Victorian Female Vampires and the New Woman

Abstract

Vampires are found in almost all cultures, but the literary use of vampires to comment on changing social conditions did not begin until the nineteenth century, and it is not surprising that English and American writers between the 1880s and the 1930s create vampires that evoke a real phenomenon, the New Woman, a designation first used by Sarah Grand to describe women who wanted more from life.

That Stoker was thinking specifically of the New Woman is obvious when Mina mentions her directly. Other writers are more subtle, even F.G. Loring, Everil Worrell, and Cynthia Asquith who also create supernatural figures. Because neither writers nor readers believed in supernatural creatures that return from the grave, writers frequently created psychic vampires who drained victims of vitality without literally drinking blood. Among them are Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Arabella Kenealy, Florence Marryat, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, and D.H. Lawrence. Richard Marsh in The Beetle creates a vampire-like character that exercises a similar psychic power over its victims.

While real women were demanding equal social, economic, and political treatment, literature often punished women characters who resemble the New Woman or treated them as vampires who could be summarily destroyed. Exploring the connection between the New Woman and the vampire nonetheless allows readers to gain insights into the period and understand women’s limited options.