Princess Asa Vajd The Good Victorian Woman

The world transformed during the Victorian era. The previous era, romanticism, gained all of its beauty and inspiration from the environment; suddenly industry bloomed, and the nature that had acted as a muse for so many, was covered in bleak smog. As Queen Victoria took the throne, society had begun to formulate new rules and expectations for all groups of people. Suddenly women had strict expectations of them, religion became used excessively in all aspects of life, and the rich assumed themselves better than the poor. Camilla, Dracula, The Mask of Satan, and Pages from a Virgin’s Diary criticize the Victorian’s view on gender, religion, and socioeconomic classes. They created characters that were personifications of the problems of society

She is regarded as the female protagonist of the film, yet posses no ability to save herself whenever in jeopardy. Princess Asa Vajda on the other hand is not a “good woman”, she uses her sexuality to turn Kruvajan and command Igor. Where Katia is saved by men, Asa attacks the men. Asa is seen as evil for being abrasive and commanding, while Andre is seen as a hero when he commanding and acts authoritative. Disregarding the intentions behind the actions, it is seen good when a man acts forceful, but when a woman does it, she is seen as an outcast of society. The reason why Asa is originally condemned to death is because she went against the expectations of men—she chose a separate ideology from the one society expected her to agree

In Dracula, when the Van Helsing places communion cracker upon the grave of Dracula’s fellow vampires, it prevents them from ever leaving the grave. Dracula and vampires can represent sex in this book, as his punctures could represent penile insertion, and the three vampire women could be seen a seducers. When the group of devote Catholics come in a team to kill him, it could represent the movement from religion to stifle the sexual nature of humans. In The Mask of Satan the crucifix is the only thing preventing Asa from rising from her slumber. Once the crucifix is broken, she is able to awake and inflict her revenge. When she transforms Kruvajan by kissing him, she is corrupting him with not only vampirism, but with sin. In the end, the only thing that prevents her plan is a cross necklace burning her forehead. She has impure thoughts, and the cross put on her head hurts her. This implies that religion permeates her thoughts and makes her hurt for the sinfully nature of her thoughts. In a time where natural urges where shunned, religion started to make people feel guilty for their innate nature. Carmilla dives into this topic by having Carmilla’s lack of faith so strange to the Laura, which acts as evidence of suspicions of Camilla’s nature. Because Carmilla is not religious, Laura is suspicious of her character. Who we are, and how we portray ourselves becomes more important than