Lucy and Vampirism

One of the questions raised in the virtual discussion was whether Lucy could be considered vampiric from the start. I believe the text supports this claim insofar as Lucy's gender deviance gives her the same kind of threatening quality that the Weird Sisters have, because they elude male mastery. Mina remarks that Lucy must be the kind of woman every man wants to marry, because she's always saying things that are appropriated to a sublimated role in marriage; however, there's an undercurrent of independent desire in her that acts against her willingness to be mastered. There's something vampiric in the way she uses the affects of men to this end. This was first embodied in the episode of the proposals, where she used the fact that men want her to create a situation of choice and self-mastery. In the reading for today, we see that Lucy is literally feeding on the affections of Arthur, Seward, and Van Helsing. Each time she receives a blood transfusion from them, or sleeps the night with one of them looking out for her, she wakes with a sleepy content. She seems to be feeding off their attention and affection the same way a true vampire literally feeds off blood. - Ariel