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Most Adoptable Grown Woman Contest - Round 1, Poll 169
Which grown woman is more adoptable?
Mina Harker - Dracula
Atalanta - Greek Mythology
*long sigh* Oh random name picker, why must we pit two bad bitches against each other?
I recently saw your post about what if Jonathan/Jonna were a woman, and was wondering: how do you think the narrative would change if Mina were a man?
Wilhelmina Murray would have aimed either for a full teaching position or journalism without any gender constraints relegating him to teaching etiquette. He and Jonathan would be Confirmed Bachelors, even with the scandalous rumors circling about young Mr. Murray and his intentions with Miss Lucy Westenra. Temptation would have been there once upon a time--but I don't see Lucy's mother condoning such a close relationship between a commoner young man and her daughter the same way she allowed the friendship between Mina and Lucy
Odds are good that Wilhelm never goes to Whitby as a companion at all, and so misses Dracula's arrival in the Demeter and the opportunity to rescue Lucy from the Count's attacks. No collecting the Captain's journal from the newspaper, no sparing Lucy's throat.
He still gets a message from Sister Agatha about Jonathan in the hospital and rushes over to see him home (read: their shared rooms)
Fast-forward to the business in Purfleet, where Wilhelm is pointedly not shut out by the boys' club of suitors because he is in fact a Manful Man (c) and possibly never left behind as a prime target for Dracula while alone. Though considering Renfield's whole deal, the Count probably still sneaks in to chomp him for still being Mr. Master Typist and Compiler
The rest plays out pretty close to the original plot beats, albeit without little baby Quincey in the equation. But he and Jonathan will spoil the hell out of John and/or Arthur's kids should they happen
August 12, 1890
Mina this morning told me that I seemed determined to exit the room in my sleep. I hugged her tighter and apologized which she told me not to do. I felt the need to apologize because I wish I would not be so loud at night. It wakes her and scares her. She has enough to fret about, I wish I was not one of those things causing her to lose sleep. She seems calmed that I am feeling more myself but I can hear the worry even still.
11 August - Mina makes it in time
this is from an animatic which you can watch here (whole book spoilers)
August 10, 1890
I struggle to write to-day as I find myself overwhelmed with emotion. Mina channels her worries into writing like it may resolve them. With Jonathan's silence pressing on her and the death surrounding us she writes like she is running out of time. I am forced to afford her much privacy as I cannot read her journal even if I tried. It is written in shorthand which appears as scribbles and dots to the untrained eye. I suppose my writing may be seen like that, scribbles and dots, especially when I have such energy. I was taught to write nicely but something between my brain and my hand stumbles with speed or distraction. There is much to distract me, like Mina who insists we must walk even more. I do not know why she likes to stroll so much when bothered but it suits me well. I like walking. I like running. I feel like I could run across Whitby, maybe farther. I could run all the way to Arthur a hundred miles away and hug him and kiss him and assure myself of his wellness. I miss him. I have so much energy. We must head to supper now.
Has anyone ever considered: After Quincey Harker is born, Van Helsing goes from calling Mina "Madame Mina" to "Mama Mina".
one interesting thing about the dracula daily format that I didn't really pick up in my initial dracula read is that lucy's sleepwalking starts well before dracula is even close to england
im not sure if this is meant to show how early she was his target
or if it was meant to show that this habit of lucys (and her general unease) preexisted dracula
i feel like its the first one, which makes it doubly interesting why most adaptations select mina for dracula's reincarnated lover and not lucy
The funniest part is that tons of those dogshit adaptations in any form of media (movies, theater, tv, novels) claim that they are "fixing" Mina from the "sexist original"
Right??
Like don’t get me wrong. The original Dracula is not perfect, including in its depiction of women. It is noteworthy that the female vampires’ deaths are described in gruesome detail while Dracula’s death is much faster, and the female vampires are constantly described as “voluptuous,” with sexual women being depicted as sinful, evil, and temptresses. A common misogynistic way to write women, and Mina herself mocks the “new age woman” and the idea of feminism.
However, despite that, Mina is ABSOLUTELY the smartest person in the novel! Van Helsing is said to be very intelligent, and he does indeed know the most about vampires, but he makes idiotic decisions, such as locking Mina out of the loop for her “protection,” which the book COMPLETELY portrays as the WRONG decision! Mina is the one recording and writing, coming up with ideas such as for Van Helsing to hypnotize her after she’s bitten, refusing to be a passive victim. Mina is a working woman; her husband adores her and is not insecure in his relationship with her, and most of all, she does not fall in love with Dracula! Why would he? He murdered her friend, kidnapped her husband, and assaulted her! And while she pities him simply because of how evil and incapable of love and humanity he is, she still knows he needs to be killed. And again, she and Jonathan have such a tender relationship.
So why on earth is it more empowering to have her be a damsel who falls in love with the monster preying on her and her friend in a shitty forbidden romance? (And don’t get me started on the vicious misogyny targeted towards Lucy by some critics and adaptors). I can understand wanting to make a more nuanced take on Dracula as a character, but when you keep him as a murderer and predator…what are we doing? I’m sure it was daring and subversive to make Mina fall in love with Dracula at some point, but there’s NOTHING subversive about that now, especially with how her agency is stripped away and she loses all resourcefulness and exists to make Dracula happy and angsty. Having an accurate adaptation of Dracula where Dracula is evil and Mina wants to help take him down and loves her husband would be far more shocking and subversive than anything else.
And don’t get me started on how Jonmina is butchered, and how there’s quite a bit of toxic masculinity thrown towards Jonathan for his supposed “weakness” and “emotions,” which apparently makes him “boring,” showing casual ableism from people dismissing or rolling their eyes at obvious PTSD signs. That comes off as extremely nasty, too, and seeing such a gentle, vulnerable man in the source material being turned into a boring, oppressive, typical Victorian man who doesn’t want his wife to leave the boundaries of her rigid gender role is so disappointing.
I just want one accurate Dracula adaptation! Just one! One that captures the beautiful relationship between Jonathan and Mina, shows Mina’s intelligence and proactiveness rather than making her fall in love with an abusive murderer, and one that doesn’t slut-shame Lucy but shows her as incredibly kind and loving and wanting to please and help everyone. Mina and Jonathan are both among my favorite literary characters and couples, and I’m so tired of seeing them consistently done dirty.
