#mrs. westenra slander

[yallemagne]

You know how I keep saying the audio medium of Re: Dracula really gives characters that otherwise weren't very appreciated before more characterization and really breathes life into them? Makes me love them more?

The opposite can be said of Mrs. Westenra, I have never wanted to murder the woman more than right now. So smug as she self-righteously declares: "no, you funny doctor, it was not you who cured Lucy. it was me, for I flushed all her icky medicine because it smelled bad to me. just look at her, she's so much better now". Cut to Lucy, mostly dead. (no shade at all to the voice actor, she did a lovely job. I'm sure the intent wasn't to make me want to murder a woman in cold blood, but hey, art that can call upon such vivid emotions is very good--)

anyhow anyway

Van Helsing cries heartwrenchingly about how they cannot correct her or she'll die! and I am just sitting here like "but really what is there to gain in letting her live? I call for DEATH PENALTY."

Call me a hypocrite but no, Jack falling asleep is not the same as this offence. He was about to drop anyway, and Lucy recognized it and prepared the adjacent room for him to sleep in because she knew he might still try to stay up if he stayed in her room. Was it a good choice? No, but he didn't really have a choice. His choices were *accept Lucy's offer* or *tough it out and eventually pass out on Lucy's bedroom floor*.

Mrs. Westenra threw out Lucy's flowers for no reason other than "I don't like the smell of them, so neither must Lucy even though she's sleeping soundly". It's like a fucking anti-vaxxer "I don't agree with medicine, so my sick daughter is not allowed to have it."

Sure they didn't inform her of the flowers but FUCK oh my GOD why would you go into a sick person's room in the middle of the night and throw away all their shit!! If it were really fucking bothering Lucy, do you think she'd be asleep?? Lucy's health and well-being are not as important to Mrs. Westenra as her own and that wouldn't be so egregious if she granted her daughter any form of reprieve from her controlling bullshit. If you're going to withdraw from your daughter so you don't have to deal with her illness, then fucking withdraw completely and stop fucking with her life!!

[theriseofthesea]

Van Helsing: I’m so glad I managed to diagnose what was ailing your daughter. And my treatment is working!

Mrs. Westenra: Well, actually. *flips hair dramatically* I’m something of a doctor myself. Lucy getting better is also partially my doing. I got rid of those smelly flowers and opened the window so she could get some fresh air

Van Helsing: (trying so hard not to start crying) Oh really? Wow. That’s.. um.. that’s really great.

*Hugs Dr. Van Helsing.* It’s gonna be okay buddy.

Mrs. Westenra. I have some words for you. *shakes her violently*

YOU ARE NOT HELPING!!!

[see-arcane]

Dracula: Go on, my child of the night, break the glass and send them running into frenzy, that I may take what is mine!

Berserker the Wolf, hating this: Shit shit shit, Mr. Bilder’s going to be so disappointed in me, shit 

Lucy, seeing a giant wolf smash in her window: Oh, God! A wolf! My dead mother! My drugged staff! I’m going to die! D:>

Berserker, a Good Boy Doing This Against His Will: I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I ALSO DON’T WANT TO BE DOING THIS D:>

[thethirdromana]

Dracula characters based on how likely they would be to eat a worm

Jack Seward There’s scarcely anyone in this story more likely to eat a worm than Jack Seward. As an experiment? Yeah, sure. When he was bullied at school? Almost certainly. Because a somewhat overbearing father figure suggested it? Without question. This man has eaten a worm before and he would do so again.

Arthur Holmwood Arthur is the son of a Lord, the Victorian 1%, one of the most wealthy and privileged individuals in one of the most wealthy and privileged countries in the world. Until the events of the novel, do we think Arthur Holmwood, future Lord Godalming, ever had to do anything he didn’t want to? Even in the horrors of the Victorian public school system, rank has its privileges. He would not eat a worm.

Quincey Morris An adventurous type like Quincey? He wouldn’t just eat a worm, he’d fry it in a little butter and cayenne pepper and do his best to enjoy it.

Lucy Westenra as a human I was going to say absolutely not. Surely she would be horrified at the very idea. But equally, Lucy is by far the biggest people-pleaser in the whole novel [edited to redact unreasonable slander of Jonathan Harker]. If she thought eating a worm would make someone she loved happy, she’d dig right in.

Lucy Westenra as the Bloofer Lady Small children have been known to eat worms, and Lucy has been known to eat small children. So indirectly, yes, she would eat a worm.

