Mina is that you? By Haley Aguilar

  In the film adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula by Francis Coppola, the relationship between Mina and Dracula is transformed from one-sided to that of a serious love interest. In the novel, Mina is a strong-minded and cunning woman but in the movie, the audience is suddenly lacking that aspect of her character and in its place is a weak, submissive damsel. There are only a few real moments that Mina is seen as strong when she is with Lucy and begins typing on her typewriter and the other when she first meets Dracula. She brushes off his attempts to speak to her, at first, and then suddenly she is apologizing for having a mind of her own.

  Mina’s romance with Dracula in the movie illustrates Hollywood’s idea that there always needs to be a great romance in a story for it to be compelling. The novel love that Dracula has for Mina is not enough for a movie audience because it is not reciprocated the way that it is in the movie. In the movie, Mina becomes enthralled with Dracula and cheats on Johnathan with him, not physically, but she surrenders her heart to Dracula, which in many ways is worse. Mina portrays the damsel very easily in the movie. Her character falls from a good representation of the new woman to a poor representation of the angel in the house. I say a poor representation because of her easy infidelity with her fiancee and her obvious sexual desires which in those times were unacceptable.

  Mina is put on a pedestal by Van Helsing in the novel because she was cunning enough to portray herself to them as the angel of the house while simultaneously showing them bits and pieces of what Van Helsing referred to as a “man brain”. However, in the movie, she is seen as nothing more than another object of lust as further proven by her first interaction with Van Helsing in the movie when he literally just looks her up and down without speaking to her then dismisses her as if nothing has just happened. It is also shown later when she is with Van Helsing as she is transitioning, she is easily able to seduce him, even though he knows of Johnathan and what Mina is becoming.

  Johnathan is missing from Mina for nearly the entire movie which is another major difference from the novel that was made to allow for Dracula and Mina’s romance to come to fruition. I do not believe that it would have survived had Mina had the constant reminder of Jonathan’s presence because, at the end of the movie, Dracula’s thrall is only lessened by the reminder of her then husband. The scene that is read as a threesome between Mina, Dracula, and Johnathan in the novel is altered to include only Dracula and Mina and I believe that in doing so, it made the moment all the more intimate. Mina completely surrenders herself to Dracula at that moment, making the decision to join him which may not have been the case if Johnathan had been there. In order to make Mina the all consumed by love woman, they had to remove the true object of her affections.

  Mina is a very complicated character in the novel who is reduced to an object of sexual desire in the film. Her great love with Dracula serves the purpose to further break it away from the novel in means of its plot. Her true intelligence is never showcased nor hinted at, leaving only her beauty as her main characteristic for the audience to recognize her by.

Monsters or Misogynists?

Monsters or Misogynists?  

by Syeda S. Raza 

Men in the Anglo Saxon society were misogynists thus, it won't be wrong to call them monsters. These men considered women as possessions and peace-weavers “ A queen should weave peace, not punish the innocent’ (1941).  Women without their will were married to these demonic men in an attempt to bring peace between the two kingdoms. In particular, Hrothgar’s act of marrying his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld for peace pledge was no less of a monstrous act. Women were treated by these monsters as slaves and were required to act upon their wishes “Haereth’s daughter moved about with the mead-jug in her hand, taking care of the company, filling the cups that the warriors held out” (1980), this illustrated that power remained in the hands of the men and that women were inferior in all respect. Moreover, women as peace weavers were expected to bear children to carry bloodlines forward. Where their sons would carry the legacy of their fathers by engaging in similar acts. These monsters were disgusted by women and their bodies were sexualized. In the reading Grendel by John Gardener, Wealtheow to Grendel was like the Shaper but her having human characteristics made him want to kill her. He was disgusted by Wealtheow’s body but felt superior to her. Grendel was undoubtedly a monster who was obscene to even to his own mother“ And my mother’s fat foul bulk rolling over, restless again” (9) and again “She smells of wild pig and fish” (29). This strongly suggested that no matter how old a man was, women in the Anglo Saxon society were maltreated.    

Even today human-like monsters are seen in books and movies. One example of this is seen in Khaled Hosseini's novel: A Thousand Splendid Suns. The novel explains the story of two generations of characters that are brought together by tragic sweeps of war, where their personal life was intertwined in a series of drastic events. In contrast to the idea of peace weaving marriage, in Hosseini's novel men engage in second marriage with high hopes of having a son.  The ideologies remain similar in Thousand Splendid Sons, Beowulf, and Grendel where men represent monsters that objectify women as mere slaves. These women are constantly a subject to violence by their husbands and father. In Hosseini's novel, men having the privilege to engage in a second marriage is brutal in its extremity and this portrays an act of infidelity towards the wives. Women in both societies are married to men that are quite older than their age without their will. Women thus, feel inferior to these monsters and live their lives in an abusive and oppressive relationship. This is due to their desire and attempts to maintain peace between them and the husband; analogous to what is illustrated in Beowulf and Grendel.

Therefore, monsters today and monsters in the past share homologous traits, the difference lies in their approach. Even today, women are abused and their bodies are objectified; however, the world still remains a place where monsters like such hold dominance.