GOTHIC MONSTERS AND MASCULINITY: NEUTRALIZING THE NEW WOMAN IN

VICTORIAN GOTHIC LITERATURE

Sara Schoch

Abstract:
Gothic literature of the nineteenth century was deeply concerned with with threats to masculinity.
Beginning with Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1818) and spanning the century, these novels captured an
important sense of social unrest attributable to contemporary changes in intellectual and social thought
which reverberated throughout the century and threatened to topple patriarchal gender norms. Two major
shifts contributing to this instability were the transition from the Baconian to the Darwinian scientific
model, and the threat posed by the emerging model of the New Woman to the Victorian feminine ideal
embodied in the angel in the house. These changes threatened the foundation upon which masculinity
and thus, patriarchal society, rested its dominance. This article explores textual attempts to neutralize such
threats by vilifying the New Woman and glorifying the angel in the house in Mary Shelleys
Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Bram Stokers Dracula, and
concludes that such attempts ultimately reaffirm the females power in this male-dominated society.

GOTHIC literature of the nineteenth century was Baconian to the Darwinian paradigm of science,
deeply concerned with threats to masculinity. and the threat posed by the emerging model of
Beginning with Mary Shelleys 1818 publication the New Woman to the traditionally established
of Frankenstein and spanning the century, these and deeply celebrated angel in the house
novels captured an important sense of social worked to threaten the foundation upon which
unrest attributable to significant contemporary masculinity and thus, patriarchal society, rested
changes in intellectual and social thought, which its dominance.
reverberated throughout the majority of the
century and threatened to topple current Several key texts exploring such threats use
patriarchal gender norms 1. Evolution in scientific monsters and depictions of their moral and
and social thought over the course of the century sexual depravity to subvert these contemporary
played an integral role in destabilizing Victorian destabilizing influences and strengthen the
masculine gender dominance, causing anxiety in power of the feminine. Mary Shelleys
the face of dramatically changing social standards Frankenstein, the catalyst for such socially critical
for the family. 2 The two major shifts contributing monstrous texts, Robert Louis Stevensons The
to this instability the transition from the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Bram
Stokers Dracula , all explore and attempt to
neutralize the social threat of the emerging
1Smith, Andrew. Victorian Demons: Medicine, dominant female figure, as well as that of the
Masculinity and the Gothic at the Fin-de-sicle. scientific revolutions subjection of the male
Manchester: Manchester UP, 2004. Print., Showalter, scientist to a feminized nature, by using the
Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin villainous monster as a representative of the
De Sicle. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Viking, 1990.
autonomous and assertive New Woman figure,
Print.
2 Navarette, Susan J. The Shape of Fear: Horror and the
while celebrating textual representatives of the
angel in the house as integral features of a happy
Fin De Sicle Culture of Decadence. Lexington:
and healthy society and family.
University of Kentucky, 1998. Print.

Sara Schoch, 2013. Originally published in Explorations: The UC Davis Undergraduate Research Journal, Vol. 15
(2012). http://UndergraduateResearch.UCDavis.edu/Explorations. The Regents of the University of California.
Shifting Paradigms: Baconian to Darwinian qualities, implicitly placing the male at the
random mercy of a feminized nature, disrupting
The first major shift working to destabilize previous notions of masculine superiority over
masculinity in the nineteenth century was that in the feminine. This greatly impacted male
scientific paradigms from Baconian to Darwinian subjects perceptions of themselves as masterful
thought. Cindy Hendershot discusses this shift in and flawless, subjecting them to the raw and
her chapter on Darwinism and Masculinity in immitigable power of a feminized system. In
The Animal Within, explaining that the Baconian nineteenth century Britains overbearingly
paradigm asserts that the male scientist and his patriarchal society, the implications of a feminine
scientific pursuits are guided and empowered by force wielding power over the male subject were
divine inspiration from God himself. This potentially devastating to masculinity as it
celestial influence allows the male scientist to defined itself by, and derived its power through,
exercise a sense of innate power over nature, its domination over passive femininity.
which Baconianism depicts as a feminine force.
Carolyn Merchant discusses Bacons specific Notions of science and its divine empowerment
feminization of nature in The Death of Nature, of the male subject found themselves in flux as
first citing his textual goal of leading [the male early as 1814 3 and became a significant presence
scientist] to nature with all her children to bind
in Mary and Percy Shelleys own lives, due to the
her to [their] service and make her [their] slave
integral role of their family doctor, Sir William
(Merchant 170). She goes on to retell Bacons Lawrence, in attempting to undermine and
description of matter as a common harlot, and
debunk scientific arguments that electricity and
insistence that the scientist can find truth in
the divine imbued animals with the force of life.
nature and authority over nature by exploring The core point of contention in this debate was
within her deep mines and caves and delving
the antiquated notion that a mysterious,
into the earths bosom (171). Merchant also
superadded forcewas needed to animate life.
explains Bacons characterization of man and his Forward-thinking materialists, such as the
relationship to nature by asserting that nature,
Shelleys doctor were of the professional
by art and the hand of mancan then be forced
opinion that life has its origin in that of [an
out of her natural state and squeezed and organisms] parents, thereby seeing no means of
molded into that which man can use to
abstracting the animating power from the
reconnect to God. Bacons explicit feminization
animal (Butler 305-6). Lawrences highly
of a natural system subordinate to man, yet publicized debate with a colleague took place in
essential in the process of recovering the power
the years immediately preceding Mary Shelleys
over nature lost, and irrefutable connection to
conception of the plot of Frankenstein, and
God, when Adam and Eve were expelled from clearly manifests itself in Victors process of
paradise, demonstrates the dependence of the
creating his monster, making this particular
masculine subject on female inferiority in
scientific debate and shift highly pertinent to the
constituting his powerful masculine identity. formation of her text. This fundamental
disagreement over whether mans scientific
This model was upset by the emerging and
pursuits channel the divine, placing him above a
eventually dominant Darwinian model, described generally feminized nature in the universes
in The Descent of Man, which takes God out of
hierarchy of power, is finally settled in the shift
the equation and asserts that humanity itself is
nothing more than a serendipitous symptom of
biological change, resituating humans as 3Butler, Marilyn. "Frankenstein and Radical
inherently subject to nature and taking away the Science." Frankenstein. Ed. J. P. Hunter. By Mary
scientists ability to seek dominion over her. This Shelley. 1818 ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.
shift disempowers the male scientist, while 302-13. Print.
continuing to imbue nature with feminine

