Mina Harker

Mina Harker

1. 'she has a man's brain'

   • suggsts she is more clever than the stereotypical woman
   • knowlege based mainly on facts
   • Can be viewed both positively and negatively. Insults women but also allows for proto-feminists within the novel. Suggests comment is due to the repressive social conventions of the time

2. 'she is one of God's women ... so true, so sweet, so noble'

   • religion
   • Connection: Duchess of Malfi - 'noble'
   • 'Mina indeed acts and is treated as both the saint and the mother' - Phillis. A. Roth
   • Mina's sexual behaviour fits in with traditional societal norms. - Kathryn Boyd

3. 'But I suppose the New Woman won't condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it; too!'

   • General acceotance of others further entrenches the idea of her as the Ideal Victorian Woman
   • Open Mindset
   • Depicts a change in thought process from only being rational to delving into the possiblities of the future

4. 'I felt an infinite pity for him, and opened my arms unthinkingly'

   • motherly nature
   • Inherent kindness
   • 'Lucy and Mina are essentially the same figure: the mother' - Phillis, A. Roth

5. 'I should never forgive myself if any act of mine, were it even a negative one, brought harm on poor dear Lucy.'

   • Very forgiving
   • strong friendship
   • self -sacrificing
     • ideal characeteristic of a women during that time
     • 'The power of love manifests itself in self-sacrifice' - David Gates

6. 'I shall be glad as long as I live that even in that moment of final dissolution, there was in the face a look of peace, such as I never could have imagined might have rested there.'

   • sees the good in everyone
   • Similar to smile on the woman's face in The Bloody Chamber. Death produces contentment in everyone

7. 'our teacher'

8. "There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights."

   • From Van Helsing

9. "We need have no secrets amongst us; working together and with absolute trust, we can surely be stronger than if some of us were in the dark."

   • Hamartia
   • Group morality - union
   • working together

10. "The world seems full of good men-- even if there are monsters in it."

    • 'The virtuous characters in Dracula have the power of love...which sustains them when in distress' - David Gates
    • 'For Mina...all the men become her sons' - Phillis. A. Roth

11. "tainted by that Vampire Baptism"

    • Van Helsing
    • Mina's change
    • 'Mina seems the antithesis of the frail and emotional Gothic heroine' - David Gates
    • 'The worst horror it can imagine is not Dracula at all, but the released, transforming sexuality of the Good Woman.' - Gail Griffin