Homoeroticism in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The evolution of era and the changes in socio-cultural faculties take aimly reflect on the type and the mainstream of culture indoors the literary and visual arts genre. Following the parade and proliferation of feminism and wowork force empowerment in literature and popular media, a new type of theme evolved or branched out mankinderoticismwhich had invaded the literary categories. Homoeroticism widely distri barelyedly pertains to homo or analogous-sex depiction of love and longing (Murray and Roscoe, 1997). Perhaps one of the near famous and horrifying stories of the twentieth and the contemporary century is the Bram relief pitchers genus genus genus genus genus genus genus genus genus Dracula.While the record is typically horrendous and strangely lulling to the reader, at that place is in all likelihood a complexer implication on the mental responses, which hinges on deviant port of the pull downs main character Count Dracula. Strangely, the character Dracula is an uncharacteristic archetype of the 3rd genre. In the subsequent paper, an analysis on the psychological behavior and his erstwhile characteristics of Bram stokers Dracula pass on be conducted and corre fresh it to the possibility of homoerotic inundations that normally destines mirthful literature.Additionally, the paper aims to define the psychological state/ teach/behavior of the author Bram fire fighter by investigating given and kn induce literatures/readings on his biography. Such undertaking dirty dog also possibly suggest the presence/absence of homoerotic preliminary of the author.II. The Third Gender and Queer Theory Modernity in the late 1960s to the contemporary period explores the fundamentals and the nonion and ideologies of hetero versedity which extends to thematic c at one timepts in literature.The tenets of sex is questioned and hereto put forth as kindly equity, an underlying idea of democratization, contests the precepts of gender and sex. What is b iologically straight is devolved with identity reconstructive memory and partiality towards knowledgeable orientation. Accordingly, the new genderthe third gendera referral to aerials, lesbians, bi familiars, and insistences play minority in the modern society. Homosexuals, in its simplest sense, atomic number 18 the non-heterosexuals. They control distinct gustatory sensation for the same biological sexual orientation.They are the field goal term for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and closets. Faculties of psycho affable behavior explore the deviance and the non-normative sexual practice of pederastics. It is admit that gays are psycho genial deviance, non a sickness just a affable reality. The queer society, bearing some forms of behavior and principles, and language materializes in some(prenominal) literatures as some queer theorist claim. Thus there is apocalypse and imposition of third gender structures and labels from an external mainstream culture of the savech bush league into literature.Here we explore the unconscious inclusion of pronounced homosexuality of the author Bram fireman by the vampire Dracula. Bram Stokers vampiric Dracula is thus scrutinized victimisation queer theoryprocess of discovering and exposing underlying meanings, distinctions, and relations of power in larger culture that others oversimplify. The capitalization of overt heterosexuality of the vampiric Dracula is exa exploitd overlaying the leap of the character as simply organism a blood-sucking un- abruptly organism.A major counsel of the queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and the Psychosocial Principle of Sigmund Freud will be utilised as a tool for ground the literature and Dracula and produce the vampires methods of homoeroticism.III. A Background on Bram Stokers Dracula and Eroticism Dracula is an epistolary novel-consisting of a series of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and ca pital of the United Kingdom newspapers and phonograph cylindersoriginally published in 1897 and autho rubor by Bram Stoker.Its literary compartmentalization / genre is extensive covering that of vampire literature, horror fiction, knightly and invasion literature. The novel enjoyed the peak of its literary success in the twentieth century with the proliferation of television and media several(prenominal) adaptations of the novels vampire found in theater and film interpretations Dracula (1931) The Horror of Dracula (1958) Bram Stokers Dracula (1992) Nosferatu (1922).Modern accounts ever of Dracula always universally agree that it exudes and distorts strong sexual energy What has become clearer and clearer, particularly in the fin de siecle years of the twentieth century, is that the novels power has its source in the sexual implications of the blood exchange mingled with the vampire and his victims Dracula has embedded in it a very strike psychosexual allegory whose meaning I a m not for sure Stoker entirely understood that there is a demonic compact at work in the world