‘The role of female vampires in the novel is to warn of the dangers of female sexuality’ consider the presentation of the female vampires in Dracula in the light of this comment Many may argue that the novel Dracula highlights the suppression and belittlement of women during the 19th Century. In Victorian England, women’s sexual behaviour was dictated by society’s rigid expectations. A Victorian woman was either a virgin or else she was a wife and mother. If she was neither of these, she was considered a whore, and thus of no consequence to society This idea is reinforced by Stoker with the contrast of the ‘brilliant white teeth, that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips,’ the virginal white is contrasted with the hellish red of their lips shows the battle the women went through suppressing and hiding their sexual desires. Stoker’s choose of women as the temptresses may be a warning to the women of the Victorian era to beware about pushing the boundaries of their sexuality.
Female are always integrated as pathetic victim of men for revenge, self indulgence and entertainment since ancient times. Zeus molester and made Leda his sexual victim. Yeats used the words like “staggering girl,” “her helpless breast” and “her loosening thighs” to reflect how pathetic Leda was? Leda was cemented in the circumstances where she was the lady abducted by the god (swan), yet she was unexpected to do that. In Yeats said“her nape caught in his bill,” reflects the situation that leda was forced to get sexually intimate by the swan.
She explores the use of the female predator and the prejudice surrounding this. The Male Protagonist – men become the ‘other’ in the text. Explores the macho stereotype men have had to fit – Wolf-Alice helps to reveal the count’s true self through caring for him. Explores male violence towards women – rape, sado-masochism, power relationships. Explores sexual aggression and illicit desires.
Caged by the Patriarchal Society Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and “Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria” by Sigmund Freud, both show women who exist (one in fiction and the other in reality) about a hundred years from one another. These women have learnt to survive in a world where rigid structure, manipulation, deceit, and loneliness are caused due to the tight control exerted by the patriarchal society. Dora and Jane struggled to escape this cage that was exerted due to male dominance. Dora and Jane Eyre are both objects of manipulation of the patriarchal society who resorted to forms of male dictated “female hysteria” in order to escape the rigid handcuffs placed upon them. Both Dora and Jane are quiet young when they first encounter some kind of hysteria, or symptoms of hysteria.
Pope's gender ideologies deflate the power, intelligence and beauty of women while supporting man's violence and belittling of women. The symbolism of the lock of hair can be viewed with two different types of gender criticism, one that defies the patriarchy and one that feeds into the power of the patriarch. In Ellen Pollak's essay, "Rereading The Rape of the Lock: Pope and the Paradox of Female Power," Pollak maintains that the lock of hair is a phallic symbol and therefore it is cut off to reduce Belinda to femininity. The symbolic loss of the Belle's much-coveted virginity is realized in the form of a castration or literal cutting off of that body part of her associated most strongly with those 'masculine' attributes of the coquette - her power, skill, and pride (Singh 472). Julie Kristeva, author of "Women's Time" while not accepting Pollak's theory of castration believes that castration is unique only to men: "castration results in the creation of a sense of separation which is symbolized by the penis"(Singh 472).
One of the taboos found in Carter’s text ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is the taboo of virginity and female purity. In the section ‘The Company of Wolves’ we find one of the characters that represents Little Red Riding Hood just as in the traditional fairy tale who is described to have “just started her woman’s bleeding” and to be “an unbroken egg”. A clear reference to the young girls purity and intact virginity, from this we can immediately draw direct comparisons to the traditional expectations society hold of a typical young, unmarried 20th century woman. Carter cleverly uses the character of Little Red Riding Hood, a beloved childhood character that a reader can easily relate to as a child of innocence and of course purity. However, through the use of this taboo reference to virginity Carter also tackles the point of female seduction and personal desire, for example when Little Red Riding Hood is flirting with the mysterious yet charming man in the woods she “lowered her eyes and blushed” showing her own desire for him.
In the first scene Gregory and Sampson discuss raping the women of the Capulet household and taking “their maidenheads” (virginity). They see rape as a demonstration of their power over women which can be described as an abuse of love. Another type of love introduced in act one is maternal love. This is the love which should be felt by Lady Capulet towards Juliet, but instead seems to be felt by the nurse. When calling Juliet, the nurse
To what extent does Angela Carter draw on the Gothic tradition in her representation of female characters in The Bloody Chamber and what is the significance of these representations? Angela Carter uses gothic tradition and conventions in her depiction of female characters in The Bloody Chamber in order to break down stereotypes and patriarchal expectations; she recreates traditional gothic tales into ones which are both eerie and shocking for her modern readers, in the same way that old gothic tales were to Victorian readers. Carter’s female victims come to be empowered by embracing their passions and work to go against patriarchal rule, acknowledging their own sexual desires. Female characters can be presented as victims of male tyranny in The Bloody Chamber. Within The Bloody Chamber, the protagonist brings about the attention of female sexuality to the reader through the loss of her innocence “I remember how…country of marriage” she is experiencing a journey from her innocence and individuality to being the possession of a man.
Carter is showing that the sexual urges of a woman are natural and that society should accept them, not take judgement on a girl for entering womanhood. Furthermore, as the Erl-King is a reflection of the girl’s subconscious desires, her actions represent a conflict of actions. “The Erl-King will do you grievous harm.” This shows that she is aware of the ideological constructs of society - that a girl should be a virgin until marriage - however her urges take over and she sleeps with
Miranda forces her will upon Caliban, boisterously teaching “each hour/ One thing or other” to her obviously unwilling student, who wishes upon her “red plague” for making him learn her language (121). His attempted rape is no doubt caused by his own evil desires, but it is also indirectly provoked by Miranda, who although has “taught (him) language”, but his only “profit on’t / is (that he) know how to curse” (121). Hence, Caliban’s attempt “to violate (her) honour” can be rationally seen as an attempt to reverse the power dynamics – for rape is the most obvious physical manifestation of one’s urge to exert power