University of Nebraska at Omaha

Queerness in Vampirism:

Women’s Roles in Dracula

Alastair Friedrichsen

ENGL4440 - Bram Stoker: Beyond Dracula

Dr. Lisabeth Buchelt

16 May 2023
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Abstract

After reading articles by Carol Senf and Jordan Kistler about women’s roles in Dracula,

there is a discussion about how the “New Woman” expresses herself in the novel. Mina Harker is

clearly contrasted with her best friend Lucy Westenra as different parts of the “New Woman”

identity; Harker being considered a smart and sensible woman who still upholds some traditional

structures while Westenra was represented as a sexualized and forward woman who needed to be

saved from the damnation of Dracula’s vampirism. Stoker’s depiction of the two women in

Dracula is a possible commentary on Victorian society’s need to try to define women as proper

and improper (the “New Woman” trope), but he promptly breaks through the stereotypes placed

upon both women through their intimate and loving relationship with each other. In particular,

the men are the ones placing expectations on how each woman should act and carry themselves,

and the women are unable to fully subvert the roles that they have been assigned, even if neither

of them completely fit the mold of the family-centered Victorian woman. In the end, it is the

capable Harker who fulfills a typical heteronormative life of having a child, yet her child

possibly carries the blood of Dracula in him as suggested by Gregory Castle, which means he

would carry on the queer identity of needing to be free of Victorian society’s expectations.

Through a careful reading of Dracula, a queer viewpoint not only emerges from Dracula

himself, but in the relationship between the two women as they exchange letters and rely on one

another. It is necessary to research more about the conduct meant for Victorian women and how

sexuality presented itself in Victorian society, mainly through the “New Woman” character that

emerged during Stoker’s time. Sexuality, in particular, will likely have a more muted presence

than modern society, and it will present itself in ways that are unseen to non-queer people.

Gender and sexuality have a complicated and intertwined relationship, and the roles between
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Harker and Westenra test their bond with one another, especially in the conversation where

women are pitted against each other for what they choose to do. Their relationship will be

discussed with the men in mind, considering that there is a stark contrast between how Harker is

characterized and how Westenra is characterized. The women confide in one another and find

safety in each other’s company; it is clear that Westenra is indispensable to Harker’s character

and growth, even if the men in the novel held back and violated both women in gruesome ways.

Vampirism having an intimate connection with queerness reveals why it felt like the characters

needed it to be subdued, and it ultimately leads to Westenra’s demise because Harker was kept

away from the situation with Dracula. It is meant to represent the power struggle happening in

society during the rise of “New Women.”

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Throughout Bram Stoker’s broad body of works, he has continuously created strong

female characters that are bound sometimes by Victorian social attitudes, but they are also able to

subvert patriarchal standards with their actions and personalities. During the late Victorian era,

the concept of the “New Woman” came into existence, and Stoker was able to utilize the concept

in his novel, Dracula. With the emergence of what was known as the “New Woman,” women

challenged the traditional expectation that they were supposed to be obedient housewives and

mothers. Instead, they embraced their femininity without shame while maintaining a balance of

masculinity, and they valued education and roles outside of the home. Dracula showcases

multiple facets of the identity of the “New Woman” through Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra.

Mina, who values education and served as a driving force to stop Dracula, embodies both

masculine and feminine traits; Lucy leaned more into femininity by using it to be fun and flirty,

yet men still seem to think that her looks are all she has to offer. Stoker plays with gender and

sexuality throughout the novel, and this can be seen in the interactions between Mina, Lucy, and

some of the male characters who comment on their personalities. Looking deeper into Mina’s

character, it is possible that her relationship with her best friend, Lucy, was queer in nature

because of their role as “New Women,” however, they were ultimately still bound by the men

surrounding them as they relied on the two women to be messiahs that would rid the world of

Dracula.

Before exploring the roles that Mina and Lucy fulfilled in Dracula, the concept of “New

Woman” was fairly new when the book was published, and Stoker mentions it directly in the

letters between the two women. The term “New Woman” began in the 1890s, at the Victorian fin

de siècle, where it seemingly turned into a threat towards traditional femininity and women’s

roles (Buzwell). To go more into detail, the “New Woman” term appeared when writers Sarah
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Grand and Ouida used it in their essays that address the rise of free-thinking and outspoken

women who challenged the double standards of Victorian society (particularly in the realm of

marriage) by going outside of the traditional home space (Buzwell). As Buzwell puts it, “In

literature, however…[the “New Woman”] frequently took a different form – that of someone

whose thoughts and desires highlighted not only her own aspirations, but also served as a mirror

in which to reflect the attitudes of society.” Meanwhile, in an article by Elizabeth MacLeod

Walls, she makes a point that after the Victorian era, modernists had a different perspective of the

“New Woman” character that became popularized. She explains that,

despite [modernists] castigation of the 1890s as vociferously political and sentimental,

viewed the recent past as deserving of their nostalgic appreciation. Said another way, if

the New Woman was a novelist who voiced progressive opinions, she also was a woman

who did so indoors—inside the family and dominant culture. The New Woman rewrote

the domestic novel instead of breaking the windows of Parliament to prove her point.

