The Dragon in Brain Stoker´s Dracula

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The Dragon

Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel, Dracula, intrigues us in a well plotted story and reveals to us the power in Dracula and how that very forbidden power takes control of both men and women.
A lawyer named Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania in order to help someone called Count Dracula purchase and estate in England. Harker is in the process of helping Dracula when he begins to realize that he is a prisoner. Harker starts to realize that Dracula does inhuman things such as crawling down windows and comes to the conclusion that indeed, Dracula is not human. Harker attempts to escape Castle Dracula after the attack of Dracula’s three wives, and only just barely makes it out alive. Harker gets very ill after his escape with brain fever and it takes him several weeks to head back to England, to where Dracula has already set sailed.
In England, Mina and Lucy are both living life as normal. Lucy is proposed by Quincy Morris, Dr.Seward, and Arthur Holmwood on the same day, and Mina awaits to hear news from her fiance. Lucy accepts Holmwood’s proposal and the other two proposers accept this and remain friends.
While all this is going on Dracula arrives and strange stuff begin to happen. Sailors disappear, Lucy begins acting weird and seems to be losing blood. The cause of Lucy’s blood lost is unknown and several treatment are given to her through Van Helsing. Several blood transfusions are given to Lucy but yet she still dies. Lucy then turns into a vampire. Lucy is then stabbed and beheaded to ensure her death. Harker finally returned to England and is wedded to Mina. Mina is then fed upon Dracula and she is forced to feed upon him, this starts the next chain of events. Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing, Quincy Morris, Dr.Seward,...

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...ny of delightful anticipation”. Then we have the time period in which Harker is described to be suffering of “hysteria”, a mental disorder most common with women and it is not until he is wedded to Mina that it goes away.
Mina also takes part in a gender role transformation in this novel. Mina, who is a typewriter henceforth is economically stable, helps the men plan and take part of the male circle of vampire hunters. Mina is admired for her thoughts it is said that she “has man’s brain”, a brain that a man “should have” if he were much “gifted”, and a “woman’s heart.” Her masculinity is accepted because of the fact that she still follows Victorian rules such as, marrying and following her husband’s orders. Mina is still bound to her culture and follows it all through. This combination of brains and obedience is believed to be a good combination by “the good God.”

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