Lucy And Mina In Bram Stoker's Dracula

In Victorian England, women were seen as the weaker sex. The whole gender was assumed to be less intelligent, more fragile, and almost always in need of a man to be the knight in shining armor. This theme can be seen in Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which two women are shown in completely different lights, suggesting that Stoker himself was a forward-thinker of his time. Lucy and Mina are two characters that have been best friends since childhood. They were raised together and care very much for one-another, though they differ in views and barely ever act in the same ways. While Lucy showed the conventional stereotypes of the Victorian English woman, Mina broke free of that role, and went beyond hackneyed cliches to be a well-rounded and respected

Mina was the first to be heroic towards Lucy, when she essentially scared Dracula away while he was drinking from Lucy’s neck (79). Lucy had a need to be saved because Dracula could easily control her. Each time she sleepwalked, it wasn’t simply her medical condition. The action was a product of Dracula’s control over her every night. His powers dominated her mind so easily because Lucy wasn’t a particularly intelligent character, and definitely didn’t have a strong mind and will. She even found it hard to make the decision of who she should marry and wrote to Mina, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her” (50), to whine about the number of suitors that adored her, instead of just being happy that she was in love with Arthur. The men in the novel are also constantly trying to save Lucy, even though they don’t do the best job of it. She was given a total of four blood transfusions throughout the novel, each coming from a different man but starting with Arthur (106). Even though the transfusions were obviously just temporary solutions to Lucy’s ailings, the men continued to feel heroic each time they gave her blood, because they’d saved the “poor girl” for the time being. When men weren’t saving or doting on Lucy, she was talking about them in glorious ways and declaring them as

Mina was treated as an intellectual, especially by Van Helsing, who claimed twice in the novel that “She has a man’s brain--a brain that a man should have were he much gifted” (201), suggesting that Mina was smarter than most men. Van Helsing also called Mina clever and brave on many occasions, though he only ever described Lucy as being poor and sweet before her death. The group that was hunting Dracula by the midpoint of the novel is made of Mina and five men, though Mina was generally the one to take charge when they hit a stand-still in their chase of the monster. She was the one that first suggested Van Helsing hypnotise her to discover Dracula’s location, and when the information she provided wasn’t enough, Mina researched maps and contemplated strategies to surmise what actions her enemy may have been taking in order to make a swift return to his home (304). When she presented this information to the men, they all seemed speechless, except for Van Helsing, who addressed her as their teacher. This was when her mind was muddled by Dracula’s infection, and even with that, Mina was able to form plans that the men of her party never would’ve come up with. Mina’s bravery showed on many occasions, but most prominently when she spoke about herself after drinking Dracula’s blood. She showed a great understanding for her situation, and