Brahm Stoker and Oscar Wilde: Sexual and Social Identity in "Dracula" and "The Importance of Being Earnest"

Gender and identity were two of the main issues criticized by some of the most popular writers of the Victorian time period, but none of the authors were as straightforward as Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker. Oscar Wilde focused mainly on the dual-identity that existed in Victorian society, not only in the social aspect applied to the way every-day Victorian men and women were expected to act, but also when it came to sexual identity, …

…supposed to be viewed as virtuous, such as Jack and Gwendolyn in "The Importance of Being Earnest", or expressing fear of female sexuality through "voluptuous" and "ravenous" characters like the Weird Sisters in "Dracula". Though Wilde focuses mainly on issues of dual-identity and Stoker on the terror of female sexuality, they both share the same view; that Victorian society feared expressing sexuality and true identity for the effects that it would have on patriarchal society.