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Women role in dracula stoker
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Throughout the Victorian era, one of the most concerning matters was the role of women in society. Dracula greatly represents the various types of women within the Victorian period. Two predominant characters featured in the novel are Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra; both massively representing the views of women during that time. In Dracula, the author depicts some of the women as chaste and pure; directly representing the ideals of the Victorian era. Women who were chaste were looked upon as respectful, strong, heroic, as well as loyal within their relationships. Mina perfectly portrays a Victorian woman. She is a very intelligent women who the Victorians would consider a suitable wife. When Jonathan is missing for quite some time due to
...sitive depiction of their sexual relationship. For Mina, however, renunciation of Dracula's evil must include the renunciation of her own physical needs and desires. The roles played by social mores and conceptions of gender and sexuality are, in the end, more than incidental. Indeed, the difference between Victorian England and 1990s America causes the subtle -- but significant -- valuation of the connections between good and evil and women and sexuality in two in many ways similar texts.
There is a classic "good versus evil" plot to this novel. The evil of course being Count Dracula and the Good being represented by the Harkers, Dr. Seward and Lucy, Arthur, Quincy and the Professor. It is the continuing battle between Dracula and the forces of good. Good in this case is the Christian God. The battle is foretold by the landlady where she says, "It is the eve of St Georges Day. Do you no know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?" and she hands Harker a crucifix (p 12).
The best quote in the entire book ," Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it."This quote is important because it shows the significant roles of women throughout the book.The quote stood out to me so much because it represents the Victorian era of women. Lucy and Mina were less equal to the men and couldn't go and know about the plans to kill Dracula.The women in the book played no part in the killing of Dracula. " Why can't they let a girl marry three men ", she is saying that she can't do what the men do because they aren't seen as them.Dracula targets them and makes them his prime. It was Mina's hard work, persistence and pureness that in the
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...
3. Role of women: The role of women in Dracula could possibly be the most important. Comparing Mina to the men in the story, we find little difference. She had just as much bravery and wit as ...
In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Stoker’s use of inverted gender roles allows readers to grasp the sense of obscureness throughout, eventually leading to the reader’s realization that these characters are rather similar to the “monster” which they call Dracula. Despite being in the Victorian era, Stoker’s use of sexuality in the novel contributes to the reasoning of obscureness going against the Victorian morals and values. Throughout the novel the stereotypical roles of the Victorian man and woman are inverted to draw attention to the similarities between Dracula and the characters. Vague to a majority of readers, Bram Stoker uses Dracula as a negative connotation on society being that the values of the Victorian culture are inverted amongst the sexes of characters, thus pointing out the similarities of the characters and the so called “monster” which they call Dracula.
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 features behind the lines, the chaos of this gender confusion and one of the main characters, Mina, is a vivid illustration of this. Beyond all, she is the orthodox woman, “Mina indeed acts and is treated as both the saint and the mother…….She is all good, all pure, all true.” (Roth, 31). Since the beginning, Mina has strived to portray herself as the perfect wife and the best potential mother by displaying her motherly instincts sporadically throughout the novel. She is impatient to get married and serve her husband, Jonathan when she writes, “When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan, and…..write….on...the typewriter.” (Stoker, 62). Without hesitation, she marries Jonathan in Hungary despite his illness and nurses
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...
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.
Consequently, Dracula feeds his bride a child, and rather than showing him gratitude, laughs in his face. In each of these situations, Dracula is shown to be a caregiver and household dweller, characteristics that were only given to women during the Victorian age. He subverts such stereotypes in order to disprove them, showing that Victorian ideals of men and women were incorrect. Bram Stokers Dracula, is a commentary on the societal stereotypes of men and women during the patriarchal Victorian society. By blurring the roles of men and women, Stoker destroys all sexist beliefs held at the time, proving that women and men are equal and it is just the perception of that makes them seem unequal.
They had the roles of wives and mothers (Abrams 6). Motherhood was an affirmation of a woman's femininity (Abrams 6). She may have been a wife before but her duty as a woman was only fulfilled when she had a child to care for (Abrams 6). Women who were not able to conceive were pitied and seen as a failure (Abrams 6). Childless women were often urged into the role of governess or nursery maid to make up for their loss (Abrams 6). Motherhood as seen as an innate urge of women is also remarked upon by Mina Harker in Dracula when she comforts Arthur Holmwood after his fiancée, Lucy Westenra, dies: "We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked; I felt this big, sorrowing man's head resting on me, as though it were that of the baby that some day may lie on my bosom, and I stroked his hair as though he were my own child" (Stoker
The Victorian Era has a large impact on the evil’s that is Dracula. The fears of society at the time as well as Stoker’s own beliefs on sex and homosexuality impact this as well. During the mid 20th century there were a lot of limitations for women. Everyone during this time was held to a high social standard but men had more lenience in the social world with freedom and pleasures that females did not get to experience. In this patriarchal society, men were becoming dominant over women which cause excuses for men’s sexual urges. Women were to refrain and dismiss sexuality altogether. They were to never be seen as assertive as this would be both alarming and unnatural. A “lady” should never act in such a way. “The theory justifying