The theme of morality

The theme of morality is one which Stoker efforts to explore in a plethora of ways throughout the
novel, most notably in the immorality of sexual dominance in women which plagues the heroic
protagonists numerous. Indeed, Stoker not only seeks to emphasise the extreme sinfulness and
depravity of the ‘voluptuous’ brides of Dracula, but he also utilises the shocking character of Lucy
before and after death to stress the blurred lines between feminine morality and immorality. In
doing so, Stoker attempts to appeal to the traditionalist proportion of his readership who believed
that male dominance in the workplace and household was necessary for the running of the country,
warning them of the terrible societal consequences inherent with the collapse of the patriarchy, in a
time when startling concepts of the ‘New Woman’ were beginning to increase in popularity.

Perhaps the most obvious caution implemented by Stoker against the immorality of sexual
promiscuity in women is the description of the malignant Brides of Dracula who instil a terrible,
blasphemous sexual desire within Harker, tempting him into moral decline. Certainly, the shockingly
sensual nature of the description heightens the idea that the brides are the direct embodiment of
the contemporary fear that women would turn into destructive monsters if the patriarchy was not
properly restored; they are aggressive, domineering and extremely sexually motivated, making them
the opposite of the perfect stereotypical Victorian woman. A prime example of this is the description
of the ‘ruby of [the brides’] voluptuous lips’. The repeated description of the Brides’ lips and mouths
increases the sensual nature of the passage dramatically in their detail, particularly as the mouth is a
stereotypically erotic part of the body. Certainly, we could analyse the symbolic nature of the
adjective ‘ruby’, which conjures connotations of danger, lust, and anger all at once; in doing so
Stoker highlights the extremely conflicted emotions within Harker induced by the sexual promiscuity
of the Brides; the loss of his rational thought is one of many terrible effects of female promiscuity
which Stoker uses to highlight its terrible threat to the morality of good Victorian men. On the other
hand, we could argue that Stoker uses the ‘ruby’ colouring of their lips to create images of precious
stones; he highlights to the reader the irresistible nature of the Brides as they use their domineering
force to lull Harker into moral degradation. Undeniably, the idea that they conjured a ‘wicked,
burning desire’ for a kiss within Harker is testament to the fact that many people were fearful of the
corrupt power possessed by women to immorally remove the nobility and dignity from a virtuous
gentleman through sexual dominance. Indeed, the use of the emotive adjectives ‘wicked’ and
‘burning’ not only highlight the sinful lust which the Brides have brought about in Harker,
encroaching on his masculine decency, but the latter one could also be said to hold connotations of
fire; it is as if Stoker seeks to make a link between the desire immorally induced by the Brides in
Stoker, and the very pits of hell themselves, highlighting its sin. Alternatively, Stoker possibly seeks
to further highlight the perversity of the Brides through the use of the quasi-rhythmic plosives used
throughout the phrase; not only do they aurally create a harsh tone to pair with the sin being
committed, but they perhaps also mimic the sound of Harker’s ‘beating heart’ which is rapidly
thumping in his stimulated state. In emphasising his enormous (steady on there lad) arousal, Stoker
thus further highlights the extent of Harker’s moral decline as a result of the sexual promiscuity and
feminine immorality of the Brides. We could analyse this even deeper through Stoker’s use of
sentence structure in the previous sentence; the phrasal parallelism used is perhaps a metaphor for
the mental struggle induced within Harker between his terrible lust, and his pride, virtuosity and
loyalty to Mina. Indeed, this mental battle is further reiterated mere moments later in the ‘agony of
delightful anticipation’ which Harker is flung into. The use of the oxymoronic phrase not only
emphasises Harker’s decline in morality as he awaits such a terrible deed with so great an
anticipation, but it also suggests a mental confusion and pain; he is left in anguish as he realises that
the power and control has been removed from him in a perverted twisting of stereotypical norms,
and he is left helpless to the cruelty of the Brides. At the time, women were beginning to deny their
traditional roles in the house as housewife’s, mothers and husbands, replacing them instead with
the concept of the ‘New Woman’ as they hoped to gain the vote, higher education and higher paying
jobs. It was for this reason that many contemporaries, including Stoker himself, were worried that
society would no longer be able to function without women at home, and thus the brides are
portrayed as the direct opposite of the ideal Victorian woman; they act as a warning from Stoker
against granting women sexual and political freedom as he shows they would only use it for immoral
purposes in order to leech power from men through using their sinful sexual dominance. Certainly,
the very idea of a book including such sexual references as Dracula would have been shocking at the
time, and it is often argued that the book cover’s yellow binding acted as a warning to the reader of
the pioneeringly sexual and racy content which it contained; he highlights how without a societal
reform pertaining to the patriarchy, the shockingly immoral acts performed by the Brides would
become the horrifying reality.

