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.