whose intent is to eroticize women.In Dracula we try how that force transforms Lucy Westenra, a beautiful nineteen-year-old virgin, into a shameless slut (Wolf 1992). starchy dammed sexual energy either repressed or expressed, agitation, revere, anxiety, and excitement are inundated in the Dracula. The demonic and psychosexual allegories of the Dracula suggest in variance, a repression just nowt end the monstrosity, a Freudian analogy of desires and hetero/homosexuality.III. Homoerotism and Dracula Homoerotism refers to the illustration of homosexual love and desire manifested through visual arts and literature.Although, it is more of a modern concept, Sedgwick acknowledged the pre-existence of such process in the puritanical date that hinges on pathological explanation of the homosexuals veering on the predisposition towards twain depravity and paederasty (Kaylor 2006). Dracula contains several obvious and not-so-obvious hints on the homoerotism that probably characterizes the restrained campaign of the homosexuals of the fresh Victorian Era. A. Parodies of Sexual Excesses of Dracula The chronicle of the myth contains flagitious sexual undertones and lunacys that encompass even that of the human characters of the story.Jonathan Harker exhibits full-bosomed tendencies towards the dark and desirous evil passions during his encounter with the Brides of Dracula All triple had brilliant white odontiasis, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. thither was something near them that made me uneasy, some yearning and at the same time fiendishly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked and destroy desire that they would kiss me with those red lips. Stokes brings in espy to the darker passions that are discretely enjoyed in the Late Victorian Era. Sex is not a sacred act but an indulgence of the senses and brain.The conscious aim is to explore sexuality in its nearly banal and radical sense. Through the Brides of Dracula, Stokes suggests the exploration of multiple sex partners. There is no limit to sexual freedom it exceeds gender and number, even. Such decadence or feast is patterned from the Greek paedaristic tradition and is patterned throughout the cascade of the story. The excitement of the underlying sexual tones is unmistakable and obviously designed given the pariah treatment for the unconventional during the Victorian Period. The homoerotic desires will continually persist throughout the entirety of the gothic novel.The eroticism for the record is strangely luring and animalistic. Dracula bades Harker into the world of secrecy, indulgence and delight, saying Welcome to my nominate Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring I am Dracula and I bid you welcome. Control is mocked Desire, satisfaction and all that suggests sexual indulgence are offered by Dracula. Beneath the civilized veneer of the aristocrat Dracula lay a perverted nature which implies the status of the homosexuals and the repressed sexuality of the tightlipped Victorian Period.Sexual harem, incestuous relationships, and men-to-men relations are discretely portray in the Bram Stokes Dracula albeit in a hyperbolic manner. The Brides of Dracula are not wakeless brides but in actuality, family relations of Dracula who bear a striking and similar morphological features with him which suggests, on the long run, a degree of incestuous relationship enjoyed by them. Aside from sexual harem and a hint of incest, men-to-men relation has played an important gene in the development of the sexual undertones of the Gothic novel.Ambiguity in sexual preference and the flexibility of Dracula for sexual predisposition is implicit when he admonishes his Brides who want to ravish Harker, This man belongs to me Such possession and temperamental display of genitive case attitude differs from his statement onYes, I too nates love. You yourselves throw out signalize it from the past. Is it not so? Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him at your will. Dracula psychosexual conditioning is not clear.However, it is asserted that the ambiguity and the his sexual inversions may rush been an index number for the confusion and the psychological meanderings of a homosexuals presented in a strict and stuffy society. B. Effeminate Dracula Perhaps the most striking quality of Dracula is his striking and handsome appearance which deviates from the ugly vampires of Eastern European folklore Draculas depend was a strong a very strong aquiline, with high pair of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils with lofty domed forehead, and copper growing s give noticetily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere.His eyebrows were very massive, safe about meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The let l oose, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed the chin was across-the-board and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. The general effect of Dracula is a Byronic ideology of handsome man.Beauty is not just a female concept but for the male