Champagne, Opium, and Governesses (and most other things relating to Victorian Mothers): How Lucy and Mina Represent Victorian Mothers

                The Victorians were very good at some things: corsets, censorship, and postmortem photography. But one thing most Victorians aren’t well known for are their child rearing abilities.  There were often two types of mothers; the affectionate mother and the unloving mother.  Some mothers doted on their children, while other mothers were…well, monsters (but isn’t this always the case).  Mothers were monsters for whatever reason (just like the Victorians really seemed to blame women for the whole Garden of Eden and apple thing…but aren’t Lucifer and the snake generally men?  Its fine. Its whatever).  But so long as a mother made sure- or hired a governess that made sure- the children were seen and not heard, they were deemed a good mother. 

                Dracula- to me, if it’s so heavy with Oedipal things- could be a comment on the two different types of mothers in Victorian England.  Far reaching?  Yea, okay, but let me actually explain. 

                Lucy was the rejecting mother.  Plenty of Victorian mothers were rejecting; they turned their children over to governesses and had practically no hand in raising their children.  Lucy rejected Quincy and Jack, and also seems to reject the “bloofer boiz”.  She was in love when she died.  Yes, to be a part of the undead generally makes one cold, but I imagine she would need a companion.  Sure, there’s Dracula, but if he’s so busy stealing all the other English women from English men, he can’t actually keep his creations company.  So, why doesn’t she create a little child to keep her company?  Yea, that’s even more far fetched, but it makes sense.  If she’s the symbol of the cold Victorian mother, there’s a chance she wouldn’t want children: there’s a chance that could contribute to why some mothers were so horrid (and why Lucy never kept one of the children).   

                Mina is definitely the stereotypical mother; affectionate, loving, and a comfort (also she’s made to seem a little weak, but ideal women automatically being weak is a different blog post).  While mothers in the Victorian ages still believed that children should be seen and not heard, a number of them were still mothers that loved and cared for their children.  Mina would be one of those.  She helps to nurse Jonathan back to health, holds the men when they cry over Lucy, and even mothers Lucy as much as her own mother.  Mina is the ideal mother of all ages and time periods, and if Dracula is turning women based on their ability to mother, it’s no wonder he chose her in addition to Lucy.  Lucy was the prototype- Mina is the perfected version of the mother Dracula wanted.  In Coppola’s Dracula, Dracula uses Jonathan to get to Mina.  Perhaps Dracula’s original motives were not too far off (just like the rest of the movie is from the rest of the book, but again, that’s a different blog).

                Dracula was more than likely not read as Oedipal when it was first written, but it has defiantly developed into the monster it is today.  With Dracula and Van Helsing as the obvious fathers, the two women are the mothers, and the “Van Helsing boiz” are undoubtably the sons.  The two women not only represent The Angel in the House and New Women, but they represent the two different types of mothers that were famous then and are still famous now.