Traditionally, in a Victorian society, the man is the one that is supposed to possess the more dominating role during sex. (Buckk) Because of this rather awkward and unexpected experience, Harker is forced to be the submissive one and he easily becomes overwhelmed by their seduction and his own temptation. "I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. The fair girl went on her knees, and bent over me, fairly gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive" (Stoker 61) The fact that Harker is both aroused and revolted by the three sisters shows the confusion that he's experiencing in this scene. He has a primitive urge to satisfy his desires that challenges his status as a decent Victorian man that not only should be disgusted by the actions of the three sisters but most importantly, should be respectful and faithful to his wife. It's seen as proper for women to be pure, but not acknowledged that this is merely a man's primitive instinct to expresses territorialism to its extreme. These are the qualities men at the time commonly looked for. Just reading about Van Helsing's thoughts on Mina, an example of the type of woman men wanted, that hom, "She is one of God's women, fashioned by His own hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that its light can be here on earth. So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoist" (Stoker 303) .
In Dracula, the female vampires represent women liberated sexuality while the vampirism merely masks the man's forbidden fantasies. Although Dracula himself is the embodiment of the horror aspect of the novel, the "hidden horror" lies in the liberation a woman's sexuality. When the reader starts to analyze the character of Lucy, even before she turns into a vampire, we already notice she flirts with the idea of breaking away from the chains of gender roles.
