Mina as a New Type of New Woman Represented in Bram Stoker's Dracula

The purpose of this study is to examine the characterization of a new type of New Woman like Mina which appears in Bram stoker's novel, Dracula This study specifically focuses on how the ideal of Victorian womanhood is juxtaposed to the attributed horrors of the New Woman in Dracula. It therefore argues that Mina is Stoker's compromise, a woman who honors Victorian traditional ideas while adopting certain modem characteristics, making her a new ideal. In Dracula, Mina keeps two mental images. The first image is Mina as a mother. She not only manages to survive and overcome the vampiric sickness, but she also completes the Victorian ideal by becoming a mother. Motherhood is one of the most revered characteristics of the Victorian ideal of womanhood. Mina has the characteristics of older Victorian ideals and modem sensibilities. The second image is Mina as an example of the weaker sex that needs to be saved and protected by men. Stoker creates Mina's images as a new type of New Woman to make a bridge between the old and new values.