Content Disclaimer: Sexual Themes
I believe that it is safe to say that our production of Dracula is explicitly queer. Our wonderful Count is portrayed by a woman who seduces and feeds on primarily women. However, even without a woman as the thirsty Count, there is still quite a decent amount of homoerotic subtext in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Before we start talking about the gays, it is imperative to note that there are several characters in the play Dracula that are swapped from the novel. For what reason these switches were made, I have no idea. Regardless, in our production, Arthur is the young man who travels to Castle Dacula and is almost fed upon by Dracula and seduced by the three brides of Dracula, in the novel, it is John Harker so this character is now called Arthur/Harker, or AH for short. When he refers to the physical appearance of Dracula, he seems to have some very nice compliments to the ancient voivode.
“-and the cheeks (Dracula) had the warmth of life through all their pallor,
and the lips were as red as ever”
-Stoker, 39
He almost appears to be giving Count Dracula stereotypically “feminine” descriptions with the lifeful cheeks and the red lips. Despite the fact that his life is in the hands of this supernatural, powerful creature, he has some very nice things to say about how he looks.
“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.”
-Stoker, 41
I’m not exactly sure if there is a non-queer interpretation of this line. Dracula is putting him into a “feminine” state as he kisses another man’s hand. Also, it is important to note that at this point, AH is a prisoner of Dracula, his fate is in complete control of Dracula and yet he speaks so kindly of his appearance and Dracula even kisses AH. Also the description of a devilish smile, I cannot help but to see the correlation between AH and Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer when she says “he looks up grinning like a devil.” Even Dr. Seward seems to find some kind of attractiveness in the undead Count.
"His eyes flamed red with devilish passion…behind the full lips of the blood-dripping mouth,
champed together like those of a wild beast"
-Stoker, 336
I believe that the so-called Crew of Light, the crew that goes on to track down and attempt to stop Dracula (Harker, Van Helsing, Seward) seems to find Dracula to be a pretty good-looking fella. With his full red lips and passionate eyes…that seems a tad fruity to me.
In our production, the resolution with Arthur and the Brides is ambiguous, however, in the novel, Dracula bursts into the room in a fury, ruining the fun for the Brides and claiming AH as “his own.”
“In a voice which, though low and almost in a whisper, seemed to cut through the air and then ring round the room, he exclaimed- ‘How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes upon him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you’ll have to deal with me.’”
-Stoker 33
During another scene in the novel, when AH is at Castle Dracula, he cuts himself and Dracula leaps over to try to feed on Harker, but restrains himself from doing so. Why does Dracula choose not to feed on him? One interpretation is that he is repressing his desire to feast/seduce another man. “Dracula will seduce, penetrate, drain another male…Dracula's desire to fuse with a male, most explicitly evoked when Harker cuts himself shaving, subtly and dangerously suffuses this text. Always postponed and never directly enacted” (Craft, 110) In the entire novel, we never see Dracula feast on a male victim.
We can also see this occurring once again in the play when Van Helsing and Dracula have their first confrontation when Van Helsing is isolated. Van Helsing intentionally cuts himself in front of Dracula. In our production, the following scene is played out.
“She (Van Helsing) pulls out a pocket knife and deliberately gives herself a little cut. She turns to Dracula, revealing the cut. Dracula looks at the blood with desire.
VAN HELSING: Would you look at that? I seemed to have drawn blood.
Van Helsing holds her hand closer to Dracula. Dracula starts to snap at the finger-like she might take it in her teeth, but turns away and resists.” (Bedard et. al 33)
Why doesn’t Dracula decide to feast on Van Helsing? Van Helsing is isolated, he is the only one who knows how to bring down Dracula, yet there is the restraint that Dracula has with Van Helsing that we only see with other men.
Another homoerotic piece of subtext in both the novel and our production is the relationship between the brides of Dracula and AH. During this scene, the Brides of Dracula seduce and entice him and he clearly takes a submissive ‘feminine’ role in this interaction. He clearly breaks the Victorian gender roles of awaiting a "wicked desire" rather than being the one acting. He willingly allows the Brides to take the lead as he anxiously awaits what’s to come. Another queer reading of this scene could be one about how the Brides of Dracula’s teeth act as objects that can be used for “penetration.” I know, this is getting wacky, but hear me out. Allow us to recall the following part from AH’s recount:
“Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and chin and seemed to fasten on my throat.... I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the supersensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of the two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited-waited with a beating heart.” -Stoker 37
The anticipation and ecstasy that he feels as he anxiously waits for the Brides to dig into him could be symbolized as a phallic symbol. But of course, it is important to mention that the teeth just touch and pause. They never actually drink from AH. They get as close as they possibly can without “unsexing” or completely depriving him of his male heterosexuality (Craft, 110). In a similar manner, Dracula refuses to drink from Harker or Van Helsing and the fact that Dracula never makes a male vampire and the unwillingness of the brides to consume him reveals a sort of repression these characters have seducing a male.
In conclusion, throughout the novel and the play Dracula, there is a plethora of subtextual and explicit queer imagery whether it be through AH’s submissive role in the encounter with the Brides of Dracula, Dracula’s refusal to victimize a male character, and the “Crew of Light’s” incredibly kind physical descriptions of Count Dracula prove that there is something queer about this tale of Vampires.