Strength and Mina Harker

I think it is agreeable to say that Dracula scarred every character in the book in some way or another. I also think it is worth noting how much strength is shown by the characters, specifically Mina.

Mina is always thanking men. She is always so grateful and so enthralled by the idea that the men are taking care of things and making plans, etc. But she, whether she realizes it or not, is just as quick and smart as all the male characters are. She does not see it, maybe because she is one woman in a group of five men, and maybe because she has just lost her friend Lucy, who she probably saw as the ideal of what a woman should be (in the home, letting men make choices for her, etc).

Her mindset reflects the Victorian mindset on what a woman’s role is. She is constantly worrying about her husband Jonathan, in all her diary entries and letters. It’s always her either wondering if he is safe, or thanking god that he is with her. A woman’s role, traditionally in this time period, is to be loyal to and tend to their husbands. But Mina does this while actually thinking through why she should be worried, and even reads what Jonathan wrote at Dracula’s Castle and shows it to Van Helsing. She is again, more quickwitted and intelligent than what sits on the surface.

Even after she becomes bit by Dracula, Mina wants to help and to be involved. She is constantly under a lot of stress, having been bitten by a vampire and all, and she shakes off her tiredness and tries her hardest to help. She allows Van Helsing to hypnotize her, among other things. She even travels with the men to Dracula’s Castle. Women in the Victorian era can make for strong characters, as in the case of Mina Harker.