Placing two opposite people in the same exact situation can reveal truth about how the human mind works. Differing personalities, decisions made, and impulses of each person influence their destiny. The use of the characters Lucy Westerna and Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, give insight into how certain types of humans think and how decisions they make determine their future. Lucy and Mina have such different views and reactions when placed in an uncertain situation such as being bit by a vampire. By examining the psychology of the characters, Lucy and Mina, it is revealed that through their opposing characteristics when placed in the same situation that the factors of fear, fascination, uncertainty, instincts, and capability to …show more content…
This shows how submissive and childlike Lucy is and how strong Mina is when dealing with change. People can accept change and devolve like Lucy does into a vampire, or they can fight it and evolve like Mina does into living a better life after being bitten. Human personalities define how we can or cannot handle change, which ultimately makes the future of that person expected. Lucy and Mina both have different instincts when dealing with the situation of being bit. Lucy, of course, is completely in the dark about the whole thing and is clueless as to what is even happening to her. When Lucy recalls the first night she encountered Dracula she says, “I didn’t quite dream; but it all seemed to be real. I only wanted to be here in this spot, I don’t know why, for I was afraid of something, I don’t know what” (Stoker 117). Lucy is very unsure of what was going on and she let her fear and fascination consume her. She continues to say, “something very sweet and very bitter were all around me at once; and there was a singing in my ears and everything seemed passing away from me; my soul seemed to go out from my body and float about the air” (117). She sees the situation as a dream and is blind to the reality and danger. Instead of coming to grips with what is really happening to her and using her head to try to figure it out, she automatically comes to the conclusion that she is just dreaming. She says, “Last night I seemed to be dreaming again just as I was at
In this passage of Dracula, Stoker uses important diction and imagery to portray the image of Lucy. The character Lucy had died a while back, however she is found to be alive again after obviously dying. Written in Seward’s perspective, Lucy coming back alive goes against logical thinking that Seward and most people cannot comprehend. Lucy’s appearance is described through various literary devices. The use of literary devices such as imagery and diction contrast each other to signify the changes of Lucy from having pure morals as a human to having evil intentions as a vampire.
On January 31st, 1934 Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, were born in a small village in Portz, Romania. Alexander and Jaffa were Eva’s parents who also gave birth to Eva’s two other sisters, Edit and Aliz. Eva and Miriam both went to a one-room school for their first 4 years of education (Candles Holocaust Museum). Eva Kor is a survivor and a phenomenal twin who endured all of Dr. Mengele’s experiments and survived the horrors of Auschwitz.
In chapter 5, the perspective changes from Johnathan Harker, to his fiancee, Mina, who discusses how much she misses him to one of her close friends, Lucy. In the quote, Lucy writes about going against society’s norms, a contrast to the reserved Mina.
For these reasons, vampirism in Bram Stoker's Dracula can be interpreted as metaphor representing the basic human drives, contained in the id of Freud's model of the psyche. However, to insinuate a deliberate implication of the Freudian id by Stoker would be a misconception, since Dracula was written thirty-six years prior to the publication of Freud's structural model. Their correspondence in this matter should rather be understood as a depiction of a universal truth about the human nature, executed in different literary
In Dracula, Stoker portrays the typical women: The new woman, the femme fatale and the damsel in distress, all common concepts in gothic literature. There are three predominant female roles within Dracula: Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra and the three vampire brides, all of which possess different attributes and play different roles within the novel. It is apparent that the feminine portrayal within this novel, especially the sexual nature, is an un-doubtable strong, reoccurring theme.
The death of Lucy Westenra serves as a pivotal moment in Dracula. It is a reminder of the terrible fate that awaits the victims of the Count, and it motivates many of the men later involved in his defeat. But Lucy’s death also demonstrates one of the novel’s core themes, and this is no better seen than in Van Helsing’s conversation with Dr. Seward regarding her blood transfusions. We learn through this conversation that Lucy died due to her impurity, and so one of Dracula’s core themes is revealed: the struggle between lust and chastity, between promiscuity and marriage. The novel serves as an indictment of sexual freedom and a call for a return to traditional romance.
