Women in Bram Stoker's Dracula

Essay on Bram Stoker’s Dracula

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Subject: Women in Dracula




Dracula was first published in 1897; that is during what we call the Victorian period. At that time a woman had only two options: she was either, a virgin, a model of purity and innocence, a wife, and a mother or a whore (not even considered as a member of society). In Dracula, Bram Stoker built the female characters according to these views. What fate is then awaiting all these women? In order to understand what role women play in the book and to what extent they match with the Victorian conception of womanhood, I will first focus on the she-vampires, the Weird Sisters: the whores, then I will spend more time on Lucy’s character which is torn between purity and a flirtatious nature and finally I will study Mina’s character, which represents the ultimate Victorian woman.


As I have just said, in Dracula women are pictured in a very Manichean way (the good woman is a virgin, the bad woman, a w...