Sex sells. One of the oldest business mantras in the United States, this phrase is applicable across the world and through time. And sometimes, sex sells a little too well. This is the case for Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In a story containing action, adventure, and thrill, the tale of the two women is placed, uncaringly, in the rear in comparison to the story of the men. This forgetfulness is unfair, as Lucy and Mina Murray Harker arguably play as big a part as Van Helsing or Dracula himself. Lucy is the first person the audience sees fall under the evil, malevolent spell of Count Dracula. As women, she and Mina are the Count’s primary goal. Through them, and through the women of the world in general, the Count intends to spread …show more content…
Both are quiet, demure, and naturally submissive in nature. Both are shining examples of innocence, virtue, and sophistication. The key difference between Lucy and Mina, in the early letters, is that Lucy has a sexualized beauty about her that Mina does not possess. She is described as blonde, voluptuous, innocent, and pure in one breath. An air of vulnerability hangs about Lucy, driving people like Van Helsing to protect her. She seems to be the example of what a woman should be in the late 19th century. Her innate sexuality, however, reveals itself to be her …show more content…
Dracula is selecting the women he wants to transform very meticulously. He will not settle for a plain Jane, he must have the beautiful Lucy. To Stoker, Lucy’s sexuality would have lowered her in the eyes of the class system. Stoker likens this to her descent into vampirehood, as a fall from good graces into the pits of despair and turmoil.
However, even a woman with as loose and unbound morals as Lucy does not deserve to rot in Hell for something she did not do. Mina, Van Helsing, and Lucy’s three suitors make finding Lucy their priority, in order to assist her into a final, righteous resting place. Upon finding her, and witnessing the horror of her feeding upon a child, Holmwood plunges a stake into her heart, killing both his fiancé and the monster she has become. Van Helsing confirms the justification of this act, stating that by ending her immortal life, Holwood has helped Lucy find a peaceful resting place for
Stoker’s description of innocent Lucy and evil Lucy is reflected through his tone to emphasize the transformation.
Lucy poses a threat to the Victorian ideology by exposing herself as a danger to sexual propriety. She remarks about wanting to have more than one husband, which displays promiscuity, “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men or as many as want her?” this statement works as a threat which comes to fruition after Lucy is bitten. Once infected by Dracula, Lucy becomes sexually overt and aggressive; and is portrayed as a monster and a social outcast. She transforms into a fiend and feeds on children making her the maternal antithesis as well as a child molester.
...have a strong desire to maintain control within and outside of marriage, they also have the support of a male dominated society. Stoker displays this struggle in the main characters of Dracula. Lucy Westerna is the obtuse, innocent, fragile, yet sultry siren of male desire; her aggressive sexual power is threatening to the Victorian man, making her not quite pure enough of mind or strong enough of will to be saved. On the other hand, Mina Murray Harker is a clever, unadulterated, strong, yet motherly woman, the kind of woman all women should strive to be. Therefore she is deemed superlative and worthy of salvage.
In Dracula, Bram Stoker explores the fantastic image of a sexually dominant woman within a patriarchal society. The battle between good and evil within the novel very much hinges upon feminine sexuality: Lucy and Nina are embodiments of the Victorian virtues, which Dracula threatens to corrupt,
We are introduced to two particular women in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. These two women are Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra. These women were presented to serve as Foil characters and show the two types of women: the pure and the vulnerable.Early in to the novel, they were described as the stereotypical perfect women in this era. As the story progresses , significant differences are shown by both women. Lucy will show the difference between which allows Dracula to capture her with his spell first. This will show the similarities and differences of MIna Harker and Lucy Westenra.
“Dracula, in one aspect, is a novel about the types of Victorian women and the representation of them in Victorian English society” (Humphrey). Through Mina, Lucy and the daughters of Dracula, Stoker symbolizes three different types of woman: the pure, the tempted and the impure. “Although Mina and Lucy possess similar qualities there is striking difference between the two” (Humphrey). Mina is the ideal 19th century Victorian woman; she is chaste, loyal and intelligent. On the other hand, Lucy’s ideal Victorian characteristics began to fade as she transformed from human to vampire and eventually those characteristics disappeared altogether. Lucy no longer embodied the Victorian woman and instead, “the swe...
Bram Stoker’s use of gender inversion is first evident in the novel when Dracula’s voluptuous brides attempt to seduce Johnathan Harker. “In an agony of delightful anticipation”, “The blonde girl's “deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive awaiting consummation with eyes closed in languorous ecstasy” (p. 48) Johnathan being quite coy “responds” to this occurrence by taking the approach “What happens in Transylvania stays in Transylvania.” As the three women lean over Johnathan he is attracted by their “red” succulent lips on his throat “so powerful an ambivalence, generating both errant erotic impulses”, but when the brides are about to feast and devour Johnathan, Dracula suddenly appears and puts an end to the party. Dracula openly displays his uncontrolled dominance over these women by saying “How...
