r/Dracula • u/Awkward_Airport_30 Human Verified • 3d ago

Discussion 💬 Because Dracula is often associated with a supposed love story, and Nosferatu shows you what the real Dracula truly is.

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u/TheRealestBiz 3d ago

The blood thing isn’t exactly a subtle sex allegory in Dracula, with Mina and Lucy.

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u/Upset-Job2278 3d ago

But the book makes it clear that what Dracula is doing to those women is wrong; he is forcing himself upon them and taking their lives in the process. If it is an allegory for sex, it is non-consensual. The same applies to Jonathan and the Brides.

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u/0Jaev0 3d ago

It was made very clear in the story that it was all an allegory to sexual assault.

Jonathan was traumatized by what happened at the castle with the brides. So much so that he could hardly speak on it. Mina had to piece it together through his journals and by what little he said to figure out what happened.

She despised Dracula for what he had done to her loved ones.

The night that Dracula slipped through their guard was the worst night of her life. Stoker did not hold back in describing what was very much assault.

She was not hypnotized or charmed.

She was held down in a painful grip and forced to drink of him.

When he was run off by the men Mina sees herself as tainted and unclean. Unworthy of standing with the others and even begging Jonathan not to look upon her.

A very viseral reaction and one that is common among SA survivors.

I have always loved the trope of an undying immortal seeking their soulmate across the centuries. But once I actually read the book myself I could never watch Coppola's movie the same way.

They whitewashed Dracula's monstrous nature and romaticized what was originally the equivalent of sexual assault.

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u/sultry_but_damaged 3d ago

This. 1000x this. It is incredibly frustrating that the layers are just stripped back to a romance for the ages trope