Mina vs Lucy - Angel of the House vs the New Woman

Throughout the novel Dracula women, more specifically Lucy and Mina, are portrayed in contrasting ways in order to represent two extremes in regards to Victorian Women: the “Angel in the House” and the “New Woman”.

Angel in the House	The New Woman
Women are expected to join in a monogamous relationship and have children. Mina demonstrates this ideal by marrying Jonathan Harker and later having his child. As mentioned in the last chapter, “It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy’s birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died,” (326). Mina fulfils her role as a woman not only by having a mutually exclusive relationship with him through marriage, but also by bearing him a child, a son no less.	Lucy never formally gets married before she dies and has trouble choosing a man to marry. She writes to Mina telling her of her three proposals (57) and whines, asking, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men or as many as want her and save all this trouble,” (60). Lucy mentions little about any plans to have children and the only interaction with children that she has in the novel is when she becomes a vampire and feeds off children. As the novel states, “During the past two or three days several cases have occurred of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that they had been with a ‘bloofer lady’, (159). Instead of having children of her own Lucy begins to prey on children, draining the life of them instead of bringing life to them. In both ways Lucy represents a direct contrast to Mina as not only does she not want to settle down with just one man and have his children, but she wants to marry more than one man and shows no apparent interest in having children. In fact, she hurts children instead of having them.
The Angel of the House of the ideal woman also spends her time exclusively in the domestic sphere. Once she is married Mina is almost always at Jonathan’s side, bound to follow him except when he and the other men go, in which case she is left alone. The one time Mina leaves the home is when she is chasing after Lucy, which she wants to keep quiet, because she writes, “not a soul did I see; I rejoiced that it was so, for I wanted no witness of Lucy’s condition” (88). This could refer to Lucy sleepwalking, or the fact that she is walking around at night in just a nightgown and without any shoes. The shock is not only that Lucy is barely dressed and sleepwalking, but also that she is out of the house and barefoot, likely to get herself into trouble. Mina does as she is supposed to and looks after her friend, only leaving the house in an extreme case, and all the while worried about the virtue and safety of her female friend Lucy.	Lucy is a lot more likely to leave the house than Mina and does so on her own quite often, even if she is sleepwalking. As mentioned in the column to the left, one night Lucy, sleepwalking, leaves the house, the domestic sphere. Although Lucy is unable to control her trips outside, she still leaves the home and in conditions that would have been shocking to any passerby and no doubt shameful, hence why Mina worries that someone will see her friend in such a state.

- Courtney Sellars

Women Have Periods?

I have decided to share a fun and unknown fact with everyone- Women. Have. Periods. I know, truly a shocker.

From Grendel, we know that women have always had these dreaded things known as periods. Towards the end of the novel, we see Grendel open the legs of Wealtheow and place her over a fire, but he immediately notices the "ugly hole" between her legs and releases her. You would think that this would no long be a problem now, and no one is no longer disgusted by the natural processes of all women. Wrong. To this day many men STILL can not handle the idea of a period. So have we actually changed? I have chosen to compare the way women’s bodies are described in Grendel versus the way society reacts to them today.

In Grendel, the first woman described is Grendel’s own mother. But it is far from a pleasant description. He often uses words such as pitiful, confused, ugly, and fat. However, he completely relies on this women. When he is close to death or when he is attacked in a tree, he calls out for her. He despises her, but fully understands her power and love for him. This is then contrasted with Wealtheow, who in my opinion is Grendel’s secret crush. He falls for her upon first sight. Attracted by her red hair and ability to dominate the room, Grendel goes out into the night and searches for her. This is all destroyed when he finds out she has periods. After that moment, Grendel never returns to her bedside and stops describing her physical attributes. How could he ever like a woman who BLEEDS?

Unfortunately, this is extremely similar to today’s world. As we discussed in class, even in advertisement that promote feminine hygiene, red liquid is not used. God forbid we actually use a fluid that resembles what the product is used for. We must make sure that men are unaware that the average woman bleeds once a month. It is also important to note that in films or novels, the idea of a period is rarely brought up if at all. Unless the character is potentially pregnant, then we ignore the fact that periods even exist. In many novels and movies, women now only serve one role. Sex. Let’s talk about Angelina Jolie. After reading both Beowulf and Grendel, I can honestly say I would have never pictured Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother. But there she is. In fully sexual glory.

Do you think this woman has periods? She seems too perfect to have such a terrible thing happen to her. But yet, she is still a woman.

The view towards natural processes of a women haven’t changed. I would love to announce that we live in a world where we no longer hide the fact that we bleed and can use red liquid in a commercial, but I can not. So, while the time of Grendel and Beowulf appear to be extremely different than today’s world, we must ask- is it really?