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Elise Theriot

Professor Ali Cortez

ENGL 215

18 September 2019

Feminism in Dracula

In literature, women have been treated and viewed in so many different ways.  From

small background characters to leading heroines, women have played nearly every role in literary

works; however, it was not always this way.  The concept of feminism in literature is still

relatively new, having only been popularized starting in the late nineteenth century. Bram Stoker

is one author who has helped pave the way for women through certain feminist standpoints and

the central role women play in his novel, Dracula.  In Dracula, Stoker creates a commentary on

feminism and the idea of the “New Woman” through both the female and male characters in the

novel.

To understand what feminism was in Stoker’s time, we first have to understand the

expectation of women in that era.  Dracula was published in 1897, which is during what is

known as the Victorian Era. This era established strict gender roles and distinct separation

between men and women.  Women were expected to fill the role of “The Angel in the House,”

which was the image of a “pure, virtuous, non-sexualized female” (Swartz-Levine 345). They

were not expected to focus too much on their intellect or the pursuit of finding a husband. Men

and women were in no way considered equals.  According to the Susan Cruea’s article,

“Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement,” “At this

time, women were the continual victims of social and economic discrimination. Upper- and

middle-class women’s choices were limited to marriage and motherhood, or spinsterhood.  Both
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choices resulted in domestic dependency.” Because of this dependency, there began an uprising

of women which started what is known as the “Woman Movement.” The movement “promoted

a series of new images for women: True Womanhood, Real Womanhood, Public Womanhood,

and New Womanhood” (Cruea). This movement was at its height at the time that Dracula was

written, which would make it very likely that Stoker would have been familiar with it. This is

why women play such a crucial role in the novel.  Stoker plays heavily upon the New Woman

Movement in Dracula.  

This leaves us with the question: “What is a ‘New Woman?’” According to Carol Senf in

her article, “Dracula: Stoker’s Response to the New Woman,” “When it came to sex, the new

woman was more frank and open than her predecessors.  She felt free to initiate sexual

relationships, to explore alternatives to marriage and motherhood, and to discuss sexual matters

such as contraception and venereal disease…The New Woman chose to explore many of the

avenues recently opened to her: education, careers, and other alternatives to women’s traditional

roles” (35). The New Woman disrupted the typical and traditional Victorian society.  Stoker

depicts this disruption in Dracula with his atypical and nontraditional female characters. Jennifer

Swartz-Levine writes in her article, “Staking Salvation: The Reclamation of the Monstrous

Female in Dracula,” “Dracula’s brazen—and therefore monstrous—women do not adhere to

standards of middle class morality, and Stoker gives us three very different portraits of

womanhood, all of which play into Victorian anxieties about female sexuality and gender roles.

From the nameless writhing vampires who attack Jonathan Harker, to the overly sexualized

vampire-in waiting Lucy Westenra, to the seemingly traditional Mina Harker, Stoker examines

three divergent types of women, all of whom pose some threat to Victorian notions of social

order and sexualized hysteria” (346).  Because Stoker wrote of all of the women in his novel to
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have traits contrary to societal norms, it can be concluded that Stoker is making a statement

about women in Victorian society. It would seem that he is saying that women can be so much

more than what society tells them to be. This is, in essence, the beginnings of feminism in the

Victorian Era.

Stoker conveys this feminism into his novel mostly through the character of Mina Harker.

While she is not the exact embodiment of a New Woman, Mina is unlike the traditional woman

of Stoker’s time due to her intelligence.  This is shown in several ways, the most obvious being

Van Helsing’s description of her: “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a

brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and woman’s heart” (Stoker 281).  This

shows that Mina is a special kind of woman, and everyone in the novel recognizes it. In saying

this, Van Helsing puts Mina on an even playing-field with men in terms of intelligence. This

aspect of equality in the novel points toward a feminist angle on Bram Stoker’s part. Another

way that Mina is different to other women is that Mina decides to have a career and educate

herself with useful skills instead of just being a housewife.  On page 69 of Dracula, the reader

learns that Mina is an assistant school mistress.  We also learn that Mina is learning shorthand

and how to use the typewriter.  Mina writes, “I have been working very hard lately, because I

want to keep up with Jonathan’s studies, and I have been practicing shorthand very assiduously. 