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Vol. 15 (2013) S. Schoch, p. 2
from Baconian to Darwinian science. This God and thus, the innate sense of superiority and
cultural shift is facilitated by the publication of dominance upon which his masculine identity
Darwins The Descent of Man and The Origin of constitutes itself.
Species, not long before the publication of The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Thus, it becomes clear that this male-defined
Dracula , situating the production of these texts model of femininity aligns itself perfectly with
in an era riddled with confusion over the the Baconian paradigm of science. These systems,
implications of this drastic shift. through both science and social convention,
attempt to ensure masculine superiority by
defining masculinity through its ability to
The New Woman dominate female forces, embodied by nature and
Simultaneous to the destabilization of the ideal wife. Once upset however, by
masculinity rooted in the loss of masculine Darwinism and by developing notions of the
scientific control over nature, the model of the intellectually curious and socially autonomous
New Woman begins to develop, threatening that figure who will develop into the New Woman,
of the celebrated angel in the house, also the entire concept of masculinity and thus,
working to weaken contemporary notions of culturally prescribed male identity, was called
masculinity 4. Coventry Patmore coined the term into question. Just as the shift to Darwinism
with his poem, Angel in the House, published uprooted scientific anchors for masculinity, the
in 1854. The poem idealizes this passive, purely emergence of the New Woman destabilized
domestic female figure, providing a definition for masculinity as it was secured in relation to the
the perfect woman in contemporary British angel in the house. While Patmore provided a
society. Patmores poetic exploration of the angel clear definition of who the angel in the house
in the house both describes the private and was and how she would behave, no such clarity
maternal qualities that each woman should existed for the confusing and fractured notions
display, and ranks her as inferior to her male of the New Woman taking shape in the
spouse by using the love between man and wife nineteenth century. A significant element of her
as a metaphor for that between man and God. power and fright located itself in the fact that
Patmores poem depicts the ideal relationship women were defining her for themselves. Rather
between man and woman as one of a superior than allowing men to appoint them a role in
who delights in the smallness and weakness society, as was the case for the angel in the
of his beloved (Dunn 210). In his analysis of house, women themselves were taking
Angel in the House, John Dunn demonstrates responsibility for defining the New Woman
how the poems depiction of the great male (Ledger 10). This sense of initiative and female
with his small wife provides an analogy for its power, combined with the fact that there was no
depiction of Gods relationship to the [mans] clear definition of who the New Woman was,
soul (212). Patmores assertion, however, that made this model elusive, and a particular
an experience of divine love can only be achieved challenge to thehomogeneous culture of
through loving an angel in the house places the Victorianism which could not find a consistent
male, and his ability to connect to God, in a language by which she could be categorized
precarious and dependent balance. Without a (11). This confusing new model of an
female subject over whom to wield his masculine increasingly autonomous, sexually empowered,
power, the male loses his ability to connect to and assertive female figure also posed a threat to
contemporary conceptions of masculinity.
4 Ledger, Sally. "Who Was the New Woman?" The
The textual response to such dramatic social and
New Woman: Fiction and Feminism in the Fin De
scientific shifts manifests itself similarly
Siecle. Manchester: Mancehster UP, 1997. 9-34.
throughout Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr.

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Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dracula . All three of the means by which Victor will make his discovery
novels self-consciously suggest the existence of represents a clear nod to the Baconian system,
such a masculine crisis by dramatizing this loss however Victors eventual placement in a
in masculine scientific power through the male position of reduced agency and apparent misery
scientists ultimate subjection to a feminized as a result of this scientific endeavor evidences a
nature. In each text, male scientific endeavors clear failure on behalf of this scientific paradigm.
either backfire and leave men at the mercy of The secrets Bacon so encourages scientists to
nature and their creations, or become extract from nature in order to assert mans
subordinate to more subjective practices of power over her only make Frankenstein a slave
superstition and mythic authority. All such to the knowledge he gains and the destructive
subversions in the male scientists expectations monster that it causes him to create. Victors
work to convey the contemporary vulnerability attention to the moons gaze furthers this notion
of masculinity at this time, which so founded of natures ultimate power over the male scientist
itself upon scientific principles and their as she casually supervises such endeavors
proposed logic of male superiority to feminized through the eyes of a classic symbol of
forces. femininity. Thus, from the outset of his scientific
pursuit, it becomes apparent that science can be
The Failure of the Male Scientist easily overridden, particularly the vein of science
Mary Shelleys Frankenstein contains multiple through which the male derived a significant
scenes in which the failure of the male scientist sense of his masculine superiority.
becomes apparent, reflecting contemporary male
insecurities over the shift that has transformed Frankensteins most notable textual depiction of
scientific pursuits, once empowering and the failure of the male scientist appears in
demonstrative of mans innate superiority over Victors realization of his lifes work, usurping
processes governed by a feminized system. The the biological role of the female and creating
novel first demonstrates its consciousness of this monstrous life. As Victor ardently awaits the
shift and the notion of scientific forms and ideas animation of his creature, the moment to which
becoming obsolete when a young Victor his entire life has lead him, he describes the
Frankenstein asks his father about the disgustingly dull yellow eye of the creature as
philosophy of Cornelius Agrippa. Frankenstein it opens, its first movement as convulsive
Sr. responds to his young sons interest in this motion agitated its limbs, and the way in which
outdated scientist by flippantly telling him not to the beautiful features he chose for the creature
waste [his] time on such sad trash (Shelley only formed a more horrid contrast with the
21). This moment ultimately catalyzes Victors repellent and unnatural features of this being
obsessive pursuit of the type of science against whom Victor confesses he was unable to
which the Shelleys doctor was endure (34). This description of Victors
contemporaneously debating, one centered on attempted assumption of the females role in the
the notion that electricity and its ability to process of reproduction indicates a
channel the divine carried the power to animate compensation for the masculine threat imposed
life. by the shift to Darwinism. By overtaking the now
all-powerful, feminized nature, the figure of the
Later, when describing the moment at which he male scientist has textually reclaimed his
begins to research this animating power, Victor masculine power over her. However, this
at more than one point characterizes this search reclamation proves unsuitable as it leads to the
as one in which he pursued nature to her hiding creation of a wretched, dangerous monster,
places, the latter of which also describes the rather than the expected pinnacle of male
moon as it gazed upon [his] midnight labor perfection, reasserting natures superiority over
(32). This brief gesture to female nature as the the scientist. Frankensteins self-professed

