Lucy Westenra

Lucy Westnra in Dixi: Dracula was played by Abi.

Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the novel Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker. The 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family, she is Mina's best friend and Dracula's first English victim. She subsequently transforms into a vampire and is eventually destroyed.

## Character History

Lucy Westenra is a 19-year old woman, "blonde, demure, and waiting for the right man to come along to marry her". She is, however, not a passive woman, and clearly expresses her sexual desires: she has three suitors, and writes to her friend Mina that she would like to marry all of them. All three propose to her on the same day - Arthur Holmwood, the wealthy son of Lord Godalming; Quincey Morris, an American; and Dr John Seward, a psychiatrist - and she chooses the former. She is prone to sleepwalking and is attacked by Dracula, who gradually drains her of her blood until it eventually proves fatal. In her final moments, her vampire side emerges and nearly tries to bite Arthur. But Lucy regains her senses and request Van Helsing to protect him which he obliges to before apparently passing.[citation needed] A week after her burial, she rises and subsequently becomes a vampire, attacking children. She is then confronted and eventually destroyed by Van Helsing and her suitors, allowing Lucy to rest in peace. Lucy's death and subsequent transformation as a vampire motivate her suitors and Mina to join forces with Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker in hunting Dracula in retaliation.

## Critical readings, historical background

According to Sally Ledger, Lucy "is at first sight an archetype of Victorian femininity--blonde, demure, and waiting for the right man to come along to marry her" but later shares characteristics with the then-new feminist ideal of the New Woman.

Leslie Ann Minot pointed out, in a 2017 essay on Lucy Westenra and other 19th century female characters, that if Dracula is an overt portrayal of a sexualized monster, then Westenra is problematic since her attacks on children would then equate to "the sweet Lucy sexually molesting toddlers"; Minot sees this as one reason why the character has received less attention than others. She historicizes the character (and the novel) by placing it against a backdrop of a number of well-publicized cases of child molestation and abuse of children by mother figures, particularly in the context of baby farming (she cites the case of Margaret Waters). Victorian society had begun to take an interest in the welfare of children, resulting in the Factory Act of 1891 and the foundation of the SPCC, which would become the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Stoker was well aware of these developments, and was close friends with W. T. Stead, the newspaper editor who supported the SPCC, published lurid accounts of child abuse, and was himself jailed for the abduction of a 13-year old girl, which he organized as a demonstration. Stoker used newspaper clippings in the novel which are pastiches of the sensationalist writings of Stead and others about child prostitution, in particular Stead's "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon", and he describes the lower-class victims in much the same way. Their childish talk leads to "bloofer lady", as a child's way of saying "beautiful lady". This "bloofer lady" talks to children and lures them with the promise of riches and games, and after their return, bearing bite marks, become emaciated and weak and wish to return to the "bloofer lady". All this is described in language similar to that of newspaper reports on women seducing children into prostitution. Minot also called Lucy "a demonic mother-parody, taking nourishment from children instead of giving it".