Schools of Thought in Gender Criticism

In the pieces, "Gender Criticism and Dracula" by Ross C. Murfin and "Corruption of the Blood and Degeneration of the Race: Dracula and Policing the Borders of Gender" by Sos Eltis, bot readings play off each other very well in regard to the role of gender in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Murfin's reading sets the stage and gives an explanation of the essentialist point of view in gender theory and Sos Eltis's article plays it out by giving valid examples of its presence directly from the text. I agree with Eltis's opinion that Stoker's Dracula expresses a clearly essentialist point of view by presenting its male, supporting characters as "manly men" or what society deems as having characteristics that are typically masculine. This essentialist school of thought is very old fashioned and typical of the society that Stoker writes about in Dracula, but it is also present in our present day society.