There are those who suspect that Bram Stoker was bisexual. Is that possible? Yes, quite. I personally suspect he was. Does that mean his novel DRACULA is loaded with between-the-lines hints that the character of Count Dracula is meant to represent the evil homosexual impulses that plagued the author? If one chooses to read it that way, I suppose it could. That’s the thing about Literature; it allows for interpretation, for the examining of things running beneath the skin. But one shouldn’t take it too far. One shouldn’t try to bend the text to make it fit their particular square peg.
DRACULA is not about anti-Semitism, as some have suggested. And DRACULA is not about homosexuality. DRACULA is not “about” any of those things. Or we could say, possibly, and depending on how one defines it, that it’s about all of those things, to some extent. It’s “about” so many things. There are themes addressed in the novel of which Bram Stoker himself may not have been consciously aware. The forces that shaped Bram Stoker also shaped his fiction, and those forces were legion.
Reading between the lines is fine. Putting forward theories is fine, as long as they are recognized as such. But don’t try to press the material into service furthering some contemporary agenda, as some have done.
So many words have been penned about the undercurrents of Dracula, from the English fear of immigration, to the criticism of the “new Woman” to bisexuality, and on and on. It’s lots of fun to read such textual criticism, but at the end of the day Dracula is a damned fine story and taking it at face value is quite enough for me.
Me too!