Dracula - Blog #6

"'And now for you, Madam Mina, this night is the end until all be well. You are too precious to us to have such risk. When we part tonight, you no more must question. We shall tell you all in good time. We are men, and are able to bear; but you must be our star and our hope, and we shall act all the more free that you are not in the danger, such as we are' [Van Helsing].

All the men, even Jonathan, seemed to be relieved; but it did not seem to me good that they should brave danger and, perhaps, lessen their safety--strength being the best safety--through care of me; but their minds were made up, and, though it was a bitter pill for me to swallow, I could say nothing, save to accept their chivalrous care of me" (258-259).

This passage illustrates one of Dracula's main themes--that the novel's leading women are treated as beautiful, delicate, weak, and easily conformable to their society. Dracula was written (and I'm assuming takes place) during the 1800s, and the social interactions between men and women during that time are highly illuminated throughout the novel.

The first paragraph displays one side of the coin. Throughout the novel, the men are always praising Lucy and Mina as being beautiful, angelic, etc., but at the same time there's a bit of degradation in their speech which kind of makes the women come across as pretty objects rather than intelligent beings. Van Helsing follows this trend as he tells Mina that she isn't allowed to continue on in the journey to get rid of Dracula. Van Helsing uses such prettily connotative words like "precious," "star," and "hope" in order to illuminate Mina as being beautiful, valuable, and admirable, but at the same time he's talking down to her, saying "YOU will do this and YOU will do that..." He also asserts male dominance when he says "we are men, and are able to bear," showing that someone as delicate and precious as Mina is not able to bear the task before them.

The second paragraph, from Mina's point of view, further contributes to this idea of delicate, submissive women in society. Mina is as dedicated to getting rid of Dracula as the rest of the men are, but when told that she can't continue her efforts, she readily accepts it without argument or question. I was actually a bit surprised, thinking that a woman as dedicated and spirited as Mina would have stood up for herself and tried to protest. However, the worst reaction we get from Mina is in the weak metaphor "it was a bitter pill for me to swallow." Besides that, she's basically saying "yeah, they're all right" and believes she's helping the men by not joining them in their endeavor.

Throughout the novel, Mina (as well as Lucy) is constantly acting the way she is being portrayed by the men. She's eating up these shallow opinions of her and accepting them as who she is. I feel like Mina has the potential to be a more open, opinionated, and independent women, but because she is so submissive and afraid to disappoint the men, she will never realize her potential.