In the late 19th century, when Dracula by Bram Stoker is written, women were only perceived as conservative housewives, only tending to their family’s needs and being solely dependent of their husbands to provide for them. This novel portrays that completely in accordance to Mina Harker, but Lucy Westenra is the complete opposite. Lucy parades around in just her demeanor as a promiscuous and sexual person. While Mina only cares about learning new things in order to assist her soon-to-be husband Jonathan Harker. Lucy and Mina both become victims of vampirism in the novel. Mina is fortunate but Lucy is not. Overall, the assumption of women as the weaker specimen is greatly immense in the late 19th century. There are also many underlying
The main characters of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, are motivated for many reasons. Their main reason, as stated throughout the novel, was for their love of Mina, and their desire to keep her safe. At the beginning of the novel when Lucy started having symptoms, Dr. Van Helsing and Dr. Seward did all that they could to try and save her from her misery. They knew that the same might happen to Mina, and that even she might be forced to meet her end the same way as Lucy. Determined to save themselves and Jonathan not only the heartbreak, but also the risks of having a vampire besides Dracula to take care of, the group of men gathered up their courage and forced themselves to find and destroy the source of all this evil. In addition, when Mina
This unforsaken tragedy, an untimely death for one proves to be a new beginning blossoming for the pair. The death also leads to the figurative death of the “old” Lucy, and makes for a shifting, dynamic character to arise. A defining moment of her transformation occurs when lonesomely wander the city, her thoughts begin to take control. Her mind wandered “the gates of liberty seemed still unopened. [Lucy] was conscious of her discontent; it was new to her to be conscious of it. "The world," she thought, "is certainly full of beautiful things, if only I could come across them" (27). It is clear here that she seems trapped, in a way she her self can’t explain, she is only aware that she isn’t happy with the way she is and has been living. This feeling was new and she was aware of just that, she had unlocked a new level on consciousness she had been unable to acquire in the home country of England. She knew she needed to leave it behind, to break away from this feeling that was consuming her, but how she was going to go about it, had her confused. Subconsciously she knew this was a step in the right direction to finding her identity. Her whole life Lucy had merely allowed other to make decisions on her behalf, she was no stranger in being told what to do. As Lucy began discovering her own identity and becoming her own person she struggled with the new obligation of thinking for herself, “This solitude oppressed her; she was accustomed to have her thoughts
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen is perhaps one of the most hotly debated plays to come out of the 19th century. The 19th century continued the process of the demystification that began with the Enlightenment. Because of the discoveries of the Enlightenment, humans could no longer be sure about their place in the universe. This, of course, had an impact on the theater. The movement toward realism, which, like the 19th century in general, was an attempt to become more scientific. Ibsen is considered by many as the father of realism, and one of the plays that belong to Ibsen's realism period is A Doll's House. But the play would come to be noted for more reasons than its
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, published in 1897, explores various sexual erotic possibilities in the vampire's embrace, as discussed by Leonard Wolf. The novel confronts Victorian fears of homosexuality; that were current at the time due to the trial of playwright Oscar Wilde. The vampire's embrace could also be interpreted as an illustration of Victorian fears of the changing role of women. Therefore it is important to consider: the historical context of the novel; the Victorian notion of the `New Woman' specifically the character of Lucy Westenra; the inversion of gender roles; notions of sexuality; and the emasculation of men, by lessening their power over women; in the novel Dracula. In doing this I will be able to explore the effects
The characteristic that successfully saves her was her ability to continue to be strong and continue to control herself. Lucy, on the other hand, usually was weak and she didn’t even try to fight off Dracula. She often tries to not recollect the events that occurred between the two. In the end, Mina was able to actually go back to her old habits and be back into a pure state, while Lucy, sadly, was not able to. Lucy turned into a vampire, and as a vampire her terrible characteristics were more apparent than those of when she was pure. While Lucy was a vampire, he eyes were “unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew” (222-223). Lucy was not only an active threat to children but her desires for the men of the land also posed an active threat. At one point, Dr. Seward recorded, “at that moment, the remnant of my love passed into hate and loathing; had she then been killed…” (223). Both Lucy and Mina get to a common phase of purity but since Lucy has a lack of self control and she has unexpected childish qualities, she eventually had to get back her qualities of innocence in her death.
In the 1993 version, Van Helsing refers to Lucy as "a willing recruit, a whore of darkness, a bitch of the devil."(Bram Stoker's Dracula). Also, Mina chooses whether to be with Dracula or with Jonathan. We wonder at the end whether she will choose to remain with Jonathan after Dracula's death.
This table shows a set of results for when doing push ups and ideally where about each individual needs to be working at depending on their age. You can compare an individual’s previous score before they started working out to improve their muscular endurance with their score after a couple of week’s training.
The book describes how Lucy Westerna is a nice young woman and her best friend is Mina Murray. She is the first one to fall under Dracula’s spell. She is a good character because even though she got transformed into a Vampire she still tried to do everything that she could to help the others stop Dracula while she was not under Draculas spell, she was really cooperative with Dr. Van Helsing when he tried to hypnotize her to find out where Dracula was and that was a very important part in helping to stop Dracula because it was able to show them were Dracula was and helps them find out what he is trying to do at the time and she was not truly evil at heart like Dracula is. Eventually Lucy’s body returns back to normal with the help of Dr. Van Helsing and the others when they defeated Dracula.