Mina Harker

'she has a man's brain'
1. suggsts she is more clever than the stereotypical woman
2. knowlege based mainly on facts
3. 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
'she is one of God's women ... so true, so sweet, so noble'
1. religion
2. Connection: Duchess of Malfi - 'noble'
3. 'Mina indeed acts and is treated as both the saint and the mother' - Phillis. A. Roth
4. Mina's sexual behaviour fits in with traditional societal norms. - Kathryn Boyd
'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!'
1. General acceotance of others further entrenches the idea of her as the Ideal Victorian Woman
2. Open Mindset
3. Depicts a change in thought process from only being rational to delving into the possiblities of the future
'I felt an infinite pity for him, and opened my arms unthinkingly'
1. motherly nature
2. Inherent kindness
3. 'Lucy and Mina are essentially the same figure: the mother' - Phillis, A. Roth
'I should never forgive myself if any act of mine, were it even a negative one, brought harm on poor dear Lucy.'
1. Very forgiving
2. strong friendship
3. self -sacrificing
  1. ideal characeteristic of a women during that time
  2. 'The power of love manifests itself in self-sacrifice' - David Gates
'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.'
1. sees the good in everyone
2. Similar to smile on the woman's face in The Bloody Chamber. Death produces contentment in everyone
'our teacher'
"There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights."
1. From Van Helsing
"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."
1. Hamartia
2. Group morality - union
3. working together
"The world seems full of good men-- even if there are monsters in it."
1. 'The virtuous characters in Dracula have the power of love...which sustains them when in distress' - David Gates
2. 'For Mina...all the men become her sons' - Phillis. A. Roth
"tainted by that Vampire Baptism"
1. Van Helsing
2. Mina's change
3. 'Mina seems the antithesis of the frail and emotional Gothic heroine' - David Gates
4. 'The worst horror it can imagine is not Dracula at all, but the released, transforming sexuality of the Good Woman.' - Gail Griffin

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	Created by Danielle Forrest almost 6 years ago