Essay on Mina and Lucy in 'Dracula'

Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula was written during the late nineteenth century and is commonly classified as a horror novel. Further analysis, has brought to light the buried symbols and themes of sexuality that the novel holds within it. As Dracula was set in Victorian culture, it is shown to encompass all the beliefs and prejudices of the society, especially regarding the social gender roles of men and women.

Women were known to be censored and put down socially while men were elevated and known for the power and freedom they possessed. Through the two main female characters of his novel, Mina and Lucy, Stoker depicts both the ideal Victorian model of what a woman should be, and the opposite of this model demonstrating what a woman should not be. Stoker contrasts Mina and Lucy throughout the novel to describe the two different categories of women that are believed to exist in the Victorian era, the ideal, innocent, obedient women. As well as the dangerous, unruly women who wish to take risks and break free from the limiting aspects of society. Mina and Lucy both recognize the traditional belief that men are more dominant in Victorian society than women: “My dear Mina, why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” (Stoker 96). Stoker uses Mina to illustrate his version of what an exemplary Victorian woman is like. Van Helsing describes Mina in the novel as “one of God’s women, fashioned by His hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter and that its light can be here on earth. So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoistic” (Stoker 306). Mina is an intellectual, educated woman who uses her attained skills solely to better her husband, Jonathan Harker. Stoker uses Mina’s speech in the novel to emphasize her commitment to her husband: “I have been working very hard lately, because I want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies, and I have been practicing shorthand very assiduously” (Stoker 86). Although she works full-time, she tirelessly takes on other duties such as perfecting her shorthand so that she would “be useful to Jonathan” (Stoker 86). She is also seen thinking very highly of men in general and their freedom from women: “A brave man’s hand can speak for itself; it does not even need a woman’s love to hear its music” (Stoker 386).

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Lucy, on the other hand, falls into Stoker’s second category of Victorian women. She is not seen as devoted physically or emotionally to one man alone throughout the novel. She is described as a voluptuous, beautiful woman who is approached with three proposals from three different suitors. Lucy complains to Mina asking her: “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” (Stoker 96). Lucy then recognizes that she has uttered words of heresy after saying them. This shows that although such a thought is seen as entirely immoral, corrupt, and forbidden in Victorian culture, it does not stop Lucy from mentally crossing the limits set up by the social conventions of society. Lucy is shown as someone who is driven by her sexual openness. Lucy’s physical beauty holds the interest of all her suitors, and she enjoys the attention she would not get otherwise from the men of her society. This, in a way, helps Lucy to line up herself to the same male gender that is said to be superior to females. On the other hand, Mina is shown to be satisfied with her monogamous status in society and does not feel the need to use her sensuality to prove anything. Mina’s sexual desires, if any, remain anonymous throughout the novel. By presenting Mina in this way, Stoker provides a stark contrast between the sexuality of Lucy and Mina. Mina’s perspective on the subject is left untold to illustrate that it should not be a woman’s concern to think about such things and that all a Victorian woman’s role entails is submitting to a man’s sexual needs and desires. Because she cannot live out her sexual appetites in public, she does it in private through sleepwalking.

In the state of sleepwalking, Lucy can unconsciously and freely express her thoughts and desires. It is in this condition that Lucy is first bitten by Count Dracula. After this, the sequence happens more often, she is made into a vampire and is now allowed to openly express her repressed sexual desires. This violates her purity and makes her a “voluptuous wantonness” (Stoker 342). Lucy as a vampire represents all of her pent-up yet restrained sexual urges and passions. Lucy’s ravenous sexual hunger becomes gradually more obvious through her execution by Arthur Holmwood. Mina rather, uses her energy on being a maternal figure to those who need it. Mina uses her maternal instincts to better the men around her by allowing Arthur and Quincey to cry on her shoulder not long after encountering them in the novel just so that they would feel the comfort of a mother. “He stood up and then sat down again, and the tears rained down his cheeks. I felt an infinite pity for him and opened my arms unthinkingly. With a sob, he laid his head on my shoulder, and cried like a wearied child, whilst he shook with emotion. 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 child” (Stoker 372-373). Lucy, instead is shown as someone who does not take concern in the maternal qualities of women and harms little children in the novel. “With a careless motion, she flung to the ground, callous as a devil, the child that up to now she had clutched, strenuously to her breast, growling over it as a dog growls over a bone. The child gave a sharp cry and lay there moaning” (Stoker 343). This shows that her craving is more important to her than the maternal quality of caring for a child; she would rather feed on the child than feed the child itself.

Although both Mina and Lucy are attacked by the Count, the reasons for the attacks vary for both characters. When Count Dracula threatens Jonathan during his attempt to attack Mina, Mina does what the Victorian culture would expect in a position like this and puts her husband’s life and safety before hers. Through the final attack on Mina, Stoker shows the raw desire of men to manipulate women and test their obedience. He also shows through this incident his belief in how weak and vulnerable women are. The first thing Mina does is succumb to Dracula’s behavior: “I was bewildered, and strangely enough, I did not want to hinder him” (Stoker 466). However, as soon as Mina realizes her purity is being tainted, she becomes revolted by Dracula and cries out “Unclean! Unclean!” (Stoker 461). Unable to change what has happened to her, she uses the incident to help the men who are in pursuit of Count Dracula. Lucy, on the other hand, is attacked and killed for another reason. Men want to see her destroyed because they see her beauty and sexual openness as a threat to Victorian society. Stoker uses Lucy to illustrate that sexually open women who use their beauty to gain a certain power over men will not last in Victorian culture. Instead of being physically ruined, they will be socially demeaned and outcasted. This social punishment is shown through the staking and killing of Lucy by her husband, Arthur. He is used in the passage to bring her back under Victorian societal order and purity: “There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in life, with her face of unequaled sweetness and purity” (Stoker 351). Mina’s life is saved in the novel for her socially correct behavior throughout the story. She uses her intelligence, and her resourcefulness to service the men and help them track down Count Dracula. Van Helsing describes her intellect as “trained like a man’s brain”, proving the belief that intellect is not something women naturally possess (Stoker 551). Mina is also always seen putting men above herself, even if it means giving up her own life: “Without a moment’s delay, drive a stake through me and cut off my head, or do whatever else may be wanting to give me rest!”(Stoker 537). She asks her husband to take the task of killing her before she becomes a danger to men’s lives.

Stoker uses Mina and Lucy to confirm his sexist Victorian beliefs about the roles of men and women in society. The social construct of the time involved women being inferior to men in all areas of life, except for childbearing and child upbringing. Their value was only seen in their maternal qualities and their submissiveness to men. Through Mina’s character, Stoker exhibits the ideal, virtuous, Victorian woman and shows, through her survival, what the benefits of following this model are. He also goes to show what happens to women when they feel that they should be equals to men. Women who attempt to use their sexuality to attain power and break free from the patriarchal boundaries of Victorian society will end up ruined, just like Lucy.