Seduction of Jonathon Harker by Dracula's Brides

Sara Bakhtiar

Woman in Coppola’s Dracula 1992 is no longer a passive figure who only symbolizes purity and innocence but is an active figure who appears as a threat to male. Seduction of Jonathon Harker (Keanu Reeves) by three Dracula’s bride is one of the important scenes that contributes to the new definition of woman in horror genre, where female is depicted as a monster and male (Harker) is the victim and passive figure. Set design, costume, sound effect that arranged for this scene excellently contributes to the idea of female sexuality as a threat to man and portrays changes in both male and female roles in horror and blurs the border between humanity and monstrosity.

The scene begins as Jonathon is lured by a sensual woman’s voice calling for him and asking him to lie down on the silk bed located in a deserted room. The voice along with the footprint on and movement of figures under the silk sheet, are all hints that raise audience curiosity and prepare them for what will happened next. Silk sheet movements and contributes to the sexual scene that follows afterwards. In a bit, the first Dracula’s bride raise topless between Jonathon legs and begins creeping on his body, licking his throat and kissing him aggressively; before long other two brides join. Brides topless in their lace-like revealing pants, eroticizes the scene and pictures the female figure men are vulnerable to. Jonathon, the noble Victorian man with suppressed desires, voluntary accept the inevitable and stays defenseless against his emotions. This sexual interaction between the characters continues until it is interrupted by Dracula. Fast movement of camera among characters who are involved in this scene, groaning of characters with pleasure and the choice of music, has also eroticized this scene noticeably.

 Presence of monster in a shape of a voluptuous woman is fundamental change in definition of woman in horror genre. Coppola depicts Dracula’s bride sexually aggressive, beautiful and powerful who use her attractiveness to satisfy her needs; ultimately delivers the fear of female sexuality and how women can be a threat to men as Vera Dika argues. One of the Brides symbolizes Medusa –Goddess of destruction and sexuality- in the scene as she is illustrated with a snake grown from her head. This is where the true faces behind vampire’s brides beauty is revealed and emphasizes the threat of female sexuality and plant this fear in the audience.

Jonathon symbolizes passivity and indecisiveness is in contradiction with the figure of man in former version of Dracula, who used to have full control over his emotions. In the scene, Coppola portrays Jonathon once with vampires on the bed and once in the reflection of the mirror on the ceiling, where none of the vampires are shown; as if he is dreaming about defilement. This image is a metaphor for men’s dark thoughts and fantasy of women and their sexual desires that was suppressed. Sexual desires in both Jonathon (representation of human) and Dracula wives (representation of monster) shows there isn't always a fine line between human and monster. According to Robin Wood concept of “Return Of the repressed”, whatever appears as an object of horror in movies are extracted from what has been suppressed in our culture. Coppola managed to picture repressed fantasy of man and woman and female sexuality successfully and showed that monster is part of human being.

work cited

Wood, Robin.”The American Nightmare: Horror in the 70s.”(1979:27-29