Woman’s Heart, Man’s Brain: An Analysis of Mina Harker
I don’t know why, but there aren’t many female characters (especially main characters) I’ve felt much admiration for across the books I’ve read. For some reason I’ve never been able to figure out, authors seem to have difficulty creating women as complex, interesting, or virtuous as their male counterparts – at least, without getting annoying. On top of that, most of them all seem a bit like carbon copies of each other, all overpowered yet somehow annoyingly helpless at the same time.
There are a few notable exceptions to this – including most of the women in CS Lewis’s That Hideous Strength – but I recently found another character I think is equally strong: Mina Harker from Dracula. The feminine elements of her role in the story are most definitely symbolic…of the special use and value of femininity, the relationship between men and women, the good that a woman can bring to a situation where she might first be thought unnecessary. But she’s also a very real, dynamic POV character. She represents a view of femininity that’s uncommon in our modern age: that it’s something to be set apart and protected, something different. But she’s also an example woman with the mind of a normal human being, not some rare, mystical other species.
Perhaps the most important function of Mina’s character is that it represents a view of femininity as a special glory, something to protect. Mina is the reason the characters are fighting Dracula – or, at least, the personal motivation for all of them. Sure, Jonathan is traumatized by his own experiences at Dracula’s castle – but what seems to upset him most is the discovery that Dracula is threatening, using, and violating Mina.
And that last part is important; Dracula doesn’t come for one of the men. He breaks into Mina’s room multiple nights in a row and is caught drinking blood from her neck and making her drink from his chest in a scene with frankly quite sexual connotations. Mina is far from portrayed as fragile or passive, but she is the victim here, and the men – all the men, not just the one with romantic interest – rally around her and protect her. They recognize that even capable women deserve protection by nature of their calling and role. The threat to Mina’s life (or, more accurately, afterlife) is the main motivation behind the other characters’ frantic drive toward the conclusion. She is encouragement when they feel discouraged, and her safety is a motivation when they don’t remember why they’re fighting.
Yet, despite her clear representation of the specialness of femininity, Mina – unlike many women from novels of the time – supports the idea that women are just as “normal” as men, that men and women are both equally capable of doing normal, gender neutral things. Mina has interests, just like a man, and a personality that’s not just nurturing but interested and practical as well. She’s fascinated by Dr. Seward’s phonograph, she plans and generates ideas for fighting Dracula – altogether she thinks the same way as any normal human person would, contributing with thoughts just as valuable as the mens’ on a regular basis. She’s a POV character, and while her point of view is distinctly feminine, she thinks on the same issues as the men and is clearly just as concerned with figuring out Dracula’s goals as they are.
Although much of what drives the plot is things happening to Mina, she’s still an active character. She has the idea to be hypnotized and spy on Dracula for the team, using her unfortunate connection for her own use. That’s her choice – she’s capable of using what makes her weak to instead be strong. She’s not just a victim, not just an emotional comfort, not excluded from gender neutral roles. I’ve found that in many of the classics or even more modern books I like with mostly positive portrayals of femininity, the female characters are women, but not humans. Mina Harker is an exception.
I’ve discussed Mina’s character and role in contrast to the most obvious characters in the story – the men. But equally important is Mina’s contrast with the other significant female character: her best friend, Lucy Westrena. Lucy is a couple years younger than Mina and seems to have been taught or mentored by her in the past. Lucy definitely seems younger, but in reality she’s close in age to Mina and is planning her wedding around the beginning of the timeline. Mina is constantly shown to be beautiful, empathetic, and supportive of the man in her life – and so is Lucy. In fact, if anything, Lucy is portrayed as a greater beauty and a sweeter woman (although from how Mina is talked about, Lucy seems to be the only woman in the world who could accomplish this feat). So why did Stoker choose to set Mina in the role of “ideal woman”? Why did she earn main character status, while Lucy seems too childish to be much more than a passive character?
Well, Lucy and Mina are both beautiful and empathetic and graceful. But Mina is more: she’s practical, thoughtful, ingenuitive, down-to-earth, and curious. Lucy, bless her little heart, has exactly zero of these qualities. At one point in the story, Mina is described as having a “woman’s heart but a man’s brain”. One can assume that the “woman’s heart” refers to her sweetness, beauty, and constant empathy, her unfailing devotion to Jonathan, the way she provides emotional advice and a shoulder to cry on for every man in the group. The “man’s brain”, then, would refer to her very active part of the planning and courageous strategy of the story, her leadership and control, her general nerdiness, and the clearheaded, careful way she views everything. Her EQ is through the roof, yet she never lets her emotions get the better of her. Rather like a female version of the dashing, chivalrous male love interests modern female writers often create, who were star quarterback in high school; are number one in their pack of dude friends; and would kill an entire literal army for their girl, yet also remember everything she’s ever said to them; give her little gifts four times a week based on tiny comments she made telepathically a few years back; are constantly talking about their feelings with an awareness that would be unrealistic even for most women – basically guys who seem to have been blessed with an exact reverse of the brain and heart Mina got.
And yes, like them, Mina lacks many flaws. But she just seems like an almost flawless yet equally complex version of a regular young woman. The “man’s brain” Mina supposedly has just feels like a regular, mature woman’s brain to me. It seemed like Stoker was trying to create the ideal of exactly what a man would want a woman to be, but he messed up and just made a woman. She’s incredible, but I know several other incredible women who seem quite similar. In fact, I’ve heard a lot of advice (mostly from older women towards girls my age) that consists basically of, “be more like Mina Harker”. She’s not just a man’s ideal woman, she’s a woman’s ideal woman too. Lucy is femininity without balance. Mina is femininity that understands itself, thinks of itself correctly, fits into its role and balances itself out with the positive masculine and neutral traits required of every human being but not always lived up to (by men or women).On the surface, Mina is simple. She’s a positive representation of what women are supposed to be, of the beautiful contrast and collaboration between the sexes. She’s rather idealized, but perhaps not so much as she seems at first glance. All this is true – But Mina is so much more. She wouldn’t have been a bad character if Bram had left her as another flat “ideal woman” archetype – she would still work as a character goal, a symbol, and even a role model. But Bram didn’t leave her here, he took her character forward. She’s a human woman, a complex person with a real mind, real interests, in addition to the unique powers a woman possesses. Like a real human, there’s a lot buried below the surface. Mina is a great character, especially for girls and women, because she represents an ideal of who women should be while embracing her own individualism and personality. There is femininity and female roles, and women should follow those. There are wrong ways to be a woman. But there are as many right ways to be a woman as there are women in the world. Mina Harker is unafraid to be her own person, to pursue her passions and embrace characteristics seen as masculine at the time. Yet despite this, she understands her female role and diligently strives to do her part, earning her place among the other characters. We’d do well to learn a thing or two from women like this.
