversion of purity is shown through the contrast between what the society believed woman should be and what woman became when they became vampires. Throughout the story, the woman are put off, in an effort to keep them decent and "good." While the men are trying to figure out where Dracula is and how to get to him, Mina is left out. The men tell her that, "You are too precious to us to have such risk. When we part tonight, you no more must question. We shall tell you all in good time. We are men and are able to bear, but you must be our star and our hope." Women were expected to be proper while men had much freedom to do as they pleased. On the contrary, when women became vampires they became voluptuous and seductive. When Jonathan is in Count Dracula's castle, three women come to him, trying to seduce him. In describing them, Jonathan states that, "All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips." What is considered the most evil when they made men feel sexually attracted a s Jonathan does here. Also, in his interaction with the three ladies, Jonathan has more sexual contact then he does in the entire novel with his wife, Mina. Women in Victorian society were either virgins or married, otherwise they were impure. When Dracula preys on women, he turns them into perverted counterparts to their former selves.
Also, all of the actions of vampires are perverted images of the purest most innocent actions, while the pure men are forced to twist impure actions for the greater good. Dracula takes what are considered good and distorts them. When Dracula is attacking Mina, he forces her into nursing blood from his chest. Dracula's "right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress." Nursing is giving nutrients o the most innocent people, babies, so when Dracula twists the image of nursing to sucking blood from a chest he is attacking their ideas of goodness. Too counter Dracula's actions and destroy the vampire in Lucy, her fiancee, Arthur Holmwood, drives the stake through her body, returning her to her original goodness. The description of this action is very sexual and forceful giving the imagery of rape. Arthur was, "driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it. His face was set, and high duty seemed to shine through it." When Dracula preys on the women he is looked upon as disgusting, but because Arthur believed he was attacking for the greater good, it was considered acceptable. While Dracula perverts innocent ideas and twists them into his evil world, the protagonists take the imagery of perversion and warp it into a good action.
In, Dracula, Bram Stoker shows the two dimensional world of Victorian England and how there was pure and impure but no middle ground. This story relates to the modern world because often, we try to categorize people as friendly and nice, or mean and jerks, while rarely one person is either one or the other. Bram Stoker's community a very small view of what society could include. In Dracula, both sides of good and evil are represented, but there is no acknowledgement of anywhere between the two.
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