However, some of its behaviors are non-conformist and reveal a desire to escape these matrimonial constraints. Victorian expectations of women were strict and Lucy's desire to escape carries with it elements of the New Woman who "was more frank and open than her predecessors." . . felt free to initiate sexual relations [and] to explore alternatives to marriage and motherhood” (Senf 35). Lucy receives three proposals from men attracted to her because of her beauty, her "noblest heart" (56), and her gentle nature. She calls herself a flirt and jokingly wonders "why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as she wants, and spare her all the trouble" (54). Her quick recognition of this as heresy shows an acceptance of feminine boundaries, a restriction which is also recognized in her doubt that she will ever speak slang as she "doesn't know if Arthur likes it" (53) . Stoker limits his depiction of sexual relationships to characters who have a perceived negative attraction and only after Dracula bites her does he describe Lucy in more sensual terms. Dracula's metaphorical penetration enacted in his bite transforms his gentleness into "adamantine, heartless cruelty, and purity into voluptuous gratuity" (191). In this state, Lucy takes on the same characteristics as the women encountered by Jonathan Harker at the castle. These women are like the New Woman in their sexual prowess and their reversal of roles, in an act which carries all the implications of fellatio, these vampirettes have a "deliberate voluptuousness which [is] both exciting and repulsive" (34) . Their domination over Harker is manifested in his feminized response, he waits for “a languorous ecstasy” (35) and fades into unconsciousness. THE