Quotation: “With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension. His right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare chest which was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink. As we burst into the room, the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood dripping mouth, clamped together like those of a wild beast.” (Stoker, Chapter 21)

Comment: This scene has a very aggressive, sexual undertone to it. In a disturbing way, it makes me feel as though Stoker wanted to depict a scene in which the Count “sexually assaults” Mrs. Harker. Of course, there isn’t anything explicitly sexual during this scene, but as we’ve discussed, vamprism has inherent connections to sexuality. While Mrs. Harker is clearly going through a very traumatic event akin to rape/sexual assault, it feels as though the Count isn’t motivated by a lust for Mina. In Victorian times, sexual assault of a woman was unfortunately seen as more devastating to the woman’s male partner, as it would “demasculate” him. As Harker is sleeping right next to the Count and Mina, he is completely unaware yet present during this scene. Perhaps the Count is using Mina to assert a type of dominance over Harker himself. 

Question: How has “monster literature” changed how readers view/read scenes depicting sexual assault? Has it allowed us to be able to freely talk about these issues without being “monstrous”?