Jonathan Harker It strikes me that we don’t know much about the eating habits of any of the characters in this novel – for instance, we know which pub Jack Seward likes, but not what he eats when he’s there.

But we have a wealth of information about Jonathan, and we know he is the kind of man who will have an unfamiliar paprika dish for dinner, have “queer dreams”, then go down for breakfast and have even more paprika.

Jonathan Harker would eat a worm.

Mina Harker née Murray Mina would do anything for her friends and loved ones, and that includes eating a worm. But come on guys, really? You would force Mina to eat a worm after everything she’s been through? You monsters.

Van Helsing Van Helsing thinks astral projection is real and parrots live forever. He’s the first person to consider the possibility that Lucy is being vampired. This man has the most open mind in the entire novel. He is a deeply weird individual and he would definitely eat a worm.

Mrs Westenra Mrs Westenra is a respectable Victorian lady of the upper-middle or upper-classes, and under no circumstances would she eat a worm.

Unless it was the last-ditch treatment for her ailing daughter, I guess.

Dracula You know the song you might have sung as a kid – “nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I’ll go and eat worms?”

We know Dracula eats solicitors and Lucys, he doesn’t eat worms. But he should.  

Renfield Do I even need to answer this one?

[galsinspace]

When will tumblr stop slandering Mrs Westenra? She took the flowers because she wanted to HELP Lucy to get some fresh air!! She left everything to Arthur in her will because she clearly had some premonition okay, this is a supernatural story and she was worried for her daughter's health and she turned out to be RIGHT to do this, even if the lawyers noted that it would have been wrong in 99% of cases.

[yallemagne]

When I told Mrs. Westenra that Dr. Van Helsing had directed that I should sit up with her she almost pooh-poohed the idea, pointing out her daughter's renewed strength and excellent spirits. 

Mrs. Westenra would flush her daughter's pills because "look! you're getting better! you don't need that dirty medicine anymore!!"

Ma'am. Why do you think she looks better? How do you think that happened?

[yallemagne]

I feel the thing with Mrs Westenra is that she's that specific brand of entitled old lady that keeps harming those around her with her own beliefs while having her own fragility used as an excuse. Its like someone punching a friend "for their own good" and then going "pwease dwont hurt me im so delicate n frwagile :("

She works well as a character as in she's basically another way societal expectations and lack of communication are a cog in Dracula's machinations, but on my personal opinion she's really frustrating. (Hehe my rambling got a lil long sorry abt that)

Yes, what pains me so much this that Mrs. Westenra is such a real person. I have suffered such real people in my life, some I love dearly, some I love out of obligation, and it is painful to see what Lucy is going through, to see her be punished again and again by her mother's willful neglect, and she cannot even muster the will to be angry with her. Lucy has been stripped of any ability to speak out against her mother, even in her most private of musings, because her mother is so highly prioritized over herself. Lucy's suffering must always be kept out of view, and she never has the self-preservation to just snap and say "no, I am a human being".

Mrs. Westenra's a cog in the machine of the plot. She was written this way purposefully. No matter how much damage she causes, you're meant to feel bad for her, because if you don't, you might demand to know why Bram hasn't just killed her already. The reason is that he never even intended for his readers to feel this resentment. Her behaviour is not meant to be taken seriously because she's a poor old woman who just doesn't know any better. She's allowed and expected to be ignorant, and if not her, there would be some other person, a maid unknowingly throwing out the blooms.

But it hurts so much more for it to be your own mother who hurts you. Your feelings don't matter to her except as an extension of her own. She finds the flowers that you love, and ignoring the clear signs of your contentment with the flowers, she projects her negative feelings onto you and throws them out. Then, self-gratulatory as ever, she brags to your doctors that she knows better than them when she can't even recognize how close you are to death. She has willfully abandoned you because your sickness stresses her, and she would rather leave you without a goodbye than face you like an adult and admit she is dying. And worse than that, she doesn't pull away enough to make room for the people who are actively trying to save you, no, she still intercedes, making their jobs harder and your life worse, and no one dares to correct her in any meaningful way because if she knew she wasn't perfect, it would kill her.

I'm not so naïve as to say that because I have such deep-rooted trauma surrounding personalities like this that I am sooo smart and right to take such issue with this fictional character. It is a bit of an overreaction. But you could say my feelings towards this entire novel are an overreaction. I know other people have probably experienced this behaviour, and their reactions to it aren't mine. There are most definitely people who have suffered this kind of neglect but their impulse is instead to forgive and defend Mrs. Westenra, and I cannot deny someone that.

