MM Oct 13

Notes for Wednesday- October 13th

Dracula- chapters 22-27

Now having finished the story, today’s class discussion covered the last few chapters of the gothic novel Dracula. First, the in- class writing exercise addressed the topic of why Mina was saved from turning into a vampire, while Lucy was not. Also, the question asked us to describe the roles of women in vampire stories and how their interactions with vampires are different from men’s.

Overall, the class agreed that Lucy was unable to be saved because when she was bitten by Dracula she played the role of an innocent victim and took no initiative in order to save herself. With her lack of motivation to save herself she resisted the urge to fight the evil flowing through her veins and allowed death to become her. However, Mina is seen as an assertive Victorian woman who takes precaution in order to ensure her survival. Trying not to follow in the footsteps of Lucy, Mina seeks out help from Jonathan, Dr. Seward and Van Helsing to try and formulate scenarios if Mina were to convert to a life of vampirism. For example, she requests that she be killed if she turns into a vampire in order to save the lives of others. It was also mentioned that Mina developed an advantage to survive because when caring for Lucy, Mina was unaware of the fact that Lucy’s sleep- walking and frequent bite marks were blatant signs of becoming a vampire. More generally, Lucy and Mina have contrasting roles in this novel where Lucy is a passive Victorian woman and Mina is an engaging character who is pivotal to the plot.

Similarly, the class concluded that Lucy’s passiveness and promiscuity and Mina’s eagerness to engage herself in the “Crew of Light” led to their vulnerability and allowed Dracula to attack both women. Lucy’s sexual desires are easily manipulated by men, including Dracula, and is left defenseless when being seduced herself. On the other hand, Dracula poses Mina as a threat because she constantly interferes with his colonization of England. Since Mina sorts through all the notes the men take on their excursions she gains access to all the weaknesses the men find for Dracula. Also, Mina unnoticeably intercepts Lucy when she goes to see Dracula while sleep- walking. In some ways, Dracula represents the external manifestation of the women’s desires and seductively uses them until he has finished his job. As mentioned before, Dracula fails to convert Mina because she refuses to succumb to a life of vampirism and is fixated on finding a way to survive. In contrast to the women, Dracula neglects to target the men because this homosocial relationship of men biting men in Victorian England is extremely unheard of and seen as taboo. It can be concluded that Dracula aspires for women to be the dominant sex in Victorian England and make the men feel inferior towards them.

Second, after the in- class writing assignment, we divided into our discussion groups and answered the question: “How might Dracula represent an inversion of stereotypical English society? What does the story tell us about English manners and morals? What sorts of contrasts between English and foreign or vampiric behavior do we see in Stoker’s text?”

Dracula’s inversion of English society eventually leads to his death, like so in Beowulf with Grendel, Grendel’s Dam and the Dragon. In English society it is important to note the socio-economic status of characters: Dr. Seward and Van Helsing are both doctors, Arthur is an aristocrat, and Jonathan Hacker is a lawyer. Unlike Seward and Van Helsing who help save people, Dracula inverts this role of a doctor by saving people from ultimately dying by granting them immortality as a vampire. In the end, Bram Stoker shows that aliens in English society who invert their roles are soon driven away.