Let's Talk Sex

It is interesting how sexual expression is represented in Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel Dracula and I want to take a look at the vampires versus the humans. Stoker was writing in an era where sex wasn’t discussed nearly as openly as it is now. Just three years before Dracula was published, Ruth Smyther’s released the satirical Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride booklet in 1894, filled with tips for how newlywed women should “endure” sex. Her tips include: “when he finds her, she should lie as still as possible. Bodily motion could be interpreted as sexual excitement by the optimistic husband. Sex, when it cannot be prevented, should be practiced only in total darkness” and “if he attempts to kiss her on the lips she should turn her head slightly so that the kiss falls harmlessly on her cheek instead. If he lifts her gown and attempts to kiss her any place else she should quickly pull the gown back in place, spring from the bed, and announce that nature calls her to the toilet.” These “tips” were satirical criticisms on Victorian thought about sex and obviously carry a very negative connotation with the expression of sexual desire. The silence on sex is reflected in the lack of any recorded sexual tension between newlyweds Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray. This is very different from the sexual expression between the vampiresses and Harker. When seeing the vampiresses for the first time Jonathan felt “a wicked burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” and laid waiting “looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation.” Harker was clearly interested in the proceedings. One of the vampiresses “went on her knees, and bent over me, simply gloating” with a “deliberate voluptuousness as she arched her neck and licked her lips.” This is a sexually confident female. “Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and seemed about to fasten on my throat.” Her lips about to finally touch his neck, Harker “closed his eyes in languorous ecstasy and waited with a beating heart.” I mean we can really see how eager Harker is in this scene surrounded by the sexually empowered vampiresses. So what is Stoker trying to do? Is he trying to explore sexual expression in a way that it hadn’t really been before? What does it imply about the monsters who are behind the sexual fervor?

I got the Smyther quotes from this blog:

http://historyofsexuality.umwblogs.org/pre-20th-century/victorian-era-2/

The Dracula quotes are from the end of chapter 3