Amelia Worssam, Wina Tutorial College, 0800

Susan Gubar claims that there is “a long tradition identifying the author as a male who is pri-

mary and the female as his passive creation—a secondary object lacking autonomy” 

In light of this statement compare the presentation of women in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture Of Dorian Gray with reference to context and different interpreta-

tions of the texts. 

Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker, as male authors from the same period with very different styles of

writing women, allow for discussion of Gubar’s view. Can Gubar’s assertion about male authors be

true for all? In Dracula much of the book is written from Mina’s perspective and, despite there be-

ing few women characters, women feature heavily in the plot. At first glance Mina appears indepen-

dent and empowered but Stoker uses both her and Lucy as passive blank pages to express his own

ideas on women and their sexual and intellectual freedoms. In contrast, The Picture of Dorian Gray

features women very sparsely. Arguably this awards Wilde’s women more autonomy as he does not

write onto them. He instead presents them in a detached, yet sympathetic way, highlighting contem-

porary male opinions of women - often through immoral characters.

Women have been written into their gender roles by men writing on their blank pages. They have

been oppressed throughout history. They are dismissed as emotional, weak, unable to think clearly

and sexually inferior to men. Ideas which are, essentially, invented by men. At the time these texts

were written attitudes towards women were slowly changing. Women’s suffrage began in 1832 but

it wasn’t until 1865 and the Second Reform Bill that John Stuart Mill “proposed the extension of the

franchise to women”1 and was defeated by “194 votes to 73”2. This, however, indicated that there

was some support for female suffrage. As well as this, the ‘New Woman’ emerged in the 1890s and

was greeted by most men with a mixture of derision, scepticism and fear. They were challenging the

ideal of a submissive woman - the ‘Angel of the House’. New women had sexual appetites, refuted
1 Neil R Storey and Molly Housego, The Women's Suffrage Movement, (E-book edn, Bloomsbury Publishing
2012) 6
2 Ibid 6
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marriage and children, and were “intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent and self-support-

ing”3. To many men this was threatening. As a result “Male writers tended to cast the New Woman

as either a sexual predator or as an over-sensitive intellectual unable to accept her nature as a sexual

being”4. Lucy, in Dracula, falls firmly into the first of these categories.

Sexual freedom for women was practically nonexistent. Women were expected to “not be very

much troubled by sexual feelings of any kind”5 and this view is exemplified in Bram Stoker’s Drac-

ula. Many people have identified Dracula with the Madonna/whore structure often found in books.

Lucy is the fallen ‘whore’ and Mina the virginal ‘madonna’. This is, as Carol Senf puts it, “exem-

plary of binaristic, patriarchal thinking”6. The women are written into strict, restrictive boxes. In-

deed, Lucy is a rather 2D character. She seems to merely exist in order to fall. Early in the novel she

asks “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her”7. This exposes a growing

sexual appetite in Lucy as three husbands would also mean three sexual partners. Arguably this can

be read as an innocent girl’s desire to cause as little pain as possible. However, even if Lucy is un-

aware of the sexual implications of her statement, Stoker certainly would understand them. Thus her

innocence is corrupted by the experience of the male author writing onto her. She has no thoughts

other than those assigned to her by Stoker and, considering the fall from innocence to come, it

seems likely that he planted this as a clue of her moral failings. Mina, on the other hand, even when

married, does not express sexual desire of any sort. Stoker is categorising women into two distinct

sexual (and moral) spheres, awarding them a lack of character complexity and autonomy: writing

his politics about female sexual freedom onto their ‘blank pages’. In The Picture of Dorian Gray

