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Mina And Lucy In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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Mina and Lucy
Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, Dracula, was written in the nineteenth century, where he uses the main two female characters to depict the varying role between man and woman. Dracula is set in the Victorian Era, where the man in the relationship has all the power. Stoker uses these female characters, Mina and Lucy, to offset these prejudices. Lucy, is your beautiful and innocent woman, who is defined by her sexuality and is left uninformed about the dangers of Dracula. Mina, who can be defined as pure and innocent, shows off her dedication to her husband by keeping up with his studies which ultimately saves her. Both females present a version of your typical Victorian woman, but Stoker uses the two best friends to show what a woman …show more content…

Mina embodies all the characteristics that makes up the perfect woman of this time. Due to this, Mina would not obtain a friendship that could threaten her status, which means Lucy is a suitable friend who shares common qualities. Mina and Lucy are portrayed as unequal, defenseless objects that are to be protected and desired. They both seem to push the boundaries of their relationship but at the end of the day, both know who has the control. Lucy is a sexualized being who ends up being transformed into a vampire and dying because of the men she thought she has able to trust. They believed it was in her best interest to keep her in the dark about what was happening to her. As Lucy is on her death bed, she states “How good they all are to me. I quite love that dear Dr. Van Helsing. I wonder why he was so anxious about these flowers. He positively frightened me, he was so fierce. And yet he must have been right, for I feel comfort from them already” (Stoker 134). She has such faith in these men and their intentions, yet they never once inform her of why she is so ill. The same goes for Mina. She may have the brain of a man, but she still puts the men’s lives before hers. She vowed to kill herself if she endangered the others in any way. No matter how valuable she may have been in finding Dracula, Mina was

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