We might expect that Mina, who sympathizes with the boldly progressive “New Women” of England, would be doomed to suffer Lucy’s fate as punishment for her progressiveness. Stoker instead fashions Mina into a goddess of conservative male fantasy. Though resourceful and intelligent enough to conduct the research that leads Van Helsing’s crew to the count, Mina is far from a “New Woman” herself. Mina throughout the novel shows no independence. Rather, she is a dutiful wife and mother, and her successes are always in the service of men. Which is why when she is introduced in the novel she is learning shorthand typewriting for marriage, Mina’s moral perfection remains as stainless in the end as any Victorian woman.
The erotic undercurrents of Dracula begin with Jonathan Harkers encounter with the three “mistresses”. These women seemed to be in possession of an unbridled libido as they urge each other on, “He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all.” Although this potential orgy would, at first, seem to be the ultimate fulfilment of male fantasy, Jonathan has misgivings. “There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear”. He is transformed by their sexual ascendancy into the role of the coquettish maiden, “I lay quiet, looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation”. The whole language of this passage describes Harkers seduction and, more significantly, the image of women initiating sexual advances. The Victorian moral code could not comprehend the thought of female sexuality, “there is only one libido and that is male”, but throughout the entire text of Dracula it is the female vampires who have the sexual drive thus overturning “the idea that men possessed insatiable sexual appetites, while the female function is to passively appease it”.
We might expect that Mina, who sympathizes with the boldly progressive “New Women” of England, would be doomed to suffer Lucy’s fate as punishment for her progressiveness. Stoker instead fashions Mina into a goddess of conservative male fantasy. Though resourceful and intelligent enough to conduct the research that leads Van Helsing’s crew to the count, Mina is far from a “New Woman” herself. Mina throughout the novel shows no independence. Rather, she is a dutiful wife and mother, and her successes are always in the service of men. Which is why when she is introduced in the novel she is learning shorthand typewriting for marriage, Mina’s moral perfection remains as stainless in the end as any Victorian woman.