(Walls 238)

With her explanation about the “New Woman” during the period after Stoker wrote Dracula, it

shows that Stoker had an awareness of the contradictions of “New Women” due to Victorian

society’s patriarchal structure continuously pushing back against their efforts. Mina’s character

and story develops in a way that is affected heavily by this patriarchal structure, and the

queerness of her relationship with Lucy is purged once Dracula is destroyed; she exemplifies

both views of the “New Woman” described by both Buzwell and Walls. Lucy leans more towards

the sexualized side of the trope. The “New Woman” is one that is confident in her sexuality,

knowledgeable, and trying to bring awareness to women’s issues.

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When Stoker introduces the term in Dracula, he does so in Mina’s personal journal where

she details the day she had with Lucy. It is important to note that Mina, as the character who has

the most traits of the “New Woman,” has a conflicting identity where she wishes to support her

husband and friends, yet she is the person who ultimately avenged Lucy through her efforts as a

keeper of knowledge. Mina has a motherly role where people rely on her and has her role as a

strategist. In her journal, she writes about how “New Women” writers will start a wave of what is

considered improper in Victorian society (men and women seeing each other in the vulnerable

state that is sleep) before proposal (Stoker 93). However, she finds comfort in the fact that the

“New Woman” will take the reins and propose by herself. To have Mina comment on the identity

of “New Women” is a calculated move made by Stoker to reveal the issues that lie within simple

definitions of the movement that undermined it.

In the novel, Mina and Lucy are both set up to be characters that constantly fall back into

the clutches of what men think of them, especially Lucy. In their letters to each other, Lucy tells

Mina, “why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them?” (Stoker 65). Lucy

gossips about three suitors who all comment on her beauty and how she carries herself as a lady,

so she feels as if she is cheating them out of her love. However, she is using her perceived

innocence to her advantage, and this line could be a playful jab for Mina knowing that men flock

after her for her superficial traits (since after she wishes she could be with all three of them).

When they are around each other, Mina indulges Lucy even though both of them are supposedly

proper women; they let themselves be vulnerable and outspoken even if there is a seed of doubt

about what the patriarchal society they live in will think of them. During the middle of the

Victorian era, there was a reformation of female friendships; there was a focus on unity between

women instead of antagonistic separation (Nestor 36), and it is a perfect way to describe what is
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going on between Mina and Lucy. Nestor propounds that, “Another form of friendship which

catered for women’s growing participation in a world beyond the domestic was that of a

traveling companion, a familiar figure in the discourse of male friendship throughout

centuries…” (39). Once again, they are shadowed by a quality that is prominent in male

friendships, but they do act as traveling companions for one another. Mina is willing to visit

Lucy and indulge her, even when she is worried about where her lover is. Their bond is queer in

the way that it is odd to Victorian society, yet it is also one that challenges heteronormative

views. Stoker may be trying to build upon the “women as companions” narrative because women

traveling alone together without men present is non-heteronormative. The traveling trope

continues with Mina traveling to gather information necessary to take down Dracula (ex. visiting

Renfield to talk to him).

Thinking about non-heteronormative relationships in Dracula, the two women mirror the

relationship between Dracula and Jonathan at the beginning of the novel. Dracula takes on a

caretaking role (much like Mina) while Jonathan stays with him; during the scene where the

vampire brides want to feast upon Jonathan, Dracula steps in and says, “‘Yes, I too can love; you

yourselves can tell it from the past” (Stoker 47). Stoker makes Dracula queercoded, and it subtly

stays in the book through vampirism as a disease or ailment that is a threat to everyone in a

heteronormative and patriarchal society. The scene where Dracula is protecting Jonathan

parallels the scene between Mina and Lucy when Mina finds Lucy sleepwalking, and she finds

her with wounds on her neck. When Mina approaches Lucy, she notes that “Lucy always wakes

prettily…She trembled a little, and clung to me; when I told her to come at once with me home,

she rose without a word, with the obedience of a child” (Stoker 96). Much like Dracula, there is a

fondness and protectiveness in her words, and Lucy relies on Mina a lot for her safety and
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guidance. Here, there is an image where the vampires are the ones clinging to those who are

mortal; although, their reasoning for doing so is different. Dracula, being a pure-blooded

vampire, is the one doing the protecting and is in control of the situation while Lucy is a

newly-turned vampire that is unaware of her surroundings and has lost her “purity” in the eyes of

men, yet Mina treats her gently, and continues to do so after she finds out that she is a vampire.

