According to Altner, “Romance between Mina Harker and Count Dracula is not a new concept. While vacationing in Whitby, Mina is instantly attracted to a handsome stranger. Mina holds secret, passionate assignations with him, although she feels guilty about her husband Jonathan (72). Stoker argues that “Mina is authority’s scapegoat; she dies to illuminate the necessity of escape. There is nothing pretty about Mina’s death or undeath. Mina doesn’t fade into robust new life: she chokes graphically to a death made more painful by the laudanum Dr. Seward idiotically gives her. There is nothing seductive about the Mina who rises: she is no swollen Hammer sexpot, but a decomposing corpse with broken, bloody teeth. This Mina is contrary to literary …show more content…
Often, Mina is figured as the good Victorian girl who is an unwilling victim of Dracula’s overwhelming powers: ‘With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them away with his arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of his neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s noise into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink.’ She tries to preserve her chastity and rages ineffectually against him, even as he forces her to drink her own destruction. And of course, she fails in preserving her chastity, as the red streaks on her nightgown indicate. The blood on her nightgown might be even more indicative of her losing her virginity to the vampire because, even though she and Jonathan are married at this point, she has been so ill and taken so long to recover, that it is quite likely that normal marital relations have not yet ensued. This scene can be rightly read as a rape, since she is assaulted in her own bedroom by a man not legally her husband and the act is violent and angry. Like the three vamps in the castle, mina is put in a position where her body is forced to mime fellatio. This act indoctrinates her into Dracula’s harem of vampire women, and eventually will serve to make her as carnal, oversexed, and non-maternal as they are. This jeopardy to traditional cultural norms is encoded in Mina’s violation since the one who should protect her- her husband- is as incapacitated as he was when the three female vampires were bewitching him. In this instance, mina is forced to take their place, just as Jonathan was almost forced into the role of the husband of the castle. As with Lucy, Mina’s punishment continues, for when she seeks comfort from Jonathan
own will, which embodies the fear of Stoker. The corruption of science can be view in many parts in the novel, such as the scene when Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood as an act of rape, “Her face was ghastly, with a pallor… eyes were mad of terror.”(Stoker 301). Nevertheless, one can view it as an act of technological creation and is a characteristic of a scientist. In this act Mina Harker is turned into a medium of connection for his sound and enables him to extend his manipulation. Stoker represents the corruption of science through human experimentation since it is seen as a taboo. One can say she was converted into a telephone, which is how Dr. Seward describes her functions, “same power that compels her silence may compel her speech”
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
Even at the ending, there still is suspense after Dracula is killed because it was anticlimactic. My only question, is “Who is this ‘we’ mentioned when Dracula is talking about Transylvania’s past and the battles?” That one unanswered question leaves suspense because it makes it seem like there are more vampires not really mentioned in the book. I believe that Stoker purposely used his word choice to show good and evil because he used the word “voluptuous” to describe the three evil women and also described Lucy when she turned/passed away. I believe that Stoker uses British womanhood to show weakness since Lucy was the first one bit and that if she did not get help then she would have passed away faster and would have transformed into a vampire and would continue terrorizing little kids. However, I believe that through Mina, Stoker uses a new form of British womanhood to show a strong woman that after overcoming an obstacle can rise above it and work with the men to defeat evil. I think Mina is my favorite character in Dracula because she does just that. She did not just get saved and not do anything, she got saved and then used her visions to help the men find Dracula. That is what I admire about her. She is a strong woman. I like the suspense in the end of the book with how Dracula just dies and then everyone seems to live a happy life, however, I would have ended the book with a better “fight scene” that would have proved that Dracula was either the only vampire or that there were more. I think Stoker uses word choice to denote good and evil in Dracula and does an excellent job in doing so by describing the three women and then adding on to Lucy when she
The passage depicts the unnatural occurrence of the female’s sexual advances, and establishes the link between vampirism and sex that is seen throughout the novel: unlike Mina and Lucy, who are idyllically virtuous and pure, these un-dead women are insatiable and dominant. Stoker takes the fantastic image of the sexual woman to its most extreme manifestation, and suggests that Harker would not only lose his reputation by indulging in these sexual acts, but also his life. The three vampires that Harker encounters in Dracula’s castle are embodiments of the ‘beautiful nightmare’ of the male Victorians; they are representations of everything that the Victorian society states that women should not be – they are sexually aggressive, ‘voluptuous’, and seductive. This sexual proficiency, though appealing, is rebuked and seen to undermine the male dominancy within the patriarchal society, and therefore must be destroyed. The notion that a woman can be both attractive and repulsive is also presented by Angela Carter in The Lady of the House of Love. The character of the countess is presented as both the predator and the prey – the victim and the vixen. Just as the female vampire in Dracula is described as “thrilling and repulsive”, the countess is described as “beautiful and ghastly”. Despite her beauty and “fragility”, the countess
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.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula , Mina is intrigued by the idea of the "New Woman". This "New Woman" is not subject to men and the rules of society in Victorian England. This notion of the "new woman" is that she is more independent and isn't subject to the man but is instead an equal. Mina says "... I suppose the 'New Woman' won't condescend in future to accept. She will do the proposing herself." By this, she envisions women will forego tradition and take over some of the roles previously done only by men.
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.
Mina, Jonathan Harker’s wife, is the purest one. She doesn’t have a strong desire of sexuality. She really loves his husband, and it seems all she cares in her life is him. During the time Jonathan was in Transylvania, Mina was so anxious about him. She shows her care of her love in the journals and the letters to Lucy that “I am very sad. There was no letter for me. I hope there cannot be anything the matter with Jonathan (Stoker, 77).” There is no description about Mina being sexual. She is purest woman in the book, and gives a very good impression to others. Van Helsing states that “She (Mina) i...
...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.
When Van Helsing stakes the three women in Count Dracula’s castle, he almost succumbs to their seductive prowess, but he remembers Mina, who is infected with Dracula’s
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
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.
Stoker has rendered the reader to see the Count as physically strong and powerful, through Jonathan Harker and his confinement and Lucy Westenra and her failing health. Although the reader does not understand all the omniscient powers and control that Count Dracula possesses over people, they are brought to light through Dr Steward’s accounts of his patient R.M. Renfield. The ‘strange and sudden change’ (Stoker, 86), that has happened in Renfield evokes the reader to contemplate the Count’s influence over people. Dr Steward suggests it is as though a ‘religious mania has seized’ Renfield (Stoker, 87), and is controlling him. The reader is aware that Renfield can feel the Counts presence and that there is a connection between them. This eventually leads Van Helsing to recognize the bond between Mina Harker and the Count, which helps them to find Dracula and finally kill him. Dracula’s invasion over Renfield also reveals a weakness in the Counts power. Renfield, an obedient servant of Dracula, claims he is ‘here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave’ (Stoker, 88). Renfield’s devotion is quickly reversed when he sees that the Count is taking life from Mina. It is his care for her that causes him to turn against Dracula and try to fight for her. Again Renfield’s actions mimic that of the other men as it becomes their goal to save Mina from the invasion running through her body. The key to this invasion is the blood.
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...