Braham Stokers Dracula and The Distrust Between the Sexes Essay

genus Dracula and The Distrust among the Sexes Unpleasant experiences with the opposite sex seem to be needful (Horney 342). This quote from Karen Horneys essay The Distrust Between the Sexes seems to be discussing Dracula. Though her essay, (a lecture originally given to the Germans Women Medical Association in November 1930), does not mention Dracula directly, the points that she argued can be transposed onto Bram Stokers Dracula. In her essay, Horney asserts that men are very pertain with self-preservation, and also that men have an innate fear of women in authority positions and therefore do what they can to prevent women from obtaining power positions, these two points are applicable to Dracula. Karen Horney observes that because of our instinct for self-preservation, we all have a natural fear of losing ourselves in another person (340). This is evident in Dracula when Lucy knows that her bad dreams (Stoker 109) come at night so she has the pain of peacefulnesslessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep (Stoker 132). She has the fear that if she sleeps Dracula will appear and cause her to lose herself. Stokers Dracula character defies Horneys above statement, presumably because he is not human. He has a life that knew sic no fear and no remorse (302). However, the self-preservation clause still applies. He was very adamant in his desire to study John Harker, in format that he could pass as a native Londoner. Harker realized his place in the Counts plan, while staying at the castle. Harker says this was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever widening circle of semi-demons to batten o... ...e processes? (348). Though Dracula was written a plenteous 30 years before Horneys essay, it is most fascinating re-analyzing the novel after having read the essay. We can see Horneys two assertions (that men are very concerned with self-preservation, and than men have an innate fear of women in power positions) come to life in Dracula. She even mentions vampires in her essay (343), but it is a divers(prenominal) context shes not referring to Stokers novel. These two works, analyzed together, make a most engaging gothic classic that much more interesting. Works Cited Horney, Karen. The Distrust Between the Sexes. A World of Ideas Essential Readings for College Writers. 5th ed. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston, MA Bedford/St. Martins, 1998. 337-351. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. (London 1897) introduction by George Statde. New York Bantam Books, 1981.