Victorian Nightmares

Dracula embodied every anxiety haunting Victorian England: a foreign aristocrat invading British shores, the awakening of female sexuality that patriarchy desperately suppressed, infection spreading like disease through intimate contact, and the conversion of Christians into servants of darkness.

Lucy Westenra transforms from a demure young woman into a sexually predatory creature who feeds on children. The scene where Van Helsing's team drives a stake through her heart reads as a brutal restoration of patriarchal order disguised as heroism.