3 Andrzej Diniejko, ‘The New Women Fiction’ (The Victorian Web 2011) <https://victorianweb.org/
gender/diniejko1.html> Accessed 25 March 2023
4 Greg Buzwell, ‘Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle’ (The British Li-
brary 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-new-woman-
in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle> Accessed 15 March 2023
5 William Acton, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age, and
Advanced Life, Considered in the Physiological, Social, and Moral Relations, (4th edn, John Churchill 1865)
112
6 Carol Senf, ‘Dracula and Women’ in Roger Luckhurst (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Dracula (E-
book ed, Cambridge University Press 2018) 5
7 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 51
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 Amelia Worssam, Wina Tutorial College, 0800
similar categorisation is displayed. However, in this novel the beliefs are expressed, significantly,

by the characters - not by the author. Dorian claims that “Sybil Vane is sacred”8 and must not be

touched - awarding Sybil herself no choice in the matter. Later, he decides the same of Hetty whom

he leaves “as flowerlike as I had found her”9 (the flower imagery representing her virginity and in-

nocence). He believes he is ‘sparing’ her, as he has absolute control over her sexual activity - he has

the power to ‘spare’ her or enforce sex as he chooses. Alongside this, the ‘fallen’ women we see -

such as the women corrupted by Dorian and the prostitutes - have a poor quality of life, hanging

around the opium dens or being socially ostracised respectively. However, these events highlight to

the reader not that it is wrong for a woman to have more sexual freedom but rather that it is simply

not afforded to them by the society of the time. Wilde is employing a highlighter and not a pen on

these women’s pages - allowing them to keep their autonomy.

Furthermore, in The Picture Of Dorian Gray the Duchess expresses a desire for sexual freedom.

She is trapped in a loveless marriage to Monmouth - a man many years her senior - due to social

convention. She flirts with Dorian clearly expressing a sexual desire for him. This type of behav-

iour, especially in an upper class woman, would have been rather taboo and Wilde’s portrayal of it

arguably shows not only the repression of women in arranged marriages but also that women can

have sexual appetites too. She is not condemned for her desires by the plot and the assertion of

Henry that she is “too clever for a woman”10 shows the misogyny directed towards her. It is this in-

telligence, however, that saves her: she is the only woman besotted with Dorian to escape socially

unscathed. So Wilde is presenting female intelligence and sexual appetite in a positive way. The fe-

male vampires in Dracula are overtly sexual for the time. Their “voluptuous”11 forms and seductive

words show them as women in charge of their sexuality - dominant to the human men. This is con-

trary to the societal expectations of the time. According to Greg Buzwell “The act of vampirism it-

8 Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992) 43
9 Ibid 166
10 Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992) 144
11 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 33
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self, with its notion of tainted blood, suggests the fear of sexually transmitted diseases such as

syphilis”12. This identifies the vampires with prostitutes. The sexual diseases rife in society were

blamed on the prostitutes and not the men who used them. The Contagious Diseases Act 1860 al-

lowed “for the forced medical examination of any woman who was suspected of being a sex

worker”13 (and if infected, her forced imprisonment until recovery). Thus the portrayal of the female

vampires as “devils of the Pit!”14 mirrors this, and, indeed, Jonathan (the man) is not blamed for his

“burning desire that they would kiss [him]”15. There is a significant difference when Dracula im-

poses sex upon women - they are blamed for their desire. Dracula drinks the blood of both Lucy and

Mina - a metaphor for sexual intercourse. The Sanguine Economy was a contemporary “medical

theory that a depletion of sperm would cause a depletion of blood”16 and, as the vampires must con-

sume the blood of others, the vampires can be understood to be sexually voracious. Thus Lucy be-

comes sexually impure, is blamed for her fall and punished for her dalliances - not by the characters

but rather by the plot and the male author writing his morals onto her. 

Lucy is condemned despite having been overpowered by Dracula. The vampires can supernaturally

subdue their victims and even Mina “did not want to hinder”17 Dracula. Neither Jonathon nor Mina

are given the same condemning plot awarded to Lucy. Why then is Lucy painted in this way? Ar-

guably, she exists to exemplify the wrong sort of woman. She merely is a political opinion - she has

no autonomy. Greg Buzwell suggests that “The fact Mina survives while Lucy meets such an hor-

rific end perhaps indicates that Stoker disliked the New Woman in particular, while admiring her

