Dracula Essay

Symbolism, Imagery, and Metaphors are used extensively in the novel Dracula.

Explain how “Maternity and motherhood” are used as symbolism, Imagery and what could it be a metaphor for. Do you think Stoker was successful in using this image? And how do you believe the imagery provided may have contributed to latter vampire tales?

I posed this question because I thought it was interesting that the only mother we see is Mrs. Westenra, Lucy's mother. Stoker kills her off early on the novel, and consequently Mina takes over as the motherly figure. The novels speaks about motherhood as a holy gift, almost like a spirit that can be invoked, “We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked; I felt this big, sorrowing man's head resting on me, as though it were that of the baby that some day may lie on my bosom, and I stroked his hair as though he were my own child. (17.58-59) ’’. However Stoker contrasts this imagery with Lucy, who is portrayed to being quite the opposite of a “motherly” figure, but rather frightening, especially when he has her feeding off young children.

I believe this motion or imagery created of maternity and motherhood has contributed towards latter vampire tales as female vampires are now thought of as diabolical mothers, instead of the saint-l9ike mother Mina is portrayed as.

The roles of sexuality are greatly discussed in the book Dracula. In what ways does the novel discuss sexuality? How does the novel represent sexual behavior in the eyes of Victorian England at the time in which the novel was written? How does this view of sexual behavior differ from the sexuality in our time now?

The role of sexuality is addressed in a way which is perhaps confusing to our time era. Women of the Victorian era were treated very much like second class citizens; they were idealized and were placed under a huge amount of expectations. Sex and pleasure were not things a Victorian...