Love, Male Neurosis, and the Tale of Two Women in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The article examines gender dynamics and male neurosis in Bram Stoker's *Dracula*, focusing on two prominent critical readings: Bram Dijkstra's feminist perspective and Christopher Craft's queer interpretation. Dijkstra argues that the novel reflects male anxieties about the New Woman, with Lucy representing a threatening form of femininity that ultimately must be subdued. Craft, on the other hand, posits that the text reveals the repression of male homoerotic desire, suggesting that female characters serve as vessels for men's unacknowledged sexual yearnings. Both readings highlight the passive roles of women in a patriarchal society, while the author proposes a critical approach that reveals how the text undermines its own male-centered ideals, suggesting that the monstrous feminine challenges the stability of the male ego and Victorian gender norms. [Extracted from the article]