more traditional counterpart”18: the more sexually subservient. Likewise to Dracula, Dorian sexually
12 Greg Buzwell, ‘Dracula: vampires, perversity and Victorian anxieties’ (The British Library 2014)
<https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/dracula> Accessed 9 February 2023
13 Kathryn Hughes, ‘Gender roles in the 19th century’ (The British Library 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/ro-
mantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century> Accessed on 10 February 2023
14 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 46
15 Ibid 33
16 Alexis Hollingsworth, ‘Fear of Progress: The Victorian Vampire in Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (Medium
2019) <https://medium.com/@lexiloulee/fear-of-progress-b42fc00c023a> Accessed on 20 March 2023
17 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 239
18 Greg Buzwell, ‘Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle’ (The British Li-
brary 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-new-woman-
in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle> Accessed 15 March 2023
4
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corrupts women - such as Lady Gwendolen. He ruins their lives - like the prostitute he “made…

what [she] is”19, as in her case it is his influence that turns her to prostitution. But these women re-

main rather hazy figures in the background and in a sense their pages thus remain ‘blank’. The fo-

cus is not on the women but rather on Dorian’s actions, this absolves the women and, in contrast to

Lucy’s treatment by Stoker, Wilde is showing these women’s pitiful situations with a perspective of

their powerlessness. 

Stoker’s portrayal of Lucy’s transformation was influenced by the performances of actresses. He

was, as manager at the Lyceum, often interacting with them. In his article The Art of Ellen Terry he

describes the way she changes from part to part and this can be seen in the change of Lucy into a

vampire. Terry, as a working mother, was often regarded as living a double life. In Dracula, Stoker

explores “this female dichotomy”20 - contrasting the silly, girlish, human Lucy with the sexual,

predatory, vampiric version. Once turned, Lucy acts cruelly towards children as the “bloofer

lady”21, flinging one of her victims to the ground “callous as a devil”22. This is inverting the mater-

nal instinct expected in women of the time and could be read as a comment on the New Women

who were “uninterested in marriage and children”23. If this interpretation is accepted, then Stoker is

certainly allowing Lucy no autonomy as she is serving as a stereotyped, satirical being through

which the idea of female dominance and rejection of societal expectations is presented as evil. 

In contrast to this patriarchal reading, some consider Dracula forward thinking in relation to

women. Kathryn Boyd believes “Mina emerges as an empowered woman cloaked as a Victorian,

19 Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992) 152
20 Carol Senf, ‘Dracula and Women’ in Roger Luckhurst (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Dracula (E-
book ed, Cambridge University Press 2018) 2
21Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 147
22 Ibid 175
23 Greg Buzwell, ‘Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle’ (The British Li-
brary 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-new-woman-
in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle> Accessed 15 March 2023
5
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challenging both Dracula himself and Victorian sensibilities”24. However it can be argued that the

opposite is true: Mina is rather a Victorian “cloaked”25 as an empowered woman. Mina is a clever,

independent woman living within an oppressive society but she is also domestic, motherly, and very

concerned with proper “decorum”26. She never resists her standing in society and even addresses the

ideas of these ““New Women” writers”27 with some derision. Considering that these women were

challenging societal expectations of women, being “independent”28 and “educated”29, Mina’s dis-

missal of their views does not provide a strong case for her challenge of “Victorian sensibilities”30.

Evidently, Mina is educated herself but she only learns typing and shorthand in order that she “shall

be able to be useful to Jonathan”31. Mina is a woman with the perfect mix of intelligence and sub-

servience so as to be non-threatening to the men. It could be argued that Stoker is creating his ‘per-

fect woman’ in her - intelligent, brave, maternal and no challenge to man’s superiority. If this is the

case then Mina’s autonomy is massively diminished as she is designed as an ideal - not a real per-

son.

The Picture of Dorian Gray has few prominent female characters. Most of the perspectives we re-

ceive through the book on women come from the mouths of men. Sir Henry expresses his misogyny

often: he claims “Women are a decorative sex”32 and “there are only five women in London worth

talking to”33. Wilde was supportive of female liberation and had many female friends. Indeed, he

worked as the editor for Woman’s World which he approached with “enthusiasm”34 and was a mem-