Dracula as well with the perfection of his features which are highly popular during the Victorian times. The allusion of having red lips and long pointed nails are physical attributes or endowments of female genre. Additionally, Draculas innate cissy characteristics extends to his housekeeping capacitiesmaintaining Jonathan Harkers bed and readying of his meals. Dracula is mental representation of the beautiful morphological male, not nec essarily masculine but neither does it approach the feminine standards.C. Unma pareg the Monstrosity of Dracula through Queer Theory As Sedwick puts it, to gain a better understanding of the third gender, it is necessary that a thorough study must be conducted that transcends the barriers the standard binary program oppositions that limit understanding on sexuality. A thorough examination of the psychological constructs of Dracula reveals the heteroerotic chasm derrieres his monstrosity and vampiric qualities. One of the major proponents behind a on-key understanding of unmarriedity and motivating is Sigmund Freud.Freud posits that unconscious heap of the mind, the submerged thoughts as one puts it, is the major motivating force behind an individuals actions and thoughts. What is essential is not the actual conscious thoughts but the unconscious thoughts. Could it be that behind the monstrosity of Dracula lay a barrage of confused emotions on gender position and preference, w hich, is poured into his vampiric tendencies? Dracula is portrayed as an infernal addict by Dr. Van Helsing The Nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil.This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages, he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command, he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not, he can, within his range, direct the brokers, the storm, the fog, the thunder, he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, he can grow and become small, and he can at times gasify and come unknown. The hyperbolic portrayal of the senseless proportions of Draculas fey capacitie s denotes a deeper meaning behind the literaty texts.An important venue to consider is the second of speech acts which is use as labels for the gay lingo. Beyond morphology and monstrous appearance and punctuated by speech acts and behavior, covers an ambiguity, a sexual inversion that characterizes the secret and anonymous desires of the third gender minority in the Victorian Period. The dissolving of the boundaries of the self and the thorough subversion of the conventional Victorian gender codes, constrains the mobility of sexual desire of Dracula. Dracula exhibits erratic behavior and sexual excesses that denotes the male bodily process or supremacy of the old times. Dracula secretely covets Jonathan Harker during his address to his bridesHe is mineSuch statement defies the normative concept of heterosexual relations Dracula, in this single statement of truth exposes once his secrets and his homosexual side. The repeating element of the storyDracula is a highly sexed creatu re which spews the shadow and vagaries on sexual enjoyment. The annotation of the Vampiric mouth is corollary to an orifice that denotes the transcendental someone of the count There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both stir and repulsiveI could see in the moonlight the moisture bright on the red tongue as it lapped the white sharp teeth. The eroticism of the vampiric mouth presents the dis-ambiguity amid males and females. Dracula constantly victimizes local individual with no gender preferences sinking his sharp teeth into an erogenous spot on the neck.On the whole scale, such vampiric qualities reveal lurid representations on the binary subversion of gender. Woman is not just receptors or vessels sunk with Dracula fangs and neither are men simply the penetrator. The role of Draconian mouth extends beyond hyperbole into an lying of gender roles. Such is the power of the mouth The Brides of Dracula have the equal capacity to sink their sharp teeth, an allusion to f emales position in sexual proclivities. The transfusion of blood and either bloodily fluids across piece is not just about sucking the life force but on the whole this pertains to the unity and social equity beyond gender categorization.Dracula being a homosexual extremist transfers blood when sucking an equivocation of gender roles and a unwitting question of the association of the gay minority into the bilaterally intractable society. Blood ties and acceptance. Blood. This is what ties humans together and the rejection of Draculas blood coupled with the fear and anxiety that characterizes the society during vampire hunts presents a parallelization of the misunderstood and an unaccepted presence of gay roles. The Dracula is a monster, and a new order of humanity that is not understood by the old Victorian society. The monster presents un-comfort, distention, and somewhat weird and curiously winning but otherwise shunned away because it is not normal.Heterosexual association of Dracula with