Symbolism prompt.

The symbolism in the book Dracula by Bram Stoker is blood. Other than the fact that blood
represents vampires' food, in the book, it stands for a deeper meaning. The Count only takes the blood of women because he understands the influence that women have on men. Dracula victimizes women not only to hurt them, but to also indirectly attack men. By doing this, Dracula attacks all formal ties between people and the peace of society. When first reading the book, it may seem like a simple gothic, horror novel, but it is actually used to target the rigid structures of the Victorian days, one of them being sexuality. He uses blood to symbolize the sexual relations men and women share since it was a very repressed subject.
In the beginning, Lucy Westenra, a good friend of Mina Murray is Dracula's first target. Dracula's attacks have many sexual undertones. Dracula hungers for blood like all vampires, but his desire for blood is very sexual. When Dracula lures in his target at night, they lose their conscience and start wandering to Dracula. Back in the days, women are first of all supposed to be very reserved and not aimlessly wander around the night in their night gowns. When Dracula first pierces through the skin of Lucy, it represents the first sexual encounter of a virgin. She bleeds and is more heavily trapped under Dracula's spell. When Dracula's blood also enters her body system, Lucy turns from a reserved, sweet lady to a voluptuous, violent monster. She was a woman who all men wanted to marry before, but after her transformation she acts in a way that undermines her reputation. Lucy's health faltered. She turned pale and weak that the men did everything they can do save her. Professor Van Helsing performs multiple blood transfusions to keep her alive. Even during the blood transfusion, the symbol of blood and sex appears. The intimacy of transferring blood to another person's veins can be noted. Not only that fact, but when Arthur Holmwood (Lucy's fiance) transfers blood, he becomes worn out while Lucy's starts gain color which appears in her cheeks, like she is flustered.
Prostitutes were ostracized and considered a social outcast, so Lucy's transformation also shows the effect her character has on others. To make Stoker's message more 'tangible/physical', the blood in Lucy eventually kills her, but Lucy rises as the "living dead" and hunts people down for blood. In one scene, she kills and sucks the blood out of a crying infant. This shows the threat sexuality can impose on social order.
Mina is Dracula's next target. Mina is even more reserved and rather timid than vivacious as Lucy was. She is engaged to Jonathan Harker and a devoted partner who does whatever she can to help her fiancee. She tries to learn to type so she could easily type out some of Jonathan's journal and studies maps to help the men track down Dracula. All the men love and respect her. Mina represents the ideal woman of the Victorian age. When the men see Mina mindlessly drinking the blood from Dracula's chest, they become concerned. Mina starts becoming sick and they do their best to save Mina from ending up the same way as Lucy. They do not want to see the 'perfect' women falling into the hands of a monster. The men also mention that saving Mina and killing Dracula is for the sake of future generations which implies the potential threat Dracula can impose on society.

To use blood to symbolize sexuality was a subtle way for Stoker to exploit that subject. The hunger for blood for vampires (who in a way represent the outcast of society since vampires live in the dark, up in the mountains in Transylvania away from other people) represents the lust of humans. This hunger for blood kills people as how it killed Lucy and many other innocent people. This represents the one theme of the Victorian society which was against open sexuality. Stoker then characterized this message in his own 'vampirism' story that sexuality can ultimately destroy society. The fact that he also attacked women only was to show how men are weak in front of 'voluptuous' women. Stoker thus successfully used the 'symbol' of blood to portray and satirize the forbidden subjects of the Victorian days.