When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan, and if I can stenographer well

enough I can take down what he wants to say in this way and write it out for him on the

typewriter, at which I am also practicing very hard” (Stoker 69).  While the notion of being

useful to her husband is not necessarily a quality of the New Woman, the fact that Mina is

learning and expanding her skill set is indicative of New Woman traits. Mina takes it upon

herself to be productive. On a similar note, the novel depicts her as a smart and independent
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thinker.  For example, Stoker makes Mina smart enough to have the forethought to do and learn

things that may be useful to her and the hunt for Count Dracula. This is shown when Mina takes

it upon herself to read Jonathan’s journal because she knows that it may be able to help him.

Then, before even being asked, she types out both hers and Jonathan’s journals so other people

might read it (Stoker 214-216).  This planning ahead comes in handy because Van Helsing is

now able to read the journals, put all of the pieces together, and figure out how to help everyone

involved in the Dracula situation. Mina also learns the train schedule by memory. This ends up

being a critical part in taking down Count Dracula because train travel is the only way for

everyone to gather and formulate their plan to kill Dracula.  In addition to all of that, Mina is the

most valuable character in the hunt for Dracula. On page 372, Mina calls Van Helsing into her

room for him to hypnotize her so the group can find new information about Dracula. This is

entirely her idea; she figures out that she could be useful in finding Dracula because she feels

that she has some sort of connection to him. Mina is also the one to deduce how Dracula must

have travelled based on what she knows from the group’s experiences.  In her diary, she comes

to the conclusion that Dracula is traveling in a box by water and that he tried to lose the trail of

the hunters by killing the person who assisted him in getting on the boat (Stoker 420). Mina is

equally as important in the novel as any of the men. By making Mina such a powerful woman

and pivotal character in the novel, Stoker displays a feminist tone.

Along with Mina, Stoker shows feminism through the character of Lucy Westenra.  Lucy

is more traditional of a woman than Mina for the majority of the novel, yet she still does some

things that are reminiscent of a New Woman.  For instance, Lucy writes in a letter to Mina,

“Why can’t they let a woman marry three men, or as many as want her…” (Stoker 75). In saying

this, Lucy is making a statement that society should not dictate how a woman lives. 
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Furthermore, Lucy chooses her husband for love instead of marrying the first person who

proposes to her. She makes the independent decision to turn down her first two suitors, which

shows that Lucy has some nontraditional and New Woman-like aspects.  This notion is furthered

by Lucy’s receipt of blood from four men in the novel. According to the Introduction in a

scholarly edition of Dracula, “Literary critics began by the 1970s to treat blood in Dracula as

primarily a metaphor of sexual fluids, vampirism as a metaphor of sexual appetite, and vamping

itself as a metaphor for sexual conquest” (Stoker ix). With this context, Lucy would then have

sexual relations with more than one man.  Therefore, Lucy has sexual autonomy, much like that

of a New Woman. Again, Stoker shows feminism in the facet that women should have more

freedom to do what they want without reproach from society.

Moreover, feminism is shown in the novel with male characters that lack certain traits of

intelligence in comparison to the female characters.  Jonathan Harker is probably the most

prominent out of all of the male characters in that aspect. There are several instances of this.

For starters, Jonathan still decides to go to Dracula’s Castle despite the countless warnings from

the local people. On page 11 of Dracula, when Jonathan asks about the Count, the innkeeper and

his wife both refuse to talk about him and “cross themselves.”  On page 16, the local people offer

Jonathan gifts that are meant to ward off vampires (Stoker). You would think this would cause

Jonathan to have some kind of doubt about going to the castle; however, he does not question it. 

Later on, Jonathan realizes that Dracula does not have a reflection in the mirror, and Dracula

ends up throwing Jonathan’s mirror out of the window (Stoker 36). Instead of worrying about

why Dracula does not have a reflection, Jonathan is more concerned with what he is going to use

to shave with now.  He does not pick up on the hint that something is wrong with Dracula.