women, his close victimization of them presents Dracula as not simply just the un-choosey aggressor within the psychological premise, the deliberate choice of Dracula for women is a transformation method for his unfulfilled sexual ambition with Jonathan Harker. Draculas desire with a male Harker and his victimization is always postponed by a series of events. In the end, to alleviate his sexual frustration for the male species, Dracula poured his frustrations in extreme proportions in the female genre. Draculas homoerotic desires is gratify by his three Brides Draculas daughters offer masculine version for penetration with Harker as the recipientLower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and the chin and seemed to fasten on my pharynxI could tincture the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the supersensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of the two sharp teeth, just touching and pa using there. I shut my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waitedwaited with a whipstitch heart. This is the final and most pronounced text wherein there is a direct representation of male penetration vis-a-vis the female anatomy (from the mouth down anyway) and the referral to languor state ecstasy prior to penetration. Harker anticipated the penetrated waitedwaited with a beating heart but the act was not bound to pass away since Dracula barges in and shouts, How dare you touch him, any of you?How dare you frame in eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back I tell you This man belongs to me. The interruption suggests, more so the line, This man belongs to me, denotes homoeroticism on the part of Dracula, but such libidinous desires will never be realized its focal recipient Harker but instead will be displaced with other women. There are actually no male-to-male aggressions on the narrative but rather suggestive implications covered under sexual undertones and motivation inset under the Dracos language. IV. Homoeroticism a nd Bram Stoker The issuance of Dracula and the homoerotic themes scandalized under the narrative, created a question on the motivation of the author Bram Stoker.It has been noted above that the horror story is a social commentary on the misunderstanding and the treatment of homosexuals as well as exploration on the homoerotism of Dracula. Perhaps Dracula is merely an extension of the true author. We contend that the vividness of the character Dracula is either a representation of the closet Bram Stoker or if not his close friend and correspondent, the multi-sex orientated (bisexual, paederastic and homosexual even metrosexual with current standards Oscar Wilde. It must be realized that Stokes began piece of music the story one month after Oscar Wilde was legally cross-examined for sodomy. The ignorance of connection between the two was due to the absence of literature that would connote Wildes name.Yet what is not apparently there may exist there by using using deliberate names t o fulfill the gaps in communication. It is very come-at-able that Dracula is Wilde a horror allegory for a gay closet trapped and afraid during the exertion. The Oscar Wilde trial is one of the most scandalous and instructive nature of the Victorian underground in the nineteenth century. The trial commences the legal prosecution of the gays under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 which states the condemnation of homosexual acts not amounting to buggery. The crisis of the closet is untenable whereas Stokes wanted to embraced the ideology of homosexuality, common fear for persecution of gays forced him to be discrete and displaced his ideas on Dracula.Stoker has been many times associated with Withman and his dissipate correspondent with him. His admires Whitman for functioning as badges in homosexual recognition in England fin-de-siecle. Stoker writes an insidious letter to Whitman I would like to call you Comrade and to let the cat out of the bag to you as men who are not poets do not oftentimes talk. I think that at first a man would be repentant, for a man cannot in a moment break the use of goods and services of comparative reticence that has become a second nature to him, but I know I would not be long ashamed to be natural before you. You have shaken off the shackles and your move are free. I have the shackles on my soldiers and stillbut I have no wings.If you are going to read this letter any further I should tell you that I am not ready to give up all else so far as lyric go. The love letter address to Whitman suggests the fight for gay freedom of movement vis-a-vis his literary writings. The metaphysical connection between the two men is demonstrated in the letters. Gays are not simply gays because of their sexual quirks or fancies but more on their wound up predisposition. As Stokes further asserted, How lovable a thing it is for a strong healthy man with a womans eye and a childs wishes to feel that he can speak so to a man who can be if he wishes a father, and brother and wife to his soul. Stokes believed that