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repulsion at the monsters initial animation only title of scientist, but it is suggested that his
reinforces this personal failure. experiment was never even attempted, let
alone productive. While we are aware of Jekylls
The descriptions surrounding the process of scientific undertaking and accomplishment, no
creating the monster itself also call science into matter how wretched, the texts deliberate refusal
question by infusing it with the supernatural. to acknowledge what Jekyll has done
Upon his initial pursuit of the animating power demonstrates its apparent opinion of the
of life it seems as though Frankenstein would magnitude of his failure. This, paired with
have been well-served to take superstitious heed Lanyons previous description of Jekylls
of the graveyard. This muddles objective modern endeavor, despite his firsthand experience of his
science with the superstitious qualities that it friends transformation, as unscientific
attempts to reject. Victor describes how his balderdash allows the text to deride any notions
research ultimately leads him to study the of Jekylls relative, although destructive,
natural decay and corruption of the human scientific achievement as completely
body by unearthing buried corpses. While he inconsequential (14). This external refusal to
admits that this would be frightening work for admit that Jekyll has achieved anything, whether
most, Frankenstein justifies his indifference to good or bad, asserts the extent to which the male
the process by explaining that in his youth, his scientists efficacy has been called into question
father had taken the greatest precautions that by his contemporary social deprivation of divine
[his] mind should not be impressed with power.
supernatural horrors, and adds that he did not
ever remember having trembled at a tale of Also indicative of the male scientists socially
superstition (30). While seemingly innocuous, problematic powerlessness are the texts
this admission implicitly questions the validity of animalistic descriptions of Hyde and the ease
rational science, asking readers to ponder with which he overpowers Jekyll. In his own
whether Victors early exposure to such statement of the events, Jekyll asserts that he fell
superstitions might have prevented him from in slavery to Hyde, slowly losing hold of [his]
such excavations and thus, creating such a original and better self (66, 70). He admits that
horrific monster. Again, the text actively after creating Hyde, he felt the animal within
questions the validity of objective science threatening to overtake him at any moment (73).
seemingly in favor of supernatural fears by It becomes clear, not only that Jekyll is at the
raising the question of whether such mercy of the overpowering Hyde, but that his
superstitions might have spared its characters the civilized, masculine, scientist self is being
destruction and hardship wreaked by the actively usurped by one who hisses, snarls as a
monster that such objectivity allowed Victor to savage, cries out like a rat, jumps like a
create. This questions the rationality with which monkey, and screeches as of mere animal in
the male scientist is expected to conduct his terror (16, 17, 44, 46, 48). Hydes
work in favor of often-belittled superstitious overpoweringly animalistic qualities demonstrate
notions, again pointing to a weakness in the power nature exerts over Jekylls scientific
contemporary scientific thought. undertaking, suggesting that science, once a
process that allowed man power over nature,
Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. only subjects him to nature, through Hyde, now
Hyde demonstrates a similar sense of male more than ever before. The texts mixture within
scientific failure. Jekylls laboratory is, at the end Hyde of such primal characteristics and a marked
of the novel, found looking as though [the sense of femininity not only subject Jekyll to
result of] an experiment in which the unhappy nature, but nature as a dominant feminine force.
man had been prevented (Stevenson 49-50). Jekylls loss of control to one knit to him closer
Not only is Jekyll deprived in this passage of the than a wife, one described as being on the verge