When Jonathan finds that he is trapped in the castle, he finally realizes that something is not right
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with Dracula. He sees Dracula scale the castle wall, then decides to do the same into Dracula’s

room (Stoker 60). Knowing that he can physically succeed with this endeavor, it never occurs to

him that he could scale the wall down to the ground and run away.  He decides to stay longer and

simply puts himself in more danger. 

 Jonathan is not the only male character to blame for being slightly brainless; Van

Helsing has a few unintelligent moments, as well.  Firstly, Van Helsing has a problem with

communication. There are many instances where problems could have been resolved had he only

communicated his intentions.  For example, Mrs. Westenra opens Lucy’s bedroom window when

it was imperative to keep it shut so that Dracula could not get in (Stoker 162). Van Helsing gets

slightly frustrated at this, but the whole situation could have been avoided had he only told

Lucy’s mother about why the window needed to be closed. While he could not have told her

about Lucy’s situation outright due to her fragile heart, he could have easily told her that a bat is

getting into Lucy’s room so they need to keep the window closed.  This way, he would not shock

Mrs. Westenra’s heart and still offer some explanation for his actions. Instead, he just decides to

not tell anyone about his reasoning. Another instance where he does this is when he places a

crucifix over Lucy’s dead mouth so that they could keep her from turning into a vampire (Stoker

198). He never tells anyone about why he does this, and he proceeds to get angry when a servant

takes the crucifix. If he had simply told everyone in the house to not move the crucifix, the whole

situation could have been avoided.  Added on to his communication issue, Van Helsing tends to

take action a little too late. For instance, it is not until the five men are on Dracula’s doorstep

that Van Helsing decides to equip them with some kind of weapons (Stoker 298). That seems

like something he should have done before they even left for the house, but instead decides to

wait until the very last minute. He leaves the men vulnerable the whole way to Dracula’s house.
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Even Dracula, himself, has some foolish moments.  For starters, Dracula keeps coming

back to Lucy to drink from her, even when it gets difficult. He continually hits himself against

the window in his bat form even when he sees that the window is covered in garlic (Stoker 159). 

After seeing the garlic, you would think that he would realize that the people in the house caught

on the fact he was a vampire and that he should find a new target. Instead, he keeps coming back

to Lucy, which ultimately leads to his demise. Also, Dracula has the power of hypnosis and to

have people do his bidding.  Instead of hypnotizing someone to open the door for him, he

decides to become a bat and run into Lucy’s window over and over until someone opens it. He

does not even think to just turn into his human form so that he could use his strength to break

open the window. He decides to stay a weak little bat. It is ignorance like this that allows the

women’s intelligence to shine.  These men make the women in the novel seem like geniuses in

comparison, which was unheard of in the Victorian Era. Because Stoker includes this, he makes

a statement that women can, indeed, be smarter than men, making them deserving of more

respect and social equality.

In summary, through the use of both the male and female characters in Dracula, Bram

Stoker conveys aspects of feminism and the Woman Movement of the Victorian Era.  Stoker,

along with several other writers, helped pave the way into the world of feminism in literature.  In

terms of respect and equality, women in literature have come a long way. Bram Stoker has

played a small role in this evolution through Dracula.

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Works Cited

Cruea, Susan M. “[PDF] Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman

Movement - Semantic Scholar.” Semantic Scholar, 1 Jan. 1970,

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Changing-Ideals-of-Womanhood-During-the-Woman-

Cruea/54104935c6a505e7646787e93f24ecf908108def.

Senf, Carol A. “‘Dracula’: Stoker's Response to the New Woman.” Victorian Studies, vol. 26, no. 1,

1982, pp. 33–49. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3827492.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009.

Swartz-Levine, Jennifer A. “Staking Salvation: The Reclamation of the Monstrous Female in

Dracula.” The Midwest Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 4, 2016, pp. 345–361.,
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-459487437/staking-salvation-the-reclamation-of-
the-monstrous.