Dracula, and the conflict of Women

Sadly, this is the Vlad no one remembers

Dracula is the tale of a monster, everyone knows this. While this fact is not in question, it is the nature of the monster that gets people confused. When one sees Vlad the Impaler, one thinks of a monster who lusts for blood. The Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel of the same name, however, is a creature that lusts for flesh and various luxuries. He has in his possession a castle, possibly of demonic origin, which collapses and dissapears into the Earth at the end of the novel. He has gold and wealth abundant, but his greatest treasures are the women he has in his possession, perhaps literally. With three of the beautiful and exotic females to grace his sight under his thrall, he nonetheless seeks after more. The female gender, to him, is nothing but a collectable, of which the only response is to desire more and more.

Within the times of Victorian London, the women of our species were in a crossroads of sorts. Previous years' wisdom dictated that ladies should marry men as quickly as possible while remaining absolutely devoted to their guidance, even against better judgement. After all, with a man there is a supposed safety, to quote the novel: "I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from our fears, and we marry him." On the other hand there was the rising wave of this newly invented concept called "Feminism" which declared that women should receive the same rights of property and suffrage as men had. By the novel's initial publishing in 1897, this first goal was already in the process of being accomplished, and the second would soon follow. In this confusing time, a novel such as Dracula would only heighten the confusion it's female readers (of which there were quite a few) would face, as they were confronted with the reality of whether they wanted to be reduced to possessions of their husbands much like Dracula's "brides", or to free themselves of such an influence as Mina Harker tries (and perhaps to some view points, fails) to accomplish.

Of course, this internal debate still goes on in the lives of today's women. To become subservient to a husband would hopefully guarantee security both physical and financial, while to try and remain free would guarantee one's ability to speak out and make decisions. From reading Dracula, we can see the extreme of one path, and the other is perhaps something one see by just walking outside. These differing impulses must be brought into a form of balance if any joy for the woman can be accomplished, as otherwise their lives would fall into disarray. This is not to say that men do not suffer similar issues, in fact I would assert that men have it just as hard. I myself have had to deal with the differing issues of Masculinity and ease of life. Rather, what I am trying to state overall with this piece is to say that the inner conflicts each of us have differ wildly, from gender to gender and person to person, and that balance must be obtained and maintained in some form or fashion for a healthy life.

Image Credit: "Vlad Tepes" obtained via Wikimedia Commons