Dracula

AUTHOR BIOFull Name: Bram (Abraham) Stoker

Date of Birth: November 8, 1847

Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Date of Death: April 20, 1912

Brief Life Story: One of seven children, Bram Stoker was born to upper-middle-class Irish Protestant parents in the middle of the nineteenth century;he suffered a grave illness at age seven, which caused him to turn to readingand probably prompted his interest in literature. As a young man, Stokerattended Trinity College, Dublin, and studied mathematics. He then embarkedon a career in the theater, moving to London and working for the Lyceum,befriending such intellectuals as Oscar Wilde, and working as the Lyceum'sstage and business manager for over a decade. Stoker later took a job at theLondon paper The Daily Telegraph, working as a literary reporter and critic. Hebegan writing Dracula, his only successful novel, during this period ofemployment; it went on to become a sensation on its publication in 1897.Stoker wrote other novels and short stories before his death, of stroke, in1912, but none approached the popular acclaim of Dracula. The novel hasbecome a part of the Western popular imagination, drawn as it was fromVictorian ideas of morality and reinterpretations of Central European mythsabout "wampyrs," or vampires.

KEY FACTSFull Title: Dracula

Genre: horror; horror-romance; Gothic novel; novel-in-letters

Setting: Transylvania and in and around London, England; the very end of the1800s

Climax: The group locates Dracula in Transylvania, and stabs him in the heartand beheads him, thus freeing his soul to heaven and freeing Mina from hisspiritual grasp

Antagonist: Count Dracula

Point of View: first-person (as relayed through letters and journal entries byvarious characters)

HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXTWhen Written: 1896-97

Where Written: London, England

When Published: May 1897

Literary Period: late-Victorian, but drawing on the Gothic and melodramatictraditions in the English novel

Related Literary Works: The novel most often compared to Dracula is MaryShelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, published in 1818,approximately 80 years before the publication of Dracula. Like Dracula,Frankenstein is a novel-in-letters, containing first-person accounts ofinteractions with a horrible monster. Both novels contain typically "gothic"elements, such as old castles, sweeping views of nature; both, too, areconsiderations of the interaction between "science" (or "reason") andsuperstition. But the fact of Dracula's being written much later actually beliesDracula's basis in the mythology of present-day Romania, which includedmention of "wampyrs." Frankenstein, on the other hand, is more or less theinvention of Shelley, although it draws more broadly on ancient stories of thecreation of man out of inert material, including the "Pygmalion" myth.

Dracula was also influenced by gothic novels of 1800s—novels that includedreferences to old castles or estates, strange violent and sexual intrigues, and

atmospheres of gloom, dread, and paranoia. Some iconic examples of thegothic novel form are The Castle of Otranto (by Horace Walpole), The Monk (byMatthew Gregory Lewis), and Northanger Abbey, a send-up of the gothic genreby Jane Austen. In its concern about the intersection of modern "rational"Victorian England with non-rational spiritual, supernatural, or ancient truthsor urges, Dracula also bears resemblance to a number of other novels writtennear the end of the 18th century, including The Picture of Dorian Gray (OscarWilde), The Island of Dr. Moreau (H.G. Wells), and The Strange Case of Jekyll andHyde (Robert Louis Stevenson).

Related Historical Events: Dracula can be framed against the social andpolitical currents of the Victorian period in English society, which existedduring the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. During this time,England experienced a great deal of economic, social, and political change.Under Victoria, England expanded its colonial holdings to form an empire "onwhich the sun never set"—this empire extended from India to ports in China,to islands in the Caribbean, to portions of Africa in which England had tradingand other financial interests. British imperialism during this time caused notonly a great infusion of money into London, the capital of the empire, but alsocaused a greater exchange of information, stories, and legends from aroundthe world. The legends of the Carpathian mountains, in present-day Romania,form the basis of the novel Dracula.

The Victorian period was also known for a relatively strict moral and sexualcode—men and women were to be chaste until marriage, and even aftermarriage, a heavily-restrictive set of social rules were to govern theinteractions between the sexes. Victorian chastity extended to fashion,furniture, and other methods of décor, and a good deal of the sexualcommentary in Dracula reflects a sense, experienced by many during theVictorian period, that a great amount of uncertainty and fear lay beneath thestrong social structures supporting the family, Christian institutions, and thevarious branches of the English government. During the Victorian era, too,scientific thought developed a great deal, and the balance between Christianbelief—a moral necessity during that time—and a belief, too, in the explanatorypowers of science created other of the anxieties reflected in the scientific,Christian, and occult visions of Count Dracula presented in the novel.

EXTRA CREDITOther representations, over time. The character "Dracula" has achievednearly universal recognition since the publication of Bram Stoker's novel,although many people who know of Dracula have not read the book. ButDracula's fear of mirrors, his aversion to garlic and crucifixes, his sleeping atnight, and, of course, his desire to suck the blood of women, children, and theweak have become touchstones of Western society and culture. Notableversions of the Dracula-legend in the West include: Dracula, a film with BelaLugosi (1931); Dracula, a film with Christopher Lee (1958); Dracula, a film withFrank Langella (1979); Bram Stoker's Dracula, a film directed by Francis FordCoppola (1992); Dracula, a play on Broadway (1924); and various video games,graphic novels, and versions in other media.

Dracula opens with a young solicitor's assistant, Jonathan Harker, en routefrom Budapest into Transylvania, to visit the Castle Dracula and to meet withCount Dracula, a nobleman who has recently purchased an estate in Londoncalled Carfax. Harker worries, as he approaches the castle, about thesuperstitious locals, who seem to fear Dracula. Harker is picked up by astrange driver and taken to the castle, where he meets the Count and beginsto discuss business. Harker finds the Count odd—he is active only at night, andseems never to eat. And the Count appears to be the only person living in theCastle.

Harker realizes, slowly, that Dracula was, in fact, the "strange driver" whobrought Harker there, and that Dracula is holding Harker prisoner. Harker

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observes Dracula crawling out his window, along the castle walls, "like a lizard,"and even believes he has seen Dracula turn himself into a bat. Harker, in themeantime, stumbles upon a room of the castle in which he meets the demonicforms of three women, who appear to want to drink his blood. But Draculaintervenes, saying Harker is "his," and carries Harker back to his own bedroom.Eventually, Harker decides to escape and finds a deep basement chapel in thecastle, where Dracula sleeps in a wooden box filled with earth. Harkerattempts to kill Dracula by gashing him in the face with a shovel, but Draculaseems only superficially harmed. Harker escapes from the castle through hiswindow and brings his journal with him, to show his experiences to his fiancéeMina.

Meanwhile, Mina and Lucy, two young, upper-middle-class friends in England,are on vacation at Whitby, an English port. Lucy begins sleepwalking, and Minafinds Lucy one night bent over a rock in a cemetery above Whitby, with aghastly shade above her. Mina brings Lucy back to her house, and notices, overthe ensuing days, that Lucy's condition appears to be worsening. Mina calls inArthur, a nobleman and Lucy's fiancé, Seward, a doctor and chief of a Londoninsane asylum, and Morris, a Texas man, to help Lucy—Seward and Morriswere former suitors of Lucy's, and are now her friends. Seward, realizing hedoesn't understand the nature of Lucy's illness, calls in his former ProfessorAbraham Van Helsing, from Amsterdam, to help Lucy.

Van Helsing believes he knows the cause of Lucy's illness, but does notimmediately explain it to Seward and the rest of the group. Lucy appears to belosing blood at night, and in turn Arthur, Morris, Van Helsing, and Seward allgive Lucy transfusions to keep her alive. After a while, however, thesetransfusions prove insufficient. One night, when the men of the group areaway, and when Lucy's elderly mother is in her bedroom, a wolf leaps inthrough Lucy's window, then rushes out—Lucy documents the events in herjournal, and her mother dies from the shock of the wolf's attack. Afterward,Lucy cannot be saved by any future blood transfusions, and she diessurrounded by the men of the group.

Meanwhile, Mina has been in Budapest caring for Harker, who has suffered a"nervous breakdown" after his time with the Count, and believes the strangethings he saw at Castle Dracula were hallucinations. When Mina and Harkerreturn to England, however, Van Helsing tells Harker that his interactions withthe Count were not hallucinations, but real. Van Helsing gathers the men ofthe group and tells them that Lucy is not truly dead, but is an Un-Deadvampire; the men of the group travel to Lucy's cemetery, observe her hauntingthe grounds and attempting to suck the blood of children, and later "truly kill"her by stabbing her in the heart with a stake and cutting off her head. Althoughthese events shock Arthur, Morris, Seward, and Harker, the men agree to trackdown Dracula, whom they believe to have bitten Lucy in England, and "trulykill" him as well.

As the group prepares to do this, however, Harker notices that Mina appearsto be getting sick as well, and one night, as the group is all assembled inSeward's office of the insane asylum, a loud crash is heard, and Dracula is seenhaving bitten Mina and forcing Mina to suck his own blood, while Harker is in adeep trance beside them. This causes the group great alarm, and Mina feelsshe has been "poisoned" by Dracula in this blood-ritual. In the asylum, Sewardhas also had conversations with an insane man named Renfield, who speaks ofwanting to gain the "life force" of animals he eats, and who is discovered, also,to be communing with Dracula—Renfield allowed Dracula to enter the asylumby inviting him in, and this enabled Dracula to attack Mina and form a "bloodlink" with her.

The men of the group find out that Dracula has shipped 50 wooden boxes,filled with sacred earth from Transylvania, to England—Dracula needs theseboxes to sleep in, to maintain his powers. The group realizes they muststerilize these boxes with holy communion wafers in order to remove theirspecial restorative properties and destroy Dracula. The group finds 49 of the50 boxes in London, at the Carfax estate and other of Dracula's properties,and sterilizes them; but the last box, they realize, Dracula has taken back toTransylvania. The group tracks Dracula and this final box to Dracula's castle.

