Mina Harker's Character In Dracula

Mina’s unconscious sexual wishes are expressed in her interactions with Dracula through an exchange of blood, which is a symbolic representation for sexual intercourse and semen. When Dracula forcibly

In fact, it becomes quite obvious that Stoker deliberately characterizes her differently than her male counterparts. Mina barely lives a life of her own, constantly relying on men to make decisions for her. To the reader, it might seem like a woman taking orders or something of the sort, but it comes to the point where the reader is forced to think that Mina does not know a different way of life. Whether that analysis is true or not, Mina falls completely dependent on men. For example, when looking for Dracula, Mr. Morris says,

Despite all of Mina’s efforts to be helpful to the men, in their sexist ways they exclude her in their hunt for the Count. Van Helsing says:

The characteristic that successfully saves her was her ability to continue to be strong and continue to control herself. Lucy, on the other hand, usually was weak and she didn’t even try to fight off Dracula. She often tries to not recollect the events that occurred between the two. In the end, Mina was able to actually go back to her old habits and be back into a pure state, while Lucy, sadly, was not able to. Lucy turned into a vampire, and as a vampire her terrible characteristics were more apparent than those of when she was pure. While Lucy was a vampire, he eyes were “unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew” (222-223). Lucy was not only an active threat to children but her desires for the men of the land also posed an active threat. At one point, Dr. Seward recorded, “at that moment, the remnant of my love passed into hate and loathing; had she then been killed…” (223). Both Lucy and Mina get to a common phase of purity but since Lucy has a lack of self control and she has unexpected childish qualities, she eventually had to get back her qualities of innocence in her death.

Mina Murray is the fiancée of Jonathan Harker. She is portrayed as a good character in the book because she is shown as a really kind hearted and vivacious school mistress that always seems and is innocent and helps in anyway that she is able too. Mina is Lucy Westerna’s best friend and she is a very intelligent and resourceful young woman who eventually leads Dr. Van Helsing’s men to Castle Dracula.

Stoker incorporates different allusions to various parts of the religious supernatural throughout Dracula to continue his propagation of the Christian faith. During Mina's retelling of her encounter with Dracula she pleads, "Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril; and in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!"(252). The word "mercy" in his dialog draws attention to the fact that Mina fears she may be coming to a bitter end. Mina turns away from logical thought and prays helplessly to the heavens for any sort of assistance it may provide to her. Throughout the story, Mina uses a typewriter to collect each of the characters personal documentation in hopes of catching Dracula. This use of new technology is symbolically shunned by making

In Dracula, Stoker portrays the typical women: The new woman, the femme fatale and the damsel in distress, all common concepts in gothic literature. There are three predominant female roles within Dracula: Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra and the three vampire brides, all of which possess different attributes and play different roles within the novel. It is apparent that the feminine portrayal within this novel, especially the sexual nature, is an un-doubtable strong, reoccurring theme.

Now, they encounter a supreme ordeal, a life or death situation, a moment of suspense and tension for the audience. The group finds Renfield in the insane asylum, covered in blood and dying. He imparts that Dracula had been “taking the life out of Mina” (ch.21). Rushing upstairs to the Harker’s room, the company witnesses Dracula, “in his left hand he held both of Mrs. Harker’s hands; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shown by his torn open dress” (ch.21). Mina took the first, irreversible step towards becoming one of the undead. Van Helsing later discloses to Mina that, “[Dracula] can live for centuries, and you are but a mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded—since once he put that mark upon your throat.” (ch.23). Mina and her camaraderie must now follow Dracula back to Transylvania in order to destroy the power that threatens to obliterate Mina’s

Dracula ( novel) written by Bram stoker is a text which reflects its English Victorian era context, where gender roles were repressed and science and religion had a conflicting relationship. Van Helsing (Stephen Summers) is a contemporary reproduction which demonstrates the same concepts and concerns that have endured but evolved, and so they have been represented for the modern day audience. The evolution of the concern of Gender roles and the idea of the new woman is very obvious through the

