Female Sexuality in the Victorian Era and Gothic Literature
The few elements that make up Gothic literature, sexuality contributes to many themes of these novels. While being such a controversial topic, especially during the Victorian era, many authors continued push this element in their works. Two novels that really concentrated on the theme of sexuality was Carmilla written by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and Dracula by Bram Stoker. These two works that are centered around vampires are known for expressing their sexuality and provoking other’s repressed desires. Freud argues that “If such a dominance existed, the immense majority of our mental process would have to accompanied by pleasure or to lead to pleasure”. This was one of the controversies that was centered around the female sexuality. Men felt that they would lose their power that they had if women began to express their sexuality like men did.
The ideal role of women in society during this time was very strict. Society created its own social laws that provided the way that women should be presented and the way that they should act. “Power is essentially what dictates its law to sex”. Society wanted women to very pure and virginal. Women of this time were considered to be very feminine and naive, while also being dependent on their husbands. Both Carmilla and Dracula shows these types of women, but both works also shows women that are considered go against these gender norms.
In Carmilla, Le Fanu describes what would be considered a stereotypical man of the 1800s and gives these characteristics to a woman. He challenges the roles of gender and sexuality giving Carmilla much of a masculine sexuality, but her physical appearance is still described as feminine and elegant, “I saw a solemn, but very pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed. Carmilla uses her masculinity to pursue Laura and show her affection so that she will be submissive to Carmilla and she can fulfil her need for blood. While her outside appearance is more feminine, Carmilla has a masculine personality, especially towards Laura. Laura first thinks that Carmilla could be a male suitor in disguise. Carmilla characteristics can be describes using Edmund Burke’s theory of the sublime. Burke tends to focus on the sublime before beauty, “For sublime objects are vast in their dimensions, beautiful ones comparatively small” . Laura tends to not focus on the characteristics that would be considered dangerous. Instead she focuses on the qualities that please her, which begins her path to death.
The more that Laura gets to know Carmilla the more she starts to feel stronger emotions toward her. She begins to get closer to Carmilla, even though she feels that these emotions she is having are not pure, “it embarrassed me” Laura feels ashamed by these actions because she is used to having her sexuality suppressed. During this era, women were given a role in society that was considered pure. It was very frowned upon for a women to be openly sexual. This of course also meant that any homosexual or lesbianism acts were considered unnatural to society. Although with vampirism, these two characters were able to break this unnatural taboo. The only way that Carmilla, or any women of this era, can openly use her sexuality is after death.
This power that Carmilla has over her preys, creates a sense of terror. Carmilla uses her power of sexuality to create a feeling of comfort in Laura. These times usually were when Carmilla would lay next to Laura in bed, caressing her. Burke writes that “that as a beautiful object presented to the sense, by causing a relaxation of the body, produces the passion of love in the mind” The terror that comes from Carmilla’s sexuality, is that she forms a bond of trust with her prey, making these girls fall in love with her, while she slowly kills them. “With regard to such things as affect by the associated idea of danger, there can be no doubt but that they produce terror, and act by some modification of that passion” Laura’s father begins to suspect the relationship of Carmilla and Laura and relates Laura’s illness with lesbianism. Laura’s father attempts to control the situation by calling in the doctor so that they can attempt to cure her. The father is attempting to gain control of his daughter and therefore her sexuality, making sure that she is acting the way that women of this era should be.
This fear of female sexuality continues to fill the plots other novels through the Victoria era. Bram Stoker uses his novel, Dracula, to show how the use of female sexuality threatened the ideals of this time. The idea was that if Dracula has the chance to turn a pure women into a vampire and if he succeeds women will have opened and embraced their sexuality and use its power and in turn this will give the women a much more dominate role that is only seen in men. “The Gothic in today’s art forms will point a finger of moral condemnation at those fearful elements of like that make man seem the impotent victim of the currently terrifying”
This is actually seen quite early Bram Stoker’s novel. In chapter three Johnathan Harker unexpectedly meets the brides of Dracula. Harker describes the women, examining their beautiful faces. While these three women begin to seduce Harker, he begins to feel emotions that were thrilling to him, but also feelings of disgust, “There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck, she actually licked her lips like an animal”. These feelings that were overcoming him were created by the desires of these three women, but he also felt repulsed because he related the emotion of fear to their sexuality, “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear” Burke describes this emotion that Harker is feeling, that “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear”. They used their beauty and their sexuality to get what they wanted. These women take on a more dominating role, and by seducing Harker, he is overpowered by them, making him the submissive in this situation. Harker “is thereby feminized through these assaults”. This sense of terror was what men were most scared of about a woman’s sexuality: losing the power that had over women.
The next time that this battle of female sexuality takes place is after the transformation of Lucy. Before her turning, Lucy was already questioning the ideals of the Victorian women, “My dear Mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” She was also already pushing boundaries and led a quiet sexual life, in which she had three suitors at the same time. So, when Dracula turns her, Lucy was able to express her sexuality in the open. She then becomes a threat to men, not because of her thirst for blood, which does enhance her sexuality “blood in Dracula carries much more than nutrients and oxygen; it is coded with the essence of class, race, masculine vigor, and feminine sexuality”, but this lust provides her the power to push past the identity and gender laws that had been created.
During the times of the Victoria Era, female sexuality was a main theme in Gothic literature. Women of this time were given standards of how to present themselves in society. This of course meant that women had to suppress their sexuality. The works of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker also contribute to this theme in their works. Female vampires of this time were associated with the “new woman” of the Victoria era. They were open about their sexuality and their independence. This led men to associate evil with feminine sexuality, thus creating fear in men. Men began to destroy these women, because of the power of seduction and female desire, and because this was not considered the way that Victorian women were expected to be.