Carol Senf argues that Lucy’s transformation into a vampire comes from her need to break free

from the “loving Victorian girl,” and she desires to be free from the restraints that society has

placed on her (42). Lucy and Mina exist as multiple sides of the “New Woman” debate, and they

work well together because of their contrasts with each other. Senf is correct that Lucy wishes to

break free, and since vampirism has a strong connection to queerness, then it might be a battle of

Lucy wanting to express her sexuality (whether it be physical or emotional attraction). The love

between both couples is untouched by men and society in their respective scenes, that is, until

they have to return to society where the vampires face judgment for their actions. Dracula is

outed by Jonathan and Lucy has to begin treatment will Dr. Van Helsing. Lucy’s sleepwalking

and bite is the beginning of men characterizing her as sexually promiscuous.

However, that does not stop Mina from placing Lucy and Jonathan on a pedestal where

both of them are equally important to her. When Lucy is being treated and Jonathan is back,

Mina states, “For somehow I expect that it will throw some light upon Jonathan’s sad experience,

and as he attended poor dear Lucy in her last illness…it is concerning Lucy and her

sleep-walking, and not about Jonathan'' (Stoker 173). Mina places Lucy’s condition above her

husband’s for a bit to try and understand what is going on; she wants to put together what she

gets out of Jonathan and Lucy’s strange actions. At this moment, Lucy is on the same level as

Jonathan since they are both experiencing ailments from coming into contact with Dracula. Mina
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has to take matters into her own hands, and eventually that happens when Lucy “dies” for the

first time.

As mentioned previously, Mina starts to take on her role as the knowledgeable “New

Woman” after Lucy was reported dead in Dr. Seward’s diary. She transcribed all of his notes for

her team to use to track down Dracula, and by doing so, she assumed a role of power over them.

For instance, Arthur came to her for comfort: “‘all I can do is to accept your ideas blindfold and

try to help you. I have had one lesson already…Besides, I know you loved my poor Lucy’”

(Stoker 215). Arthur is aware of how much she is currently helping them to avenge Lucy, and

even acknowledges that she did have a deep love for her. Through her love for Lucy, Arthur

knows Mina can be trusted, however, he writes it off as “all he can do” because he needs to

appear masculine (as detailed in Mina’s comments about him seeking out comfort about Lucy

shortly after this exchange). Later on, Van Helsing comments, “‘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 220). Once again, instead of being shown to be a whole person, Van Helsing sees

her in parts: emotional and rational. There is queerness in the way that Mina is able to balance

her masculine and feminine traits, but she does value her part as a traditional woman by

providing support for others. Van Helsing encourages this mentality further by believing that

Mina would not be able to handle the destruction of Dracula: “to destroy this monster; but it is no

part for a woman” (Stoker 220).

Moreover, the men also believe Lucy is frail and sexually promiscuous. When she is

finally killed in chapter 16, it happens while she is surrounded by men with no Mina around to

soothe her as she had been doing before she turned. They return her to a “holy” state by

murdering her brutally. Arthur, her husband, being the one to kill her in an assault on her body is
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like trying to suppress the sexual confidence that came with the identity of the “New Woman.”

The description of her death is nothing short of bone-chilling: “The Thing in the coffin writhed;

and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and

quivered and twisted…whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted…” (Stoker

204). It is the men who believe they are doing her a favor; Arthur returned her to a Christ-like

figure that they could use to prove that Dracula is the downfall of humanity if left unchecked.

They dealt with Lucy in a way that was detached because they no longer saw vampire Lucy as

Lucy; Mina’s drive to kill Dracula came from wanting to protect her husband and Lucy, since she

still saw Lucy as a being. The men dehumanized Lucy by calling her a “Thing,” and once her

vampirism is expulsed from her body, “There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing…but

Lucy as we had seen her in life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity” (Stoker 205).

The men in the room act as if she has been restored and fixed, and her body is violated further

when Van Helsing allows Arthur to kiss her lifeless body. In a sense, she is sedated and brought

back down from her sexually free role as the “New Woman,” and she becomes a light to remind

the group why it is necessary to dispose of Dracula.

