In Stoker's novel, temptation is issued from the prurient and lascivious female characters. Harker is first tempted by Dracula's three femme fatales, beings of deliberate carnal lust; 'All three had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips'5. Here, the apt use of a provocative lexical field accentuates their sensuality, alongside powerful erotic adjectives such as 'voluptuous' and 'burning'. Stoker also employs juxtaposing colour imagery, initially with 'white teeth'; a colour often associated with the motif of innocence and purity, against 'ruby. burning. red' which are common symbols of lust, warning and foreshadowed death. This runs parallel with Sarah Peter's critique of Dracula, who states that 'the most significant reason for the omission of the religious and superstitious elements of the gothic novel. is the theme of imminent and inevitable death.'6 The theme of temptation continues as the vampirized Lucy is described, 'The face became wreathed with a voluptuous smile. and with a languorous, voluptuous grace. there was something diabolically sweet in her tones'7. The similarity between Harker's first encounter is distinctive, with a lexical field orientated around her alluring features. This is achieved through the use of enticing long adjectives such as 'languorous' and 'voluptuous', as well as the salient oxymoron 'diabolically sweet', emphasizing her hypnotic pull on the living. .
The temptation of protagonists is similarly presented in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, where the characters are enticed by nightmare life in death, 'her lips were red, her looks were free'8. Coleridge's apt use of Gothic symbolism through the use of colour imagery and anaphora is congruent with Stoker's representation of temptation, and the implied connotations of a sexually unconfined persona links with the transgression of sexual innocence in the supposed autobiographical Christabel.