Dracula Sex

If you think that some of the descriptions of vampirism in Dracula seem creepily sexy, you're not alone. The characters in Dracula are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed by the idea of having their blood sucked.

Most of them are able to repress that desire most of the time, although they acknowledge the desire later in their journals. There aren't any actual sex scenes in the novel, but the blood-sucking scenes are close enough: They're described in terms of illicit desire and sexual repression.

Questions About Sex

1. Why is Jonathan Harker strangely attracted to the Brides of Dracula? What might that suggest about his attitude toward sex more generally?
2. Mina says that part of Dracula's "curse" is that when he's touching a victim, the victim does "not want to hinder him." Why would his victims not want to stop him? What does that suggest about vampirism?
3. Why does becoming a vampire make Lucy get all sexy and voluptuous? Why is that such a turn-off to the men who had formerly loved her?
4. In contrast to Lucy's natural voluptuousness, Mina seems strangely sexless. Why is that? Why are there so few physical descriptions of Mina? Is she just not as physical a person as Lucy?

Chew on This

The killing of Lucy by the Crew of Light, led by her fiancé, Arthur Holmwood, represents a male desire to repress female sexuality.

Mina is tainted by her contact with Dracula not so much because of his vampirism, but because her contact with him has made her sexually impure.