#New skill unlocked: let's examine the misogyny in this book in a deeper manner

[immediatebreakfast]

It's proposal day! It's another Lucy day!

One thing that I noticed in between the suitors, and Lucy's non explained accepted proposal is how the tone in the paragraph where she talks about the sexist ideas of women being lesser than men seems to be... dejected, and I dare to say exhausted.

I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from fears, and we marry him.

The language that Lucy uses, the sudden inclusion of it when she is talking about the proposals, all of it feels like a rehearsed point that has been hammered into Lucy's head many times. It reads as she is is trying to interrupt her sadness over rejecting Quincey and Jack by reminding herself that her feeling don't matter in the situation.

This is not only simple misogynist ideals that Bram Stoker included in a female character, but also there is something deeper there that alludes to Lucy restricting herself because of her education as a lady.

Mr. Seward, and Mr. Morris are the ones suffering after the proposals, not her. She, the 19 years girl who is for the first time steping into the role of victorian woman, is the cause of their suffering, so Lucy as a woman cannot feel bad for herself because her own existance isn't noble nor worthy. Lucy must center her conflicting feelings, and her tears around the two gentleman she had to reject.

This is not an opinion for Lucy, it's a fact that her entire social, and cultural environment has been telling her since she was born. However there is this little detail that makes her comments a little bit worse for her mental space.

why are men so noble when we women are so little worthy of them? Here was I almost making fun of this great-hearted, true gentleman.

Remember that this is Lucy writing to Mina, and consequently Jonathan because she gave her permission to tell him; two people that she is implied to know since chilhood, and two lovers that definitely do not follow the picture that Lucy paints. In this letter Lucy is almost baring her soul enough to Mina, who despite most likely holding the same ideals doesn't experience the actual whole weight of them as a woman.

Even if it's very clear that she is utterly smittem with Arthur, does Lucy longs for the odd for the times dynamic of Mina and Jonathan? Does she feels that as much as she loves Arthur with all of heart, all of that stuff will still resonate in every step, and action she takes in their marriage?

Oh, why must a man like that be made unhappy when there are lots of girls about who would worship the very ground he trod on? I know I would if I were free—only I don't want to be free. ... I am very, very happy, and I don't know what I have done to deserve it.

Lucy is midly aware that her position is a cage, even if she chose the man she will marry she still views her own decision as the entrance of a cage. However, thanks to her upbringing, Lucy doesn't see this as an opportunity to try, and build a relationship with equal footing like Mina, instead Lucy tells herself that she, as a woman, doesn't deserve enough the happiness she feels.

And that is so tragic.