Changes to Society
Blood sucking vampires, voluptuous women, and a quest to end evil. All of these are found within the book Dracula but, what does this story reveal about how society has evolved? Society shapes the way people, culture, and literature develop. Different factors can play into the way that a society faces different issues and concepts. Bram Stoker's Dracula reflects many of Victorian society's religious and social values as exemplified by the actions, symbolism, development, and archetypes of the characters which differ from modern society's values.
The way religion has shaped and has had an absolutely profound effect upon society as a whole is undeniable but modern society has somewhat moved away from the need of religion in …show more content…
Woman in Victorian England were supposed to attend to the household, children, and were serve their husbands. Mina in Dracula perfectly exudes those qualities in a letter to Lucy, “Well, my dear, what could I say? I could only tell him that I was the happiest woman in all the wide world, and that I had nothing to give him except myself, my life, and my trust, and that with these went my love and duty for all the days of my life.” (Stoker 114). This displays how Mina is dedicated to Jonathan. This is different now because it has become accepted that marriage no longer has to last a life time and it is not seen unacceptable to get a divorce. David A. Galens explains, “The novel underscores the expected roles of men and women in Victorian times. Women were expected to be gentle and ladylike and, most of all, subservient to men.” (Galens 31). These views have been shattered by modern society in which a woman can be seen as strong. He continues his point further by elaborating, “Even more important than a woman's devotion to her husband was the idea that women, at least gentlewomen, should be pure. As part of this, men were expected to respect a woman's privacy and never burst in on her when they might catch her in an undressed state.” (Galens 32). Victorian men are expected to be gentlemen at all times and women are supposed to ladylike. Humanity have moved from this and although is respected it is no longer normal to always be
Blood sucking vampires, voluptuous women, and a quest to end evil. All of these are found within the book Dracula but, what does this story reveal about how society has evolved? Society shapes the way people, culture, and literature develop. Different factors can play into the way that a society faces different issues and concepts. Bram Stoker's Dracula reflects many of Victorian society's religious and social values as exemplified by the actions, symbolism, development, and archetypes of the characters which differ from modern society's values.
The way religion has shaped and has had an absolutely profound effect upon society as a whole is undeniable but modern society has somewhat moved away from the need of religion in …show more content…
Woman in Victorian England were supposed to attend to the household, children, and were serve their husbands. Mina in Dracula perfectly exudes those qualities in a letter to Lucy, “Well, my dear, what could I say? I could only tell him that I was the happiest woman in all the wide world, and that I had nothing to give him except myself, my life, and my trust, and that with these went my love and duty for all the days of my life.” (Stoker 114). This displays how Mina is dedicated to Jonathan. This is different now because it has become accepted that marriage no longer has to last a life time and it is not seen unacceptable to get a divorce. David A. Galens explains, “The novel underscores the expected roles of men and women in Victorian times. Women were expected to be gentle and ladylike and, most of all, subservient to men.” (Galens 31). These views have been shattered by modern society in which a woman can be seen as strong. He continues his point further by elaborating, “Even more important than a woman's devotion to her husband was the idea that women, at least gentlewomen, should be pure. As part of this, men were expected to respect a woman's privacy and never burst in on her when they might catch her in an undressed state.” (Galens 32). Victorian men are expected to be gentlemen at all times and women are supposed to ladylike. Humanity have moved from this and although is respected it is no longer normal to always be