Dracula And Women Essay

During the Victorian Era, one of the leading concerns was the role of women and how they were placed in society. In this hair-raising novel Dracula, Bram Stoker analyzes the female characters, through literary devices such as archetypes and tone. When reading between the lines in this novel, readers tend to see how Stoker portrays the difference between men and women during the 19th century by painting a picture of what society was like throughout Dracula.

During the Victorian Society, women that were innocent and chaste were favored. While women who were the exact opposite, were not pure or chaste, they were looked down upon and were not able to participate in social events. This resembles to the women in Dracula. The sexual and impure women

were portrayed as evil, like dracula’s “brides”. The chaste and innocent women were portrayed as strong independent women, like Mina and Lucy.
Mina is the ideal Victorian Women. In the novel, Van Helsing states that Mina is “one of God’s women, fashioned by his own hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that its light can be here on earth”(Stoker 136). Readers see throughout the novel how Mina is a very loyal, intelligent and an independent women. Stoker uses the tone of compassion and loving when describing Mina. She is the perfect type of wife/women Victorians would consider. Although women are characterized as loyal and intellegent in the novel, women also have their weaknesses. For example, In Dracula, Lucy is forced to rely on all four men to watch over her when she is sick. All men are forced to “transfuse blood at once”(Stoker 98) to Lucy or else “she will die”(Stoker 98). This shows that Lucy’s weakness is men. She feels the need to turn to men for savior when she is unable to help herself.
The archetype of women in the Victorian Age, were fragile, dependent, weak, and not smart. Due to the archetype of women, Stoker creates Dracula’s victims to be all women. Why? Because, during this time, women were weaker than men, therefore it was easier for Dracula to hurt Mina and Lucy. Dracula victimized the two women in their sleep, making them that much more vulnerable to him.
Throughout the Victorian period, men and women roles became more defined than any time in history.

Men were often seen more superior and braver than women. In Dracula, readers notice that men are the ones to save women. For example, Jonathan takes care of Mina through everything. He stays by her side through her sickness, when she gets hypnotized, sleepless nights, Jonathan was there through it all. The archetype of a “man”, is a strong, handsome, financially stable, person. Jonathan fits this stereotype. Another example would be Arthur. He was deeply in love with Lucy. In Dr.Seward's diary, Arthur expresses his love for Lucy when he states “Tell me, and I shall do it. My life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her”(Stoker 98). Stoker displays his tone be very loving and caring. In the novel Arthur was also the one to ultimately end Lucy’s “life”. Because Arthur cared for Lucy, he felt as though it was his duty to take her away from the pain. Also, in the end of the novel Jonathan Harker kills Dracula for Mina. He does not want her to be taken away from her like Lucy was take away from Arthur. This shows that he was brave enough to fight Dracula, knowing that Dracula was stronger than

him.
Throughout Dracula, Stoker displays the types of Victorian women and men that were present in Victorian society. Today women are still as caring, but just as weak as they were in the 19th century. If not they are weaker. Women often turn to men for support and happiness. Men are still the brave ones compared to women. Men are the ones that are known to fight for women because they are still portrayed as the braver and stronger sex than women.