Summary A Level OCR English Lit: Dracula & The Bloody Chamber Revision Notes
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Course
Comparative and contextual study
Institution
OCR
WRITTEN BY AN A* STUDENT!!! I made these to summarise the whole course. Makes direct comparison between the themes in each book. I only learnt these notes and they covered all questions. Includes quotes.
- Mina is the archetypal victorian female - she is a school mistress (maternal) and every thought/
action of hers is for the male protagonist eg types all Seward’s photographs and memorises the
train timetables.
- She does not want to further her knowledge she just wants to be “useful to Jonathon”
“nothing to give him except myself, my life… my love and duty for all the days of my
life”. And she considers it her “solemn duty… [to] be prepared” to serve the group as
secretary.
- Mina is protected from the plot “you are too precious to us to have such a risk… we are
men and able to bear but you must be our star and our home and we shall act all the
more free that you are not in danger such as we are” eg want to protect females as they are
seen as weak and Mina “could say nothing, save to accept their chivalrous care of me”
- Dr Seward the male world “is no place for a woman”
- ^ UNLIKE CARMILLA hwere chivalry allows women to take advantage of men and to expose
their ine ectuality, Dracual portrays men chivalry as a noble and desirable means of protecting
women from unpleasantness
- ^ WHEREAS TBC the mother is the one who saves the girl while Mina is saved by Van Helsing-
a man of the same status as the Marquis- Carter uses a revisionist approach to Charles
Perraults fairy tales where he exploits the notions of damsel in distress and the male hero but
Carter subverts these norms to empower women and place them in control Eg ‘bluebeard' is
CP version of TBC and the marquis brother is the one that saves the protagonist.
- Also the company of wolves the heroine is in sexual control because she strips removes her
clothes before removing his
- Praise on Mina:
1. Rewarded by having a son
2. “She is one of God’s women, fashioned by his own hand to show us men and other
women that there is a heaven where we can enter” | “ah that wonderful madam mina”|
“pearl among pearls” | “if ever the future should bring you to a time when you need a
man’s help, believe, you will not call in vain” | “so true, so sweet, so noble”
3. So wonderful that she transforms Ren eld a “zoophagus lunatic” into a polished gentleman
by being in the same room as him “due to her unconscious in uence” he reverts from mad
to re ned man and dies trying to save her
4. Allowed to take part in exploits of a man because she has a “man’s brain”- although this is
suggestive of the fact that there is a di erence between a man and a woman’s brain and it is
better to have a man’s brain
VIRGINITY AS STRENGTH MINA AND TBC
- mina is rewarded for lacking in sexuality and promiscuity
- Also this is strength for heroines in the company of wolves when the heroines virginity is like a
pentacle that shields her from harm.
- Tigers bride the beast is afraid of the heroine because she is a virgin. Wants nothing more than
to glimpse her naked untouched body but the sight of him frightens and shames him
- Carter makes virginity a source of strength because “power in potential”. When characters
loose their virginity they release transformative power eg the girl in the company of wolves
turns herself into a predator and the Wolf into prey and the heroine in the tigers brie turns into a
tiger.
COMPARE MINA AND TBC
- mina is controlled by Dracula ultimately who uses her to monitor the other men, and she does
things to be “useful to Jonathon” and is therefore not in control of her own life and actions
- Also plays into the damsel in distress notion: when she is bitten she looks to Jonathon for
support “it was life to me to feel its touch- so strong, so self-reliant, so resolute” (mina
talking about feeling his hand)
- Whereas Carter express feminist views by creating strong women who create their own fate:
fi ff fiff fl
, 1. TBC the mother put a “single irreproachable bullet through the marquis head” and it is the
mother that motivates her to go to the chamber “my mother’s spirit drove me into that
dreadful place, in a cold ecstasy to know the very worst”
2. Tiger bride “she was at liberty for the rst time in the world when naked”
3. Puss in boots she goes “hammer and tongs” on the carpet since “the bed was occupied”
4. Wolf Alice “nothing about her is human except that she is not wolf”
5. Company of wolves she is “afraid of nothing” and “nobody’s meat”
6. The werewolf she “knew how to use her father’s hunting knife”
7. The Era King the female protagonist saves the “stupid” and “trusting” other women.
- however can say that mina is actually empowered because she becomes more
proactive “I have an idea- I shall get the maps and look over them… I am more tan
sure I am right” and she also says “as for me… I have no fear”
LUCY CONTRAST TO MINA
- Lucy subvert the normalities of objectifying men by seen them as numbers: role reversal “today
I have had three. Just fancy! three proposals in one day!… number two came after lunch”
“I know you will think me a horrid irt- though I couldn’t hero feeling a sort of exaltation
that he was number two in one day” “number one… number two”
- Empowers herself through her sexual allure (femme fatale):
1. “Looks sweeter and lovelier than ever”
2. “They all fell in love with her on the spot”
- also empowered when she is a vampires: the sexual imagery associated with the penetration of
the sharp fangs into men- reverses traditional gender roles and places men in a passive
position.
- Puts men in the passive position
- In ‘Carmilla’ the penetration of female vampires is seen as an act of empowerment
whereas in Dracula Lucy’s is seen as evil because it threatens gender distinctions
- ^ stoker punishes her for this as she is ultimately killed
- Punishment is emphasised by the way that she dies. The “mercy bearing stake” could be
seen as Stoker taking back male sexual control as “stake” has phallic imagery and therefore
reestablishes masculine sexual authority through phallic penetration
- Killing of Lucy some critics recognise as a form of rape. It is aggressive and graphic “the body
shook and quivered… as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the
mercy bearing stake”
- Also the fact that they all gave her a blood transfusion: Rubin says that “women [in some
societies] are frequently kept in their place by gang rape when the ordinary methods of
masculine intimidation prove insu cient”
- Victorian audience would delight in this ending by telling them that the new woman is
conquered and reinforced by strict victorian values of patriarchy
- ALSO SIMILAR TO WHEN Mina acquiescence in being hypnotised by Van Helsing in
order to save humanity indicative of how men having control over women is the only
way to save society from crumbling into a morally depraved abyss
- Her death is called a “true killing” destroying the version of females that di ers from
patriarchal expectations.
- Symbolises sexual violence whihc is epitomised in TBC when the heroine describes losing her
virginity as “impalement”. Idea of sex and violence is upheld because the Marquis has sex with
his wives and then kills them.
- Also sex and violence can be sen in the Tigers bride when he “licks her skin” which is sexual
but he “licks It o of her” which is violent.
- `also sex and violence w puss in boots when he kills Signor Panteleone in order to have sex
ALSO Lucy death is the idea that women can only be redeemed after death eg after the “mercy
bearing stake” Lucy is restored to a “holy… memory” and “sending her to the stars”. Similar
to the attitude of the Marquis
ff ffi flfi ff
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