“The difference between Mina and the vampire women in the novel is a sexual difference.” How far do you agree with this statement? Discuss what is revealed about late Victorian sociConfidential Page 1 30/08/03ety through Stoker’s portrayal of female characters.
Women and their sexuality is a major theme presented in the novel ‘Dracula’. We see a great contrast between Mina, a typical virtuous Victorian woman, and the evil vampire women who are provocative and morally wrong.
We first see Vampire women when Jonathan Harker pretends to be asleep in Dracula’s castle, in Transylvania. By locating Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, Stoker highlights the idea of xenophobia, the Victorians fear of all things foreign. At this stage in the novel we see Jonathan on the verge of madness, having found himself trapped in the castle. The women are described as beautiful, and Jonathan admits he longed for them to kiss him, yet,
“something about them made me uneasy”
As one of the Vampire women bends to kiss Harker, he describes the smell of her breath as “bitter underlying the sweet”. This makes the reader wary of the women, as this is a metaphor for the women’s beauty underlying the evil inside them.

“I must be careful not to frighten her”

The sexual elements to the women’s characters are quashed with the destruction of Dracula. This would be an ending that satisfied Victorian readers, but in today’s society it is noticeable that the happy ending for Mina was considered to be that she was settled down, married with a child. Feminists reading the novel now may believe a better ending for Mina would be that she becomes a New Woman with freedom, especially since the novel was written at a time when such ideas were being introduced to society. Today, we may question whether women’s sexuality in the novel was in fact a bad thing, or whether it’s repression was a worse fate for women like Mina.

“Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her?”

Although Mina did seem to have an equal role with Jonathan, and she actually took on the role of protector at one point when Jonathan had a nervous breakdown after escaping Dracula’s castle, as the novel progresses she is increasingly viewed by the men as weak and needing protection.