As the saying goes, “Women can do everything Men can do.” In the Gothic Novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, there is a constant theme of sexuality, from both male and females in society. In the Victorian era, the roles of male and females have caused a lot of tension. After reading Dracula, some would argue the roles men and women hold in society. As mentioned in Dr. Seward’s Dairy from Val Halsing., “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and a woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination” (Stoker and Hindle, 2003 250). A women’s mind is not the always the first thing on a males mind. Some would overlook what a woman really has to offer.
Dracula accentuates the lust for sexuality through the main characters by contrasting it with the fears of the feminine sexuality during the Victorian period. In Victorian society, according to Dr.William Acton, a doctor during the Victorian period argued that a woman was either labelled as innocent and pure, or a wife and mother. If a woman was unable to fit in these precincts, consequently as a result she would be disdained and unfit for society and be classified as a whore (Acton, 180). The categorizing of woman is projected through the “uses the characters of Lucy and Mina as examples of the Victorian ideal of a proper woman, and the “weird sisters” as an example of women who are as bold as to ignore cultural boundaries of sexuality and societal constraints” according to Andrew Crockett from the UC Santa Barbara department of English (Andrew Cro...
In terms of feminist theory, Dracula is much like that of Henry Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; both portraying the role of women (or lack thereof) in a Victorian setting. During the turn of the century women did not have the freedom granted to them today and not much was expected of them in terms of masculine obligations. Men were expected to be smart and strong while women were supposed to be motherly, gentle, and nurturing. For example: the superiority of men over women in Dracula is made clear when Lucy addresses Mina: “why are men so noble when women are so little worthy of them?” (Stoker 54). Stoker portrays all of his female characters’ vulnerability against evil when each one of them seems to have a weakness to a male character. Dracula can be analyzed through and against feminist theory by relating the stereotypes of the three female characters: Mina Murray Harker, Lucy Westenra, and the three vampire “brides” of Dracula.
And for this voluptuous Lucy he has no pity: "the remnant of my love passed into hate and loathing; had she then to be killed, I could have done it with savage delight" (249; ch.16).
That morning he is to leave, a crowd is awaiting him and muttering strange things. Harker says, "I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words" (Stoker 6) to address his confusion about what was going on around him. He Count Dracula, a hermit who lives on a cliff, detached from society, strikes at night to find anyone alone--whom he considers easy prey. A prime example of one of these victims is Lucy Westenra, who ends up outside in the middle of the night after she sleeps walks to the town square. When Mina Murray finds her, she describes the discovery, “There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure.”
The women in Coppola’s film all seem to exhibit the sexuality of women, and are represented as lustful demons. Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost) is one of the most sexualised characters, and in the film even before she was turned into a vampire, she is shown as a sex crazed fiend. Furthermore, the three vampire women at Dracula’s castle are also...
When Van Helsing figured out what was happening to Lucy he told Dr. Seward and after Lucy passed away the men went to where she was buried and it had been weeks and her body. The sight they saw was “more radiant and beautiful than ever; and I could not believe that she was dead. The lips were red maybe redder than before” (Stoker 171). This line should that Lucy turned into a vampire because Dracula had been sucking her blood. Jonathan Harker was also a victim of Dracula’s games but he fought through his mental trauma with the help of his Wife, Mina. The rein of Dracula’s evil ways came to an end and although Lucy lost her future, all of her friends were finally safe from
Immediately Van Helsing thinks it is Lucy, so he gets John Seward to go and check out Lucy’s tomb with him. When her coffin is opened they discover that there isn’t a body. Seward suggests that maybe there were body snatchers that took poor Lucy’s body. Needing more proof to convince John, Van Helsing went back a couple more times. Each time they went at night the body wasn’t there, and when they went during the day her body was in the coffin. With this being enough proof, Arthur, Quincey, John, and Professor Helsing developed a plan to kill Lucy once and for all. Before going through with the act Van Helsing asks Arthur “Answer me, oh my friend! Am I to proceed in my work?” (Stoker 303). This shows the selflessness that is a less appreciated quality of Van Helsing. He knew that mutilating Lucy’s bad would emotionally wound more than one person in the room. However, he did know that by not killing her would mean the lives of many others would be lost, along with a lot more pain and suffering. This act also shows bravery. Mutilating someone that you had cared for in front to people who had loved her for a long time would, without a doubt, be extremely hard.