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The Oppression Of Women In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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Women have always been seen in a different light than men. History has shown us that women are seen as a lesser gender than men, but Yildirim goes as far as to debunk ‘gender’ as a whole. People use the term gender when referring to people other than men meaning it is practically a synonym for women. For example, ‘gender studies’ isn’t about men; it’s about women. Gender is essentially a social category used when trying to differentiate people without bringing up an actual physical difference. There has always been some form of patriarchy in society where the women are seen as subordinates of men such as marriage because the women are committing themselves to them as well as taking their last name. The job of feminists is to get people to be …show more content…
They did not fit into the typical mold that women in this time usually did as they were not silent, passive, mindless girls with no opinions.First off, Lucy (when a vampire) and Dracula’s wives shows the feminine and feared side of the ‘new woman.’ Men were scared of women being overly-sexual as this would lead them to be too independent and they would have none of that. On the contrary, Mina shows much more of the typical traits. She is smart and educated which are key aspects of the general idea of the new woman and she showed these traits often throughout the novel in order for people to break down the ideas that they had previously held on the subject. Also, she is maternal as seen when she comforts the three men who lost the woman they loved. This was not seen in the vampire women. His mother had strong feminist views and spent her life trying to close the societal gap between men and women. Stoker’s wife was also a strong female with strong opinions. She refused to have any more children after their first which led him to have multiple affairs between the time Dracula was written and his death. It is said that he was remorseful of these affairs which could be seen in his writing. He both supports the new woman through Mina and fears it through the vampire women. The aspects he likes are seen in Mina such as the motherly care and intelligence while the parts he didn’t like could be seen in the vampire women. They were overly promiscuous and went for exactly what they

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