Lucy Westenra
Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the 1897 novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. The 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family, she is Mina Murray's best friend and Count 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 adventurer; and Dr. John Seward, a psychiatrist—and she chooses Holmwood. 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 vampiric side emerges and nearly tries to bite Arthur, but Lucy regains her human senses and before dying asks Abraham Van Helsing to protect Holmwood, which he does. A week after her burial Lucy rises from  the grave as a vampire, attacking children, which Helsing identifies by the telltale bite marks on their necks and the timing of her death and the start of the attacks. She is then confronted and eventually destroyed by Van Helsing and her suitors, allowing her 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" but later shares characteristics with  the then-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 molestation and abuse of children by mother figures , particularly in the context of baby farming, citing 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 that 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 returning, bearing bite marks, they 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". Appearances. Radio. In 1938, the CBS radio series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air" made its debut with "Dracula". Lucy appears in the middle of the broadcast as the ill fiancée of Arthur Seward, and it is only later established that she is a victim of Dracula. Elizabeth Farrell performed as Lucy, opposite Orson Welles.