In the book Dracula, Stoker characterizes Mina as the wife of Jonathan Harker and a friend to Lucy Westenra, a social butterfly. In the beginning of the story, Stoker identifies Mina as the ideal victorian woman in England. This generalizes some interesting contradictions about her character. First and Foremost, Stoker conveys Mina as a tender, maternal figure role of woman. Mina brings out the vulnerable side to Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris as they mourn Lucy’s death. Mina says softly, “I suppose there is something in a woman’s nature that makes a man free to break down before her and express his feelings on the tender or emotional side without feeling it derogatory to his manhood…” (245- 246). She provides comfort and holds them like

Mina Harker, although not changed and possessed the most, was my favorite character because she demonstrated several good qualities throughout the book. Some of the qualities she displayed were not all influenced by Dracula, such as her true kindness and the passion of caring for people that were close to her, or not close to her. These two characteristics displayed in Mina Harker continued, however, even when she was influenced by Dracula. In fact, these qualities often grew stronger when she was put under the influence of Dracula. (I know you must fight- and you must destroy even as you destroyed the fake Lucy…” Dracula page 328). Throughout the story, Mina wanted to help, and she showed several times her strength against Dracula, and her passion of doing the right thing, such as offering herself to be killed if she was possessed and turned into a full vampire and channeling the evil, demonized spirits of Dracula through herself to locate the vampire, Count Dracula

It is very interesting to see that even though Mina is not hyper-sexualized like the other women in the book, she is the one that Count does not try to control but much rather make his partner. Mina shows bravery when it came to the Count that not even the rest of the men did. She realizes the changes that are happening to her but does not wait to be taken care of by the men. A morning after she realizes that the Count has visited her during the night she tells Jonathan to go call Van Helsing, saying: “ ‘I have an idea. I supposed it must have come in the night, and matured without my knowing it. He must hypnotize me before the dawn, and then I shall be able to speak. Go quick, dearest; the time is getting close’” (Stoker, 289). Mina knows

Lucy was introduced having many suitors and being very beautiful, but unlike women of her time she was very sexualized, even more so when Dracula turned Lucy into one of the undead. She is described as having a ravenous sexual appetite that was dangerous to men and their self-control. Mina was an ideal Victorian woman, “One of God’s women,”(Stoker, 1897) as described by Van Helsing. And remained that way through out the novel even thought there was suspense created that Mina who empathizes with the progressive new women of England would suffer the same fate as Lucy. When Stoker wrote Lucy’s demise it had a dominance undertone to it.

Indeed Mina’s attraction to Dracula in the film leads to one of the defining alterations between the film and movie adaption, the humanization of Dracula. The subtitle of the 1992 film is “Love Never Dies,” (Coppola) which is the love between Dracula and his wife Elisabeta, who is the spitting image of Mina, and is also represented by Winona Ryder. Throughout the film Dracula tries to win over Mina in order to regain his love with Elisabeta, who commits suicide after false rumours of Draculas death are feed to her by priest. The betrayal by the priest and his wife’s death, makes Dracula curse god, and therefore become a vampire. The background story of the character Dracula makes the monster almost understandable, and the audience begins to sympathize with Dracula. (0:33-5:38)

From the novel, Dracula, my favorite character was Mina Harker, and for many reasons. Even from the beginning, Mina is described as a polite and kind woman. She was close friends with Lucy, and would do anything to support her and Lucy's mother, even if it meant guiding Lucy back to her bed in the middle of the night. In addition, Mina is shown to care deeply for all the people that help her and her friend. She does all that she can to try and help her best friend, even when all hope seems lost. Furthermore, Mina is proven to be extremely useful in the fight to find Dracula. Her diaries contain vital information on Dracula progress, and it was her idea to type out all the diaries in chronological order. Even after Dracula destroyed most of