Dracula Moodboard

Dracula: Mina

For my character, I've decided to focus on Mina. Mina is the wife of Jonathon Harker and get's turned into a vampire towards the end of the novel.

The reason I picked her was because I feel like she is the most interesting character in the novel and I feel like there's a lot I could do in terms of make-up.

I decided to base the make-up around when Mina is burnt on the head by Van Helsing with bread to determine whether she is a vampire. Due to it being a religious token, it burns her forehead leaving a mark. I decided to do this and create a burn for my design.

Mina is considered to be a 'New Woman', which was a popular concept in Victoria times. It mainly focuses on the idea of women being more independent and having their own careers rather than always taking on traditional roles such as being wives and homemakers. For this reason I wanted her to look strong and powerful, and like she could be quite intimidating to men.

idea that men and women should be allowed to see each other asleep before proposing or accepting. But […] the New Woman won't condescend in future to accept; she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it, too! There's some consolation in that.

Despite being a 'New Woman', she does have a mothering instinct in her: 

"He stood up and then sat down again, and the tears rained down his cheeks. I felt an infinite pity for him, and opened my arms unthinkingly. With a sob he laid his head on my shoulder, and cried like a wearied child, whilst he shook with emotion."

This however, comes across more as pitying men rather than feeling that they are superior:

"We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the mother-spirit is invoked; I felt this big, sorrowing man's head resting on me, as though it were that of the baby that some day may lie on my bosom, and I stroked his hair as though he were my own child."

I felt that for my design, I wanted Mina to look powerful and intimidating but not evil. I feel that creating the wound on her head will make her come across as the victim that she sometimes comes across as in the book and would make her more relatable to viewers, especially women. 

I wanted her to have dark hair, in an early Victorian style, pale. 'dead' skin and lips and dark eyes.

Dracula: Characters

Count Dracula: The owner of Castle Dracula and a vampire

Jonathon Harker: A lawyer sent to Castle Dracula to meet with the Count, under the impression that he's there due to the Count wanting to sell the castle.

Mina Murray: Jonathon’s fiancé. She is a writer and the main example in the book of a 'modern woman'. 

Lucy Westenra: Mina’s best friend

Arthur Holmwood: Lucy’s fiancé

Quincey Morris: one of Lucy’s suitor

Dr. John Seward: Another one of Lucy’s suitors and a doctor that tries to help Lucy

Professor Van Helsing: John Seward’s mentor

Dracula: Overview

The novel ‘Dracula’, written by Bram Stoker in 1897, tells the story of Count Dracula, a vampire. The character Jonathon Harker is a lawyer who travels to Transylvania to meet the Count for what he believes is real estate business, leaving his fiancé Mina back in England. Jonathon realises after a while that he is essentially a prisoner and cannot leave Castle Dracula.

It soon becomes clear that the Count possesses supernatural powers and encounters three beautiful women in the castle who attempt to attack him before he is saved by the Count. Harker becomes increasingly more frightened and climbs down the walls of the castle.

We  learn that Mina’s good friend Lucy back in England has been proposed to by three men, and has decided to marry Arthur Holmwood. Mina goes to visit her in Whitby, where a the only living thing left is the ships dog, who runs away. They also find boxes filled with earth from Castle Dracula.

One night, Mina wakes up and finds Lucy in the cemetery and sees some kind of creature bending over Lucy. Two red dots (fang marks) are found on her neck and she starts to become very ill. One of the men who earlier tried to propose to her, Dr. Seward cannot tell what they are and so calls for Professor Van Helsing.

At this point, Jonathon is in Buda-pest but has developed brain fever so Mina goes to meet him.

Van Helsing believes it will help Lucy to have her bedroom filled with garlic, She appears to get better but her mother cleans up the garlic without realising its effect on Lucy, leaving her to be attacked again.

The doctors attempt to help her by giving her blood transfusions, a wolf breaks into the house, killing Lucy and giving her mother a fatal heart attack.

After Lucy dies, she becomes part of the ‘Undead’ and is seen preying on a child. The others decide they must destroy her and go to her tomb, put a stake, cutting of her head and stuffing garlic in her mouth. 

Mina an Jonathon return to England to help, now married, and the group piece together their diaries as a way to work out where Dracula might be. They find the boxes of earth from the castle that the Count has been sleeping in.

The Count is then let into the asylum the group have been in by one of the patients so that he can get to Mina.

Mina is bitten by the Count and starts turning into a vampire. The others cleanse the boxes of dirt so Dracula has no choice but to go back to his castle. The group follow him back to Castle Dracula but get there before him and destroy the three women that live in there. They use sacred objects to block all the doors of the building and they find the Count, killing him with knives.