Dracula's Victims: Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Dracula relies on prominent women such as Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker to fill its everlasting thirst. The two are considered impure or unclean after encounter with the Dracula. Considering Lucy's case, the Dracula successfully steals her from her betrothed and feeds on her flesh until she dies, and she is reborn newly as a vampire. As a vampire, Lucy transforms into a different creature. She is vulgar and thirsty for children's blood. She uses her seductive nature to lure people into preying them. The Dracula bite destroys her initially good character and turns into a dangerous thing, Dr. Seward says that her eyes are "unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew (Stoker 188)." She has lost her beauty and become impure in the eyes of people.

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The Dracula also sucks blood from Mina Harker and controls her in front of her husband's eyes. After Mina transforms into a vampire, the Dracula then forces her to drink blood from its breasts sexually controlling her. The Dracula do so to show Mina's husband Jonathan and other men that it is powerful to them. The Dracula even scoffs Jonathan and the other men; it says "your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them, you and others shall yet be mine (Stoker 216)." The act of engaging in dirty quasi-erotic action with the Dracula makes Mina to become unclean according to the Victorian community's beliefs about contamination. After realizing what has happened to her, Mina declares it by herself; she says, "unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more (Stoker 216)." Mina discovers that she has lost sexual purity as a woman considering the strict rules about sex during that time. She sees herself as unclean in front of her husband's eyes.

The Dracula bites transforms the women into vampires. The women also lose their human senses and start craving for blood. Lucy becomes thirsty for children blood. She uses her sexuality to mislead people and take advantage of them. The men in Victorian society are disgusted by the Dracula's actions because it steals their women in front of their eyes. The Dracula also taunts the men and shows them that they are weak. The act of the Dracula of making the women sexually impure and unclean angers men in the Victorian society. Mina's encounter with the three female Vampires sounds so terrific. The vampires roam round the castle she is in; she expresses her fear, not knowing that she will one day become the victim.

The Dracula passage puts the men above the women in Victorian society; women are supposed to give men pleasure and ensure that the men get satisfaction. In the Victorian community, it is a taboo to engage in promiscuous sexual behavior. Women who do not follow the sexual rules are termed as unclean or contaminated. Men have complete control over the women, and they can decide to disown them If they go against the sexual norms. At some point, the women challenge the position they get placed in the society as the weaker sex. The beauty of some women in the Victorian society the likes of Lucy and Mina weakens the men. Lucy and Mina also openly question some cultures that undermine women like monogamy, Lucy says, "Why can't they let a girl marry three or as many as want her, and save all this trouble (Stoker 87).” The women in the Victorian society are willing to challenge the unjust rules that portray them weak.

During the weird encounter between the Dracula, Mina and Jonathan, the Dracula sucks blood from Mina and makes her drink blood from her breast. It is like engaging in a dirt sexual act with Mina; the Dracula do as an insult to men in the Victorian society. The action reveals that the Count was a sexual competitor to Jonathan. The Dracula sexually mistreats Mina in the eyes of her husband and other men to show its might over the residents of the Victorian society. It is an act that disrespects the Taboos and the rules of the Victorian community in the 19th century.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the Count Dracula feeds and sexually abuses women in the Victoria society to demonstrate its power. By the act of feeding on ladies like Lucy and Mina, the Dracula wants to show its power violating the Victoria laws. The bites make Lucy to transform into a completely different creature; she uses her beauty to lure and drink blood from people. Mina, on the other hand, engages in forbidden sexual activity by drinking blood from the Dracula's breasts. The two go against the Victoria traditions, and they are termed as unclean and contaminated. The love men have for Mina and Lucy motivate them to destroy the Dracula, raising the status and position of women in Victorian society.

Work Cited

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York; Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 2013.