And this isn't even the wildest scene! Nearing the end of the book, Dracula breaks into the bedroom of the now married Harkers and. Harker, on multiple occasions, takes notice in Dracula's lips and how they could kiss his neck. Domination and submission - played into and against gender stereotypes - polyamory and queer desires. There are a myriad of themes here that echo throughout the rest of book.

Jonathan Harker, when trapped in Dracula's castle and approached by a trio of vampires, remarks, 'I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire they would kiss me with those red lips' with one vampire laughing and saying, 'There are kisses for us all.' Only then does Dracula himself emerge, irate, proclaiming, 'This man belongs to me!' 'Kiss' or 'kisses' is used 42 times in the text, 'lips' 62 with 'voluptuous,' often referring to the vampire's ruby red lips, coming up 12 times.

In reading 'Dracula' (something I've done no less than half a dozen times in the past year), one might be surprised or even confused with the frequency that sex and sexual imagery are discussed. Most obvious and scandalous of all are not the depictions of death, the supernatural, or the occult, but the frank detail surrounding sexuality and sexual orientation. Stoker himself was a closeted gay man who pined for affection from both his friends, mentors, and possible lovers Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman - men who both garnered controversy for their own depictions of homosexuality. one might be surprised or even confused with the frequency that sex and sexual imagery are discussed.

Dracula stoker