Student Essay on Dracula: Sexual Metaphors and the Victorian Era

Sexual metaphors are common in literature about vampires. This is true of two Dracula works: Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and Francis Ford Coppola's film version of the book. Because vampire stories are often set in the highly repressed Victorian era, intense repression of sexuality is often reflected in vampire stories.

The Victorian era is widely known for the strict principles that were held on the handling and appropriateness of sex and sexuality within society. As highly repressed topics, sex and sexuality became feared and were looked upon as taboo. Sex was rather purely a means through which people could reproduce. (Bradley) This intense repression of sexuality is often reflected in vampire stories, (Bradley) as is the case in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) which was later reproduced in film by Francis Ford Coppola (1992)

As a sexually deviant character and one hidden from society's eyes, the vampire represents the ideals of the Victorian era in regard to sexuality. (Bradley) Many interpretations can be made of this classic gothic text. One such interpretation involves the use of sexual metaphors, or symbolic representations. (Gelder, 1994) The biting of the neck.....