A continuous theme in Dracula is marriage and the gaining of status following it, starting with letters between Mina and Lucy. Their correspondence takes the reader back to the novels starting moment, giving us another angle into the lives of these characters, then tangled together with the main Gothic storyline through the plots development (McCrea 254). But even before these plotlines started to connect, Minas and Lucys journey in courting and marriage consciously mirrored Jonathans experience in Draculas castle. As remarked above, his life reflects the expected lifestyle of married Victorian women as Mina mentioned in her letters, but the similarity doesnt end there. Lucy starts with three men who seek her hand in marriage, mirrored by Jonathan being sexually pursued by the three vampire women. Theyre both the object of desire for the other sex thats superior to them in crucial aspects and both desire pleasures that were queer from Western societys standard. But while Jonathan escaped the threat of vampirism thanks to Dracula (tec
hnically his fourth pursuer) saving him, Lucys four saviors were unable to combat the transformation wrought by Draculas infectious Otherness. Going back to Minas assault where she was forced to drink Draculas blood, Jonathan acted (or not) as the voyeuristic party, whose wife was being taken by another man. His face flushed and breathing heavily(c.2) while watching, a striking semblance of Lucys long, heavy gasps after being bitten. The differing factor that decided these twos fate lies in the act of consummation, acting as the seal for marriage in the Empires law. Harker retains his virginity as he never exchanges bodily fluids with any vampires, therefore his blood is still pure from the Others contamination. But Lucy has been bitten several times: shes heavily contaminated and must be punished becoming a temptress, as beautiful and irresistible as Draculas wife (Yu 9). She now poses a threat against the men in her life, against the purity of the English bloodline, and the traditional structure of heterosexual sex inside marriage.