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of hysteria, characterize Hyde as an fundamental dualistic collapse ultimately works
overpowering feminine force who easily to demonstrate masculinitys contemporary
dominates his creator in a markedly animalistic vulnerability. In Kiss Me With Those Red Lips,
way (77, 58). As Jekyll loses control over his Christopher Craft takes up the issue of these
ability to resist transforming into the beast-like collapsing binaries and argues that the
Hyde, natures power over this male scientist is oscillation thus pictured in the text between
reaffirmed, problematically placing masculinity Draculas vampiric transgression and Van
at her mercy and actively demonstrating the Helsings medical correction of such
slipping grip of masculine power over its transgressions, and the blur such interferences
feminine opposite. make in the distinction between this
science/legend binary exercise the texts
Science functions similarly in Bram Stokers ambivalence toward...fundamental dualisms in
Dracula as in Frankenstein and The Strange Case nineteenth century British society. Craft argues
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The texts most that Van Helsings most important task, as
obvious abandonment of science appears in Dr. protector of patriarchal institutions, is to
Van Helsings desertion of his scientific practices, reinscribe the dualities that Dracula would
those for which he was sent to employ in order muddle and confusebut Dracula as a border
to save Lucy from the, as yet, unknown cause of beingabrogates [these] demarcations, making
her deteriorating health. Once Van Helsing such distinctions impossible for Van Helsing to
suspects the involvement of a vampire in causing sustain (117). This collapse threatens the
Lucys illness, he discards his modern scientific distinction in gender between masculine and
practices in favor of mythic remedies in order to feminine, which Van Helsing, as the texts
save her. Rather than using modern instruments conventional paternal figure, must try to uphold
or cures to aid Lucys recovery, Van Helsing in order to maintain a semblance of traditional
brings wreaths teeming with wild garlic to patriarchal order. As he administers transfusions
place around her neck and on her windowsill, of the male characters blood to Lucy, and
Draculas point of entry into her home (Stoker Dracula subsequently drains her of these
157). Rather than immediately relying on simple attempts at revival, the gender binary is
blood transfusions or a diagnosis of anemia, Van collapsed. The mixture of the bodily fluids of all
Helsing interprets Lucys symptoms through of these male characters in Lucys body, and their
legend and superstition and attempts to remedy subsequent abstraction from her by the
her sudden illness through an unconventional ambiguously gendered Dracula, collapses this
overuse of garlic. This unexpected shift on Van male-female divide at the most fundamental
Helsings part demonstrates the contemporary level. Not only have the fluids of these males
crisis in masculine scientific thought by been mixed with each other, a compromise in
rendering science completely ineffective in the heteronormativity, and thus masculinity, itself,
face of what seems to be an unstoppable but they are also mixed with that of Lucy, an
monster, and instead making legend, religion, emblem for Victorian femininity, and
and folklore the only tools through which subsequently deliberately consumed by a figure
Draculas threat can be mediated. who embodies this consumed mixture of
masculine and feminine. Thus contemporary
In the cases in which Van Helsing does resort to science, in the form of these blood transfusions,
objective science, he does so in conjunction with works to destabilize masculinity as it breaches
such superstitious remedies. He fuses the two the division between male and female at a literal
when he is forced to both replace Minas blood level.
with transfusions as well as use crucifixes and
garlic in order to save her from Draculas
interference. The texts depictions of such a

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Use of Embedded Narratives for the Female Voice behavior inherently casts a negatively biased
These texts also employ an epistolary form in shadow on Jekylls attempt to defend himself.
order to demonstrate a restriction in male agency
and control, further reflecting the masculine Not only has Jekylls explication of his failed
crisis resonating in contemporary British society. experiment been tainted and potentially
Frankensteins use of a frame narrative, over tampered with by the external forces that present
which the ambiguous female figure, Mrs. Saville, it in the narrative, but his own agency in the
resides, removes control over the narrative from process of transcribing what has occurred is also
the male figures who tell and create it, placing it questionable. Jekyll decides to write this
in the hands of an unknown, external, feminine statement once he finds he has no control over
filter. While the monsters narrative is his transformations into Hyde and is in danger of
presumably the most convoluted, due to its running out of the mysteriously contaminated
placement at the very center of the frame, powders which ever allowed for this
vulnerable to reinterpretation by three different transformation to take place. Jekyll admits that
sources, the narratives of the conventional the moment in which he finishes his
Western male figures are also vulnerable to transcription of the story is the last timethat
distortion as they are filtered by those passing Henry Jekyll can think his own thoughts or see
them along. Victors story must pass through, his own face (now how sadly altered!) in the
and thus be subjected to the interpretation of, glass (Stevenson 78). The structure of this
both Walton and his sister, taking ultimate sentence and its parenthetical is ambiguous. Is
control of this story out of his hands. Also the despaired-over alteration located in Jekylls
compromising is the fact that all that we hear face, his thoughts, or both? This ambiguity
from Walton is filtered by his sister, of whom we makes Jekylls own narration of his case
know nothing. Both of these masculine figures unreliable. We are again forced to question the
and their stories subjection to the control of a reliability of this statement when Jekyll admits
female filter functions at a formal level to further that the throes of change might very well take
demonstrate the problematic loss in the males [him] in the act of writing and, should this
control over his voice, another way in which his happen, Hyde will tear [the statement] to
power and thus, masculinity are depicted as pieces, but also admits that if some time shall
threatened in the text. have elapsed after Jekyll has finished and then
Hyde finds the document, that he might not
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, destroy it after all (78). Jekylls admission of his
the same convolution of the male protagonists own lack of control over the documents fate, due
story occurs. The majority of the novel is told in to his unreliable mental state, his vulnerability to
the third person limited narratorial style, transformation, and Hydes own ability to tamper
focalizing on Utterson who has virtually no with the document work to further convolute
knowledge of Jekylls true behavior. Once Jekylls story strips him of his masculine agency
Jekyll/Hyde has died, the true story of Hyde in telling his story and subjects it to that of the
surfaces first through Dr. Lanyons Narrative, disapproving Lanyon and Hydes animalistic,
and then in Henry Jekylls Full Statement of the feminized self.
Case. While it seems as if the majority of the
narrative attempts to present the story in Dracula also expresses this sense of masculine
complete fairness to Jekyll by focalizing upon his instability through its portrayal of the female
oblivious and sympathetic friend, its move to usurpation of the male voice. Mina Harker, the
first unearth Lanyons biased experience of Jekyll female protagonist of the novel proves herself an
and his alternate identity, and then disclose expert at shorthand, a manner of typing in which
Jekylls own explanation of his mysterious words are systematically abbreviated. Mina, the
only person within close proximity of her friend