he is diverse from the normative kind of human species. It is not known if Stokers presumed gayness resulted from the classical Oedipus imbalance or is a genetically determined trait. However it is clear that he identifies himself to be a different kind, those who skillful sodomy and has distinct preference for young males. While it is true that he is a proud member of the third class, tradition and fear of experiencing social pariah urges him towards complacency and discretion. Stoker cannot openly write his intellectual positions on the assertion of third gender roles in the Victorian society and their alleged(prenominal) coming out.Stokes later became a member of the organization of gays with Whitman as a special comrade. Oscar Wildes trial prove to be the turning point of decisions for his literary career. The infusion of homoeroticism within Dracula is so discretely hidden that, for a common re ader, Dracula is nothing but bat-like demon. Within the realms of persecution, Dracula is perhaps the safest route for gay literary ideology and at the same time, avoiding inspection from the anti-homosexual Victorian law enforcers. Wildes trial forces the author Bram Stoker to secrecy. Irving also enjoys a strong emotional discourse with Irving, a gay poet In those moments of our mutual emotion he too had found a friend. Soul had looked into soulFrom that hour began the friendship as ambiguous, as close, as lasting can be between two menAnd the sight of his picture before me, with those loving words, the record of a time of deep emotion and full understanding of us both, each for a time of deep emotion and full understanding of us both, each for the other, unmans me once again as I write. The souls of the two distinguished individuals commune it borders beyond physical adoration. They understand each others needs and ambitions portrayal mutuality among mena mirror of homosexualit y that is very delusory and the parameters rather abstract. Stokers love for Irving is open, honest and metaphysical there were no records to the consummation of their love but Stoker, many times, admitted to the alluding most profound male relationship of all time. Note that in Dracula, there is no consummation between the vampire Dracula and the human Jonathan Harker.Perhaps Stoker wants to enter the essential element of third gender relations which hinges on emotional and intellectual connections. That is perhaps, why, Stoker condemns the vulgar representation of the third gender of Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde, during his trial, exposing the darker sides of the third sex legion. He commented, Vices so flaggitous, so opposed to nature, even in its lowest and crudest forms that the poignancy of moral disgust is lost in the horror. Stoker argues that some gay literature are censorious and exploits and denigrates the essentials of gayhood. Stoker always asserts discretion even in his letters and literary works.Such discretion federal official under rigidity of censorship allowed him to explore the subtextual tools in implicating homoeroticism within his Dracula story. Wilde was Stokers primary rival but whether he sympathizes with his enemys crimes is another story. One thing is certain the Oscar Wilde trial forced Bram Stoker to methodically used discretion in several of his correspondence. V. Conclusion The paper discussed the homoeroticism in Dracula and the psycho social ideologies that lay basic foundation to the horrorific nature of the epistolary literature. Beyond horror, the Freudian theory of subconscious explained the motives of the antagonist Dracula. Sedwicks principle on especial(a) structured binary opposition to categorized the atypical Dracula.In understanding Dracula and its author Bram Stoker, subtextual language and discrete elements embedded within the horror story and the correspondence of Stoker to some of his friends reveal insights in t he subversive gay literature. Homoeroticism of Dracula reveals the culture of third gender during the late Victorian period. Dracula, a homosexual closet beyond the hyperbolic monster demonstrates effeminate morphology and behavior. More so his strange attraction to Jonathan Harker. Displacement behavior explained his opinion on sexual gratification. Dracula, is perhaps, Wilde, a representation of the archenemy of Bram Stokes during his collegiate years.It is the literary by-product of the censorious laws of old England which was heightened during Wildes trial.Works CitedDalby, R. and Hughes, W.. Bram Stoker A Bibliography. Westcliff-on-Sea desert Island Books, 2005.Freedman, Alfred M. and Harold I. Kaplan. Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry . Baltimore Williams & Wilkins Company, 1967.Hughes, William. Beyond Dracula Bram Stokers Fiction and its pagan Contexts Basingstoke Macmillan, 2000.McKenna, N. The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde. Random House, 2004. Sedgwick, E. K. Epistemology of the Closet. California UP, 1990.Wolf, L. . Bram Stokers Dracula. Signet absolute Edition. USA Penguin, 1990.