Before Dracula can be taken out, he infects Mina with his blood, and she becomes

another driving force in the eradication of Dracula. The men excluded her from the final

operation to kill him, even though she transcribed all of the information that helped them track

him down. She was the one who had a mental connection with Dracula, and in Jordan Kistler’s

article, “Mesmeric Rapport: The Power of Female Sympathy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” she

posits that “[Stoker] presents this connection as a means by which Mina can regain power after a

traumatic assault, and does so by employing nineteenth-century feminist rhetoric which presents

telepathy as a powerful extension of women’s natural faculty for sympathy” (366). She talks
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about women’s sympathy in her article and how Dracula as a novel is shaped by Mina’s

sympathy as she serves as a symbol of strength for her group, and that she extends that sympathy

to Dracula (Kistler 368). It is an interesting point to make because she allowed Dracula into her

mind even though she felt unclean after he forced her to drink his blood; it is arguably a sign of

trying to understand him for Lucy’s sake. If her group left her out because they deemed her too

weak to handle Dracula’s death, the least that she could do is reach out to feel what Lucy

possibly felt when she was a vampire. The men may have been trying to kill Dracula for the sake

of saving the two women, but in those last moments she seemed to want to come to terms with

the situation at hand and the fact that Lucy is gone. Kistler also brings up how “The men in the

novel are unable to defeat Dracula on their own precisely because they are too similar to him and

thus cannot withstand the kind of connection that Mina endures without risking a complete loss

of their own identity as they fuse with the vampire” (368). They need Mina to ground them, and

they need Mina’s compassion. She is the most human of them all, even when she is infected with

Dracula’s blood because of her womanhood.

After looking at the ending where Mina goes back to her “motherly” role and has a child,

she is still a “New Woman.” Kistler discusses how Sarah Grand held the belief that womanhood

is not in danger because of feminism (369); basically, the values of womanhood and femininity

can coexist with breakthrough independence and outspoken thought. Briefly, Gregory Castle’s

article “Ambivalence and Ascendancy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” comments on Mina’s child

possibly having Dracula’s blood in his veins (530). It is not the focus of his article, however, the

suggestion leaves one to wonder if the child does have Dracula’s blood, then that might possibly

mean that there is still a hint of queerness in Mina. Although Dracula has been destroyed, and it

seems like her relationship with Lucy is gone, Stoker leaves it up for interpretation on whether or
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not Mina returns to a patriarchal role or if she finds a balance between her motherly duties and

her autonomy. The fact that Lucy died while being portrayed as sexual reflects Victorian

society’s opinion about sexual liberation, but Mina’s survival could possibly mean the small

shifts happening because of the “New Woman” movement were being considered by people, and

that there is hope for women to break free from societal standards that relied on the approval and

instruction from men.

Despite Mina and Lucy’s contrasting roles as “New Women” characters, Stoker managed

to set their stories up as a way to reveal the impact that men can have over women and the paths

that they take. Their journey ultimately diverged once it was deemed that Lucy could not be

saved, but Mina never looked down on her friend personally for her actions or behavior; she was

a person who understood her need to escape. Mina is possibly forever tied to vampirism even

with Dracula’s downfall, and she does not let one part of the “New Woman” shape who she is.

Even though there were drawbacks for her, and she lost her Lucy, she represents a shift in

attitude that accompanied the soon-to-be 20th century for Stoker; Victorian society was not ready

to accept Lucy as she was. Men may still hold a lot of control over women, but with Stoker

expressing feminism through these two characters and trying to work around patriarchal

structures, readers can easily feel empowered and be able to reflect on their own position in

society.
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Works Cited

Buzwell, Greg. "Daughters of decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle." British

Library, British Library Board, 15 May 2014.

Castle, Gregory. “Ambivalence and Ascendancy in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Case Studies in

Contemporary Criticism, edited by John P. Riquelme, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002, pp.

518-537.

Davis, William A. “A New Date for the Victorian New Woman.” Notes & Queries, vol. 61, no.

4, pp. 577-580. EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete.

Kistler, Jordan. "Mesmeric Rapport: Mesmeric Rapport: The Power of Female Sympathy in

Bram Stoker’s Dracula." Journal of Victorian Culture, vol. 23, no. 3, 2018, pp. 366-380.

EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete, https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcy034.

Nestor, Pauline. “Female Friendships in Mid-Victorian England: New Patterns and Possibilities.”

Literature & History, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 2008, pp. 36-47. EBSCOhost Academic

Search Complete, https://doi.org/10.7227/LH.17.1.4.

Senf, Carol A. “‘Dracula’: Stoker’s Response to the New Woman.” Victorian Studies, vol. 26,

no. 1, 1 September 1982, pp. 33-49. EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 2nd ed., E-book, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.

Walls, Elizabeth M. "’A Little Afraid of the Women of Today’: The Victorian New Woman and

the Rhetoric of British Modernism." Rhetoric Review, vol. 21, no. 3, 2002, pp. 229-246.

JSTOR.