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Lucy as she unwittingly succumbed to Count entire story, subjecting the male stories and
Draculas attempts to transform her into a presences in the narrative to her own filter and
vampire, recorded the sequence of events. Once interpretation. As a feminized figure in his own
Dr. Van Helsing arrives to attempt to save Lucy right, Hyde does the same for Jekylls narrative,
and thwart Dracula, he asks to read her record of allowing all three of these texts to display a sense
the events. Because the diary is in her shorthand, of male vulnerability and loss in control to the
Van Helsing will, presumably, be unable to read female through their formal construction.
it, but without telling him, Mina gives her notes
to him anyway. She admits, in her diary entry Neutralizing the New Woman
recording this interaction with Van Helsing, that In an attempt to dismantle and undermine the
she could not resist the temptation of powerful feminine forces threatening
mystifying him a bit and blames this small flare contemporary masculinity, these texts move on
of mischief on the taste of the original apple that to condemn the figure of the New Woman, or in
remains in the womans mouth. It is then that Frankensteins case, her predecessors, in order to
Van Helsing must ask Mina to read her record of neutralize the threat of the feminine overtaking
the events because he does not know how to read the masculine as the dominant gender. In order
her shorthand. She admits by this time that her to vilify this New Woman figure, these texts
little joke was over, and [she] was almost portray her in monster form, using textual
ashamed so she instead hands him the monsters to convey contemporary fears over her
typewritten copy that she had all along (Stoker violence, rejection of maternity, and sexual
217-218). aggression, all qualities which worked to infuse
this new female figure with a sense of
This interaction clearly demonstrates the control masculinity that threatened the
Mina retains by writing such records in a coded masculine/feminine duality upon which men and
manner, illegible to all the men in her company. patriarchy relied. By infusing these frightful
Van Helsings gleeful and grateful reaction to textual monsters with characteristics so
Mina handing over the legible materials, which contemporarily emblematic for the New Woman,
open the gate to this mystery for him further these texts actively work to vilify and destabilize
suggest the power Mina wields over this her position in society, giving the male an
narrative, as it is later decided that she will opportunity with which to reclaim his social
retype all letters and materials chronicling the dominance.
events surrounding Dracula and their original Frankensteins characterization of the monster as
copies will be destroyed. Minas previous allusion a socially marginalized figure allows him to
to Genesis and the remaining taste of the apple inhabit the same social space at this time as
also works to highlight the masculine anxiety contemporary forward-thinking females who
experienced at the hands of this female authorial wished to engage in the intellectual and political
control. Minas deliberate actions to demonstrate realms of society from which they were
this power over Van Helsing for her own excluded. Frankensteins monster inhabits a
amusement allow the text to express an extreme feminized space in his marginalization from
sense of anxiety over this textual control and society. Clearly demonstrating the intellectual
suggest that it might have fallen into the wrong and emotional capacity to partake in and benefit
hands. Sewards later lapse into a deathly pallor society, he remains excluded solely on the basis
at the thought of letting Mina listen to his of his physical characteristics. This places
phonographic journal, and copy it down, further Frankensteins monster in a similar position to
demonstrates this masculine anxiety and sense of women of this time who were largely barred from
relinquished control, although he quickly matters of the intellect due to their biological
submits to her plan (Stoker 262). Ultimately, like sex. Much like the later emerging New Woman,
Mrs. Saville, Mina becomes the gatekeeper to the the monster repeatedly attempts to defy the

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practices of those shunning him. Just as the works to destabilize positive opinions of the
monster tries to integrate himself into society female figures who will contribute to and fight
through the DeLacys, the New Woman attempts for the validation of the New Woman. This
to do so in her attempts to break into the restabilizes masculinity by implicitly placing the
intellectual sphere by seeking primary and traditional female figure, whose passivity enables
secondary education. Both are met with masculine dominance, above that of the
resistance and constructed as a threat, the marginalized monster whose social equivalent is
monster immediately assaulted by those he tries the threatening New Woman.
to help, and the New Woman derided as
masculine and a danger to the traditional family The monsters potential mate is also constructed
when looking beyond the confines of the home. as a progressive feminine threat through
concerns over her unbridled sexuality and her
This texts primary demonstration of this sense of ultimate destruction because of it. After toiling
forced exclusion appears in the scene in which away over the creation of a new, female, monster,
the monster is violently shunned from the in order to meet the demands of that existing,
DeLacys home. After months of sitting by, Frankenstein decides to destroy her before she is
silently helping the family through a harsh ever even animated. He defends his decision by
winter while teaching himself how to speak and stating that she might become ten thousand
read, the monster decides to approach the times more malignant that her mate, and that
patriarch of the family, in an attempt to integrate the female monster might even delight, for its
himself into their family. While the blind Mr. own sake, in murder and wretchedness.
DeLacy listens to the monster, because he is Continuing to explain his fears, Victor reaches
unable to register his revolting physical the horrified realization that she might turn in
appearance, Felix, Safie, and Agatha, the rest of disgust from the existing monster to the
the DeLacy family, enter and immediately regard superior beauty of man, and comes to his final,
the monster with horror and consternation. least horrified conclusion, that even if this female
The monster then recounts how Felix darted did desire her male monster counterpart, a race
forward, and with supernatural force, tore [him] of devils would be propagated upon the earth
from his father to whose knees the monster (115).
clung (Shelley 91). This scene functions to
equate Frankensteins monster with the similarly Frankensteins need to inhibit the primary
marginalized intellectual woman of the time, like biological function of both females of the human
Mary Shelley herself, who was so actively and race, as well as that of the female monster,
painfully refused from the intellectual company demonstrates a fundamental fear of female
of her male companions (Poovey). While this sexuality, especially that which might exist
scene constructs the monster as one with whom uninhibited by the monster and his lack of
to sympathize, his unjustifiable violence in society. Frankensteins failure to simply disable
killing Victors cherubic little brother, the female monsters reproductive system
subsequent allowance of an innocent young suggests a fear not only of her ability to
woman to die for this crime, and his brutal propagate this new monster species, but of her
murder of Elizabeth, a highly celebrated and potentially deviant sexuality in general. His
idealized female figure in the text, demonstrate anxiety over her potential transgression into
the danger of such a sexually ambiguous figure desiring man, rather than her monster mate, with
to the noble, celebrated female figures in society whom she would be unable to reproduce,
and their innocent young charges. By socially furthers the texts condemnation of female
equating the monster to the progressive female in sexuality that cannot result in the creation of a
contemporary society, and then making him new being. His horrified revelation that he is
responsible for such atrocities, Frankenstein bringing another monster into the world and