24 Kathryn Boyd, ‘Making Sense of Mina: Stoker's Vampirization of the Victorian Woman in Dracula’
(English Honors Theses, Trinity University 2014) 12
25 Ibid 12
26 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 143
27 Ibid 75
28 Greg Buzwell, ‘Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle’ (The British Li-
brary 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-new-woman-
in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle> Accessed 15 March 2023
29 Ibid
30 Kathryn Boyd, ‘Making Sense of Mina: Stoker's Vampirization of the Victorian Woman in Dracula’
(English Honors Theses, Trinity University 2014) 12
31 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 46
32 Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992) 40
33 Ibid 40
34 Matthew Sturgis, Oscar: A Life (E- book edn, Head of Zeus 2018) 492
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 Amelia Worssam, Wina Tutorial College, 0800
ber of the Albemarle club (which had both female and male membership). Thus the ideas spouted

by Henry are not likely to be those of Wilde himself. Arguably he is awarding women more auton-

omy by not writing directly about them but rather highlighting the views on women at the time and

putting them in the mouth of a character who represents such corrupting ideas. Wilde’s other works

do depict women often and with a feeling of authenticity. The sparring between Cecily and Gwen-

dolen in The Importance of Being Earnest captures beautifully the female cattiness and feels gen-

uine. Lady Windermere in Lady Windermere’s Fan is also a well-rounded character with strength in

her conversations with her husband. Thus, as Wilde can and does write women, the absence of them

in The Picture of Dorian Gray becomes more noticeable and the likelihood of this being for the pur-

pose of highlighting women’s unequal standing in society (as silence speaks a thousand words) in-

creases. 

On the other hand, much of Dracula is written from the point of view of Mina - in the form of diary

entries and letters. Often this epistolary form is regarded as effective in making his characters seem

more real. But can this be authentic? Stoker was a man, he never experienced the woman’s perspec-

tive, but to claim an author cannot write from the point of view of another gender is to dismiss

much highly regarded literature. However, Mina is maternal, modest and virtually sexless: the per-

fect Victorian woman and this feels somewhat contrived. Her disparaging views on the ‘New

Woman’ somewhat contrast with her secretarial skills. Mina is celebrated as a “Pearl among

women”35, her brains and talents are applauded and appreciated by the men but she is exalted as

possessing a “man’s brain”36. She is an exception to usual women. At the time of writing, women

who were intellectual were, as Kathryn Hughes says: “considered unfeminine and off-putting in the

way that they attempted to usurp men’s ‘natural’ intellectual superiority”37. Mina does not attempt

to dominate the men in any way which makes her non-threatening. When dissected as a modern

criticism on Dracula it is clear that it is not feminist to exalt one woman and in the process dismiss

35 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 181

36 Ibid 195
37 Kathryn Hughes, ‘Gender roles in the 19th century’ (The British Library 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/ro-
mantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century> Accessed on 10 February 2023
7
 Amelia Worssam, Wina Tutorial College, 0800
all others. Van Helsing even makes the assertion that Mina has “given [him] hope…that there are

good women still left”38. This shows that Mina is being raised above other modern women, who are

treated disparagingly.

Sybil Vane is essentially a plot device (similarly to Lucy). She is the most significant female char-

acter (in terms of plot) in The Picture of Dorian Gray. But, perhaps as a result of this, she is the

character in this novel which most exemplifies Gubar’s view. Her suicide is overdramatic and al-

most false. She seems to commit suicide in order to cause Dorian’s descent. She serves the purpose

of contributing to his development and corruption. This does not award her much, if any autonomy.

Is there any defence for Wilde? Well, arguably, as The Picture of Dorian Gray is a somewhat moral

tale, all the characters are plot devices, for example: Sir Henry serves as the corrupter, Dorian as the

corrupted, and Basil as the representation of good. Indeed, all characters, regardless of their gender

are products of the authors purposes. In order to understand Gubar’s assertion we must assume that

the measure of the autonomy of a character is relative. Unfortunately for Wilde, Sybil does appear

to have less autonomy than the male characters. She is essential for the plot but she appears few

times and when she is written about she comes across as vapid and unreal. She seems to Dorian

“absurdly melodramatic”39 and, indeed, we also get this impression.

