Defying Gender Roles

Two characters that defy gender roles in Dracula are Mina Harker and Van Helsing. The classic women of the 19th century were expected to fit into a certain stereo type. Throughout Dracula, Lucy seems to fit this mold best. As we read her letters we learn she is mostly concerned with parties and marriage proposals. Mina on the other hand is very different. Though she is described as a “Sweet faced and dainty looking girl,” she emerges to be a more complex character. She helps to define the term “New Woman” described by Sos Eltis. We come to learn that she is a former school mistress. She reads and keeps up on current events, as well as travels alone, can read and write short hand as well as us a typewriter. Van Helsing himself even admits that he, a doctor and a lawyer, can not read shorthand. This shows that this is an accomplishment especially for a women in this particular time.Men’s roles in gender even seem to be blurred through out Dracula. Though men are supposed to be considered tough we see a lot of emotion displayed by them throughout the reading. When Mrs. Westenra opened up Lucy’s windows and Van Helsing find out he “ breaks down….Putting his hands before his face, (begins) to sob, with a loud, dry sobs that seemed to come from the very racking of his heart.”(p.149) His emotional side is displayed again after Lucy’s death. We read in Dr. Seward’s diary that Van Helsing breaks, “He laughed till he cried… the he cried till he laughed again; and laughed and cried together, just as a woman does. I tried to be stern with him, as one is to a women under the circumstances.” (p.185) This display of emotion blurs the line because though men can have an emotional side it is rarely displayed. Van Helsing is an educated man who is a strong character in the story. When he shows an emotional side of himself he is becoming more vulnerable and “as a women.”