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

and had them interact with vampires who personify counter culture, they examine how the Victorian dependency on religion is harmful and how it affects all aspects of life, and they examined how the rich treated the poor. All of these texts come from the same era, because the era is perfect for the vampire story.
To be a “good woman” in the Victorian eyes, one had to be sexually oblivious, dependent, and obedient. These women would often rely on men to make decisions for them, or take them out of danger. Lucy Westenra in Dracula relies on all of her suitors to save her, and the only thing she is able to think about in her is the men who adore her; Lucy personifies a “good” Victorian woman. She leaves all the thinking to the men, and inevitability dies. She was born and raised to be weak, while the men in her life were born and raised to be strong. While she is a weak woman, Mina Harker is a bit stronger. Mina had ideas of her own, and even showed masculine traits. In Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, Mina is not sexually oblivious as Lucy was, when she tries to seduce her fiancé. She survives the vampire attacks, while her weaker counterpart, Lucy, does not. While Mina still relies on the men around her to save her, she also uses her intuition to save herself from peril, without her smarts, Jonathan’s diary would not have been translated and the impending danger would not have been discovered. Even after she proves her intelligence, the men step in and do most of the thinking. Van Helsing simply consults his books, and knows what to do for the rest of the story.
The “good Victorian woman” also appears in The Mask of Satan with the character with Katia passing out in the face of danger, and unable to handle anything without screaming for a man to help her.

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

with.
Carmilla once again shows this trope with Laura by acting very oblivious to all Camilla’s flirting. Laura didn’t even know she was in danger until men told her. Laura depends on the men to save her, while Carmilla attacks the men. The author juxtaposes Laura and Carmilla though out the book, and once again, the more abrasive woman is the evil one. Laura is encouraged to be naïve, “you shall know about it in a day or two…” Laura’s father says, “…in the meantime you are not to trouble your head about it” (Le Fanu 54). Laura, having being sick and in danger, is not even allowed to know about the status of her health, or how much danger she is in. Victorian women were either too submissive to help themselves, or too abrasive to be a good person. These texts help us to see that options for women in the Victorian era were dismally small; either they were good by being sexually oblivious, dependent, and obedient, or they were considered evil, or overshadowed by men.
Another problem Victorian society faced was the rampant growth of religion in their lives. Religion had always shown overtones in people’s lives, but in the Victorian era religion seeped into every aspect of life. From how they dressed, how they worked, and even breakfast had been affected by religion when Dr.Kellogg invented an anti-masturbation cereal (cite). Sexual repression and the idea of using religion to control people was a growing popular idea. In Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, the crucifix works for some characters more so than it does for others. When Lucy’s suitors and Van Helsing try to use the crucifix when Lucy is attacking them, it repels her and protects them. When these men try to use it to force her into a dangerous position, its helping powers start to fade and she is able to push them away. Another instance where the crucifix fails is when the men go try to kill Dracula; in this scene, the only time the crucifix works is when Mina uses it to protect herself. Religion is not intended for people to use it to harm and control others, but rather to defend and bring comfort to its user.
Religion was used not only as a weapon, but also as a tool for suppression of sexual desires.

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

any other factor. Laura is quick to dismiss the matching portrait from 200 years ago, but only is suspicious of Camilla’s faith. Religion in the Victorian era dominated most aspects of life, from breakfast to sexuality. Whether it is stifling, shaming, or condemning, religion in the Victorian era sought to destroy any feelings of sexuality.
One final problem of society these texts dive into is the relationships between different socioeconomic classes. All the vampires from these texts come from the wealthy class. In Dracula, is very rich; he has piles of money in his house, he has a castle, and he even bleeds money when cut. He uses the poor gypsies to do his biddings like destroying Jonathan Harker’s letters, or carry his casket—the rich using the poor to get things accomplished. Dracula ruthlessly has a mother from the village killed when she begs for her child back—the rich take from the poor and punishes them if they revolt against it. Dracula represents the way the rich treats the poor, and the relationship between them. Carmilla, in Carmilla, uses the village girls are quick snacks, but spends a long time devouring the wealthy. Carmilla does not consider the poor as being enough of a person to try to seduce, but rather an object like a juice box.
These texts have Victorianism and Vampires in common. The way the two commonalities interact is very telling on the problems of Victorian society, such as gender expectations, faith obsessions, and class inequalities. These problems are not limited to the past, and often come up in today’s society. We still have unfair gender differences, usage of religion as a weapon, and class differences. Vampires are used as symbolism to show these problems; they put women in danger, they are slain by religion, and they take advantage of the poor. By doing all these things, they show how society acts in the face of danger, what they use as weapons, and who of them will make the most scarifies. If vampires attacked today, would we, knowing the problems of the Victorians, do much different?