Sex and dreams

OK I'm gonna try and do this without any innuendos. According to Freud sexuality is a big part of our subconsciousness and we show it in jokes, slips of the tongue- known as Freudian slips like what happened with James Naughtie and Jeremy Hunt- and of course in our dreams. His idea was that our sexual desires are repressed and these are the times when we are able to express them. To be honest, though, it appears that anything dreamt can be interpreted as sexual- long pointy things (poles, stakes etc.), things that carry water (fountains, water pipes) and any kind of receptacle (a box, chalice or a type of transport) have all been interpreted by Freud as sexual symbols. Similarly, anything that involves penetration or power also has a sexual symbol, meaning any kind of weapon or firearm.

So what does this have to do with 'Dracula'? Well for a start he sinks his teeth into people's necks to suck their blood. This close body contact is, as no doubt Freud would have interpreted it, quite sexual and intimate. The part where Dracula's brides try to seduce Harker is kind of sexual-in the film this bit was shown as quite 'intimate' to say the least and if I remember correctly Dracula (in the film) is supposed to have some sort of fixation with Mina. Perhaps the level of sex and sexual suggestion is because it is a primal urge as is fear, a lot of this in a gothic novel, as well as survival; the Count has to suck blood in order to live. These two instincts seem to be closely linked in the novel, so it isn't surprising that there is quite a lot of sex next to the idea of life, or at least trying to sustain life.