Mina and Lucy’s characters are supposed to represent women of the Victorian era, which entails being pure, angelic, religious, and joyful; so that they may make a good wife to their husbands. In this era it is no longer common to have arranged marriages, rather women now have a say in which suitor they wish to marry. This indicates that the role of women in society is changing or evolving. Later in chapter 8 Mina touches upon the subject of how the relationship between men and women further change in the future and that “New Women won’t condescend in future to accept [marriage]; she will do the proposing herself.” In this scene Mina hopes that women of the future will have more freedom and live in a more tolerant society of women’s freedom to do as they please. However, later in the novel we may ask the question whether or not Lucy, with her freedom to choose among her suitors, made the correct choice? Because once she becomes sick Arthur calls upon Dr. Seward for help, leaving us to ponder whether or not she made the correct choice. Lucy once she has been bitten become dependent on the men around her in order to live, which leads us further to believe that women need men in order to survive, because on their own they would perish. It may be possible that this little freedom that women have gained in the Victorian era is too much to handle, and maybe why Lucy ends up being bitten by Dracula because in her unconscious dream walking state, she secretly craves the freedom that Dracula is able to bestow upon her. Unfortunately, this freedom causes her to evolve into a monster that resembled a “devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity”, and the only way to save this new species of women is by the hand of mortal men.
2 thoughts on “The Evolution of Women”
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I agree that the little freedom that women have is perhaps too much to handle, not because the women are weak but because they are constricted in many others ways. The power the Lucy and Mina possess to choose their suitors is still contingent on them receiving an offer. Dracula spins this power dynamic and uses women to control the men. The constrition of suitors that women has to choose from becomes the biggest power play. Now all the men who are Lucy and Mina suitors (or husband) are now now being used themselves. I believe that this novel is showing us just how bad men’s power over women and also vise versa.
This is certainly an interesting interpretation of the competing gender roles in the book. On the side of the living, you have women who conform to socially acceptable practices of life. However, the undead are not obliged to follow those norms. This becomes apparent when Undead Lucy attacks a young child. Because she is no longer of the living, she does not need to fulfill a maternal role imposed by society. Now she can do as she pleases, which in this situation is feasting on a child’s blood. To me, this contrast is used to create a fear of the liberated women. In this particular episode they use a very graphic scene to do so–a woman compromising her maternal role to fulfill selfish desires. This tension between the constraints of living society and the freedom of the undead is surely a recurring topic in this book.