Dracula, a novel written by the British writer Bram Stoker in 1897,
             chronicles the life of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray in Transylvania,
             where as engaged lovers, they encountered Count Dracula of Transylvania.
             Count Dracula's character provides the horror element to the novel because
             it was rumored (in the novel) that the Count is a vampire, who victimizes
             women in the town of Transylvania through impalement. The main conflict
             comes when the Count transferred from Transylvania to England, where there
             are more opportunities to victimize more people, putting Mina in danger.
             Prior to Mina's victimization, her best friend Lucy Westenra has
             already been afflicted with the Count's vampirism.' Chapters 7 through 16
             chronicles, through journal entries and correspondences, the worsening
             condition of Lucy, starting from her sickness right after being impaled by
             Dracula, and eventual transformation, or "birth," as a vampire (Project
             Gutenberg, 2004). Lucy's victimization and transformation as a vampire
             illustrates a strong point in the novel. Lucy, as the victim, and Mina, as
             the potential victim of Dracula in the novel, exemplifies the culture of
             "victimization of women" in the novel, where they are first illustrated as
             weak individuals and later empowered through the significant roles they
             played in defeating and overpowering Count Dracula.
             This paper analyzes the theme of victimization and empowerment of
             women in Dracula. Lucy and Mina, as the main women characters in the
             novel, played important roles as victims of the Count who eventually became
             instrumental in making possible the defeat of Count Dracula from Harker's
             group (Quincey Morris, Dr. John Seward, and Professor Abraham Van Helsing).
             This paper specifically uses the character of Lucy Westenra in order to
             argue the position of this thesis. The analysis shows that in order to
             become empowered, women must ...