Lucy Westenra

When people think of the infamous Wallachian ruler Vlad III Drăculea, they think of the famous literary monster of nightmares, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. Dracula, who has appeared in many media outlets from the big screen of Hollywood to the bright lights of Broadway, is thought by many to have been inspired by the Wallachian Voivode that is better known as Vlad the Impaler. There is, however, little evidence that backs this assumption. In fact, there is actually a lot of evidence that refutes…

Gender roles play a huge part in society’s life because they help regulate behaviors and attitude that are socially acceptable. Aaron Devor, a dean at the University of Victoria and author of the article “Gender Roles Behaviors and Attitudes,” argues that men and women have clear rules and guideline in society on the way they should act. Traditionally, masculinity defined as being aggressive and domineering, while feminity defined as nurturing and passive. Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula was set in…

reader is able to gain an insight of the mood and tone include sleepwalking and uncontrollable dreaming, rituals and superstition, and imprisonment. Scenes of sleepwalking and uncontrollable dreaming are described throughout the novel with Jonathan, Lucy, and Mina as they make encounters with Count Dracula. The rituals and superstitions included in the novel describe traditions and practices used by…

characters, but in these characters, one can see the good and dark side of the new woman of the nineteenth century. In Mina Harker, Stoker reveals an example of how the traditional and contemporary can be mixed within one person while in the other women, Lucy and the female vampires, he shows the dark side of the changes in the female society, revealing that the changes social norms occurring at the…

Gothic literature originated in the 19th century and was a branch of the larger Romantic Movement. Like the Romantics, Gothic writers embraced the sublime nature and endeavored to evoke deep emotions in their readers. However, their motives were manifested in a fascination with the exotic and eerie human nature and the effects of guilt, evil, isolation and terror on a human being. Authors exploit isolated and grotesque settings, supernatural beings and events, combines romance and horror as well…

Bram Stoker’s Critique of Victorian Gender Norms and An Unconventional Pathway for Victorian Women to Advantage Their Social Standing The novel “Dracula” written by Bram Stoker appears on the surface to be a traditional 19th century gothic text, but after closer examination, Stoker’s novel develops into a glass shattering feminist novel embedded with ideas about gender norms. Stoker uses the characters in “Dracula” to provide examples and critique for both traditional and nontraditional…

The use of drugs throughout the Victorian era could have influenced the imaginations of the authors and the mental state of characters. In the Victorian era, drugs such as marijuana, opium, morphine and cocaine, were very big in society. According to the article, “Victorian Drug Use” by Dr. Andrzej Diniejko, “Dangerous drugs were commonly used for making home remedies and less frequently as a recreation for the bored and alienated people. The recreational use of opiates was popular particularly…

Dracula In a time of superstition and suffrage, Bram Stoker weaves a captivating story about sex, lust, and evil with his classic novel Dracula. Breaking all the rules and beliefs of the era, Stoker creates a character that would make every mother hide her daughter. Using representation, he gives an example of how two women try to live a life of purity in a world of lust and sexuality. He takes the wisdom of the “scientific, sceptical, mater-of-fact nineteenth century” (216) man and puts it to…

In the Gothic novels, “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson there are several overlapping themes acknowledging and challenging cultural ideas of gender including gender roles, and gender sexuality. Cultural ideas of gender roles and gender sexuality are explored and questioned in both gothic novels; as the both novels, in their own way, challenge the current cultural ideas surrounding boundaries of gender in that place and time that the novels were written…

with the sense of ‘others’ and barbarism. The damsels in distress in this tale are Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra, it can be speculated that the Three Sisters classifies as well because in the end they are saved from the monsters they have become. However, only Mina remains among the living, despite showing potential as a New Woman, she ultimately conforms to the convention of a Victorian woman whereas Lucy dies due to her release of energies and desires that are normally repressed in the…