Women in Dracula

In the Victorian time period, there was an emphasis on the patriarchy as well as the pure and sanctity of the woman. It was frowned upon as well as feared for women to become their “own woman” to speak. Bram Stoker was able to capture this scare of women becoming the “New Woman” rather than being the perfect woman. The different characteristics of the new woman would be embracing education, social changes and sexual changes in the society. Stoker is able to use the female characters of Lucy, Mina, and the three female vampires to represent this.

The first characters that I will focus on are the female vampires that live in Dracula’s castle. They are introduced to us when they attack Jonathan Harker when he is sleeping. They are described by Harker that “All had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips… I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” (Stoker 69). The red is a symbol of evil and one being not pure such as these vampires. These vampires are sexual, unnatural and acting up emotion in which this was not what the traditional women did in Victorian society. Stoker uses the imagery with the color red very consistently when he is describing the interaction between Harker and the female vampires and also with Lucy. Women who were unchaste and who are sexual, they are evil and this is why the vampires are represented as evil as well as Lucy when she turns into a vampire.
Lucy is one of the characters that are on the end of the evil spectrum because when she was still human there was a chapter that Stoker writes when she is courted by three men and also receive three proposals. This could be considered scandalous or inappropriate because women were to be only with one man and that being her husband. Lucy breaks the barrier of being an angel in the house by sort of bragging about these proposals and not really caring about what anyone thinks of what she says. In addition to this, when she turns into a vampire, she is seen carrying a child to kill when the men are going to kill her after her death. Women were to be good mothers during this time period and this description in the book shows that she is the opposite of what was wanted in the house and not being a proper mother because she is endangering a child. 

This brings me to my next character, Mina.  She shows the traits of the ideal woman of the Victorian Era but also she is showing the development of the New Woman. She shows this through showing intelligence in helping the men, working outside of the home and even leaving the home without the accompany of a man. The representation of Mina shows the ideal of the Victorian woman that was wanted during this time period, but we slowly see how she is evolving to fighting the boundaries that were put on women in the household.