Yet we could also argue that stoker uses the novel as a medium to present the blurred line between
morality and immorality when pertaining to feminine promiscuity. Certainly, despite being loved by
all of the protagonists, the character of lucy is one flawed, with hints of immoral sexual promiscuity,
and thus by emphasising Lucy’s terrible transformation into an overtly sexualised, horrifying
vampire, Stoker highlights the frightful future of women if this problem is not addressed. From the
very moment that she is first introduced by Stoker we learn that she is desired by three different
men; indeed, due to the painful difficulty of choosing between them she woefully asks Mina in her
letter ‘why can’t they let a girl marry three men?’. Although to a contemporary reader this
hyperbolic question shows only innocence and love-induced hysteria, a Victorian reader would have
interpreted this line as Lucy’s desire to have sex with three different men, highlighting her untapped
sexual desire. Thus, Stoker could be subtly using her character to confront the need for sexual
regulations to be placed on women as he highlights the danger of a woman with uncontrolled and
immoral sexual freedom. This is further emphasised in the idea that she experienced a feeling of
‘exultation that he was number two’ when the second of her suitors asked for her hand in marriage.
By definition, the abstract noun ‘exultation’ brings connotations of jubilation, often at another’s
defeat, and perhaps this is used by Stoker to suggest Lucy’s desire to conquer the hearts of as many
men as possible, slowly guiding her into a ‘femme fatale’ role in the eyes of the reader as she begins
to use her feminine attributes to immorally weaken her suitors’ nobility. This is further highlighted
by the use of the numerical phrase ‘number two’, as if Lucy sees these honest, ‘noble’ men as no
more than a number of victories, highlighting her unquenchable need to be sexually desired by
others and possibly once again illuding to the unbecoming and immoral characteristics which Stoker
worried would become commonplace in women, were feminine promiscuity allowed to roam free.
Later in the book we can infer further hints from Stoker as to the blurred line between Lucy’s
morality and immorality when he describes how she had the blood of ‘four strong men’ in her, so
much so that her ’whole body wouldn’t hold it’. According to the beliefs of a contemporary
audience, during sex the partners’ blood would become combined, and thus the blood transfusions
performed would have been on the same plane as sexual intercourse, highlighting Lucy’s immorality
as she performs this with 3 other men. Even further, when performing a transfusion, the doner is
weakened by the ordeal, and thus Stoker perhaps emphasises how the allure of overly sexual female
‘predators’ weakens the strength and power of men, symbolising the threat to the patriarchy which
immoral female promiscuity presents. Certainly, the idea that Van Helsing implores Dr Seward not to
let Holmwood know of the blood transfusion as it would ‘unjealous’ him, emphasises how Lucy’s
scandalous sexual promiscuity has threatened the stability of her relationship with her fiancé, and
thus Stoker highlights the terrible social instability which he believed would stem from unrestrained
sexual dominance in women.

Despite blurring the lines between immorality and morality in Lucy whilst she is alive, Stoker
highlights the vampirical form of Lucy to be inherently immoral as she becomes corrupted with an
intense, evil sexual desire. In doing so Stoker emphasises to his readership how the hints of sexual
forwardness showing in women at the time would soon grow and mutate into terrifying sexual
promiscuity, which could be used by women as a deadly weapon capable of corrupting the minds
and hearts of noble men and bringing about the downfall of the patriarchy which many believed to
be essential for the smooth running of Victorian society.