The group makes the trip with Mina, who can tell Dracula's location whenhypnotized by Van Helsing because of her blood link with the Count. Theybelieve Dracula will land at the port Varna, near Romania, but he actually landsat Galatz—the group intercepts him, however, as he sleeps in his final box enroute to the castle, and Harker and Morris stab him in the heart and cut off his

head, thus truly killing him—freeing his soul from his Un-Dead body. ButMorris is fatally wounded by a gypsy during this attack, and later dies. In aclosing note, written seven years later, Harker says that he and Mina now havea child, named after Morris, and that Seward and Arthur both ended up findinglove and getting married. They write that they and Van Helsing worry no onewill believe their fantastical story of Dracula, even though they havepainstakingly assembled their accounts of his activities in order to "prove" hisexistence.

Count DrCount Draculaacula – A Count living in a castle in the Carpathian mountains, nearpresent-day Romania (or Transylvania), Dracula is a member of an ancientfamily of warriors, some of whom fought against the Huns, the Turks, andother invaders in Central Europe in the Middle Ages. Dracula is also a vampire,or an Un-Dead being that sleeps at night, turns into a bat at will, and must feedon the blood of the living to survive. At the beginning of the novel, Dracula isdoing business with Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor's assistant, in orderto buy property in London; as the novel progresses, Dracula comes to London,bringing with him 50 wooden boxes filled with sacred earth, in which he sleepsto restore and preserve his powers. Eventually, Dracula is tracked down byHarker, Van Helsing, Seward, and others, as he feeds on the blood of thewomen Lucy and Mina; the group then destroys Dracula's boxes and,eventually, Dracula himself, by stabbing him in the heart and a stake, andcutting off his head, freeing his soul.

Jonathan HarkJonathan Harkerer – A young solicitor's assistant, who marries Mina after histerrible interactions with the Count in Transylvania. Harker believes hisvisions of the vampire are hallucinations, until he learns, from Van Helsing,that Dracula is really a vampire. Harker then helps in the group's efforts to findand kill Dracula.

Mina HarkMina Harkerer – Harker's fiancée, and then wife, Mina tends to Lucy, her friendand Arthur's fiancée, during Lucy's illness; it then turns out that Lucy waspreyed upon by Dracula. Mina, in turn, has her blood sucked by Dracula, andthrough a "blood link" formed between her and Dracula, Mina is able tochannel his thoughts when hypnotized by Van Helsing.

AbrAbraham Vaham Van Helsingan Helsing – An eminent professor from Amsterdam, and alearned "man of science," Van Helsing was Seward's former teacher; Sewardcalls him to England to help with the case of Lucy. Van Helsing later leads thegroup, including Seward, on the hunt to "truly kill" Lucy and track down andtruly kill Dracula. Van Helsing speaks a kind of non-idiomatic, "choppy"English.

DrDr. Seward. Seward – The head of an insane asylum in London, which happens to sitnext to Dracula's first English estate at Carfax, Seward was a former suitor of,and current friend to, Lucy, before her death. With Van Helsing and theothers, Seward then tracks down Dracula in England, and follows him toRomania, where Dracula is "truly killed."

QuinceQuincey Morrisy Morris – A young gentleman from Texas, Morris is one of Lucy'sformer suitors; he dies, "gallantly," in the last effort to kill Dracula, as he isstabbed in the side by a gypsy protecting Dracula's wooden box.

Arthur HolmArthur Holmwoodwood – Lucy's fiancé, Arthur is an English nobleman (LordGodalming) of a somewhat nervous and emotional temperament. Van Helsingconvinces Arthur that Arthur must stab Lucy in the heart to "free her" fromher vampirism, and to achieve closure—to realize that Lucy can only be "safe"when she is no longer forced to exist as an Un-Dead.

Lucy WLucy Westenrestenraa – Arthur's fiancée, Lucy is stricken by sleepwalking and thenan unknown illness. As it turns out she is being stalked and her blood drunk byDracula. Lucy is best friends with Mina, who wonders what is happening asLucy begins to waste away and lose a great deal of blood. Lucy is treated bySeward and Van Helsing, though she later turns into a vampire, and must bekilled "again" in her tomb by Arthur, Van Helsing, and the rest of the group.

Mrs. WMrs. Westenrestenraa – Lucy's mother, Mrs. Westenra is in fragile health, and is killedby shock when Dracula, in the form of a wolf, plows through the window intoLucy's bedroom in England.

SwalesSwales – An old man living in Whitby, the vacation spot where Lucy and Minastay together, Swales jokes to the two young women about the unnecessary

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nature of cemeteries. He later recants his jokes when he feels that a kind of"evil" has arrived in England, when the boat on which Dracula traveled toEngland winds up at the Whitby port. Swales then dies at night undermysterious circumstances.

Nurse AgathaNurse Agatha – A nurse who tended to Harker during his "nervous illness" inBudapest, after his visit to the Castle Dracula, Nurse Agatha communicatesabout Harker's condition with Mina via letter.

Captain of the DemeterCaptain of the Demeter – A sea captain who unknowingly transports Draculato England, he eventually dies on his ship, ties himself to its wheel, and pilotsthe vessel, after his death, erratically into the Whitby port, where it becomes alocal news sensation.

The Landlord and Landlady in RomaniaThe Landlord and Landlady in Romania – Romanian peasants, the Landlordand Landlady warn Harker that it might be dangerous to visit Dracula at hiscastle; the Landlady begs him not to travel there, although Harker doesanyway.

The Three SistersThe Three Sisters – Three of Dracula's sisters, the Three Sisters are vampiresand spirits who haunt Dracula's castle, and who wish to feed on Harker'sblood before Harker is "saved" by Dracula—since Dracula wants the first"draw" of Harker's vital fluids for himself.

RenfieldRenfield – An insane man kept in Seward's institution, Renfield has a desire togain the "life-force" of flies, spiders, birds, and cats, and later has a desire forblood—he promises to be Dracula's student, and is eventually killed byDracula, once Renfield invites the Count into the asylum. The Count goes onto attack Mina there.

Arthur's FatherArthur's Father – A sick nobleman, Arthur's father dies during Lucy's illness,keeping Arthur away from Lucy at crucial moments, as Dracula is feeding onher blood.

HaHawkinswkins – The head solicitor of Harker's firm, Hawkins considers Harker likea son, and later names Harker and Mina in his will—they inherit the large shareof Hawkins' money, making Harker and Mina quite wealthy as young people.

QuinceQuincey Harky Harkerer – The child of Mina and Harker, born on the day QuinceyMorris died, Quincey Harker was named after Morris in memory of hisheroism in fighting to "truly kill" Dracula.

WRITING, JOURNALING, AND MESSAWRITING, JOURNALING, AND MESSAGINGGINGDracula isn't really a "novel" at all; it does not present itself as the work of asingle author or narrator. Instead, Dracula consists of series of diary entries,letters, telegrams, memoranda, and occasional newspaper clippings,assembled and typed up by Mina Harker, with help from Seward, VanHelsing, Jonathan Harker, Quincey Morris, and Arthur, Lord Godalming. In asense, then, Mina is the "author" of the book: she knits together these variousaccounts. This creates an intriguing "meta-narrative" effect: the characters inthe novel are reading "the novel" as we, the reader, are making our waythrough it.

The novel is, essentially, a detective story, as the group finds out the nature ofDracula's violent activities and attempts to track him down and destroy him.The accounts knit together by Mina show how the group goes about catchingthe Count. Jonathan Harker's journal tells of his arrival to Transylvania,location of Castle Dracula; his eventual imprisonment there; his attempts toward off Dracula and the Three Sisters; and his eventual escape to Budapest.Letters between Lucy and Mina track, primarily, the slow "illness" overtakingLucy, which results in her becoming a vampire. Seward's diary containsinformation about the patient Renfield, an accomplice and acolyte of Dracula's,who refers to him as "lord and master." Mina's journal details Mina's ownillness and refers to her hypnotic visions, which serve as a "conscious link"between the Count and Mina. Van Helsing notes down several events towardthe end of the novel, including the final pursuit of Dracula; newspaper reportsof supernatural events fill out the uncanniness of the narrative, fromperspectives beyond those of Mina and the rest of the group.

These accounts serve a central purpose in Dracula. Journals, diaries, and otherfirst-person accounts lend credence to events that, if they were narrated by athird-person omniscient narrator, might seem too fantastical for the reader to

accept. When the novel's characters make sense of the events they have seen,and relay these events to others, via their own writing and messaging, though,it puts the characters and the readers in the same position. Van Helsingtherefore comments, in a quotation referenced by Harker in the novel'sClosing Note, that because these are all "accounts" and not "objectivelyvalidated" by other persons, one still must, at the end of Dracula, take thecharacters' word for what has happened. Despite this almost obsessivereliance on the truthfulness of the information being reported, what we have,here, is nevertheless subject to embellishment and fantasy. It is up to thereader to judge if and when such fantasy has been inserted into the narrative.

ILLNESS, MADNESS, AND CONFINEMENTILLNESS, MADNESS, AND CONFINEMENTDracula contains a study of the meaning of "sanity" and "insanity," of "wellness"and "illness." The treatment for both "insanity" and "illness" in the novel isconfinement, which recurs throughout. Practically every character in thegroup questions his or her wellness or sanity at some point. Jonathan Harker,on his trip to Dracula's castle, is confined within the castle as a prisoner ofDracula's. Harker believes he is going insane there, and he has visions ofDracula turning into a bat, and of the ghastly Three Sisters. When Harkerescapes, he is treated for a "nervous illness," before Van Helsing verifies hisaccount, and tells him that, indeed, vampires are real. Lucy is afflicted withbouts of sleepwalking, one of which takes her out in the moors of England,where she is first attacked by Dracula. Lucy is then confined to her room byDr. Seward, who eventually calls in Van Helsing to help with her case. Afterher "first death," Lucy is confined to a tomb, and her soul is only "set free"when Arthur drives a stake through her heart. Mina's blood connection toDracula causes her to have hypnotic visions of Dracula's whereabouts. VanHelsing desires, first, that Mina also be confined during her "illness," but Minais later brought along on the group's mission to Transylvania, as Mina canprovide important information for the tracking of the Count.

