In the first fifteen chapters of Bram Stoker's Dracula¸, the author subtly examines and comments on the role of women in Victorian England through the actions and words of Mina and Lucy . In particular, the passage that appears on pages 164–167 of Norton's critical edition of Dracula suggests that through the character of Van Helsing, Stoker emphasizes the idea that a woman's purpose is to ensure her husband's happiness and that a man's happiness should take priority over his wife's. In this particular excerpt, Stoker reveals a lot about Mina's character, but more importantly, his own view of the role of women and their importance (or lack thereof) in the critical events of the plot, viz. the hunt to destroy Dracula. . As such, this passage is integral to understanding how Mina, as a woman, still contributes to Van Helsing's quest to kill Dracula, despite the fact that he views her as a lesser person. value because of their sex. Stoker describes Mina's success as a boon to her husband rather than as proof of Mina's own intellectual abilities. Because Mina and Lucy are major characters in Dracula, the Victorian ideal of the woman's role becomes crucial to the plot of the entire novel, particularly in the passage from pages 164 to 167. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay This passage is integral to the development of the plot, as Van Helsing collects much of the information he needs to kill Dracula, and all this evidence helps convince others to join his cause. Therefore, the way he obtains this vital information is through Mina, and he seems shocked, not only by the existence of these first-hand accounts of Dracula's horrors, but also by the source of the information. He said: “Ah, so you have a good memory of facts, of details? It is not always like this with young girls. He is surprised that Mina, a woman, could have been intelligent enough to have recorded these events and typed them in the first place. Additionally, in Victorian society there was a widely held belief that a wife should view her husband's comfort and happiness as more important than her own. This is clear from this passage, especially on page 166. “Husband Jonathan would not like to see you so pale; and what he does not love where he loves is not for his good. That's why, for him, you have to eat and smile. Van Helsing asks Mina to smile because otherwise she might upset Jonathan, which contradicts a wife's duties towards her husband. On the other hand, Van Helsing's motivation for talking about it could be that Jonathan's emotional state is quite fragile because he saw Dracula in England while he was still trying to recover from the ordeal he had. lived in Transylvania at the hands of the same man and the same monster. . Regardless of Van Helsing's motivation, this quote remains an accurate representation of the profound influence of Victorian society values. These two sentences alone are condescending towards Mina, particularly due to the use of the imperative "you must eat and smile". Van Helsing orders Mina around, the same way a parent would scold a child. Unsurprisingly, Stoker compares women to children several times throughout the first 15 chapters of Dracula, usually in reference to the ailing Lucy. This speaks to the mindset of most Victorian men, who controlled their wives and were expected to protect them, in the same way as fathers.comfort and protect their children. Throughout a Victorian woman's life, there was always a dominant male presence. The same is true throughout Dracula. Although the letters between Lucy and Mina seem to be an exception to this pattern, the subject of their correspondence is very often about the different men in their lives. Stoker's aforementioned condescension toward Mina further contributes to the dynamic of patriarchal "control" in the novel. Van Helsing's command for Mina to smile also alludes to a woman's perceived tendency to be a follower rather than a leader. Lucy keeps a diary, but it wasn't of her own free will. Instead, she simply copies Mina. This could imply that many women are not able to think for themselves and must follow the lead of men or other more mature women. The latter was common in Victorian society, as women were generally under the direction and control of their fathers and then their husbands. Additionally, Stoker makes a statement about the way women think in the quote on page 164: "She sometimes kept a diary...and was written to imitate you." » The word "imitation" is important in part because of the negative connotations associated with appearing unoriginal, especially in today's society that celebrates individuality. This presents an interesting juxtaposition of how individuality was not celebrated in 1897 when Dracula was published. As such, a woman imitating the actions of another woman would have been a good thing, as it subtly reiterates the idea that women do not have the ability to think as individuals. It also reinforces the Victorian idea that women have a collective identity instead of being individual beings. They were often stereotyped, their rights ignored, and their protests were often silenced by force or resignation. At one point in Chapter 8, Mina sympathizes with the "New Woman", but is far from becoming one herself, for fear of being vilified by the vast majority of Victorian men and women who do not have not adopted such modern ideas. Through the way Van Helsing praises Mina, Stoker creates an image of her that personifies the ideals of the Victorian era. At the time of Dracula's publication, men often put women on pedestals, not because of the words they spoke, but because of the virtues they embodied. Mina Murray is, in many ways, the dream wife for a typically conservative man of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is wise, gentle and always attentive to her husband. Even when she achieves successes for which she is praised, her success is considered the work of her husband, since it was he who married her: “…your husband will be blessed in you. » It seems that Stoker must mention Mina's husband right after Van Helsing adulates her to remind her that her positive qualities are not hers, but rather indirectly belong to her husband, since she "belongs" to her husband. The words that Dracula's men use to describe Mina and Lucy are important because they reflect the role of women in Victorian society. On page 165, Stoker writes: "I, who have read your sweet letter to poor Lucy." Stoker repeats the words "sweet" and "poor" countless times throughout chapters 1-15 to describe Lucy and sometimes Mina. The only time Stoker uses an adjective that actually describes a real, substantial character trait is when Van Helsing calls Mina intelligent: "Oh, you are such a clever woman!" » (Stoker, 164). This passage provides the only example of the first. fifteen chapters of a man truly recognizing the.