Nineteenth Century Attitudes Towards Sleepwalking

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term to describe the act of walking in one's sleep first appeared in the 1830s. It was not, however known as "sleepwalking" at the time. It was instead referred to by its Latin name, "somnambulize". The term we are familiar with today, sleepwalking, first appeared in 1920. As of 1923, the term was defined as the act of "walk[ing] while asleep; to be in a state resembling that of a sleepwalker" ("Sleepwalk, V"). This act is performed on numerous occasions by the character Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. To fully understand the significance of this act in the novel and the responses of the other characters to it, one must first understand how it was perceived by people at the time of the novel's inception, the nineteenth century.  

  ("La Sonnambula",
Wikimedia Commons)

Perceptions of Sleepwalking

In the nineteenth century, sleepwalking was not viewed as it is today. According to the article "Sleepwalking in Italian Operas: A Window on Popular and Scientific Knowledge on Sleep Disorders in the 19th Century": 

"until the early 19th century, a sleepwalker was considered as an insane person, and this state was linked to madness and other mental disorders" (Riva et al. 118-119).

The idea that sleepwalking is a sign of insanity dominated people's attitudes towards sleepwalking in the nineteenth century. It saturated all areas of life, from legal proceedings to everyday media. The image featured to the right depicts a sleepwalker from the nineteenth century. From this image alone one can get a pretty good idea of how sleepwalking was viewed. For example, the sleepwalker is dressed in what is probably a nightgown, although there is a resemblance to a hospital gown. The way the people have all stopped what they are doing to look up at the sleepwalker also supports the idea that this wasn't a normal/natural occurrence.  

Sleepwalking in Law

People's attitudes toward sleepwalking in the nineteenth century is made abundantly clear when looking at court proceedings during this time. According to Dominic Janes's article "Oscar Wilde, Sodomy, and Mental Illness in Late Victorian England", a history of sleepwalking was enough evidence to designate someone as partially insane. This defense was mentioned in Oscar Wilde's trial, however, sleepwalking did not excuse "sexual behavior" under the defense of insanity (Janes 91). A legal designation as insane without a doubt had an impact on people's everyday lives. With how it was perceived by people at the time, it's hard to imagine that these individuals would be able to find work or a spouse. This idea that sleepwalking was a sign of insanity affected not just how sleepwalkers were viewed by others, but also their place in society as a whole. 

Sleepwalking in Media 

Poster for the opera Macbeth 

by Giuseppe Verdi

To understand how people formed this association between sleepwalking and insanity in the nineteenth century, it may be helpful to examine what the people were exposed to everyday: media. In their article "Sleepwalking in Italian Operas: A Window on Popular and Scientific Knowledge on Sleep Disorders in the 19th Century", authors Michele Riva, Vittorio Sironi, Lucio Tremolizzo and others do this very thing by examining the representation of sleepwalking in two famous Italian Operas. In their examination of the opera most relevant to the era Dracula was written in, Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi (1847), they found that sleepwalking was presented as a mental disorder and the sleepwalker was viewed as crazy or beyond help by family and physicians (Riva et al. 118-119). When people are exposed to media where even medical professionals of the time view sleepwalking as a sign of mental disturbance, it's no wonder how their own perceptions and attitudes towards sleepwalking developed. 

Connection to the Text

With a better understanding of the attitudes toward sleepwalking during the era in which Bram Stoker's Dracula was written, Mina's reaction to Lucy's sleepwalking is much more understandable. The motive behind her almost obsessive behavior with insuring know one witnessed Lucy's nighttime escapades can now be understood, she was looking out for her friend. In the opera discussed under Sleepwalking in Media, the sleepwalking character actually dresses herself while asleep (Riva et al. 118-119), very similar to how Lucy does. Making this connection to what she is exposed to in the media, Mina assumes that anyone who sees Lucy is going to assume that she is crazy, therefore tarnishing her reputation and perhaps ruining her chance at marriage. 

The revelation of these attitudes does more than uncover Mina's motives, however. It also allows for a deeper understanding of Lucy as a character. As was discussed under Sleepwalking in Law, it was revealed in the trail of Oscar Wilde that the excuse of sexual behavior under the guise of sleepwalking was not accepted (Janes 91). This brings forth an interesting conversation when examining the scene in which Mina sees Lucy reclined back as Dracula drinks her blood. If the legal bandwidth of what actions are excused by sleepwalking is to be accepted, then this would mean that Lucy actually wanted what was happening with Dracula to continue since she was not fighting. While not explicitly stated, the act of drinking blood has been tied to sexual behavior throughout the novel by the continuous descriptions of the vampires as sexual creatures. 

Overall, this can alter our view of the version of Lucy before her death. We associate this Lucy as pure and good, denying her desire for three husbands and staying faithful to Arthur. This new concept of sleepwalking not excusing sexual behavior, however, would mean that Lucy was not as faithful as believed upon first appearance. 

Work Cited 

Barbizet, Antoine. Photo for the Opera Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi. Meisterdrucke, Bridgeman Images, https://www.meisterdrucke.us/fine-art-prints/Antoine-Barbizet/1456669/Poster-for-the-opera-Macbeth by-Giuseppe-Verdi.html. Accessed 28 Mar. 2025.

"File:Sonnambula atto 3.jpg." Wikimedia Commons. 6 Aug 2021, 01:11 UTC. 5 Mar 2025, 01:30 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sonnambula_atto_3.jpg&oldid=578679292>.

Janes, Dominic. “Oscar Wilde, Sodomy, and Mental Illness in Late Victorian England.” Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 23, no. 1, 2014, pp. 79–95. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24616650. Accessed 5 Mar. 2025.

Riva, Michele Augusto, et al. “Sleepwalking in Italian operas: A window on popular and scientific knowledge on sleep disorders in the 19th century.” European Neurology, vol. 63, no. 2, 2010, pp. 116–121, https://doi.org/10.1159/000277609.

“Sleepwalk.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sleepwalk. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.