GOTHIC PLAN
DRACULA
Stoker’s upholding of late Victorian values and patriarchal demonising of women/sexuality
AO1
“Both thrilling and repulsive” – Harker’s sexual desire for the women and an underlying fear of it
“High aquiline noses… dark piercing eyes… white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their
voluptuous lips” – exaggerated beauty of female vampires
“Dreamy fear… made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time deadly fear”
“Half smothered child” – antithesis of maternal female stereotypes
“I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” – H’s sexual desire
but underlying fear
“If only women could have 3 spouses” – Lucy
“Angelic beauty” – about L
“He had even brushed Lucy’s hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples” – Van H
“Her breathing grew stertorous” – Lucy
“The painted teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth” – Lucy’s presentation
“Mercy-bearing stake” phallic symbol used to show masculine strength when murdering female
sexuality of Lucy
“I must be careful not to patronise her” – Dr Seward
“Some old Oriental band of brigands”
“Good women tell all their lives… such things that angels can read” – Van H
AO3
Lombroso Criminal Woman 1893
o Criminality could be identified in physical features
The Fallen Woman
o In C18th and C19th fiction, this characterisation was related to the loss of a woman’s innocence
and chastity
o Victorian moralists warned against the consequences of losing one’s virtue
o Restricted women’s sexuality to reproduction in marriage
Orientalism
o The view that whatever is non-Western is inferior and evil threat to Western bourgeoise
society that must be defeated
Patmore’s Angel in the House 1854
o Female identity as ‘pure, virtuous, asexual, passive and demure’
o Should stay in their domestic sphere
Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies 1865
o ‘Women must be incorruptibly good’
Acton 1857
o Women were uninterested in sex
o ‘A modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself’
Biblical Ref – Recording Angels
o Protestants believe angels record all your life for angels/God to read on Judgement Day a
means of proving one’s faith to gain mercy
Anne Radcliffe’s On the Supernatural in Poetry 1826 – supernatural explained
o Representation of prejudices within Western society
AO5
“Sex is the monster Stoker fears the most” – Hindle
1
DRACULA
Stoker’s upholding of late Victorian values and patriarchal demonising of women/sexuality
AO1
“Both thrilling and repulsive” – Harker’s sexual desire for the women and an underlying fear of it
“High aquiline noses… dark piercing eyes… white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their
voluptuous lips” – exaggerated beauty of female vampires
“Dreamy fear… made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time deadly fear”
“Half smothered child” – antithesis of maternal female stereotypes
“I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” – H’s sexual desire
but underlying fear
“If only women could have 3 spouses” – Lucy
“Angelic beauty” – about L
“He had even brushed Lucy’s hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples” – Van H
“Her breathing grew stertorous” – Lucy
“The painted teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth” – Lucy’s presentation
“Mercy-bearing stake” phallic symbol used to show masculine strength when murdering female
sexuality of Lucy
“I must be careful not to patronise her” – Dr Seward
“Some old Oriental band of brigands”
“Good women tell all their lives… such things that angels can read” – Van H
AO3
Lombroso Criminal Woman 1893
o Criminality could be identified in physical features
The Fallen Woman
o In C18th and C19th fiction, this characterisation was related to the loss of a woman’s innocence
and chastity
o Victorian moralists warned against the consequences of losing one’s virtue
o Restricted women’s sexuality to reproduction in marriage
Orientalism
o The view that whatever is non-Western is inferior and evil threat to Western bourgeoise
society that must be defeated
Patmore’s Angel in the House 1854
o Female identity as ‘pure, virtuous, asexual, passive and demure’
o Should stay in their domestic sphere
Ruskin’s Sesame and Lilies 1865
o ‘Women must be incorruptibly good’
Acton 1857
o Women were uninterested in sex
o ‘A modest woman seldom desires any sexual gratification for herself’
Biblical Ref – Recording Angels
o Protestants believe angels record all your life for angels/God to read on Judgement Day a
means of proving one’s faith to gain mercy
Anne Radcliffe’s On the Supernatural in Poetry 1826 – supernatural explained
o Representation of prejudices within Western society
AO5
“Sex is the monster Stoker fears the most” – Hindle
1
