Consumption in "Dracula"

Literary criticism is a wonderful way for readers to gain new insights into novels, as criticism often provides new ways to look at a text.  Criticism is great for texts with many details to examine, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  This 19^th century novel is filled with symbolism, allegories, and even a unique writing style, that has been analyzed since its publication.  Tanya Pikula in her article, “Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and Late-Victorian Advertising Tactics: Earnest Men, Virtuous Ladies, and Porn,” explains the sexuality in the novel that Stoker may or may not have purposefully chose to include in his novel.

Critics of the 19^th century may not have noticed the “quasi-pornographic” elements of Dracula, as today’s society has a hyperawareness for such material.  The first critics of Dracula would have focused more on the novel’s sensationalism, its emphasis on medieval lore, 19^th century technology, and its ability to terrify.  Pikula makes several important points in her article regarding the sexuality in the novel.  She states, “It is not surprising that many commentators ignore the fact that Dracula is first and foremost a text about material consumption: the sucking and the biting that transpire in the text are unarguably erotic and beg for a psychoanalytic explanation (as oral fetish)” (288).  It is important to consider why consumption is the choice monstrosity in the text, the root of all evil.  In addition to the cravings indulged in by the vampires, the text is strewn with characters that wish to and/or do consume in immoderate amounts.  Pikula describes that the female figures in the novel are vulnerable to Dracula’s powers because of the relationship between women and an immoderate desire to consume.  The specific reference Pikula makes is to the comment Lucy Westernra makes about why a woman cannot marry three men. The women are vulnerable to Dracula’s desire to possess, which is explicit in the words he uses, such as “my” and “mine.”

The desire for possession is a trait that Dracula seems to pass on to the women that he infects, according to Pikula.  She states, “Female consumers, the text seems to imply, are so bent on their never-ending hunger that they are on their way to forgetting the sacred feminine role upon which is founded the family, the quintessential bastion and breeding ground of Victorian morality” (291).  Lucy’s developing vampiric state is betrayed by her seductiveness, as she asks Arthur for a kiss before her death and tries to lure him to her crypt.  She expresses herself as both sexually aggressive and having a desire to hold the object of her yearning.  The capstone of the female vampire monstrosity is their rejection of the nurturing mother role.  This is apparent when Dracula’s female companions feed on a child, while Lucy becomes the “bloofer lady” with a fetish for young blood.  Pikula’s criticism of Draula is just one way of further exploring the many concepts this novel has to offer.

Pikula, Tanya. "Bram Stoker's "Dracula" And Late-Victorian Advertising Tactics: Earnest Men, Virtuous Ladies, And Porn." English Literature In Transition, 1880-1920 55.3 (2012): 283-302. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.