The moment in chapter 14 when Van Helsing is speaking to Mina about her health and happiness caught my attention for several reasons. Van Helsing states to Mina on page 198, “Now you must eat. You are overwrought and perhaps over-anxious. Husband Jonathan would not like to see you so pale; and what he like not where he love, is not to his good. Therefore, for his sake you must eat and smile”.
I found this passage particularly striking because it is employing the use of Mina’s body in different ways. It also shows a significance surrounding the importance of consumption. As Van Helsing speaks to Mina one can see how her body is portrayed as a kind of consumptive remedy for her husband Jonathan. Mina’s health is something that is clearly important to her husband as she is described “overwrought and perhaps over-anxious” something that “is not to his good”. Therefore, Van Helsing tells Mina that she must “eat and smile” in order to be in good health for her husband’s “sake”. Rather than being in good health for Mina’s own personal benefit, here the stress for Mina to achieve her health back is expressed as something that needs to be done for Jonathan. Once Mina’s body is back to health no longer “so pale” she will then bring Jonathan happiness. Jonathan’s needs within this passage can be identified as the top priority through Van Helsing’s words as he dictates Mina what to do. It is also interesting that just as Mina is able to give happiness to Jonathan by being a healthy body to him, she can only become “healthy” through consuming food herself. Van Helsing tells Mina to “eat” which brings her back to health. In this sense Mina can be viewed as a kind of consumption material to her husband. However, while not being able to literally consume Mina like food, her body still creates a remedying effect upon her husband. To the Count however, Mina is able to embody literal food. Therefore, her body serves as a purpose to be consumed both literally and figuratively depending upon whomever is viewing her. This idea reminded me of the expression that is used today, “looked at like a piece of meat” often times used in order to describe the ways in which men stare at women. To be “looked at” like a piece of “meat” would be exactly how the count stares at Mina within the book as literal food to be consumed. Today we know that there is no such thing as vampire’s yet, we still use this idea more similarly to how Jonathan figuratively consumes Mina. This whole consumptive idea, whether figurative or literal is still existing today despite this book being written within the 19th century. The handout in class from Walter Pater’s The Rennaissance surrounding the Monet Lisa cements the idea surrounding this consumptive view of the female that is seen today as well as in the Victorian Era. Lisa is described within the last line as an “embodiment of the old fancy” yet still “the symbol of the modern idea” however, in this context the “modern idea” or modern female can still be viewed often times as a consumptive. I feel saddened to think that the ideas surrounding the female body as a consumptive are both old and current just as the article states, “The fancy of a perpetual life, sweeping together ten thousand experiences, Is an old one;” Is there ever a way to rid the past? Why is it that the female is still described as a piece of meat? Or could we see a possible empowerment within the fact that without Mina’s healthy body Jonathan would then not be “happy” does that empower her body?
2 thoughts on “Looked at Like a Piece of Meat”
Comments are closed.
Motherhood is only briefly mentioned in Dracula (at the end when Mina and Jonathan prove their heterosexual, non-vampiric union with the birth of their son Quincey whom they hope embodies the strengths of the Crew of Light) but your post reminds me of the belief that pregnant women must eat more during their pregnancy for lives other than her own. A pregnant woman is eating for two, and the life of her child is often valued more highly than hers, especially in Victorian England where childbirth mortality rates were higher due to a lack of advanced, proper medical care. Mina is not pregnant at this point in the novel but she will have the blood of another being inside her, with the heavy implications that blood is a substitute for semen. Her body is indeed viewed and used by men as an object throughout the novel like a piece of meat. One can only hope that this vile treatment of women’s bodies as objects will soon end.
It is really interesting that this idea of the female body being looked at to be consumed is really interesting, as the same idea comes up in regards to Dorian Gray. The whole beginning of the book is him being consumed as a work of art, being looked at for no reason other than to look at his beauty. This starts to play with gender roles, and I can’t wait to see how it further plays throughout the book.