In addition, though Dracula succeeds in transforming the three vampire women and Lucy into perverse vampires, he fails in transforming Mina Harker, the heroine. This is because “the world seems full of good men—even if there are monsters in it” (Stoker 209). Mina’s character is the epitome of what the New Woman is. For example, she is intelligent and hard working, accepting the technological advances and utilizing them to aid in tracking down Dracula. However, with this in mind, Mina is still the obeying and supporting wife to Jonathan. Though she embodies some of its traits, Mina mocks the New Woman idea by stating that these women will wrongly have premarital sex with their husband’s to be. To support this statement, Mina writes the following
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With this in mind as well as the featuring of the New Woman idea, the text demonstrates the differing or conflicting views on how women should behave and who they were the property of. The prime example from the text is how Dracula chooses not to attack Jonathan himself, but attack his wife Mina. In doing so, Dracula is indirectly attacking and harming Jonathan because wives were seen as an extension of their patriarchal husbands. As a result, Mina is protected by her husband. Therefore, she becomes restricted in her movements as she is put under the care of Jonathan and his companions. She is helpless in aiding the group of men to kill the monster that attacked her. It is only through the death of Dracula that Mina’s as well as Lucy’s honour and purity can be restored. Stoker’s Dracula addresses the fear that patriarchal society has in regards to women’s feminist awakening and breaking of patriarchal chains. In Dracula, female vampires refuse to adhere to gender roles, much like the Victorian New Woman, making them both equally terrifying as well as sexually perverse monsters. A modern day feminist can read the novel and recognise the female vampire monsters within Dracula as heroines, who are on the front line of resistance against the exploitation and oppression of women from their patriarchal male …show more content…
Her claims thus deny any supernatural agency. She presents her-self as mortal, as tempted rather than tempter” (Grudin 137). However, Matilda is the tempter and therefore monstrous because she desires that the painting of her depicted as Madonna is to be hung in Ambrosio’s room. Therefore, Matilda’s seduction of Ambrosio causes his destruction into a monster, which results in Antonia’s destruction. This perverse and anti-Catholic monster appears when Ambrosio views the painting: “Were I permitted,” he sighs, “to twine round my fingers those golden ringlets, and press with my lips the treasures of that snowy bosom!” (Lewis 41) Additionally, Robert Kiely, who Grudin quotes, asserts that “When it is revealed that the model for the painting has been the wanton Matilda who dressed in monk's clothing in order to be near Ambrosio, we see that the portrait is merely another disguise. Whatever Matilda really is-a witch of Satan, a figment of Ambrosio's imagination, a woman possessed by lust-art can only hint at and we can only guess” (Kiely 109). In conjunction with Kiely’s observation, Matilda is a complicated character to define and does not belong into one psychological framework. This is first evident with the confusion of her
With this in mind as well as the featuring of the New Woman idea, the text demonstrates the differing or conflicting views on how women should behave and who they were the property of. The prime example from the text is how Dracula chooses not to attack Jonathan himself, but attack his wife Mina. In doing so, Dracula is indirectly attacking and harming Jonathan because wives were seen as an extension of their patriarchal husbands. As a result, Mina is protected by her husband. Therefore, she becomes restricted in her movements as she is put under the care of Jonathan and his companions. She is helpless in aiding the group of men to kill the monster that attacked her. It is only through the death of Dracula that Mina’s as well as Lucy’s honour and purity can be restored. Stoker’s Dracula addresses the fear that patriarchal society has in regards to women’s feminist awakening and breaking of patriarchal chains. In Dracula, female vampires refuse to adhere to gender roles, much like the Victorian New Woman, making them both equally terrifying as well as sexually perverse monsters. A modern day feminist can read the novel and recognise the female vampire monsters within Dracula as heroines, who are on the front line of resistance against the exploitation and oppression of women from their patriarchal male …show more content…
Her claims thus deny any supernatural agency. She presents her-self as mortal, as tempted rather than tempter” (Grudin 137). However, Matilda is the tempter and therefore monstrous because she desires that the painting of her depicted as Madonna is to be hung in Ambrosio’s room. Therefore, Matilda’s seduction of Ambrosio causes his destruction into a monster, which results in Antonia’s destruction. This perverse and anti-Catholic monster appears when Ambrosio views the painting: “Were I permitted,” he sighs, “to twine round my fingers those golden ringlets, and press with my lips the treasures of that snowy bosom!” (Lewis 41) Additionally, Robert Kiely, who Grudin quotes, asserts that “When it is revealed that the model for the painting has been the wanton Matilda who dressed in monk's clothing in order to be near Ambrosio, we see that the portrait is merely another disguise. Whatever Matilda really is-a witch of Satan, a figment of Ambrosio's imagination, a woman possessed by lust-art can only hint at and we can only guess” (Kiely 109). In conjunction with Kiely’s observation, Matilda is a complicated character to define and does not belong into one psychological framework. This is first evident with the confusion of her