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subsequent destruction of the female monster hand against Jekylls might suggest a difference
demonstrate the threat of unrestrained female in species, hair in nineteenth century Britain, as
sexuality, embodied in contemporary society by Doane and Hodges cite in Demonic
the New Woman, to masculinity, the foundation Disturbances in Sexual Identity, was largely
of patriarchal power. emblematic for the Victorian woman. Hair
evoked a womans buried energy, a trait
Hydes disruptive monstrosity in The Strange potentially threatening to the man attempting to
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is also control her. This particular power, as Doane and
representative of the threat imposed by the figure Hodges point out, becomes even greater as
of the New Woman. Hyde merges the masculine Stevenson uses it in relation to Hyde, due to its
and feminine within his monster body to ability to signal that such a drastic
represent what were seen contemporaneously as transformation has taken place. Hydes distinct
alarming perversions in gender by the developing identification with this contemporary female
New Woman. Many of Hydes qualities are emblem, allows his character to inhabit a similar
congruous with contemporary cultural space as the New Woman, a figure who was seen
descriptions of femininity. While Jekyll attempts as a dangerous embodiment of both the
to mediate the domestic space of his home, by masculine and the feminine.
differentiating his private self from his public
masculine identity, he finds he cannot, and The text moves beyond Hydes strangely
instead relies upon Hyde to aid in this transition feminine hand description to further develop
as one would a wife. Hydes description as a Hydes characterization as a figure emblematic of
sort of murderous mixture of timidity and the same problematic mixture of masculine and
boldness conflates traits emblematic of the feminine seen in the New Woman in various
masculine and the feminine into his single other descriptions. Lanyon describes Hyde upon
monstrous body (Stevenson 18). This parallels their meeting as one wrestling against the
Hyde with a New Woman-like wife, suggesting approaches of hysteria, an emotional state
how she, after mixing traits of masculinity and used to describe a deeply unsettled woman,
femininity, can easily transform into the demon traditionally attributed to a disturbance of the
of the house. Hyde contributes the same terror uterus (Stevenson 58, hysteria def. 1). In
and division perceived in the New Woman, Jekylls own narrative of his slow loss of control
allowing this text to condemn her ambiguous to this monster, he describes Hyde as being knit
mix of masculinity and femininity through its closer to him than a wife, suggesting his
display in an irredeemable monster. Hydes habitation of a feminized space, placing Hyde in
invasion of Jekylls previously peaceful existence the same position as a married New Woman
demonstrates the social destruction of which this horrifyingly bound to her disapproving spouse
New Woman figure is capable and helps to (Stevenson 77). Jekylls description furthers this
restabilize masculinity by vilifying the parallel between the social space of Hyde and
autonomous feminine figures who threaten it. that of the New Woman when he mentions how
Hydes representation of the feminine, despite his Hyde resented the dislike with which he himself
apparent characterization as a male, manifests was regarded. Hydes resentment of social
itself most symbolically in his identifying feature: judgments and marginalization of his character
the appearance of his hands. Jekylls primary allow him to occupy a similar inferior social
manner of recognizing that he has transformed space as Frankensteins monster who also bears a
into Hyde is by the corded, knuckly hand, representation of the New Woman.
thickly shaded with a swart growth of hair that
meets his gaze, replacing his own which is Dracula too derides the New Woman and her
described as large, firm, white and comely overt sexuality through its characterization of
(88). While the juxtaposition of Hydes hairy the women whom the Count turns into

