Mina Harker and Lucie Darnay
Mina Harker: I can’t recommend Dracula by Bram Stoker enough. It’s Victorian gothic horror, so by modern standards it’s fairly tame. There are no sex scenes, no gratuitous violence or traumatizing horror. Even if you don’t normally cross into the world of horror stories, you will probably handle this just fine. There is more of an overarching sense of horror pressing down on the heroes than things like gore, jump scares, and demonic hauntings. The first time I read this book in my teens it left me with a lingering mood of dread for a couple days. Now, I don’t even notice the horror. I simply enjoy the characters and the adventure of it all. It also has a happy ending.
There are some wonderful characters of strong faith in Dracula. There are manly men and feminine women. The men constantly drive the action forward, but aren’t harsh, cruel, or closed off from emotion. The women are kind, supportive, brave, and clever. Seriously, this book (while feeling like some weird Catholic/Anglican crossbreed) will encourage your faith.
Mina stands out because while she is brave and strong, she trusts her physical and mental care to her husband and the men gathered to help him. She doesn’t argue and fight when they shelter her by not including her in their plans. Her willingness to quietly wait earns their praise and trust. She’s both part of the team and the treasured beauty which inspires the men to act courageously.
Mina is entirely focused on tending her husband. Her attitude towards him is both inspiring and convicting. At one point she mentions memorizing the train timetable so that if Jonathan was running late she could be of help to him. Everything about her is “how can I help him?” This attitude expands to include the other men who join the fight against Dracula. She supported them with trust and praise, made sure they ate and slept, acted as an older sister to them, providing warmth and care in the midst of horror. And she does all of this without crossing any lines of appropriate behavior between the sexes. She is firmly Jonathan’s wife first and foremost, but she is also the backbone of the entire team set to destroy the vampires.
Mina Harker is one of my all-time favorite heroines. She makes me want to be a better friend and a better wife.
“Mrs. Harker gave us a cup of tea, and I can honestly say that, for the first time since I have lived in it, this old house seemed like home.” - Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Lucie Darnay: I haven’t read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens as many times as I’ve read Dracula, so my thoughts on Lucie won’t be as fleshed out. What stood out to me about her is that she was such a homemaker. She tended her circle of people with great care, and it is pointed out several times in the book. She has a husband, a father, the banker, her daughter, the son she loses, the mighty Pross, and the weak and troubled Sydney Carton. She is the thread that holds all the characters together.
I love this. She’s not mighty, not a warrior-woman, and doesn’t do anything in the book that changes the fate of her friends and family. She’s actually been described as dull and one dimensional, and yet, she is the thread that holds them all together. What a perfect description of a homemaker. We may not be the movers and shakers of history, but we are the weavers of relationships that keep people together, inspiring and driving them to move and shake the world. Anyone who thinks she’s a boring character, I’d hazard a guess, doesn’t understand homemaking at all. Even while her husband languished in jail for a year, Lucie kept the home. She did this in a foreign and dangerous country. That takes courage and a large amount of cleverness. And yes, she had the indomitable Pross at her side, that’s true. But that’s also feminine. Women work together to tend their own. None of us go it alone, nor should we.
Homemaking is often done quietly, out of view of the action and the obvious heroic acts, but it is no less heroic to tend our hearths with care, endurance, and faithfulness even if the world calls us dull.
“…deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
