Analysis Of Bram Stoker 's ' Dracula ' Essay

Author Bram Stoker, explores the thematic implications of vampirism as a cultural symbol in eighteenth century society in relation to the moral ethics of desire pertaining specifically to sexuality. In his novel, Dracula, Stoker continually uses the image of the vampire threatening the lives and moralistic nature of the other characters as a representation of deviant sexuality, particularly homosexual desire, as a predatory force. This pattern of images suggests the rapacious nature of homosexuality threatens all classes of society and condemns same-sex relations as a form of contagion that is representative of historical anxieties pertaining to the other. This can be seen through the representation of Dracula and his interest in male and female victims, the inversion of gendered traits, as well as the depiction of vampiric execution as representations of perceived cures for homosexuality. The themes presented within Stoker’s novel are representative of a heterosexually dominant vision of society that otherized the homosexual as a monstrous figure as a didactic message about acceptable sexual behavior. And so, this novel, through the representation of the vampire warns of the monstrosity of the homosexual other and works to quell the spread of deviant sexuality, thus representing the complex social anxieties of Victorian society. Throughout the 1800s, the politics of “sexuality became a major social issue” in the organization of “Victorian” society, culminating in…