{"id":1949,"date":"2021-11-02T01:39:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T05:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2021-11-02T01:39:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T05:39:12","slug":"lucy-is-sus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/11\/02\/lucy-is-sus\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucy is sus"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

When it comes to Lucy Westenra, the most obvious thing about her that is mentioned over and over again is her beauty and its influence on other people. In fact, one of the first things that we learn about Lucy is that she is so beautiful that three men proposed to her within one day, resulting in this rather strange passage in the text:
\u201cWhy are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?…Why can\u2019t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble? But this is heresy, and I must not say it\u201d (Chapter V).
While a first reading suggests that this is due to Lucy not wanting to hurt the masculinity of these men (emphasizing the importance of masculinity in the Victorian era), comparing this to her depiction as a crazed and voluptuous vampire also suggests that Lucy has many desires that cannot be fulfilled. Judging from other characterizations of Lucy in the text (sleepwalking a lot, quick transitions from cheerful to illness almost akin to bipolar disorder), its safe to say that she is of a sensitive nature, although I would reword this as easily influenced. Thinking about this in terms of Dracula\u2019s sinister influence over her lends a lot more plausibility to the interpretation that Lucy has many desires that cannot be fulfilled. What then, shall we make of the fact the Lucy\u2019s death allowed for the intimacy between the men to grow (even more so after they \u201ckilled\u201d her again)?
\u201cAnd now, Arthur my friend, dear lad, am I not forgiven\u2026Forgiven! God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again, and me peace\u2026We have learned to believe, all of us\u2014is it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty?\u201d (Chapter XVI)
Much like the relationship between Robert and George in Lady Audley\u2019s secret, I think that this fact is not only saying something about Victorian society but is also an important plot point that pushes the story forward. Consider again what was said about Lucy: \u201cThe career of this so unhappy dear lady is just begun. Those children whose blood she suck are not yet so much for the worse; but if she lives on, Un-Dead, more and more they lose their blood and by her power over them they come to her; and so she draw their blood with that so wicked mouth\u201d (Chapter XVI). And then what was said about Mina: \u201cI come here full of respect for you, and you have given me hope\u2014hope, not in what I am seeking of, but that there are good women still left to make life happy\u2014good women, whose lives and whose truths may make good lesson for the children that are to be\u201d (Chapter XIV).
What Van Helsing says at the end of chapter XVI insinuate that they still have to rid Dracula from the world so that no one might corrupted by him ever again (note the emphasis on \u2018duty\u2019). So then, even if Lucy is completely innocent, the fact that she is so easily influenced by evil forces make her an obstacle to Victorian sensibilities (and in extension masculinity). It also does not help that she was preying on children potentially turning them into vampires and spreading Dracula\u2019s \u201cwickedness\u201d had she been left to live (quite a clear contrast to Van Helsing\u2019s compliments of Mina). It seems that for the Victorians, no matter how beloved and dear an individual might be, they are ultimately expendable for the wellbeing of society. <\/p>\r\n

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A drawing I did that I thought was fitting for this topic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to Lucy Westenra, the most obvious thing about her that is mentioned over and over again is her beauty and its influence on other people. In fact, one of the first things that we learn about Lucy is that she is so beautiful that three men proposed to her within one day, … Continue reading Lucy is sus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4756,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}