Daughters of Lilith: Transgressive Femininity in Bram Stoker’S Late Gothic Fiction

Université de Montréal Daughters of Lilith: Transgressive Femininity in Bram Stoker’s Late Gothic Fiction par Brigitte Boudreau Département d’études anglaises Faculté des arts et des sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l’obtention du grade de Philosophiæ Doctor (Ph.D.) en études anglaises Mars 2014 ©Brigitte Boudreau, 2014 i Résumé Daughters of Lilith: Transgressive Femininity in Bram Stoker’s Late Gothic Fiction explore le thème de la transgression féminine dans quatre romans gothiques de Bram Stoker. En combinant les études féministes et les études de genre, cette thèse examine les différents visages de la dissidence féminine à travers Dracula (1897), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), The Lady of the Shroud (1909) et The Lair of the White Worm (1911). Dans ces textes, la transgression est incarnée par la femme hystérique, la mère monstrueuse, la femme exotique et la New Woman. De plus, le traitement de ces stéréotypes féminins révèle une certaine tolérance envers la dissension féminine chez l’auteur. Souvent perçu comme un écrivain conservateur, Stoker est plutôt qualifié de progressiste dans cette thèse. L’inclusion de personnages féminins forts et déterminés à travers ses romans ainsi que ses rapports avec plusieurs féministes et proto-féministes dans sa vie privée témoignent de sa libéralité envers les femmes. Sa largeur d’esprit semble d’ailleurs évoluer tout au long de sa carrière ainsi qu’avec la progression du mouvement suffragiste britannique, une période mouvante à la fin du dix-neuvième et au début du vingtième siècle. Mots clés: Bram Stoker, littérature gothique, transgression feminine, femme hystérique, mère monstrueuse, femme exotique, New Woman ii Abstract Daughters of Lilith: Transgressive Femininity in Bram Stoker’s Late Gothic Fiction explores the theme of feminine dissidence in four of Stoker’s Gothic novels. Using a combination of gender studies and feminist theory, this dissertation examines the various faces of female dissension across Dracula (1897), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), The Lady of the Shroud (1909), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911). In these texts, transgression is embodied by the figures of the female hysteric, the dead(ly) mother, the foreign female, and the New Woman. An examination of these feminine types displays Stoker’s capacity to understand and empathise with non- conformist women. Often labelled a conservative author, Stoker is revealed in this dissertation to be more progressive than is commonly thought, as evidenced by the strong and wilful female characters in his fiction, as well as his relations with several feminists and proto-feminists in his private life. Stoker’s more liberal and open-minded attitude towards women not only progresses over the course of his fiction, but also evolves alongside the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century suffrage movement in England. Keywords: Bram Stoker, Gothic literature, transgressive femininity, female hysteric, deadly mother, foreign female, New Woman iii Contents Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: “It must be something mental”: The Female Hysteric in Dracula................................................................ 17 Chapter 2: “The spirit of her mother is within her”: The Dead(ly) Mother in The Jewel of Seven Stars..................................... 67 Chapter 3: “I am not as other women are”: The Foreign Female in The Lady of the Shroud....................................... 109 Chapter 4: “She can play her game better alone”: The New Woman in The Lair of the White Worm ................................... 152 Conclusion................................................................................................................... 196 Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 202 iv Abbreviations D Dracula JSS The Jewel of Seven Stars LS The Lady of the Shroud LWW The Lair of the White Worm v For Charlie vi Acknowledgements Many thanks: -To my supervisor, Professor Michael Sinatra, for his guidance and support throughout my graduate studies. -To my husband, Charlie, and my parents, Susan and Spencer, for their love and inspiration. -To my family and friends for their encouragement and motivation. Introduction Writers of force and skill and judgment can convey abstract ideas of controlling forces and purposes; of embarrassing weaknesses; of all the bundle of inconsistencies which make up an item of concrete humanity. —Bram Stoker, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving In the recent past, Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire tale Dracula has been rediscovered. Once ignored in scholarly circles, Stoker’s fin-de-siècle Gothic masterpiece has moved beyond the horror