Stoker immediately emphasises the terrible change in Lucy after she died when describing how she
now possessed an ‘adamantine, heartless cruelty’. The reference to ‘adamantine’ is a particularly
interesting choice of adjective; not only is it mythologically known for being the hardest metal in the
universe, suggesting Lucy’s new, almost legendary unfeelingness, cold-heartedness and unwavering
cruelty, but it is also described as being an intense matte black in appearance in many old
mythological accounts. Thus, by describing her cruelty in such a way, Stoker perhaps uses the
symbolisms associated with adamantine’s supposed colour to emphasise how Lucy has been
corrupted by the epitome of evil, as if possessed by the devil himself, and in doing so continues to
emphasise the terrible influence of sexual promiscuity which he believed would bring about similar
changes in women in the future if their immoral sexual dominance was not restrained. Alternatively,
we could argue that the sentence structure here is particularly effective in illustrating the terrible
transformation undergone by Lucy; the longer phrase followed by the extremely short one after it is
perhaps (very tenuously) used by Stoker to suggest the rapid reduction in Lucy’s former ‘sweetness’
in her undead state. Furthermore, Stoker’s description of how Lucy’s former purity changed to
‘voluptuous wantonness’ is also of significance; the undead Lucy is sexualised very heavily by Stoker
here, and the repetition of the adjective ‘voluptuous’ throughout the passage not only describes
Lucy’s new intense and sinful sexual attraction, but it also ties her into the three Brides of Dracula
who represent the direct opposite of Victorian feminine ideals. Certainly, like the brides we could
argue that the transformation of Lucy into her sinful, overtly sexual, undead form is used by Stoker
to highlight the terrible change Victorian women would undergo if their growing sexual and political
freedom was allowed to continue, and thus by highlighting her terrible immorality after death,
Stoker calls for social reform against the ever-growing sexual dominance in women. This idea is
perhaps backed up mere moments later by Stoker’s description of the blood which ‘stained the
purity of her lawn death-robe’; her originally white robe, symbolic of feminine purity and innocence,
has been stained by ‘crimson’ blood, with its symbolic connotations of danger, lust and sexual
desire, and thus by highlighting this, Stoker perhaps once again emphasises how the immoral sexual
promiscuity in women creates a sinful stain upon their femine status in society.

Stoker further highlights the immorality and danger of sexual dominance in women through the
seemingly inescapable allure of Lucy which almost causes the heroes to sacrifice their reason,
control and even their lives such is its wicked power. Certainly, Stoker’s use of the persistent
repetition of the imperative ‘Come’ creates a shocking reversal of roles, with the female dominating
the male as Lucy attempts to corrupt Arthur’s morality and resolve, and thus Stoker gives a very
clear indication to his readership of the dooming results of feminine sexual dominance which he
believed would be used to immorally pervert the rationality and nobility of men were it allowed to
run rife in society. Indeed, Stoker perhaps uses sentence structure here to highlight this idea even
further; the abundance of extremely short sentences and phrases, create a more jolting, almost
unnatural flow to the passage to possibly add emphasis to the immorality of the dialogue, drawing
the reader’s attention to the depraved idea of a woman giving a man commands, in order to
emphasise Lucy’s sinful aberration of the rightful order of the world. Alternatively, we could argue
that the use of the short sentences here creates a sense of the perverted, desperate lust within Lucy
to corrupt Arthur, by increasing the flow of the passage to mimic her unrestrained eagerness, an
idea heightened by the personification of her arms as ‘hungry’, as if she no longer has control over
her body such is her desire. In highlighting this unrestrained sexual yearning within Lucy, as she
attempts to bring about the downfall of the protagonists, Stoker highlights its immorality and danger
if left unchecked. Indeed, this is emphasised even more clearly by Stoker’s description of how Arthur
‘seemed under a spell’ when listening to Lucy’s words. By metaphorically likening the influence of
Lucy’s sexual promiscuity to that of a powerful supernatural incantation, Stoker highlights the evil
jeopardy which sexual dominance in women places male morality in; Victorians were frightened of
losing one’s own mental control, and thus by highlighting how unrestrained feminine sexuality had
the power to cause this, Stoker perhaps seeks to emphasise its threat to his male readership in an
attempt to bring about reforms on the immoral sexual promiscuity in women.