But I hurt so deeply for Lucy. I recognize Mrs. Westenra's hurting but I cannot place it above Lucy's. I value Lucy so much more, and I don't feel a lick of guilt about it.

[yallemagne]

Me: *thinks of another aspect of Mrs. Westenra's horrid parenting* "AND ANOTHER THING---"

Lucy has her sleepwalking condition and Mrs. Westenra knows it is a problem and instead of approaching her daughter about it and assigning a maid or even hiring a medical professional to tend to Lucy, she first shirks all responsibility on her daughter's friend who was invited to a vacation, not a new unpaid job. And then, with the knowledge that Lucy is still sleepwalking post-vacation -- because there is no indication she has stopped, nor anything to give us the impression that Mrs. Westenra could rightfully assume she'd stopped -- she sends her daughter away when she comes to her asking to sleep in her bed.

What happened to the concern about Lucy leaving the house in her sleep? Huh? Is it somehow no longer a concern now that there isn't a literal cliff she could fall off of?? Is Lucy's health suddenly less important just because you have your death warrant and soon it won't be your problem??

HIRE A FUCKING DOCTOR YOU FUCKJGIOSMMRTGFDSF I'm SO MAD.

Are there any complications with letting Lucy sleep in her bed aside from just "I might die soon and I don't want her to know"? Does her heart condition perhaps cause problems in the night that would make it unwise to let Lucy share her bed? If so, this is the perfect time to explain to your daughter what is going on with your health and perhaps present a solution for both of you: a compromise. Perhaps pull up a cot beside your bed so she can sleep in the same room without it negatively affecting your health--

Oh, wait, that's something a good parent would do, and we're in a horror novel.

[yallemagne]

Tired of constantly having my feelings invalidated but of course hope none of those soft-hearted prigs will be able to find this post.

"Mrs. Westenra's good! Her daughter is still a child!!"

Her daughter is an adult, but let's skip past even that. Let's bring up something all y'all forgot.

What part of forcing your daughter's best friend to be a babysitter and confidant is that "good parenting" you guys keep hyping up?

Imagine you're over at a friend's house and your friend's mother pulls you aside and tells you that she's dying soon and you have to keep it secret. And this is weeks after pulling you aside and telling you that you're going to have to moderate her child's sleepwalking habits.

It's about patterns of shit behaviour, it's not even about the stupid fucking garlic at this point. It's about past and future events that doom Lucy and those around her to a worse quality of life. I don't give even half a damn if she means well. Abuse that is "well-meant" is still fucking abuse, and yes, emotional neglect is a form of abuse, forcing your daughter to walk on eggshells around you is abuse, and forcing another child to parent your daughter is abuse.

Van Helsing made his damn mistakes and he took responsibility for them. He gave his blood and sat up, he suffered through the grief of being so wrong and letting Lucy get hurt by his own hubris. When he's inadvertently fucked everything up, he puts the work in to make things right. He deserves to face the consequences of something that he's partially caused.

But what did Mina do to deserve all those sleepless nights? What did she do to deserve having to keep so many secrets when she was already hiding her grief at the notion that the love of her life could be fucking dead?

Mina cannot be that much older than Lucy. I don't care if Westenra needed an adult to talk to, she has a staff of servants she could confide in whose job it is to fret over her health. If she needs a fellow adult to speak to about things she's trying to keep from her daughter, her daughter's best friend who is of a similar age is NOT the optimal choice!!

[yallemagne]

I realize that there are people in the Dracula fandom who are very uncomfortable with criticism directed Mrs. Westenra's way, whether they think she's actually a decent mom and like her or they just don't feel good about unsympathetic takes on fictional characters.

Fair. So, to be safe? I'm going to be tagging my Mrs. Westenra posts with "mrs. westenra slander", so if my distaste for her is offputting you may block that tag. Because I'm never gonna stop iejgrpogr sorry I have issues.

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

My pet peeve is Seward slander in this section of the novel like do I have Thoughts about how he really, really should have known better with Renfield and Dracula later on? Yes I do. However, with Lucy I would say he almost completely gets a clean bill of competency (he ought to have thought to tell Mrs. Westenra, that's the only mistake he makes). Every other action is entirely rational and intelligent given what he knows. He bears absolutely no blame for falling asleep the second night. He was never told to sit up every night and a human being cannot reasonably be expected to pull two all nighters in a row. Out of Dr Seward, Mrs. Westenra, and Dr. Van Helsing he's the one I'm trusting with my life 10000% it is not even close