fringes and insinuated itself within the Victorian canon. The author’s seminal novel is the cornerstone work of vampire fiction, and has generated great interest within the field of Nineteenth-Century Studies while simultaneously possessing pop-cultural appeal. Though not the first vampire tale ever written, Dracula still became a trailblazer in its own right, having arguably established the genre of vampire fiction that continues to thrive to this day.1 The character of Count Dracula has served as an inspiration for many a literary undead being. There are glimpses of him in everyone from the Eastern European immigrant Kurt Barlow to the homosocial Louis de Pointe du Lac, the alluring Southerner Bill Compton to the glittering Edward Cullen.2 Stoker’s famous villain is an unforgettable persona against which all other vampires must necessarily be differentiated. 1 Long before Dracula, the vampire was an important mythological figure in Romantic and Victorian Literature. John William Polidori’s 1819 story “The Vampyre” and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla were particularly inspirational for Stoker. In “The Vampyre,” the homosocial bond between Aubrey and Lord Ruthven recalls the equally suggestive relationship between Jonathan and the Count in Dracula. In Carmilla, the lesbian vampire Carmilla reverses traditional sex roles and shares many commonalities with Dracula’s weird sisters as well as the vampirised Lucy Westenra. 2 The central antagonist in Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot; the central protagonist in Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire; a central character in Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark; and a central character in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, respectively. 2 Although Dracula’s fame is now widespread, Stoker’s more obscure works still linger in the realm of the shadows. Because these other texts are virtually unknown, many critics have reduced him to “a second-rate writer who wrote a great book” (Stuart 187). Certainly academics and Dracula aficionados alike would agree that the author’s vampire tale merits the distinction of “a great book.” A late Victorian horror novel presented in a pastiche of several styles, Dracula has never been out of print since it first hit shelves over a century ago, and remains a compelling work of Gothic fiction when many other horror tales have lost their bite.3 What of the suggestion that Stoker was “a second-rate writer,” though? The accusation, in my opinion, is somewhat unjust. Stoker’s career as acting manager to Sir Henry Irving,4 coupled with his position as director of the Lyceum Theatre, consumed him entirely. Considering his unwavering devotion to Irving in his twenty-seven years of service, it is rather extraordinary that Stoker found the time to write at all.5 Over the course of more than three decades, he managed to pen twelve novels, four works of non-fiction, three collections of short stories, and many uncollected tales, before dying of exhaustion at the age of sixty-four.6 Although his lesser-known texts are certainly not as polished as 3 Dracula first made its debut on 26 May 1897, published in London by Archibald Constable. Carol A. Senf notes that Dracula “has never been out of print in English, and it has been translated into numerous foreign languages” (Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism 13). 4 Henry Irving was the most celebrated actor of the Victorian era, with a career spanning almost half a century. Many scholars contend that Irving served as a model for Count Dracula. Barbara Belford, for instance, notes that Stoker’s famous character became “a sinister caricature of Irving as a mesmerist and a depleter, an artist draining those about him to feed his ego” (270). 5 Stoker’s dedication to Irving was such that he devoted more time and energy to the actor than to his own family. Belford claims that Irving “stole away Stoker’s family life. But Stoker was a willing victim” (121). Stoker’s 1906 biography of Irving, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving, is a testament to his obsession with the actor. 6 Stoker’s official cause of death is cited in his 1912 death certificate as “Locomotor Ataxy 6 months, Granular Contracted Kidney, Exhaustion” (qtd. in Shepard 414). There exists some controversy surrounding the death certificate, which, according to Daniel Farson, was forged. He holds, “Bram died of tertiary syphilis,” and further notes, “He probably caught syphilis around the turn of the century, 3 Dracula7—which took him over seven years to complete8—they should certainly not be overlooked. Indeed, Stoker produced not only one “great book” but many other memorable ones as well. These works stand as a testament to his talent as a writer, and are equally compelling

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