Gender Dynamics: Lucy & Mina - (Kristin Clarke-Cole)

            After the forum conversation, I thought more deeply about other perspectives of gender dynamics within the Dracula novel. I found that a student had a very interesting take on Lucy’s character, because since Lucy desires three men, she believes men are superior. On the other hand, I commented, “Well Lucy's sexuality seems threatening because she is thinking like a man. She wants to have the same ability to do the same things that males do and not get publicly sanctioned for her actions. For instance on page 60, she wishes she had three male partners. Fundamentally, she wants to be equal to the man and does not want the female to be discriminated based on their sex.” Overall these women have some type of desire to be submissive to a man, especially Mina. Mina refers to herself as if she is under men because she wants to see herself useful. Furthermore, other students posted about the ideas of white and darkness of women and good and evil.  White and darkness is also a representation of which character represents good and evil. For example, Mina and Lucy are pure characters since Lucy is referred to a white garden. On the other hand, Mina is good, and Lucy represents evil because of the differing values she has from Mina. Lucy spoke about having three men while Mina chooses to be loyal and useful to one man. Could Lucy be a vampire? She signals to three men and vampires prefer the number three.