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vampires. When faced with the threat of lure helpless young children into their clutches
Draculas female vampire companions, Jonathon in order to feed on their blood, their only source
Harker becomes overwhelmed by a passive sense of nourishment. When Van Helsing confronts
of desire. Instead of initiating contact with the Lucy in her monstrous form, she is, at one point,
women, he submits to his desire for them to described as one transformed into a figure filled
penetrate him, both threatening his status as an with heartless cruelty and voluptuous
active masculine agent, and his life. Harker wantonness As she sees her adoring friends
describes the vampiric female aggressors in his from another life, she draws back with an angry
initial encounter as inspiring within him both snarl and with a careless motion, flings to
longing and at the same time some deadly fear. the ground the child from whom she was
He goes on to explain their advances and his drinking, callous as a devil. Vampire Lucy
subsequent wicked desire for the vampires to remains stoic as the child gives another sharp
kiss [him] with those red lips. As one of the cry in response to her cold-blooded act
females makes her way over to Harker, he (Stoker 250-251).
describes the feeling of the soft shivering lips on
the supersensitive skin of [his] throat, and the This act itself represents the ultimate
hard dents of the two front teeth. After this final embodiment of contemporary fears of the New
advance, Jonathon can do nothing but close his Woman and her rejection of motherhood. Lucy
eyes and [wait] in languorous ecstasy (Stoker has reversed the process of nursing by drinking
48-49). The threat that these female vampires from this child, and clearly evidences her
pose to Harkers well being indicates anxiety over animalistic lack of concern for the childs well
the subversion of traditional female passivity in being by carelessly tossing it to the ground. The
favor of overt sexual expression. The vampires female vampires avid defiance of feminine
subversion of these gender norms threatens gender prescriptions in her overt physical
Harkers masculine identity by assuming the sexuality and challenge to expectations of female
male role as aggressor and placing him in a maternity allow this odious figure to inhabit the
feminine position of passivity, welcoming space of the New Woman, vilifying this
penetration instead of desiring to penetrate. contemporary cultural figure. This subversion of
These sexually aggressive concubines depict a what is expected to be an inherent sense of
reversal of categorical gender sexual roles maternity taps into mans anxieties over his
putting these vampire wives/daughters in a inability to halt the potential transformation and
position to usurp the male prerogative of destruction of the traditional family, by the
initiating sex (Brock 125). Deviations from this mother, wrought by changes in feminine models.
standard, on behalf of the woman, are depicted
in the novel as a representation of her physical Dracula himself also embodies the New Womans
and moral degeneration into monstrosity. The threat to the angel in the house and the male-
threat of death implicit in this particular female- dominated family. Judith Halberstam develops
initiated sexual encounter obviously marks the the concept of this anxiety further in her
texts interpretation of this reversal as horribly assertion that Dracula, blends power and
wrong as well as threatening to her male subject. femininity in the same body, demonstrating a
textual reversion to the one-sex body, corrupting
The text continues to deride notions of female and transforming venerated female figures into
autonomy and removal from traditional domestic callous sexual monsters as he makes them into
roles in its portrayal of the female monsters vampires (Halberstam 344). Draculas infusion of
demonstrations of perversions in maternity, as masculine sexual power into the novels female
they prey only upon innocent children. These characters, as well as his own inhabitance of
sexually charged vampire women not only feminine qualities liken his threat to that of the
seduce men, but they use their physical beauty to emerging New Woman. Dracula distorts the

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process of reproduction as he is the only one of
his kind with the ability to reproduce, while While these texts vilify the figure of the New
female vampires are left to defy any sense of Woman in order to offset a significant threat to
maternity by preying on children and cruelly traditional masculinity, they further attempt to
tossing them to the ground, in a similar way to reestablish masculinity as the unquestionably
Hyde when he tramples the little girl, once they dominant gender through their positive
have satiated their thirst for childrens blood. characterization of the angel in the house. These
texts efforts to identify and celebrate the angel in
In a startlingly similar way to Hyde, Draculas the house present her as the only viable model to
physical differences to his human companion are ensure the success and health of the family. Such
partially emblematized in Jonathons description depictions glorify her as an ideal, compassionate,
of his hands, the backs of them had seemed pillar of passive support to her dominant male
rather white and fine; but seeing themclose counterparts, while those of her absence and
they appeared rather coarse and showed hairs destruction all result in the eventual annihilation
in the centre of the palm (Stoker 25). Again, we of the family unit, or its cornerstone: the
see this female emblem appear as a dominant male. These texts thus assert the
distinguishing characteristic for a sexually importance of the angel in the house in order to
ambiguous monster figure, demonstrating a maintain patriarchal norms and masculine
disturbing physical link between the woman of dominance by ensuring the survival and
nineteenth century and this destructive monster. dominance of this submissive female model.
Also suggesting Draculas reflection of the New
Woman is Van Helsings description of the Frankenstein openly explores familial structure,
vampire as not having a full man-brain; he is strengthening notions of the importance of the
no doubt cunning and resourceful, but he be traditionally domestic maternal figure to the
not of man-stature as to brain (401). Van health of the family and thus, the maintenance of
Helsings detraction from the ease with which a masculine-dominant society. The text uses
Dracula seems to outwit the four men against Frankensteins abandonment of his biological
whom he is working appears in his description of family, as well as his abandonment of his
his acts as attributable to mere manipulation and monster-child to demonstrate the necessity of the
cunning, attributes commonly ascribed to private, compassionate care offered only by the
women, since Genesis, who manage to outwit angel in the house and her domestic
their male counterparts. Van Helsings assertion accommodations to the health of the family.
that Dracula, while he may appear to be smart, is
simply not of the intellectual constitution of a Frankensteins downfall becomes inevitable
real man places him in the same socio- when he forsakes his family for his egotistical
intellectual space as New Women attempting to devotion to his creation of the monster. The
break into the intellectual sphere. This reasserts storys ultimate devastation, wreaked by the
masculine dominance and superiority over such separation of masculine work from domestic
marginalized individuals who might appear to be affections, is directly attributable to
of this man-stature, deriding their triumphs as Frankensteins maniacal devotion to creating the
manipulative and snake-like, rather than valid monster which ends in the destruction of his
and earned. All such characterizations of the entire family, save one member, at the hands of
New Woman-figures horrifyingly destructive his unnatural creation. Frankenstein openly
tendencies and subversions in its intellectual acknowledges his voluntary entrance into single
capability demonstrate deliberate textual parenthood when he celebrates the idea that no
attempts to maintain traditional male strength child would be able to claim the gratitude of
and dominance over this convoluted and his child so completely as he (Shelley 23). In
monstrous emerging feminine form. conventional reproductive endeavors, a child