Due to her lack of presence, we mostly hear of Sybil through the mouths of men. She is heavily

identified with the stage. Dorian exalts her because she is not “ordinary”40 she, as an actress, can

“appeal to one’s imagination”41. Even her death is heard of through the men and is painted by Sir

Henry “as a strange lurid fragment from some Jacobean tragedy”42, asserting that Sybil’s life, pain

and death has no bearing on their real life - she does not matter. The characters themselves are writ-

38 Bram Stoker, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993) 153

39 Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992) 72
40 Ibid 43
41 Ibid 43
42 Ibid 83
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 Amelia Worssam, Wina Tutorial College, 0800
ing on her blank page, erasing her suffering. And indeed her page is left rather blank due to the

blurring of her identity through the parts she plays. Dorian never really knows the true Sybil Vane,

and neither do we: she is “less real”43 than the roles she acts. Once she loses her power on the stage

and changes from mimicking “a passion”44 as Juliet to feeling it herself, Dorian dismisses her as

“shallow and stupid”45. So Dorian is idolising fake love and Sybil’s power over men. He seeks to

possess her, and consequently her power - which we can see in his claim that “The world would

have worshipped you, and you would have borne my name”46. This highlights his possessive and

misogynistic attitude to women. At this time, once a woman married, all her possessions legally be-

came her husband’s and his alone. So Dorian’s possessive attitude (if not his cruelty) was probably

not uncommon. However, immediately after Dorian’s rejection of her, Sybil is erased from the plot.

Kerry Powell suggests that: “Whether consciously or not, [The Picture of Dorian Gray] followed

the Victorian strategy of neutralising power when a woman held it, of rationalising a strong voice

when it happened to be female and compelled men to silence”47. This point is interesting. Indeed,

Sybil loses her power after falling in love with a man. She is neutralised by romance (something

considered feminine). This does seem to support Powell. Actresses were often seen as being unable

to “combine a career on stage with a happy domestic life”48 and, ironically, Sybil’s loss of her suc-

cessful career causes the loss of her successful relationship.

In conclusion, both authors present evidence for the support of Gubar’s view. However, Stoker

must serve a much longer sentence than Wilde. He enforces the erasure of female autonomy of al-

most all his female characters. Wilde only fails to award Sybil autonomy. Thus Wilde escapes the

verdict of guilty and Stoker must be condemned. 

43 Ibid 84
44 Ibid 70
45 Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992) 71
46 Ibid 71
47 Kerry Powell, ‘A verdict of death: Oscar Wilde, actresses and Victorian women’ in Peter Baby (ed), The
Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde (6th edn, Cambridge University Press 1997) 11
48 Ibid 10
9
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Works Cited

Acton W, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, in Childhood, Youth, Adult Age,

and Advanced Life, Considered in the Physiological, Social, and Moral Relations, (4th edn, John

Churchill 1865)

Boyd K, ‘Making Sense of Mina: Stoker's Vampirization of the Victorian Woman in Dracula’ (Eng-

lish Honors Theses, Trinity University 2014)

Buzwell G, ‘Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle’ (The British

Library 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/daughters-of-decadence-the-

new-woman-in-the-victorian-fin-de-siecle> Accessed 15 March 2023

Buzwell G, ‘Dracula: vampires, perversity and Victorian anxieties’ (The British Library 2014)

<https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/dracula> Accessed 9 February 2023

Diniejko A, ‘The New Women Fiction’ (The Victorian Web 2011) <https://victorianweb.org/gen-

der/diniejko1.html> Accessed 25 March 2023

Hollingsworth A, ‘Fear of Progress: The Victorian Vampire in Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ (Medium

2019) <https://medium.com/@lexiloulee/fear-of-progress-b42fc00c023a> Accessed on 20 March

2023

Hughes K, ‘Gender roles in the 19th century’ (The British Library 2014) <https://www.bl.uk/ro-

mantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century> Accessed on 10 February 2023

Powell K, ‘A verdict of death: Oscar Wilde, actresses and Victorian women’ in Peter Baby (ed),

The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde (6th edn, Cambridge University Press 1997)

Senf C, ‘Dracula and Women’ in Roger Luckhurst (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Dracula (E-

book ed, Cambridge University Press 2018)

Stoker B, Dracula (New edn, Wordsworth Editions 1993)

Storey NR and Housego M, The Women's Suffrage Movement, (E-book edn, Bloomsbury Publish-

ing 2012)

10
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Sturgis M, Oscar: A Life (E- book edn, Head of Zeus 2018)

Wilde O, The picture of Dorian Gray (Paris edn text, Wordsworth Editions 1992)

11