Lucy Westenra

Lucy Westenra is a young and beautiful English woman, so virtuous that she receives marriage proposals from three men on the same day. Like Mina, Lucy represents the pinnacle of the ideal female. She is sweet, chaste, and kind. She is in awe of the goodness and nobility of men. But, after Dracula bites her, Lucy begins a slow descent from one female stereotype (the Madonna/saint) to the other (the whore). Upon coming “undead,” Lucy switches from chaste purity to voluptuous wantonness, tempting her fiancé Arthur to kiss her and join her in her new dark world. She represents a Victorian fear of female sexuality. Only by destroying her body – through decapitation and a stake in the heart – can the men who love her restore her purity and send her immortal soul to its eternal reward in heaven.

Mina Harker

Mina Harker (nee Murray) is a...