1977/01/01 by Stephanie Demetrakopoulos · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Gothic Literature and Media Analysis #Psychology of Social Influence #Literature: history, themes, analysis
paper · doi:10.2307/3346355
openalex publication_date 1977/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/03
Bram Stoker's Dracula embodies a collective dream reflecting Victorian sex roles and repression, but there is a facet of this novel which has never been noticed: Stoker's professed and how his brand of feminism influences the bipartite structure of the novel. This sexual repression and Stoker's concepts of women blend together in a peculiarly complementary fashion. Like many current depictions of liberated women, Stoker's heroine Mina is most feminine when aping masculine pseudo-rationality and eighteenth-century gentlemanly stoicism; she is, however, typically Victorian in her sexual repression. Stoker's attempt at feminism in this novel is explicit, but the other appeals of this best seller are subliminal.