Trimmer 1

Ronnie Trimmer

Professor Paul Trembath

E-341.001

6 May 2016

Images of Women in Dracula

Feminist critique is not a rarity when dealing with the concept of theory as it is both

political and polemical. Women as a whole have been, for the majority of human history, thought

of as the weaker sex. In the 1970s during the second wave of feminism, critic Elaine Showalter

focused on woman writers and the female experience. Bram Stokers 1897 classic Dracula,

challenges the classical ideals of women by using monstrous others as scapegoat to convey

women in a new light and simultaneously show the capability of the, new woman through

Mina Harker ne Murrays invaluable contribution to defeating the ultimate villain of the novel:

Count Dracula.

Showalter divided textual experiences by women into two distinct categories when

discussing females as consumers and how they were to interpret texts. Showalter called her

newly developed type of analysis feminist critique, intending for it to be used to make inquires to

challenge the preconceived notions of literary phenomena. Feminist critique is used primarily to

challenge the stereotypical roles that women are typically placed into, allowing female readers to

see how they are being both exploited and manipulated by consuming pieces of popular culture.

Showalter termed her new literary interpretation as gynocriticism to signify a new female

framework to analyze literature with. Gynocriticism was created to help better understand the

female experience as male authors had created the stereotypes that women where being forced to

conform to and establish more accurate images of women.

 Trimmer 2

Bram Stokers 1897 classic Dracula, challenges the classical ideals of women, which

were held by his Victorian audience members and even by some readers today. However Stoker

was still pandering to patriarchal readers with his story to unnerve them as minimally as possible

with a novel that was already dealing with abnormal monsters and vampires were simply easier

to accept than independent women. Lucy Westenra was among the first of Draculas English

victims in the novel as he transformed her into a vampire through repeated blood exchanges. In

life Lucy had already begun to challenge the image of woman when she lamented having to turn

down three of her suitors, verbalizing her desire to let a girl marry three men, or as many as

want her and save all this trouble? But this is heresy and I must not say it (pg. 91). Her ending

thought is made in an attempt to censor herself and rebuke her own thoughts, showing that she

has yet to separate from the Victorian image of women and she is sorrowful for her gender and

acknowledges her own faults.

Lucy Westenras transformation into a vampire changes both her body and personality in an

unnatural way. Aside from the obvious telltale fangs she has suddenly become an other as she is

now a cruel killer with a beautifully ethereal exterior. A Lucys otherness is why she was such

a terrifying character. Monsters are objected while simultaneously adored because they allow for

society cast off what is liminal in their own beings onto the creature. The liminal state those

monsters are in allows individuals to familiarize themselves with the uncanny while remaining

distant. Dracula is not the overtly sexual being as he is often portrayed as, in Bram Stokers

original text he is instead the one that releases others to act on their own desires. The once gentle

and sweet Lucy is suddenly unrestrained and allowed to act on her wanton wants and suddenly

repulses Doctor Van Helsing and her three suitors Author, Quincy and John. Upon first seeing

Lucy in her new state John comments, As she looked her eyes blazed with unholy light, and the
 Trimmer 3

face became wreathed with a voluptuous smile. Oh, God, how it made me shudder to see it! (pg.

249). The fact that John the most terrified by the vampire Lucys, voluptuous smile is most

telling about what the men were scared by: Lucys emerging sexuality. The only solution that

they have to save Lucy is to have her fianc aggressively pierce her body with a stake. After this

is done they reexamine Lucys face and agree that she lay in her grave looking, of unequalled

sweetness and purity (pg. 255). This interaction creates the image that the only way to save

women who embrace their own sexuality is to have men pierce their bodies with phallic

instruments to return them to their feminine and docile state.

Bram Stokers Dracula, was not entirely filled with exclusively vexing vampire vixens or

delicate ladies, there is one key female character who stands on the Victorian line between

inappropriately independent and obedient wife: Mina Harker ne Murray. Doctor Abraham Van

Helsing best surmises the portrayal of Mina when he states, Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina!

She has mans brain- a brain that a man should have were he much gifted and a womans heart

(pg. 274). In this novel memory is a particularly important element the characters keep in mind

to defeat Dracula. The protagonists only begin to understand how to defeat the Count once their

collective memories in the form of journal entries, letters, medical reports, and even newspaper

clippings are gathered into one cohesive collection and then typed out by Mina. It is a pivotal

point for both the image of women and the new woman that Mina used a typewriter gather all the

different pieces of the story. The invention of the typewriter and telephone drastically changed

life for middle class women in the late 1800s, Through her superb ability to transform

handwritten documents into type on her typewriter, Mina becomes the most knowledgeable

about vampires and is able to use that information to help foil Draculas plots in a way the men

couldnt. as prior to the introductions of those key pieces of technology, there were few
 Trimmer 4

respectable jobs for women outside of the home aside from schoolmistress or governess.

Poignantly this story is made up by memories, though none of those artifacts came from the

Count, meaning his story is ultimately one memory held together by Mina.

While the character Mina confronts many images about women, Stoker recants for

Minas assertive nature, as like Lucy, the men must ultimately save her by piercing flesh with a

phallic symbol. Before the hunting party made by Van Helsing, John, Arthur, Quincy, Jonathan

and Mina embark on their quest to defeat the Count Van Helsing attempts to bless Mina. As her

body is transforming into a vampires because Dracula gave her some of his blood, when Van

Helsing attempts to bless her, he accidentally scars her forehead with a wafer as she in now

unholy and incapable of receiving Gods blessing, this symbolizes her impurity. After this the

men are not only driven by the need destroy Dracula for his otherness but by the impulse to

restore Minas purity as well. This can only be done by killing Dracula and driving a stake

through his heart. Mina is caught in a liminal state of mind between being a man and woman, in

the sense that she has abilities that challenge men. Mina wants to be able to assert her new

economic power, yet Stoker holds back for fear of altering the structure of society.

Elaine Showalter saw a need in society to see the ways in which injustice had been done

on women by allowing literary works that suffer stereotypical images of women, which only feed

the patriarchys discriminatory view of women. Bram Stokers Dracula, challenges some of the

images of women that had hurt the gender, however he illuminates the repression of womens

sexuality by hiding behind the shield of a monster. Stoker does overtly argue against the old idea

that women were mentally inferior to men through the character Mina who compiles all of the
 Trimmer 5

information necessary to defeat Dracula. While Stoker made some concessions about for

womens capability in his novel Dracula, he still glorifies the idea that men must purify women.

Works Cited

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Ed. Glennis Byron. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview, 1998. Print.