Similarities Between Dracula And The Haunting Of Hill House

In the Gothic novels, “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson there are several overlapping themes acknowledging and challenging cultural ideas of gender including gender roles, and gender sexuality. Cultural ideas of gender roles and gender sexuality are explored and questioned in both gothic novels; as the both novels, in their own way, challenge the current cultural ideas surrounding boundaries of gender in that place and time that the novels were written in, respectively. This is another way in which the gothic novel may be a “writing of excess” as both of the gothic novels stretch the cultural ideas surrounding the boundaries of gender and gender sexuality of their own respectable times and explore …show more content…
At the time “Dracula” was written, the current gender culture in the time was very much the standard of the strong, brave, manly man and the meek, humble, woman. In “Dracula”, the gender roles are explored by being switched; as the men are portrayed with womanly qualities and the women are portrayed with manly qualities, in order to confound the two gender categories. Much like “Dracula”, in “The Haunting of Hill House” the gender roles of the traditional nuclear family are questioned, especially the caretaking mother role that is usually done by a woman.
Also, in “Dracula”, the women are subjugated to the allusion of the New Woman, a current culture shift at the time that Dracula was written; the New Woman was the opposite of the traditional obedient house wife that threatened patriarchy. Lastly, both “Dracula” and “The Haunting of Hill House” challenge the conventional gender sexuality of the time, by using several literary and plot techniques to blur the lines between homosexuality and heterosexuality in order to serve the different conventions of