Jonathan and SexualityJonathan Harker, Mina Murray's fiancé, represents a typical human confronted with sexual desires. He knows for sure that he wants to get married and spend the rest of his life with Mina, but he still struggles with his natural sexual urges. The reader clearly detects Jonathan's struggle when he meets the three vampire ladies in Dracula's castle. As he lies there, Jonathan feels "an agony of delicious anticipation" and also describes one of the ladies as having "a deliberate voluptuousness that was at once exciting and repulsive" (38-39). Jonathan uses contrasting words here to describe his encounter with the vampires. In his mind he knows it's not true, but his body tells him otherwise: "[T]he skin on my throat began to tingle like flesh does when the hand that is supposed to tickle it comes closer." – closer (39). Yu describes this internal conflict by mentioning that “there is a certain guilt-inducing complicity in Harker. He finds it difficult to resist the beautiful vampiric temptress, but he cannot overcome the restless feelings of nameless fear and intense guilt” (147). “At the same time,” states Kuzmanovic, “however, Harker's fantasies about ladies express his repressed heterosexual desire, which then finds its manifestation in the dream/event with the three vampiric women he experiences in the old ladies' room ". (416). Yu and Kuzmanovic clearly show that Jonathan is like any typical man who struggles to control his sexual desires. Thus, the majority of men can identify with what Jonathan is experiencing. Midway through his time at Castle Dracula, Jonathan discovers the power of Catholicism to control his sexual desires. At the beginning of the novel, Jonathan has absolutely no connection to Catholic practice...... middle of paper...... Dejan. “Vampiric seduction and the vicissitudes of masculine identity in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Victorian Literature and Culture 37 (2009): 411-25. Cambridge Journals. Internet. April 18, 2013. McCrea, Barry. “Heterosexual Horror: Dracula, the Closet, and the Marital Plot.” Novel: a forum on fiction. 43.2 (2010): 251-70. Academic research completed. Internet. April 18, 2013.Prescott, Charles E. and Grace A. Giorgio. "Vampiric affinities: Mina Harker and the paradox of femininity in Bram Stoker's Dracula." Victorian Literature and Culture 33 (2009): 487-515. JSTOR. Internet. April 29, 2013. Stoker, Bram and Roger Luckhurst. Dracula. New ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print. Yu, Eric Kwan-Wai. “Productive fear: work, sexuality and mimicry in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 48.2 (2006): 145-70. Academic research completed. Internet. April 18 2013.