Stereotypes In Dracula

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The Battle of the Genders: Societal Limitations of Females
What are some of the expectations that we have for men and women? Some may respond to this by talking about jobs. Others may talk about responsibility of duties and personality. There may even be a group of people that says that society no longer sets expectations for males and females. In Dracula there are gender roles that are set for both males and females. The story begins with a lawyer named Jonathan Harker who is trying to finalize selling a house to Count Dracula. Things start to fall apart when Jonathan realizes that Dracula is a vampire. To make matters even worst, Dracula starts to intervene into Mina’s life, Jonathan’s soon-to-be wife. Dracula attacks Lucy several times when …show more content…

One notable example of this idea can be found when Mina and Lucy were walking home from Lucy’s sleepwalking event. This is demonstrated when Mina explains, “…I daubed my feet with mud, using each foot in turn on the other, so that as we went home, no one, in case we should meet any one, should notice my bare feet” (134). Even though there is an extremely understandable explanation for why Mina does not have shoes, she still frantically worries about someone seeing her feet. In the novel, the woman had to constantly worry about what they look like just because of what others might think. Another example is found after Mina received a mark on her forehead from the holy wafer that Van Helsing placed on it to protect her. Mina felt subsocnscious about the mark while traveling to the Count’s castle, “Ever since then I have taken care not to take off my hat or veil, and so have escaped their suspicions” (517). As a result of others judging her, Mina felt pressured to wear a hat in order to cover her scar. All in all, external pressures have such a strict control of women’s lives in Dracula that they must even worry about something as superficial as …show more content…

In the Victorian era in which the novel took place, there were two main perceptions of the female: either she would get married and then have children or she would have sex before marriage and was considered a slut/promiscuous. For example, according to “In the Blood”, blood transfusions in the novel are a symbol of sex. Lucy was given blood transfusions from Arthur, Van Helsing, and John. Hence, Lucy should be considered “loose” in her society but since her acts where kept secret she was not. Lucy was very liked in the novel as she was proposed to by three different men, but if it were known that she was more in touch with her sexual side she would be thought of as ¬¬menial and would be shunned from society. Hence, based off of one aspect of a female she was either considered proper or unworthy of respect. This belief also connects with the restriction of physical appearance, as a women was not allowed to show her sexual side to anyone. Her role was strictly to be the mother of a man’s children and to be the house

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