Dracula: Who is the real monster?

After watching the first half of Coppola's Dracula in class, I was very interested in the story. I ended up torrenting buying a copy to watch in its entirety later that night. It was great!

In Frankenstein, we focused primarily on the theme of socioeconomics and class struggle. I believe that is also present in Dracula to an extent, however it is not the central theme. I saw Dracula through a few other lenses. What stood out most to me was the theme of gender inequality and suppression of women and their sexuality. From this angle, Dracula really doesn't fit the role of the monster but rather all the men of the piece who force these women to conform to the rigid standards of society. The women who chose to express their sexuality are portrayed as monsters who must be stopped. The 3 sisters and Lucy, for example, are all destroyed for their deviance, while Mina is fought over in a very materialistic manner. There is a constant subordination and materialization of women throughout the novel by both the westerners and Dracula. One of the more cited quotes of the novel (also said in this film adaptation), said by Dracula, reads "Your girls that you all love are min already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine."

I came across a collection of critical essays about the novel (ISBN 1550022792) that dove deeply into this theme. Pages 342-345 contain a great essay on this and can be viewed free via google books here: https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1550022792