{"id":2598,"date":"2023-10-26T22:49:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T02:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2023-10-26T22:49:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T02:49:38","slug":"lucys-battle-for-independence-of-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2023\/10\/26\/lucys-battle-for-independence-of-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucy’s Battle for Independence of Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dracula <\/span><\/i>by Bram Stoker was written in a time period of uncertainty. Written just before the horizon of the 1900s, <\/span>Dracula <\/span><\/i>is an attempt by Bram Stoker to make several comments on the time period and setting that the villainous monster Dracula and his surrounding pupils reside in.\u00a0 On page 146 of the novel, there is a short excerpt from Lucy Westenra\u2019s diary that describes her trouble sleeping with and without the presence of Dr. Van Helsing. Lucy composes, \u201c I have a dim half remembrance of long, anxious times of waiting and fearing\u2026\u201d(Stoker 146). This excerpt describes Lucy\u2019s interpretation of what her nights of sleep were like before the presence of Dr. Van Helsing. Looking further into these descriptions, it is evident that there is a strong negative connotation that goes along with the diction that is present within this section of Lucy\u2019s diary. As we look further into this diary entry there is a mood change that very abruptly takes place. Lucy writes, \u201c Since, however, Dr. Van Helsing has been with me, all this bad dreaming seems to have passed away\u2026 I go to bed without any fear of sleep\u201d(Stoker 146). Once again the diction of this excerpt seems to have a very strong connotation; this time being positive. This mood change within this diary entry not only shows a change in Lucy\u2019s physical well being but it has an underlying message that correlates with the time period. What I am really trying to get at here is a claim about the relationship between men and women in this time period.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bram Stoker does not immediately come out and say that men are the comfort to the lives of women, however, he implicitly describes this relationship through the dialogue and diary of Lucy Westenra. In this selected diary entry this relationship is channeled through Lucy\u2019s sleep. Taking a personal aspect of someone\u2019s life, like sleep in this instance, and turning it into a struggle that can only be fixed by a man leads readers to believe that the daily activities of women in this time period could seemingly only be fully completed or gone through with the help and watchful eye of a man. This claim is much larger than what is happening in this specific journal entry. In the late 1800s it is no surprise that women were seen as fragile compared to their male counterparts. Stoker throughout his novel as a whole employs Lucy as a mouthpiece, despite her actual sex, for men. Many times throughout the novel Lucy becomes so captivated by the way that men play a role in her life that she almost dehumanizes herself; similar to how women were treated by men. In this sense Bram Stoker, being the writer behind Lucy, may have done this to recognize the words and actions of the women who surrounded him. It is likely that the setting in which his life took place was a template for <\/span>Dracula. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0In this way it is understandable that not only does <\/span>Dracula <\/span><\/i>serve as a thriller of the century but a comment on the century. At base level <\/span>Dracula <\/span><\/i>is just a horror novel but it is thoughts that women like Lucy have that drive one of the underlying themes that runs throughout the novel and is a direct reflection of the period in which Stoker wrote this piece of literature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources Cited:<\/p>\n

\n

Bram Stoker, et al. Dracula<\/i>. London, Penguin Books, 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dracula by Bram Stoker was written in a time period of uncertainty. Written just before the horizon of the 1900s, Dracula is an attempt by Bram Stoker to make several comments on the time period and setting that the villainous monster Dracula and his surrounding pupils reside in.\u00a0 On page 146 of the novel, there … Continue reading Lucy’s Battle for Independence of Thought<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5348,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598","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\/5348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}