Other characters have smaller bouts of illness of madness. Van Helsing andSeward both worry that they, too, are mad, though they believe they are menof "science," tracking Dracula according to the laws for hunting vampires.Renfield, an insane man confined under Seward's care, attempts to beDracula's apprentice, and at times appears quite lucid in his desire to consumethe blood of living organisms. Arthur, an emotional man, becomes so horrifiedafter his fiancée Lucy's death that he collapses in Mina's arms, in a fit ofhysterics approaching madness.

The function of this theme in the novel is manifold. First, the theme draws outlate-Victorian cultural attitudes toward illness and madness—that is, anysocially-aberrant behavior is "mad," and women are more prone to thisbehavior than men; both illness and madness require that the patient beremoved from society. Dracula is compared, often, to a poison, or tovermin—he is an illness, a social virus that must be isolated and destroyed. Hisboxes of earth are systematically "sanitized" by means of communion wafers,meaning the Count cannot sleep in them, and, finally, Dracula himself, the viralhost, is destroyed in Transylvania, by Morris and the others.

CHRISTIANITYCHRISTIANITY, SCIENCE, AND THE OCCUL, SCIENCE, AND THE OCCULTTThe novel also considers the interactions of Christian belief, superstitious or"occult" practices, and rational science. The tracking of Dracula requiresmethodical investigations in each of these fields, and the fields themselves, bythe end of the novel, appear very much interrelated, even entirely entangled.Most of the characters in the group profess a serious and proper Christianbelief. The Harkers are observant Protestants, and God-fearing people; theirlove is made permanent in the eyes of God through their speedy marriage.Arthur has special Christian scruples about the discretion of Lucy's body, inorder to save her from her undead status; he eventually acquiesces and aids inher "true killing," thus releasing her soul. Dr. Seward professes a similarlyorthodox understanding of God's goodness, and all characters typically endtheir conversations by saying that their group's success is in God's hands.

But superstition and occult practices become interwoven with these Christianbeliefs. Harker sees, in Transylvania, that many of the peasant-folk havespecial charms to ward off the evil eye. All the preparations designed to wardoff vampires—garlic, the wooden stake, decapitation—come fromTransylvanian superstition dating back to the Middle Ages. The group's effortsto fight Dracula draw on these superstitions, which prove "real," inasmuch asthey work, eventually, to kill the Count.

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The novel draws out a tension, therefore, between rational, scientific thoughtand irrational belief that was very much a part of Victorian society in England.These religious attitudes, Christian and occult, are married to a procedural,rational, scientific frame of mind, most unified in Van Helsing, the universal"man of learning." Van Helsing is an ardent, believing Christian, but also a manwho collects, with great rigor, superstitious practices from central Europe. VanHelsing and Seward also have an intimate knowledge of medicine and biology.All this knowledge, centered on Van Helsing, is brought to bear in the captureof Dracula. Van Helsing—as a man of science, religion, and collector andbeliever in superstition—is therefore the "cure" for a problem Stoker identifiesin Victorian society: a belief, among many Victorians, that rational, scientificknowledge might not be sufficient to overcome the dangers of superstition,those areas of human life not immediately explained by science.

Dracula is not only a devil walking the earth; he is not only a mythical monster,foretold in Romanian legends. And he is not explained fully by testablescientific hypotheses. Dracula is, instead, a human embodiment of the veryhuman beastliness that Victorians feared and hoped to destroy. And only acombination of religious, ritualistic, and scientific modes allows the group totrack and kill Dracula.

RROMANTIC LOMANTIC LOOVE, SEDUCTION, AND SEXUVE, SEDUCTION, AND SEXUALALPURITYPURITYDracula contains a long meditation on "proper," socially-sanctioned love, and"improper" relations of lust and seduction. Much has been made of this aspectof the novel, particularly in 20th-century criticism, and with good reason: it isimpossible to separate the act of Dracula's forcible blood-sucking, directed atunsuspecting women, from the process of violent seduction and sexualassault.

Jonathan and Mina Harker, and Arthur (Lord Godalming) and Lucy, are thenovel's two primary romantic pairs. Their loves follows remarkably similartacks, but the former survives, and the latter, sadly, does not. An earlyromantic intrigue in the novel is Lucy's entertaining of three suitors: Dr.Seward, Arthur, and Quincey. But this "romantic intrigue" so typical ofVictorian novels is only a prologue, in this novel, to the actual drama of Lucy'slife—the fact that she is bitten by a vampire, and becomes a vampire herself.Thus, not only is Arthur robbed of his future wife—he must participate in her"true killing" (that is, the freeing of her soul from the cycle of undeadness). VanHelsing believes that Arthur will be able to let go of his love for Lucy by helpingto drive a stake through her heart and cut off her head. It is a gruesome, ifnecessary, end to their love.

On the other hand, Mina and Jonathan have a love characterized by mutualhelp during times of illness. First, Mina cares for Jonathan after his nervouscollapse, prompted by his stay at, and escape from, the Castle Dracula. Later,Jonathan fights bravely to kill Dracula—to release him from his ownundeadness—in order, also, to free Mina from Dracula's spell. Opposed, then,to these "natural" processes of romantic love are the processes of demonicpossession and seduction. Harker is "seduced" by the Three Sisters atDracula's castle, though he manages to avoid falling into their clutches.Dracula "seduces" both Lucy and Mina. In the former case, he suggestively"penetrates" Lucy's neck while Lucy, who had been sleepwalking, is sprawledover a mossy embankment, outside. With Mina, Dracula is found forcing Minato suck Dracula's own blood from a cut in his abdomen. This, also highlysexually-suggestive, creates a bond between the two that can only be brokenby Dracula's true death.

Thus, at the end of the novel, the killing of Dracula allows Jonathan and Minato live together as husband and wife, and to start a family—this is consideredthe "natural" outcome of a Christian marriage. Meanwhile, the others of thegroup, those whose hearts were broken by Lucy, find their own separate lovesin time and marry as well.

LIFE, DEALIFE, DEATH, AND THE UN-DEADTH, AND THE UN-DEADAll the above lead into the final, and perhaps most important, theme of thenovel: that of the relationship between life, death, and the state in betweenthese two, known by Van Helsing as "undeadness." Dracula is a creature of theundead. He sleeps during the day and lives at night; he is of incredible strengthwhen awake, but must be invited into one's room in order to begin his"seduction." But the touchstone of Dracula's undeadness is his inability

actually to die—his soul is trapped in a kind of prison, and must be released bythe cutting off of Dracula's head, or the driving of a wooden stake through hisheart. In this sense, to kill Dracula is to allow him to live—to free his soul fromthe prison of his body.

Other characters in the novel hover between these categories of living anddying. Harker's swoon, upon leaving Dracula's castle, nearly kills him, and hespends many months regaining his full health, only to find that Mina has beenafflicted by Dracula's bite. Mina, then, is hypnotized by Van Helsing, later on,to provide information on Dracula's whereabouts. This "in-between" hypnoticstate is a kind of undeadness. Lucy's sleepwalking, too, is an "in-betweenstate," not waking and not sleeping, which allows Dracula to find her, bite her,and eventually make her a vampire. Both Harker and Van Helsing appear to gogray and age as the book progresses—they near death, physically, as theyendanger their lives, and only once Dracula is fully killed do they regain theirtotal health. Renfield is obsessed with the life-giving energies of the animalshe eats—flies, spider, birds, cats—and these animals must die to give him life.Renfield wishes to gain the special knowledge of undeadness from Dracula,but is eventually killed by his would-be master.

Interestingly, undeadness seems to diametrically oppose the Christian notionsof resurrection, or life after death. In the former, the soul is given immortal lifein heaven, in nearness to God, once it has been released from the earthly body,which passes from living to dying. But in the case of undeadness, the livingbody seems almost to die, but maintains a kind of purgatorial state in which itfeasts on the blood of the living, and the soul, trapped inside, cannot abidewith God in heaven. The body becomes a parasite, eking out an existencestolen from the vital energy of others. The novel seems to argue that, in orderto continue the normal biotic processes of living and dying, and the normal,moral, "Christian" processes of death and resurrection, undeadness must beeliminated. Souls must be allowed to rise to heaven. Thus Mina rejoices evenwhen Dracula, the villain of the novel, has his soul released from his terriblebody. In this way, even Dracula, the evil one, is saved.

BLOODOne of the foremost colors in the novel is red, and perhaps the novel's mostarresting image is that of blood. Dracula, of course, must feed on the blood ofthe living to survive—it is the "life-power" of one's blood that enables him tolive for long periods of time. Dracula draws blood from Mina and Lucy, andattempts to draw blood from Harker; the Three Sisters, similarly, wish to drinkfrom Harker's blood in turn. Renfield, Seward's patient at the insane asylum,has a desire to eat living animals, including their blood, in order to gain their"life-force." Arthur, Seward, Van Helsing, and Morris must all give Lucy bloodtransfusions, as Dracula is consuming enormous quantities of Lucy's vital fluid.The drawing of blood has, naturally, a violent undertone, and indeed Dracula'sparasitic need to live off others is shared, in part, by the bat, which is hisprimary animalistic or bestial representation. But blood also contains areference to sexual desire and sexual violence, as the flushing of cheeks, or"ruddiness," was considered a sign of sexual arousal in Victorian times, andDracula's stealing of women's blood in the night is a thinly-veiled indicator ofhis desire to "take" from them, to "pollute" them in a manner not unlike sexualassault. Only when Dracula is stabbed through the heart, and when his head iscut off, does the cycle of blood-lust cease in the novel.

BATSThe bat is the primary animal-representation for Dracula. Bats in the novel, ofcourse, desire the blood of other living things—they are mammals, and certainspecies of vampire bat do indeed feed on living animals. The bat, also, isnocturnal, or active at night, and the bat can fly, allowing it access to placesDracula might not otherwise be able to reach. Morris attempts to shoot a bathe sees flying around a meeting of the group, at the insane asylum; Harkerfears that Dracula has changed himself into a bat, at his castle; both Lucy andMina report having seen bats near them when they are being attacked byDracula (or having their blood sucked); and Van Helsing later informs thegroup that bats—and also, secondarily, wolves and rats—are creatureshistorically associated with vampires, or the Un-Dead. When Dracula is trulykilled at the end of the novel—when his spirit is "set free" by the

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group—representations of bats also cease—the bats are no longer underDracula's power, and are free to return to their normal lives in the wild.

CHAPTER 1I saw around us a ring of wolves, with white teeth and lolling red tongues, withlong, sinewy limbs and shaggy hair. They were a hundred times more terriblein the grim silence . . . then even when they howled.

—Jonathan Harker

CHAPTER 2In no place [in the castle] save from the windows in the castle walls is there anavailable exit. The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!

—Jonathan Harker

CHAPTER 3Well, now I promise you that when I am done with him you shall kiss him atyour will. Now go! go! I must awaken him, for there is work to be done.

—Count Dracula

CHAPTER 4At least God's mercy is better than that of these monsters, and the precipice issteep and high. At tis foot a man may sleep—as a man. Good-bye, all! Mina!

—Jonathan Harker

CHAPTER 5I am very, very happy, and I don't know what I have done to deserve it. I mustonly try in the future to show that I am not ungrateful to God for all Hisgoodness to me in sending to me such a lover, such a husband, such a friend.

—Lucy Westenra

CHAPTER 6Some day soon the Angel of Death will sound his trumpet for me. . . . For life be,after all, only a waitin' for somethin' else than what we're doin'; and death beall that we can rightly depend on. But I'm content, for it's comin' to me . . . andcomin' quick . . . .

—Swales

CHAPTER 7Early this morning a large dog, a half-bred mastiff belonging to a coalmerchant . . . , was found dead in the roadway opposite to its master's yard, Ithad been fighting, and manifestly had had a savage opponent, for its throatwas torn away, and its belly was slit open . . . .

—Mina Harker

CHAPTER 8She looks so sweet as she sleeps; but she is paler than is her wont, and there isa drawn, haggard look under her eyes which I do not like.

—Mina Harker

CHAPTER 9I want you to do me a favor. Lucy is ill; that is, she has no special disease, butshe looks awful . . . I told her I should ask you to see her . . . and she finallyconsented.

—Arthur Holmwood

CHAPTER 10You were always a careful student, and your case-book was ever more fullthan the rest. You were only student then; now you are master, and I trust thatgood habit have not fail. Remember, my friend, that knowledge is strongerthan memory, and we should not trust the weaker.

—Abraham Van Helsing

CHAPTER 11How good they all are to me. I quite love that dear Dr. Van Helsing. I wonderwhy he was so anxious about these (garlic) flowers. He positively frightenedme, he was so fierce. . . . There is peace in its smell; I feel sleep coming already . .. .

—Lucy Westenra

CHAPTER 12Once again we went through that ghastly operation. I have not the heart to gothrough with the details. Lucy had got a terrible shock and it told on her morethan before, for though plenty of blood went into her veins, her body did notrespond to the treatment as well as on the other occasions. . . .

—Dr. Seward

CHAPTER 13I believe it is the Count, but he has grown young. My God, if this be so! Oh, mygod! my God!

—Jonathan Harker

CHAPTER 14Now that you are willing to understand, you have taken the first step tounderstand. You think then that those so small holes in the children's throatswere made by the same that made the hole in Miss Lucy? I suppose so. Thenyou are wrong . . . . It is worse, far, far worse. In God's name, Professor VanHelsing, what do you mean? They were made by Miss Lucy!

—Abraham Van Helsing, Dr. Seward

CHAPTER 15There lay Lucy, seemingly just as we had seen her the night before her funeral.She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever; and I could not believe

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that she was dead. The lips were red, nay redder than before; and on thecheeks was a delicate bloom.

—Dr. Seward

CHAPTER 16Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungryfor you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!

—Lucy Westenra

CHAPTER 17We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise abovesmaller matters wen the mother-spirit is invoked. . . .

—Mina Harker

CHAPTER 18You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later on , that Idid what I could to convince you [to free me] tonight.

—Renfield

CHAPTER 19Last night I slept, but did not dream. I must have slept soundly, for I was notwaked by Jonathan coming to bed; but the sleep has not refreshed me, for to-day I feel terribly weak and spiritless.

—Mina Harker

CHAPTER 20The attendant came bursting into my room and told me that Renfield hadsomehow met with some accident. He had heard him yell; and when he wentto him found him lying on his face on the floor, all covered with blood.

—Dr. Seward

CHAPTER 21First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet; it isnot the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!

—Count Dracula

CHAPTER 22And now, my friends, we have a duty here to do. We must sterilize this earth,so sacred of holy memories, that he has brought from a far distant land forsuch fell use. He has chosen this earth because it has been holy.

—Abraham Van Helsing

CHAPTER 23You think to baffle me, you—with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in abutcher's. You shall be sorry yet, each one of you! You think you have left mewithout a place to rest; but I have more. My revenge is just begun!

—Count Dracula

CHAPTER 24Promise me that you will not tell me anything of the plans formed for thecampaign against the Count. Not by word, or inference, or implication; not atany time whilst this remains to me [and she solemnly pointed to the scar.]

—Mina Harker

CHAPTER 25He has so used your mind; and by it he has left us here in Varna, whilst the shipthat carried him rushed through enveloping fog up to Galatz, where,doubtless, he has made preparation for escaping from us.

—Abraham Van Helsing

CHAPTER 26We are truly in the hands of God. He alone knows what may be, and I prayHim, with all the strength of my sad and humble soul, that He will watch overmy beloved husband . . . .

—Mina Harker

CHAPTER 27Now God be thanked that all has not been in vane! See! the snow is not morestainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away!

—Quincey Morris

PREFATORY NOTEThe author of this prefatory note isnot named. In the note, the "author"says that all reports in the following"account" (which we read as the novelDracula) are "exactly contemporary"with the activities mentioned,meaning that memory has notdistorted the presentation of theensuing facts in the case of CountDracula. The accounts have beencollected in this form in order topresent, as factually and accurately aspossible, a case that, to most, wouldseem fantastical and impossible tobelieve.

This section underscores one of thecentral concerns of the novel—the ideathat the recording of events is takingplace "exactly" as they happened, andthat the recording itself is without errorof memory or transcription. Thisprefatory note will be book-ended by a"postface" at the end of the novel, whichasks whether it is ever possible to recordevents "truthfully, objectively, andaccurately."

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CHAPTER 1Jonathan Harker's Journal, May 3.Bistritz. Harker begins by narrating hisjourney up till this point (he is inBistritz, in present-day Romania). Hestarted out in Munich on May 1, thentraveled by train to Budapest, in whichhe reports that Eastern and Westerncultures blend together. He then takesa train to Klausenbergh (also present-day Romania), where he stops at ahotel and dines.

This begins a motif in the novel: ascharacters travel eastward acrossEurope, events tend to become morecomplex, strange, surreal, and occult; asthey travel westward, events tend tobecome more easily parsed, rational, andcomprehensible, all of which correspondswith a general idea popular at the time ofWestern Europe as being more civilizedand rational than Eastern Europe.

Before leaving London, Harker didresearch on the part of the worldwhere Count Dracula lives, in hiscastle—it is a region known asTransylvania, in present-day easternRomania, bordering Moldavia andBukovina. Dracula is of the Szekelysrace, whom Harker describes, in thisjournal, as being descended fromAttila the Hun. Harker read, inLondon, that a great manysuperstitions are concentrated intothis region—in other words, that thepeople of Transylvania maintain andstill believe ardently in their ancientand medieval good-luck rituals.

Introduction in the novel of the idea ofsuperstition, and its interaction withlocal religious beliefs and practices.Transylvania is a remote region, withoutmuch contact with the outside world(particularly at the end of the nineteenthcentury when the novel waswritten)—thus, its superstitions havedeveloped in their own insular way, andthough Transylvania has been"Christianized," it is also influenced byeastern ideas and local practicesunknown to the English.

Harker makes the morning train fromKlausenbergh to Bistritz, but notesthat it is running late, and that trainsrun later the farthest east one travels.From the train he spots the beautifulmountainous countryside, and groupsof peasants: some resembling those inFrance and Germany, others, theSlovaks, seeming more "barbaric" thanothers, with long hair and mustaches.

Another reference to the perceived"barbarism" of the locals near Bistritz.Harker, at this point in the novel, is anagent of English economic and politicalpower—a lawyer's assistant who wishesto do business with the Count. He soonrealizes, however, that his relationshipwith the Count will extend beyond purelyfinancial matters.

Harker reaches the Golden KroneHotel, recommended for him byDracula, in Bistritz, which isconnected to the Castle Dracula by apatch of difficult terrain called theBorgo Pass. At the hotel, Harkerreceives a telegram from Dracula,saying that, the next day, one carriagewill take Harker from Bistritz toBukovina, a midway stopping point;from there, Dracula will send a man tocarry Harker from Bukovina throughthe Borgo Pass to Castle Dracula.Dracula wishes Harker a "happy stay"in his "beautiful land."

Harker must pass through a series of waystations in order to reach Dracula'scastle. This makes explicit just howdifficult-to-reach and remote the Count'scastle is. Even in a land known for itslarge hills and rocky roads, Dracula'scastle stands out as an especially hiddenand mysterious place. Harker begins tonotice just how isolated Dracula is fromthe rest of local society.

May 4. That night, at the hotel, Harkerasks his landlord and landlady, theowners of the hotel, if they can givehim any information about the Count,but they only cross themselves andseem too afraid to speak of Dracula.Harker writes that this disturbs himsomewhat.

Although the landlord and landlady donot have a very large part in the novel,they nonetheless serve an importantpurpose. At first, Harker dismisses theirworries as the ramblings of uneducatedpeasants, but later, when he reachesCastle Dracula, he understands just howright they were to fear the Count.

The next morning, before hisdeparture, Harker reports that thelandlady came to him and asked if heabsolutely had to go to the castle; thatDracula is a dangerous man; and thatthe fourth of May is the eve of St.George's Day, a time when "all the evilthings in the world have full sway." ButHarker brushes off the woman'scomments as mere superstitions of anold woman. The landlady gives Harkerher cross to wear.

It is important to note that Harker takesthe woman's crucifix, despite believingthat the cross will do nothing. Harkerthus has a kernel of "superstitious" beliefhimself, even as he discounts the"uneducated" thinking of those whoargue that superstitions are real. Harkerwill come to believe, more and more, inthe myths, legends, and occult truthssurrounding Dracula and his family.

Harker writes this entry while stillwearing the woman's crucifix, whichhe finds somewhat idolatrous (sincehe is Anglican, and they do not putsuch an emphasis on religiousadornments like crucifixes). Headmits, in writing and to Mina, whoappears to be his intended and lover,that he is beginning to have somereservations about his journey tomeet Dracula.

This is the introduction of Mina, who isone of the characters to "glue" differentaspects of the narrative together. Mina isHarker's correspondent in these earlysections—she will help him recover fromhis later "illness"—and she will be theprimary recorder and editor of theaccounts of the hunting and capture ofDracula.

May 5. The Castle. Harker writes thisentry from Dracula's castle, which hehas reached since his last entry. Onthe coach from Bistritz to Bukovina,which Harker takes with otherRomanians, he notes that the localsare speaking of him in hushed tones,but he can only make out a few wordsof their various languages. Heconsults a "polyglot dictionary" he hason him, and realizes they are usingwords like "witch," "hell," "devil," and"vrolok," which means, Harker says,either werewolf or vampire. Harkerresolves to ask Dracula about whatthese superstitions might mean. Someof the villagers also carry garlands ofgarlic and roses.

Harker has come to Transylvaniaprepared, in the way a civilized, rational,Western European would beprepared—he's brought a dictionary. Yetdespite the fact that the dictionary letshim understand the words the peasantsare saying, he doesn't understand theirmeaning—as illustrated by the fact thathe is planning to ask Dracula what theyare talking about, not realizing thatthey're talking about Dracula. Harker atthis point sees the peasants asbackwards people who the rich andsupposedly more civilized Dracula will beable to explain to him.

When Harker leaves the inn, he seesvillagers gathering around the coach,crossing themselves—Harker asks aRomanian, in German, on the coachwhat this means, and the Romaniansays it is a charm to ward off the "evileye." Nevertheless, the coach beginson its way from Bistritz to Bukovina,and Harker describes the charminggreen landscape, sloping up to thelarge Carpathian mountains, in whichTransylvania is nestled.

Another motif in the novel is the purephysical and geographic beauty ofTransylvania. Harker—and the othercharacters, when they visit the CastleDracula at the end of the novel—arewowed by the majestic scenery, themountains, the green fields. This beautyjuxtaposes with the ugliness and decayinside the Castle, but also emphasizesthe sublime wildness of Eastern Europein comparison to the tamed world ofWestern Europe.

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The road begins to get steeper, andthey ride through the night in thecarriage. When Harker steps down,during a brief stop, he is warned bythe driver that he must not, since thedogs in this region are ravenous anddangerous to men. Harker then staysin the carriage, and they continue on,in the earliest part of the Borgo pass.The other villagers on the cart crossthemselves and continue sayingcharms to ward off the evil eye.

The introduction of dogs, anotherrecurring motif in the novel, which oftenpresage violence or death, and areassociated with Dracula. Again, note thedifference between this land of wild,man-eating dogs and Western Europewhere dogs are domesticated. Also notehow Harker continues to notice but paylittle heed to the villagers' superstitions.

After driving quickly and stopping inthe middle of the Pass, the driverturns to Harker and says that no oneis coming for him tonight, and thatHarker ought to continue in thecarriage to the next town, with theother villagers. Just at this point,however, a "strange driver" arrives ina quickly-driven horse-drawn carriageof his own. This driver says he knowsthat the peasant-driver wanted to fleeto Bukovina, and that he, the strangedriver, "knows all." The strange driveris described by Harker as a tall manwith a brown beard.

It appears that Harker's peasant driverwishes to save Harker from the Castleand from the "strange driver" who arrivesjust after. It is not clear whether thepeasants in the first carriage know thatthe strange driver is, in fact, Dracula. Thestrange driver's comment about himselfthat he "knows all" hints at his occultknowledge which extends beyond thecomprehension of Harker's reason.

One of the villagers on the firstcarriage whispers to another that "thedead travel fast"—the strange driverhears this and smiles, then asks forHarker's luggage, and with a swiftnessand strength that shocks Harker,flings it into the carriage. Harkerenters, and the strange driver tellsHarker that he, the driver, has beeninstructed by the Count to take careof Harker, and to bring him quickly tothe castle.

Again, a hint that the villagers appear tounderstand just who the strange driveractually is. The attitude of the villagers isone of quiet resignation—they believethey have warned Harker, sufficiently, ofthe dangers he faces, and now he mustchoose whether or not to see the Count.Yet Harker has always seen what thepeasants know as mere superstition, andso does not understand what's going on.

They continue quickly through theBorgo Pass, and Harker is scared atthe sound of howling dogs and wolves,although the strange driver does notseem to notice these sounds. The airgrows colder, and they increase inaltitude. Harker remarks that thestrange driver periodically jumps outof the carriage, quickly, and tends tosmall blue flames lining the edge ofthe roadway, by encircling the flameswith stones. Harker can't be sure if heis dreaming this ritual of the blueflames, but when he looks at thedriver, during one such instance of theritual, it appears that the blue flameshines right through the driver's body.Harker dismisses this vision, however,as part of a dream on the long journeythrough the pass to the castle.

Harker's reason and civilized backgroundmade him unable to truly engage with ortreat as serious the peasantssuperstitions. Now he is faced with anexperience of truly occultevents—mysterious blue flames shiningthrough the driver's transparentbody—and he can't allow himself tobelieve that it could be real, insteadcoming to the conclusion that it musthave been the product of a dream.Western rational thought againdismisses the occult as something thatcouldn't possibly be real.

As they continue on, Harker noticesthat the carriage is surrounded by aring of wolves; Harker grows scared,but he notices that the strange driverhas gotten out of the carriage and,after extending his (the driver's) armsand shouting in a loud voice, hasdriven away the wolves entirely—infact, the wolves seem to obey thestrange driver. Again, Harker isconfused and unnerved by the bizarreevents of the night, but he soonnotices, again in a kind of half-sleep,that they are pulling into the ruinedfront portion of the old castle—theestate of Dracula.

Once again, wolves (like dogs) tend to beassociated with death, decay, and thepresence of Dracula. Thewolves—dangerous to men—obeyDracula's commands. Harker's conditionin the wagon, is one of half-sentience,almost like a kind of mesmeric trance.These sorts of trances will recurthroughout the novel, and manycharacters, including Mina and Lucy, willexperience them. The trances seem like areaction of the Western rational mind tothe deep truths of the occult that theycan't understand.

CHAPTER 2Jonathan Harker's Journal, May 5.(continued). Harker wakes up as thecarriage slows before the castle. He isnot sure that he is fully awake—thestrange driver helps him off thecarriage, again with immensestrength, and hurls down the bagsHarker has brought with him. Thestrange driver then leaves Harkerbefore the gates of the castle anddisappears. Harker wonders at thistreatment (since it would becustomary for the driver to introduceHarker to the butler), and remarks tohimself that he is a solicitor's clerk, infact a solicitor, having just passed hisexam. This is the first the readerlearns of Harker's occupation,although his reasons for visiting theCount are still not clear.

The strange driver's strength is perhapsthe first real indication that he is morethan he seems—that, in other words, thestrange driver might actually be Draculahimself, since Dracula, too, is known forhis immense strength. Dracula's Castledoes not follow the rules of protocoltypical to a great house in England, forexample—Harker is not formally"received" there, nor is his arrivalannounced. This is more evidence, forHarker, that perhaps the Castle Draculais not a "normal" manor home.

After waiting in front of the castle'sdoor for some time, Harker hears aman approach: it is Dracula, whoopens the door, bearing a lamp.Dracula is tall and wiry, with a whitemustache, and though he speaksEnglish well he does so with a strangeintonation. Dracula asks Harker toenter "of his own free will" andexplains that, since it is late, none ofhis servants are available to helpHarker, thus Dracula will welcome himhimself.

Dracula's manner, however, is formal tothe point of strangeness. That he speaksEnglish well but with an accent suggeststhat he can navigate both worlds, theWestern and Eastern. It is notable thathe asks Harker to enter "of his own freewill," since it is later revealed by VanHelsing that Dracula himself can onlyenter a room or building if invited insideby the party he wishes to attack. Draculaappears to apply this same rule to hisintended prey.

Dracula carries Harker's heavy bags,without help, to Harker's room, andbids Harker to come down to dine in afew moments, after Harker hascollected himself. Harker does so, andfinds Dracula in the dining room withfood set out for Harker, and with nonefor Dracula, who claims he has eatenalready earlier that evening. Harkerhands Dracula a note from a Mr.Hawkins, head solicitor of Harker'scompany, and the man whom Harkeris representing at the castle.

Harker's purpose at the Castle is nowrevealed fully: he is the emissary of anEnglish lawyer, Hawkins, who is workingwith Dracula to help Dracula purchase aproperty in England. Thus the basis forthe novel, at least initially, is the mostmundane and "middle-class" of Englishconcerns—the efforts of a rich man tobuy and secure property in his name.

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The letter says, succinctly, that Harkeris Hawkins' representative, thatHawkins has had an attack of gout andcannot travel, and that the businessdeal between Dracula and Hawkinswill be drawn up by Harker. Thisexplains Harker's presence at thecastle. After eating dinner anddiscussing his journey with Dracula,Harker begins to describe, for hisjournal, Dracula's appearance.

The similarity between Harker andHawkins' names is not coincidental.Hawkins is never "seen" during thecourse of the novel—he is only describedin absentia—and Harker and Mina windup inheriting Hawkins' grand estate.Thus Harker essentially "becomes" thetrue son of the man whom he alreadyconsidered his adoptive father andmentor.

Dracula, according to Harker, has along, thin nose, a protruding forehead,sharp teeth, red lips, and a totally palecomplexion. Hair grows in circles onthe palms of Dracula's hands, andHarker notices that Dracula has"rank" breath, with a smell he cannottrace. When wolves cry out in thenight, Dracula rejoices at their sweetsong, but seeing that Harker is afraidof them, Dracula says that Harker, acity-man, must learn to understandthe beauties of the country. Harkerretires to bed, somewhat unsettled byhis first interview with Dracula.

Dracula shares many of the physicalcharacteristics typically associated withdemonic or devil-figures in Europeanmyth and legend. Devils tend to havelong faces, pointing chins and noses, darkor red eyes, and pale complexions framedby a shadowing darkness (perhaps darkhair, or dark clothing). Dracula's rankbreath suggests this his insides aresomehow corrupt, which they are, giventhat he is undead and drinks blood.Again Dracula is connected to wolves(which Harker fears) and suggests thatHarker's city background is somehow atodds with the more rugged country.

May 7. Harker writes that he wokevery late the next day—having arrivedclose to, but before, dawn—and ate acold breakfast, laid out for him in thedining room. In that room Harker findsa note, left by Dracula, saying thatDracula must be gone on businessduring the day. Harker notices thatthere are no mirrors in any of thecastle's rooms he has seen. Aftereating, Harker walks into a libraryadjacent the dining room, where hefinds a collection of English books andnewspapers. After Harker browsesfor some time, Dracula walks into theroom and joins him, telling Harker thathe (Dracula) has learned Englishthrough careful study of thenewspapers, magazines, and otherliterary output of that country.

The lack of mirrors is another aspect ofthe Dracula superstition that Stokerbuilds up in the novel—that vampireshave no reflections. Dracula's self-taughtEnglish and vast library and knowledgeabout England seems to indicate that hehas a deep interest in the country andthat he plans not just to buy propertythere but to go there. Harker has comefrom England to Transylvania withoutreally learning about or understandingthe place. Dracula has no intention ofdoing the same when he goes to England.

Harker compliments Dracula on hiscommand of English, but Dracula saysthere is always room to improve it.Dracula tells Harker that he may gointo any unlocked room in the castle,but may not try to go into shut-off orlocked rooms—this, Dracula explains,is for Harker's protection, since the"ways of Transylvania" are differentfrom those of Harker's nativeEngland.

Like Pandora's Box, Dracula's Castle isfilled with spaces which cannot beopened by mortal man. Of course, whenone is given an injunction not to look atsomething, it becomes nearly impossiblenot to look. Perhaps Dracula is aware ofthis, and hopes to entice Harker intovisiting some of these "other rooms."

Dracula and Harker have aconversation, wherein Harker asksabout the ritual of the blue flames andthe stones, which Harker observedthe strange driver performing on theroadside the previous night. Draculasays that, according to peasantsuperstition, these blue flames, on theeve of St. George's Day, signify placeswhere treasure has been buried.Harker takes this at face value, andpresumes also that Dracula does notbelieve in these superstitions himself.

This is the last the blue flames arementioned in the novel. Here, Harkercannot tell whether Dracula is merelyrecounting the superstitions of theTransylvanian peasants, or if he, too,believes that treasure might actually befound along the roadside. Draculaappears generally to cultivate a"modern," European air, and attempts todistinguish himself from the "backward"superstitions of his fellowTransylvanians—of course, he is thesubject of a lot of those superstitions.

Dracula then asks Harker about thenature of their businesstransaction—which turns out to be ahouse in London, in the neighborhoodof Purfleet, purchased by Dracula andbrokered by the Hawkins firm forwhich Harker works. Dracula asksthat Harker go over the deeds to thehouse, and other documents, withhim, in case Dracula has questionsonce in England. Harker agrees anddiscusses this business with theCount.

Dracula's home in Purfleet has beenpurchased because of the house's certainspecifications, which will only berevealed when Seward, Harker, and VanHelsing break into the home and find itslarge crypt, similar to the one Draculahas at his castle in Transylvania. This isnot made clear, however, until Harker'sreturn to England.

Harker references his notes, onDracula's urging, and describes howhe found the Purfleet estate, calledCarfax. Harker explains that the houseis old, large, and dilapidated, and thatit abuts the property of an insaneasylum. Dracula is relieved that thehouse is old, since he himself isaccustomed to living in very oldhouses, as his castle indicates; Draculasays also that he loves "shade andshadow." When Dracula leaves theroom, Harker notices a map withthree spots circled: one in Purfleet(Carfax); one in Exeter (whereHarker's office is located); and one inWhitby, on the northeast coast ofEngland.

As Van Helsing will later explain,Dracula's plans are methodical and easyto parse, once the group understands hisdesires and needs as a vampire. VanHelsing attributes this careful andobvious planning to Dracula's "child-brain," which has been left to molderduring the hundreds of years Dracula hasslept in his crypt and fed off the blood ofhis countrymen. In other words, Draculaappears learned, but is in fact somethingof a child, when hunted. This makesdestroying Dracula a possible, if not aneasy, task.

Harker continues working, andDracula returns, later, to tell him thata late dinner is served. Again, Harkereats and Dracula does not, and theytalk of various subjects (unreportedby Harker) into the night. Draculaexcuses himself quickly, just beforedawn, and Harker goes to sleep soonafter, exhausted from the day—thoughnot before writing down the day'sevents in his journal.

It is not clear if, at this point, Harker hasbegun to sense that Dracula cannot beactive during the daytime. But Harkerdoes notice that Dracula is a bizarremaster, that his castle seems mostlyempty, and that whatever forces Draculato go to bed before dawn is powerful—arule Dracula cannot break.

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May 8. Harker begins this next entryby saying that he fears he and Draculaare the only two people in the castle,and that his "night-existence" withDracula (both have been sleepingthrough the daylight hours) has beenwearing on his nerves. Harkernarrates one bizarre incident. Harkeris shaving in the pre-dawn hours, theday after discussing the Purfleet planswith the Count, and though he feelsDracula's hand on his shoulder, andhears his greeting, Harker does notsee Dracula's reflection in theshaving-mirror. This startles Harkergreatly.

Importantly, Harker has difficultyseparating his anxiety about Draculafrom his natural discomfort from achange in sleep-patterns, as Harker, inorder to converse with Dracula, hasbegun to live almost a nocturnalschedule. This section also introducesone of Dracula's most notable features,one often repeated in contemporaryculture—the fact that he has noreflection in a mirror, unlike ordinarymen.

Then, just as Harker turns to greetDracula himself, he realizes he has cuthimself on the chin, while shaving;blood is trickling down his chin.Dracula sees the blood and, in afrenzy, immediately grips at Harker'sthroat, but just after doing so, Draculasees the crucifix Harker is wearing,and backs away quickly, totallychanged back to his normal, placidmanner. Harker is mystified by this.

The first indication that Dracula goescrazy at the thought, or sight, of blood.What is perhaps a bit surprising is thenonchalance with which Harker treatsthis event in his journal—clearly, Draculahas attempted to drink his blood, butHarker has such a difficult time believingthat Dracula could, in fact, have anyinterest in drinking someone's blood thathe can't comprehend what has justhappened.

Dracula tells Harker to be carefulhow he cuts himself—that it can be"dangerous" in Transylvania to showone's blood. Dracula also throws theshaving-mirror (which Harker broughtwith him) out the window, calling it a"bauble of vanity." During the day,again, Harker walks around the housealone, for Dracula is "away," andrealizes that all the doors to theoutside have been locked—only somehigh windows, difficult to reach, wouldprovide means for escape. Harkerlaments, in his journal, that the castleis a prison, and Harker is Dracula'sonly prison within its walls.

One of the first, and most significant,instances of "imprisonment" orconfinement in the novel. Harker hasalways been Dracula's prisoner, sincearriving in the Borgo Pass, but it is atestament to Dracula's cunning, at leastat this point in the novel, that Harkerdoes not realize he is a prisoner untilseveral days have passed. Perhaps, too,Harker is so willing and eager to be agood emissary for Hawkins, that Harkeris unable to accept just how bizarre hisinteractions with the Count have been.

CHAPTER 3Jonathan Harker's Journal, May 8.(continued). The journal picks upwhere Harker left off—he realizes heis a prisoner, but after a brief period ofvocal despair (Dracula is gone duringthis part of the day), he realizes hemust keep his wits about him in orderto survive and, eventually, escape.Harker plans not to let on to Draculathat he, Harker, knows he is a prisoner.When Dracula returns for the day,Harker sees him making a bed in aroom in the castle, thus provingDracula is the only other personthere.

This scene indicates that Harker, thoughhe gives in to a small amount of grief,believes it is necessary to resort to his"rational mind" in order to fight Draculaand free himself from the Castle. Thisbehavior is repeated by Seward and VanHelsing during the course of their huntfor Dracula—each believes, at a certainpoint, that he is going crazy, yet eachmarshals his rational mind and proceedsin his actions as methodically as ispossible.

Harker also realizes that, if there areno servants, then Dracula must havebeen the strange driver of thecarriage, as well. This means Draculapossesses incredible strength—andthis adds to Harker's fears of theCount. Harker thinks back to theitems given him by the Romanianlocals in Bistritz—namely the crucifixand the garland of garlic—andwonders whether there is somethingin these charms, something chemicalor physical, that can protect Harkerfrom Dracula. Harker vows to himselfto learn more about Dracula, perhapsby encouraging the Count, that night,to speak of his life.

Now that Harker has accepted hisimprisonment and that there issomething sinister and maybe unnaturalabout Dracula he begins to wonderwhether the peasants superstitionsmight in fact be real occult knowledgethat can aid in withstanding Dracula.The crucifix is easy enough tounderstand, as Dracula hates the light,too—he hates anything that opposes thedemonic darkness of his own soul, and ofcourse Christ's love falls into thiscategory. Garlic, however, has long beenconsidered a folk remedy against demonsand other ill will—perhaps the intensesmell of the bulb is enough to ward offevil.

May 8. Midnight. Harker writes of hisconversation that evening withDracula—the Count spoke aboutTransylvanian history, explainingbattles in so minute detail that itseemed, to Harker, that Dracula waspresent for all of them. To this,Dracula explained that, forTransylvanian nobility, the events ofone's family are so important as toremain "eternally present" to currentgenerations. Harker then relates, inhis journal, some of what Draculaexplains of his family history.

At this point, Harker believes simply thatDracula is proud of his family's exploits,and that Dracula has kept meticulousrecords of his family's involvement infamous battles of the past. He doesn'trealize Dracula experienced these battlesfirst-hand. Harker is not exactly aware ofthe nature of Dracula's powers. Hethinks Dracula might be a magician, areligious fanatic, or simply a madman.

Dracula goes into some detail aboutthe Szekelys race, from which hisfamily sprang. This race repelled theTurks, Hungarians, and other tribesfrom the borders of Transylvania inthe Middle Ages. Later in medievaltimes, however, the Turks and thenthe Hungarians held some parts ofTransylvanian land, and members ofthe Dracula family helped to repelthese invaders after a long series ofbattles.

Just as English, or Western, society isopposed to Eastern, superstitious,barbaric, Transylvanian society, so isTransylvania considered theWesternmost outpost of Asia, in acertain sense. Dracula's family had tofight against the Turks, coming from theeast, bringing with them a differentreligious and cultural background—and itis against all these battles thatTransylvanian society is defined andforged. Transylvania, then, is a potentsymbol of the clash between West andEast, which the West saw as a clashbetween the civilized and rational andthe mystic, obscure, and occult.

But Dracula says, once again, that hemust leave off his story at the crowingof the cock, marking dawn. Harkerremarks in his journal, in a note toMina, his fiancée, that it is odd howDracula must always leave Harkerwhen dawn approaches.

Again, Harker does not realize thatDracula's desire to leave before dawn isnot just a personal preference, but aphysical requirement of Dracula'svampirism.

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May 12. Harker begins this part of hisjournal by relating a conversation heand Dracula had, between the 8th andthe 12th of May, in the evening,concerning Dracula's newly-purchased property, Carfax. Draculaasks Harker whether Dracula mightbe able to have one solicitor managehis property in London, and anothermanage certain shipments of otherproperty from London to ports inEngland. Harker says this is of coursepossible, especially of the contractingparty (here, Dracula) does not want asolicitor to know his entire business.At this, Dracula is pleased.

Dracula is here preparing to ship anunknown cargo, of his own volition andwithout much external interference, froma port in England (later revealed to beWhitby, where Lucy and Mina happen tobe staying) to London. Harker, onceagain, senses that Dracula's interest inthis shipping arrangement is ratherstrange and secretive, but becauseHarker does not know the rules andnature of Dracula's vampiric condition,Harker cannot know that the woodenboxes Dracula ships are the coffins inwhich he must sleep to avoid the sun.

Dracula asks if Harker has had achance to send any letters to theoutside world while at the castle.Harker replies that he hasn't, save fora very short note to Hawkins justafter Harker's arrival. Dracula tellsHarker he is to write to Hawkins andto "any other friends," to say that he(Harker) will leave Castle Dracula inone month. Dracula orders thatHarker's letters contain onlyreferences to business, and cheerfulgeneralities about his life in the castle.

Dracula is, in effect, censoring Harker'scommunications, so that Harker can onlysay to the outside world what Draculacommands him to say. Thus Harker'sability to communicate with Mina, forexample, is severely curtailed by Dracula.This causes an interesting wrinkle in thenovel's overall thematization ofcommunication andmiscommunication—Harker cannotdescribe events as they happen, becauseDracula is watching.

Harker realizes that Dracula has thepower to make him send these letters,as Harker is the Count's prisoner inthe castle. Dracula hands Harkerpaper and envelopes, and Harkerrealizes that, whatever he writes,Dracula will read before the lettersare sent. Harker writes a long, formalletter to Hawkins, following Dracula'sinstructions above, and another toMina, his lover, using shorthand,which Mina can read and Draculacannot. Dracula also writes his ownletters as Harker writes his.

Although communication with the Castleis difficult, both Harker and Dracula relyon written messages to speak with theoutside world. As was indicatedpreviously, Dracula subscribes to a greatmany English journals, meaning that itwas at least possible, at this time, toexchange information betweenTransylvania and England, if one hadsufficient monetary means to pay forthese letters.

Dracula then leaves the room and hisletters. Harker sees four letters ofDracula's: they are addressed to aman named Billington, in Whitby,England; Herr Leutner, in Varna (inEurope); Coutts and Co., in London,and two bankers, Klopstock andBillreuth, in Budapest. Before Harkercan read the notes, however, Draculareturns, and tells Harker he is retiringto rest. Before he goes, Dracula warnsHarker that Harker must only sleep inhis bedroom, and not in another roomof the castle, as "things could happento him" in those rooms for whichDracula would not be accountable.Harker grows even more afraid.

A further injunction—not only mustHarker not visit other rooms in the castle,other than his own chamber, but Harkermust not be tempted to sleep in any ofthese other rooms, either. Again, thisseems intended by Dracula to stokeexactly Harker's interest in these otherrooms. Also, since Dracula leaves Harkeralone much of the day, it seems onlynatural that Harker would wish to take atour around the Castle.

Later. Harker places a crucifix over hisbed, when he returns to his room thatnight. Before sleeping, Harker walksup a small stone staircase in his roomand looks out a window, onto awindow of Dracula's bedroom. Harkersees Dracula climbing, face-down, outof his window and down the stonewall of the castle, gripping the stone"like a lizard." Harker is horrified bywhat he sees, and begins to think thatDracula must be some kind ofmonster.

The first reference in the novel to one ofDracula's explicitly superhuman abilities.Harker himself, later, is able to scale thewalls of the Castle, but not face-down,like an animal. Harker has realizedDracula is sinister and possiblysomething more than sinister. Now the"something more" is starting to berevealed.

May 15. Harker sees Dracula againleaving his room in his "lizard-like"fashion, and notes that Dracula isprobably far away from the castle.Harker takes this opportunity to lookfor a means of escape. He tries severaldoors, including the main door to theoutside, but finds them locked.Another door, at the top of the mainstaircase, is not locked, however, andHarker enters.

Again, Dracula appears to have luredHarker into just the kind of investigationof the Castle that Dracula warnedHarker against. Harker, like Pandora ofGreek myth, cannot help himself—hemust see what is hidden in a place he isnot permitted to go.

Harker finds that this room is well-appointed with furnishing from manycenturies before, although they arenow covered with a thick dust andgrime. Harker believes that this wingof the house was used by ladies, as itcontains implements for grooming,and soft cushions and drapes,characteristic of a woman's chamber.Harker writes this journal entry fromwithin these "ladies' rooms."

Thus far in the novel, the action hasfocused largely on men, with thelandlady and brief references to Minabeing the only exceptions. Here, Stokerintroduces female characters—relationsof Dracula's—who will haunt Harker andother characters throughout the novel.

Later—the morning of May 16. Harkeris upset, and references a line fromHamlet, "My tablets! quick, mytablets! / ‘Tis meet that I put it down,"meaning that he is in a hurry todocument the morning's events in hisjournal. Harker reports that, theprevious night in the women's room,after making his journal entry, he fellasleep, only to awaken to the sight ofthree women—two with dark hair,resembling the Count, and one withfair hair.

The notion of three evil sisters has deepliterary referents, and the allusion toHamlet in this section is no accident, asShakespeare, in another great tragedy(Macbeth), includes three wicked sisters,who seem to plot the downfall of themain character. Here, the Three Sisterswish to lure Harker with promises of lustand romantic fulfillment.

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The women argue over who gets to"kiss" Harker first, and they all threeapproach him, smacking their lips andappearing as though they want bothto eat Harker and to make love to him.In this moment—to which Harkersubmits in "ecstasy"—Dracula returnsto the room and, throwing the womenaside, declares that they can only"kiss" Harker when he, Dracula, isdone with him.

Harker's "ecstasy" will be mirrored byMina's strange interaction with Dracula,back in England, while Harker liessleeping not far away. Both charactersrespond similarly to their tempters—theywish to pull away, but find they cannot. Itis worth noting also just how much of ashock the three sisters would have beento a reading audience in VictorianEngland, where any behavior by womenthat was not virtuous, chaste, and inmoderation was seen as profoundly bad.The three sisters—with their sexualaggression that seems a lust so greatthey want not just to make love but toconsume the object of their desire—wasa kind of nightmare vision of Victorianwomen.

The women accuse Dracula of neverloving anyone, but Dracula dispelsthem, saying he has loved in the past.Harker sees that the women fade intothe moonlight. In a swoon of horror,Harker sees Dracula advance towardhim, and faints.

Dracula appears to save Harker, but is infact only "preserving" him for his ownuse—although this use is not yetexplained.

CHAPTER 4Jonathan Harker's Journal, May 16.(continued). Harker awakens in themorning in his own room. He fears, atfirst, that the events of the previousnight were a terrible dream, but seesthat his clothes have been folded in afashion not his own; Harker believesthat Dracula has carried him back tohis room after the episode with thethree women. Harker is glad to know,however, that Dracula has not foundHarker's journal hidden in the pocketof his pants.

Again, Harker is unable to determinewhether the events of the previous nightwere a dream or reality (just as with the"strange driver" and the bizarre ritual ofthe blue flames by the roadside). Harkerstill can't conceive of anything beyondhis rational beliefs as actually being real.Dracula has not managed to interceptevery means of Harker's communication,however—he has not seen Harker'sjournal, meaning the reader can continuealong with Harker's account.

May 18. Harker sneaks out to see if hecan get back into the women's room,to find out of the events of that nightwere real—but the room has been re-bolted shut, and Harker believes thatDracula has done this. Thus Harkerbelieves, more deeply now, that thethree women were no dream orvision, but real.

As with any dream, the events of theprevious night are lost to Harker—whenhe returns to the room, he finds hecannot get in, cannot re-experience thetrauma of the previous night. Yet he hasbegun to push past his rational"prejudices" and believe that the wildthings he has experienced are real.

May 19. Dracula instructs Harker towrite three letters: one saying he(Harker) will leave the castle in a fewdays; one saying Harker is leaving thenext morning (from the date of theletter); and one saying Harker had leftDracula and arrived in Bistritz.Dracula orders that the letters bedated June 12, June 19, and June 29,respectively, and Harker fears that,after that final date passes, Draculawill kill Harker in the castle.

Once again, Dracula manages to directHarker's existence by controllingHarker's every means of communicationwith the outside world. Harker believesthat the third letter represents his deathsentence—that, on June 29th, Draculawill kill Harker. Harker still does notunderstand exactly what Dracula wishesto do with him though he senses it hassomething to do with his own blood.

May 28. Harker notices that a band ofgypsies has encamped in thecourtyard of Dracula's castle—gypsiesfrequently do this in Romania—theyattach themselves to the court of anobleman and use his castle walls forprotection. But Harker believes hecan use the gypsies as a means ofcarrying messages from inside thecastle to the outside world. Harkerwrites a letter to Mina, in shorthand,explaining that he is a prisoner (butleaving out his supernaturalexperiences). He writes a letter toHawkins saying only that Hawkinsshould speak with Mina.

Harker believes that the gypsies mightnot be loyal to Dracula, but mightinstead live "on their own," withoutallegiance to any one power orgovernment. This follows on a longhistory of legend, in Europe, related togypsies, who were considered lawlesspeoples, often vagabonds, who traveledaround the Continent and tended toprotect their own interests and to keepclose family bonds.

Harker throws the letters outside tothe gypsies, along with gold, andmotions to them that the lettersshould be sent via post. But Draculacomes into Harker's room soon afterwith the two letters; he opens both,and seeing that the Hawkins letter isinnocuous, says that Harker mightpost it. Dracula burns the encodedletter to Mina, however, sensing thatHarker has put in it information abouthis imprisonment. Dracula leaves, andHarker is dejected at the failure of hisplan.

But it appears that the gypsies are in factloyal to Dracula—or, at least, Dracula hasmanaged to convince the gypsies thatthey ought to spy on Harker. Harker hasthus had his first attempt at escapethwarted, and though he is greatly upsetby this failure, he continues to behaverationally, and to work methodically tofind a way to elude Dracula's clutches.

May 31. Harker awakes this morningto see if he cannot find his own paperand envelopes, but looks through hisbelongings and sees that all thedocuments he arrived with, along withhis traveling clothes, havedisappeared—presumably taken awayby Dracula.

Because Harker does not know anythingabout Transylvania, outside of what hehas read in books, he is at a loss toreplace these lost items, nor can he leavethe castle to do so.

June 17. Harker notices two Slovaks,each driving wagons, arrive at thecastle and deposit a large quantity ofempty wooden boxes outside thecastle. Harker attempts to hail theSlovaks through the window, and alsothe gypsies, still encamped there, butthe men ignore him. Harker puzzles asto what will be placed in the emptyboxes.

First reference to the wooden boxes,which will prove to be of greatimportance to Dracula. The boxesrepresent Dracula's "safe haven" awayfrom the Castle, and enable him tocontinue his reign of terror outside ofTransylvania.

June 24. Before morning. Harker peersout his window and sees Draculaleaving the castle in his lizard-likefashion, dressed in Harker'sclothes—Harker believes that Draculais pretending to be Harker in thenearby village, so as not to arousesuspicion at Harker's imprisonment.

This plot point is not expanded upon, butit seems that Dracula has a certain talentfor imitation, as he also pretended to bethe "strange driver." It is important tonote, however, that Dracula is oftenrecognizable even when in costume,because his looks are so singular.

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Harker begins staring out his windowin the moonlight, which is flecked withdust—as he does so, he is overcome bythe beauty of the scene andlandscape, but he slowly realizes thatthe moonlight and dust are beginningto hypnotize him, but he awaken,quickly, regains his senses, and flees tohis bedroom.

Harker is overcome by the sublimebeauty of the wild landscape—literallyovercome. Again this suggests that"civilized" man is ill-equipped to dealwith the wildness of true nature. It is alsointeresting that it is the moon and dustthat hypnotize him, as the moonsymbolizes night and dust oftensymbolizes death, and Harker is in theclutches of an un-dead vampire that canonly function at night.

Later, in his bedroom, Harker hears asound in Dracula's room—a muffledcry, then silence. A gypsy womanoutside cries that her child hasdisappeared, and Harker surmisesthat Dracula has taken the child anddone something violent to it. Harkersees, out his window, that a pack ofwolves are walking away from thecastle, licking their lips, and it isimplied that Dracula has somehowdeposited the boy outside, as food forthe wolves.

Once again, this scene is not followed upon, but it seems that Dracula has drunkthe child's blood and then disposed ofthe child's corpse outside the castle. It isinteresting to note that Dracula must befeeding during Harker's stay, even ifHarker is not the source of Dracula's"meals."

June 25. Morning. The sun delightsHarker as he wakes—Harker realizes,in a flash of inspiration, that he has notseen Dracula in the daylight, meaningthat, perhaps, the monstrous Countcannot operate during those hours.Harker resolves to put a plan intoaction during one of the ensuing days,in order to find a way to escape.Harker ends this journal entry bypraying to God, and sending his loveto Mina and to Hawkins, whom hecalls a "second father" to him.

This is a major revelation for Harker, andit enables him to elude Dracula longenough to escape, despite the fact thatHarker does not know anything official orscientific about Dracula's vampiricqualities. The sun, here, is emblematic ofHarker's realization that he canescape—a literal burst of sunshine intothe gloom of the castle.

Same day, later. Harker writes of hisefforts this day. After deciding to takeaction, Harker crawls out of hiswindow, and crawls down the side ofthe castle, carefully on the large,rough blocks of stone, until he reachesDracula's window, which he enters.Dracula's room is barely furnished,though there are heaps of gold frommany countries in the corners.

Dracula's tombs, here and in England,are filled with gold, though it is neverfully explained where this gold comesfrom. It might be assumed that Draculahas amassed this fortune over manyyears, as he has lived a great amount oftime—and perhaps has stolen gold fromhis victims.

Harker continues through Dracula'srooms, a series of them in a special"apartment" in the castle, andeventually emerges into a smallchapel, filled with old earth, brokentombs, and other indicators of deathand decay. Harker finds fifty of thewooden boxes dropped off by theSlovaks, all filled with earth—and inone of them, Dracula is lying.

Here the boxes are located—and Harkerunderstands, slightly better, what theymight mean. Dracula lies in one of theboxes and appears to be asleep, but thebox also seems to protect him—toprovide him with a source ofrejuvenation.

Dracula appears either to be dead orsleeping, but his cheeks are rosy andwarm, and he looks peaceful, almosthappy. Harker wants to look for thekeys to the castle on Dracula's body,but worries about waking him—hebecomes spooked and crawls back outDracula's window, returning to hisown chamber, to think on what he hasseen.

One of the ironies of the "un-dead" stateis that, in sleep, the undead appear tolook alive, and when they are walking,the undead appear to move as ghosts orshades. This behavior will also be seenwhen Lucy becomes undead.

June 29. Dracula comes to Harker andtells him that, the following morning,Harker shall leave the castle. Harkerdoes not believe Dracula, and thinksthe Count might try to kill him in thenight. Harker asks whether he canleave that very night, and Draculainvites Harker to do so. Dracula pullsback the main door of the castle,showing a large number of wolveslicking their lips just outside. Harker ishorrified, and sees he cannot trulyleave. He returns to his bedroom,defeated.

Again, the wolves are emblematic ofDracula's terrible power in nature, andthe wolves, though tamed by Dracula,would be sent to hunt Harker inmoments. Harker believes, at this point,that he must escape soon, otherwiseDracula will have his way withhim—perhaps by stealing Harker's blood.

In the night, Harker hears Draculatalking to the three women, tellingthem that "tonight is his time," andthat tomorrow night is theirs. Harkerworries that, in the night-time or thenext day, Dracula will murder him.

Again, Harker worries that Dracula willseek to kill him; Harker does not yetknow the exact mechanism by whichDracula sucks the blood from his victims.

June 30. Morning. Harker awakes atdawn, hearing the crow of the cock,and believes he has lived through thenight. But when he goes downstairs totry the main door to the castle, hefinds that Dracula has locked it again.Harker resolves to find the key, even ifDracula keeps it on his own body.

This means that Harker must have onelast visit to the chapel and to Dracula.Many scenes in the novel involve livingcharacters disturbing the tombs ofcharacters who appear to be dead—thishappens also with Lucy.

Harker crawls back into Dracula'scrypt, and finds the Count "asleep" inhis wooden box filled with earth.Dracula's mouth has been smearedwith blood—Harker does not knowwhose, but seems dimly aware that itmight be his—but Harker cannot findthe key on Dracula's body. Harker isdisgusted by the sight of the Count,and, finding a shovel nearby, strikesthe Count hard on the forehead,gashing his head but not waking him,nor harming him in any serious way.Harker then rushes back out to themain area of the castle.

This section provides two key bits ofinformation regarding Dracula. First,Harker now knows, more or lessexplicitly, that Dracula feeds upon blood,and that Dracula intended to suck moreof Harker's own blood during Harker'stime at the castle. Second, Dracula doesnot appear to be vulnerable while in hisprotective wooden box—at least, onlycertain kinds of weapons can defeat himthere, and Harker does not possess theseweapons.

There, Harker hears that Slovaks andgypsies have arrived, and they openthe main door, but a strong gust ofwind blows it closed, and Harkerworries that he will never be able toescape the castle. He hears theSlovaks and gypsies dragging thewooden boxes, filled with earth, away,on some kind of business for theCount.

The only indication we have, at thisjuncture, that Dracula wishes to travel toEngland arrives in the form of the boxes,which are heavy and which must betransported in advance of Dracula'sdeparture for Western Europe.

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Back in his room, Harker decides,finally, to crawl out onto the steepbattlements, and down the rockyslope of the castle walls, as a way ofescape from the castle, to Bistritz, andeventually back west. He resolves totake with him some of Dracula's goldfor his journey. Harker ends hisjournal by hoping that, if he does notsurvive, somehow the journal mightmake it back to Mina, as proof of howmuch Harker loves her, and has lovedher throughout his ordeal at thecastle.

Now Harker must try to crawl likeDracula, in order to escape Dracula. Thegold he steals explains how Harker is ableto make it back to Englandfinancially—Harker and Mina theninherit a good deal of money fromHawkins, meaning that their financialsituation is never imperiled. Harker, it isimplied, also secrets away his journal,which will prove a valuable resource forthe group as it later tracks Dracula.

CHAPTER 5Letter from Miss Mina Murray to MissLucy Westenra, May 9. