Mina Murray

Question 1

“I have been practising shorthand very assiduously”

Answer 1

Chapter 5
- declarative
- assertive tone
- confident with her ability

Question 2

“I shall be useful to Jonathan”

Answer 2

Chapter 5
- conforms to archetypal Victorian woman: a liminality

Question 3

“I wonder where Jonathan is and if he is thinking of me! I wish he were here”

Answer 3

Chapter 6
- isolated and lonely

Question 4

“Pearl among women”

Answer 4

Chapter 17
- repositioned as the women who is to be defended by men

Question 5

“She has a man’s brain - a brain that a man should have if he was very much gifted, and a women’s heart”

Answer 5

Chapter 18
- lexical set of anatomy
- AO3: males expected to be intelligent, females expected to be loving and maternal. Mina is both

Question 6

“This boy will someday know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is”

Answer 6

Chapter 23
- pre modifying adjectives; typically masculine which suggests women can only be heroic if they act like men

Question 7

What does Mina represent?

Answer 7

• the ideal Victorian woman
• sexuality and purity
• the New Woman; challenges gender roles and sexism

Question 8

Boundaries Crossed by Mina

Answer 8

• human vs inhuman
• geographical
• submissive vs dominant
• gender

Question 9

Meaning of the name ‘Mina Murray’

Answer 9

• full name is WilHELLmina
• alliteration: flows well, shows she is put together
• more common surname name than Westenra, less common first name than Lucy. shows how they juxtapose each other

Question 10

“I believe we should have shocked the ‘New Woman’ with our appetites”

Answer 10

Chapter 8
- New Woman was similar to suffragettes: progressive and independent. Mina clearly doesn’t like this idea: more traditional

Question 11

“I do believe that if he had not had me to lean on and to support him he would have sunk down”

Answer 11

Chapter 13
- reverses gender roles
- Dracula sighting
- Harker relapses

Question 12

“I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths”

Answer 12

Chapter 14
- devious
- Biblical allusion
- suggesting she had a taste for sinning/misbehaving

Question 13

“There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights”

Answer 13

Chapter 14
- said by Van Helsing
- metaphor

Question 14

“Pearl among women!”

Answer 14

Chapter 17
- objectifying
- pearls are white. connotes purity
- true and dutiful, moral warning

Question 15

“I suppose there is something in woman’s nature that makes a man free to break down before her and express his feelings on the tender or emotional side without feeling it derogatory to his manhood”

Answer 15

Chapter 17
- maternal
- mirrors Victorian gender expectations
- men find comfort in women, not embarrassed to cry in front of them?

Question 16

“I wonder if it was Mrs Harker’s presence which had touched some chord in his memory”

Answer 16

Chapter 18
- has the ability to soothe Renfield

Question 17

“Thought it was a bitter pill for me to swallow, I could say nothing”

Answer 17

Chapter 18
- feels excluded from the group
- unhappy with their decision but doesn’t object
- reflects how women felt unsafe to stand up for themselves

Question 18

“Looked at me with a sort of blank terror, as one who looks who has been walked out of a bad dream”

Answer 18

Chapter 19
- Mina has terrible dreams; accompanies the first stages of vampirism (link to Lucy’s sleepwalking)

Question 19

“I shall put a bold face on, and if I do feel weepy, he shall never see it.”

Answer 19

Chapter 19
- irony, this is what men are expected to do; link to how she has a ‘man’s brain’
- doesn’t want to worry Harker

Question 20

“She is still too pale, but does not look so haggard as she did this morning”

Answer 20

Chapter 20
- Mina begins her sickness, parallels Lucy
- paleness suggests Dracula is taking over

Question 21

“Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare grease which was shown by his torn-open dress”

Answer 21

Chapter 21
- symbolic of sex?
- white = pure
- purity is being taken away from Mina
- the men attempting to protect Mina aren’t powerful enough - link to how they talk about how it’s their duty to protect her but they fail: Dracula has an advantage

Question 22

“He took my hands in one of his […] and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that I must either suffocate or swallow some of the -“

Answer 22

Chapter 21
- mirrors rape
- breast feeding blood
- blood gives death, which contrasts the purpose of breastfeeding

Question 23

“If there were no friend who loved me, who would save me such a pain, and so desperate an effort!”

Answer 23

Chapter 22
- believes it’s better if she dies than to cause pain to those she loves
- she is willing to violate Christian teaching against suicide

Question 24

“Unclean! Unclean! […] I must bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgement Day”

Answer 24

Chapter 22
- repetition and exclamatory
- Dracula has marked Mina, and it is her cross to bear (like how Jesus bore his cross)
- Link to AO3: sexual connotations of STIS: fear of ‘fallen woman’ having sex outside of marriage

Question 25

“That poor soul who has wrought all this misery is the saddest case of all.”

Answer 25

Chapter 23
- Mina pities Dracula
- her maternal instinct or is she arguing this because she’s becoming a vampire and slipping to the darker side?

Question 26

“The red scar on my poor darling’s white forehead”

Answer 26

Chapter 24
- scar symbolises lack of purity
- can only go when Dracula is defeated

Question 27

“I caught sight in the mirror of the red mark upon my forehead; and I knew that I was still unclean”

Answer 27

Chapter 24
- feels like Dracula is always present with her
- echoes the feelings of SA victims

Question 28

“I do believe that under God’s providence I have made a discovery […] I am more than ever sure that I am right.”

Answer 28

Chapter 26
- not giving herself credit
- confident
- contrasts Lucy who was passive and unaware of her transformation until the end
- deduces Dracula’s escape route, Mina is fighting his control and takes advantage of his over confidence

Question 29

“Jonathan took me in his arms and kissed me.”

Answer 29

Chapter 26
- Mina’s trials have made them closer
- distinct from Lucy and Arthur, who were separated from Lucy’s illness and Arthur’s father’s illness

Question 30

“I try to hypnotise her, but alas! with no effect; the power has grown less and less with each day, and tonight it fail me altogether”

Answer 30

Chapter 27
- becomes less willing to go into the trance as she gets closer to the castle
- Dracula has a strong hold over the region so can more effectively control Mina’s mind

Question 31

“This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is”

Answer 31

Chapter 27
- stereotypically masculine adjectives
- heroic
- suggesting women can only be heroic if they act like men