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would owe his gratitude to both his mother and that if this rule were always observed; if no man
father, this monster however, will only have allowed any pursuit whatsoever to interfere with
Victor to thank once born. the tranquility of his domestic affections, that
much of the national destruction and calamity
After establishing his solitude in the process of that has occurred throughout the world, the fall
creation, Frankenstein describes his complete of great civilizations, might never have transpired
disconnection from any sort of compassionate (33). Victors recognition of the problematic
interaction. He openly expresses that he absence of domestic affection at the time of his
wished to procrastinate all feelings of creation of the monster suggests the destruction
affection until the great object, the animation of that will certainly follow, not only if men turn
the monster, which swallowed up every habit of away from the traditional domestic system, but
[his] nature, should be completed (33). Thus, women as well. For, without an angel in the
Victor openly states his complete and deliberate house to whom a man can turn, such calamity
removal from any sort of domestic affection. will follow anyway. This statement works not
While he anticipates that this will only improve only to guide Walton in his pursuits, but to
his concentration on the task of creating his powerfully suggest, albeit implicitly, that women
monster, in the end it becomes clear, when who break their domestic roles as angels in the
Victor expresses his utter revolt at the sight of house leave contemporary society vulnerable to
the monster after his birth, that he is without the same destruction, inherently romanticizing
the compassion needed to accept the monster as the angel in the house as one with the power to
his child. Frankenstein, as a male isolated from maintain a happy and healthy husband, family,
the compassion of the domestic sphere for such a and society.
time, does not have the emotional capacity to
look past the monsters deformities to properly While Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
care for and raise his offspring like the angel in and Mr. Hyde depicts a society almost devoid of
the house figure presumably would. This females, it is through this flawed masculine
inability exposes the gap between Frankenstein world that it implements its male concession for
and the monster as an incomplete family unit, the necessity of a female figure to mediate the
headed by a sole paternal creator, and that of the domestic space, while demonstrating a
traditional family graced by a female domestic simultaneous rejection of the female who does
who can provide the emotional care that the not fit the prescriptions of patriarchal norms. In
monster requires in order to contribute to, rather the beginning of the novel, Jekyll experiences an
than destroy, the health of both his family and identity crisis due to the fact that he must
greater society. Had a proper angel in the house transition from the public to the private sphere
been by his side, Victor not only would have without a female domestic to mediate this
avoided such a parental deficiency in himself, transition. The marked absence of females in the
due to the frequent exercise and strength of such novel allows its male characters, particularly
elements of his self, but the monster would not Jekyll, to develop their role in the private sphere
have been without a caring maternal figure, and their occupation of domestic space, which is
preventing his lethal episodes of anger and usually dominated by women, allowing these
outrage over his complete rejection from society. bachelor characters to redefine masculinity and
remodel the domestic sphere (Brock 173).
Victor, after realizing the error in his ways, even These bachelors are given fluid and
confesses this misguided self-deprivation to mutablecharacteristics which are usually
Walton. He insists that if the study to which associated with the feminine, transforming the
Walton applies himself has a tendency to traditional domestic sphere into one that
weaken [his] affectionsthen that study is includes the bachelor, successfully creating a
certainly unlawful. Victor continues by asserting world in which women are not only no longer

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wanted, but also no longer necessary (176). Dracula continues to romanticize this male-
Because he must do this on his own, however, female, superior-inferior dynamic when Van
Jekylls masculinity, and thus, his public identity, Helsing discusses the blood transfusions used to
is threatened by this constant shift into domestic save the ailing Mina, once she has become
mode, ultimately necessitating his transformation another of Draculas victims. Van Helsing says
into Hyde. Hydes ultimate destruction of Jekylls with certainty that a brave mans blood is the
morality and facilitation of a reclusive life best thing on this earth when a woman is in
without a wife or family evidence the imperative trouble, he continues by asserting that the
of such a female domestic figure in order to devil may work against [them] for all hes worth,
maintain the life and honor of the male in but God sendsmen when they are needed
society. (179). Not only is man the strongest and most
suited agent to help a woman in trouble, but this
Dracula, alternatively, romanticizes the angel in passage reasserts mans connection to God, again
the house figure through its portrayals of the pre- celebrating the females passive reliance upon
vampiric Lucy and Mina and its evident horror man and inherently placing her above the
and despair at the changes they face during their sexually ambiguous, destructive monsters,
unwitting transformations into female vampires. emblematic for the developing New Woman.
In their idealized forms, Lucy and Mina are
marriage-oriented, subservient to, and reverent While these texts deliberately attempt to expose
of men. Dracula clearly demonstrates its and reverse contemporary forces jeopardizing
preference for women such as these by masculinitys position as the dominant gender,
contrasting them with the horrible, damned such attempts to subvert these threats ultimately
female vampire figures, especially that of vampire only reaffirm their power and that of the female
Lucy. In their early correspondence, Lucy in society. Taking such pains to subordinate the
describes Mina and herself as women who can New Woman by comparing her to the powerful
despise vanity, because they are engaged and forces of these textual monsters works less to
are going to settle down soon (Stoker 70). invalidate her and neutralize her threat to society
Positing married women as humble and inclined than it does to reinforce her potential to upset
to dislike such a nasty trait allows the text to and overcome the patriarchal forces so intent on
encourage marriage and the virtue that it must causing her demise. Similarly, such calculated
inspire. Lucy goes on to contemplate the fact that celebrations of the angel in the house, while
men like womento be quite as fair as they promoting traditional feminine submission to the
are, however womenare not always quite as masculine, only demonstrate the importance of
fair as they should be, and goes on to ask Mina this passive group to the constitution of the
why men are so noble whenwomen are so desired masculine identity, again reaffirming,
little worthy of them (70-73). In all of these rather than diminishing, the social power of the
exchanges, Lucy, a highly celebrated and woman. Despite working to overcome
swooned-over female figure in the novel furthers weaknesses in contemporary masculinity, these
the stereotypes encouraged by patriarchal texts only further expose the vulnerable state in
society, looking to assert the superiority of the which the masculine gender finds itself in
masculine over the feminine. Such passages nineteenth century British society.
actively work to stabilize contemporary
masculinity as the dominant gender by defining a
true and valued woman as one who admits and Acknowledgements
accepts her station below her husband and men
I would like to thank Dr. Colin Milburn and Dr.
in general.
Peter Dale for their guidance and support,
without which, completion of this project would
not have been possible.

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Vol. 15 (2013) S. Schoch, p. 14
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