In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray are used to contrast the societal expectations of the Victorian woman. The novel shows many elements of the literary theory of transnationalism by introducing matters of travel, gender, and sexuality. Lucy and Mina both start out similarly as typical Victorian women, but multiple events throughout the novel demonstrate their extreme differences. Lucy is portrayed as the inferior Victorian woman, who gives into sexual desires, and Mina is portrayed as the more modern and late Victorian woman who is not only pure and chaste, but also resourceful and somewhat independent.
Their differences first become apparent when in letters to each other they write of the men in their lives. Mina tells
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Mina is disgusted by the idea of the possible impurity that he has threatened her with while Lucy doesn’t seem to know what’s going on and is dependent on the men in the novel to protect her from the evil that surrounds her. Eventually Lucy gives into the sexual desire that Dracula represents in the novel and therefore becomes an evil sexual deviant with the power to seduce the men in the novel and continue the cycle of vampirism. Sexuality, one of the elements used to define the literary theory of transnationalism, during the Victorian Era was supposed to be suppressed by women. In Dracula, Lucy and Mina vary in holding up this expectation. Lucy succumbs to the temptations of the elements of sexuality in the novel whereas Mina remains pure until the very end. Because Lucy becomes a threat to the men, she must be destroyed. The men are disgusted when they first see the evil version of Lucy and Van Helsing depicts an threatening image by noting “The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness” (114). After the men destroy the Un-dead Lucy, she is restored to her original self and described by Van Helsing as once again “as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity” (117). Lucy’s restored innocence is a comfort to the men. Mina on the other hand is never considered to be impure, even after she …show more content…
Although they both started out as the typical Victorian woman, they ended up opposites. Lucy downgraded an became the flawed Victorian woman who could not overcome evil, while Mina rose above temptation to become the late Victorian woman, who was pure but also useful in helping to overcome the bad circumstances that could change the rest of her life. The many elements used to define the literary theory of transnationalism in the book show how norms of one society, such as gender and sexuality, can be different from one place to the next as compared to on a national
As a matter of a fact, when Lucy dies, the men feel great distress and have nowhere else to turn but to Mina. In order not to show weakness in front of the other men, the Englishmen each individually “express [their] feelings on the tender or emotional side,” and confess their anguish for Lucy’s passing (Stoker). To the men, Lucy was only a companion whom they barely knew, but to Mina, Lucy was a lifelong friend. Mina’s loss of Lucy was profound, however, she held her emotions in check and through strength and perseverance she never shed a tear. Moreover, Mina is often portrayed as stronger physically than Jonathan when Dracula emits his wrath upon them. Even though Mina is the one suffering, Jonathan cannot physically handle Dracula’s wrath as he turns “white as death, and shook and shivered,” even though he has yet to sacrifice anything and Mina has sacrificed almost everything and continues to persevere (Stoker). Jonathan’s signs of aging signify that even though Jonathan is a man and supposed to be strong, the stress and anguish derived from the events lately has taken a physical toll on him. However, Mina is the one directly affected by Dracula and aside from the effects of Dracula’s hypnotic spell, Mina was portrayed as happy and youthful. Last but not least, Catherine Eckel, a member of the National Science Foundation and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, conducted a study involving
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.
Further characteristic of Bram Stoker’s Mina Harker befitting of her image as the traditional Victorian woman and Gothic damsel are her chastity and modestly. In contrast to her friend and confidante Lucy
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,
“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...
The Victorian England setting and culture of “Dracula” by: Bram Stoker attributes to many stylistic components and character behaviours in the novel. One of which is the behaviour and actions characters express that are a result of sexual repression. In Dracula, sexual repression is best expressed by the character’s desire to create. This desire is exemplified by the way Dracula creates other vampires, Lucy’s sexual desires, and the men’s expression of aggression. The creation of other Vampires is evident through events including Dracula’s aggressive encounters with Lucy and Mina, and the fact the Dracula is building up a Vampire army. Lucy’s sexual desires are exemplified through her longing to have sex with multiple men and how she compares
In society, the significance of social status and role is observable with both genders. This includes the acceptable behaviors and responsibilities for both men and women within one’s culture. It is a constant struggle to follow these established guidelines in order to preserve a good reputation and not possess a low social status. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, the different characters each represent a different stand in the transformation from “True Woman” to the “New Woman” that surfaced in the late nineteenth century. This new idea made women more independent, with their lives no longer revolving around their husbands, and most importantly created a big change in social expectations. The characters Lucy, Mina, and the three brides of Dracula play a part in revealing Stoker’s belief that social status is changed for the worse with this change in women’s roles.
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...
Sex and sexuality are not even mentioned in the Lucy’s and Mina’s characterizations before their encounters with Dracula. Mina remains sexually passive throughout the novel, only to give birth to her son Quincy, and even then, Stoker did not mention any sexual encounters between Mina and Jonathan preceding Quincy’s birth. However, once succumbed to Dracula’s influence, Lucy has sexual outbursts wherein
Similar to almost every piece of literature ever created, Dracula by Bram Stoker has been interpreted many different ways, being torn at from every angle possible. Just as one might find interest in interpreting novels differently, he or she might also find interest in the plot, prose, or theme, all of which ultimately lead to the novels overall tone. Throughout the novel, it becomes blatant that the novel contains an underlying theme of female incompetence and inferiority. Through a true feminist’s eyes, this analysis can clearly be understood by highlighting the actions of Mina and Lucy, the obvious inferior females in the book. Through Stoker’s complete and utter manipulation of Mina and Lucy, he practically forces the reader to analyze the co-existence of dominant males and inferior females in society and to simultaneously accept the fact that the actual text of Dracula is reinforcing the typical female stereotypes that have developed throughout the ages.
Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, is a highly controversial work of fiction that is still being read for the first time today. Dracula touches many different categories including; sci-fi horror to 1800’s English romance literature. This is the main reason why the novel Dracula can be analyzed in many different ways using many different literary theories. The theory which stuck out most to me while reading this novel was the Feminist Theory. The Feminist Theory cannot be used to analyze Dracula as a whole novel, but it can be used in order to analyze the different female characters throughout the book. Therefore, Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be analyzed through the feminist theory by focusing on the characters Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra, and the three brides of Dracula.
In reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, I find the treatment of the two main female characters-- Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker-- especially intriguing. These two women are two opposite archetypes created by a society of threatened men trying to protect themselves.
One of the well-known characters in Dracula is, Mina Murray, virtuous, kind and good-natured, schoolmistress. Murray is the embodiment of the, “New Woman”. She empathically embraces the anti-Victorian feelings of that time in front of the rea...
In Dracula, Bram Stoker portrays a clear battle between the “traditional woman” of the time and the “new woman.”. Stoker uses the contrasting characters of Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray to depict this evolution in women and, also, to paint an image of the reaction to this advance, expressed by both men and women.
AGFS: Do you believe the power of any emotion can drive a person to do the impossible?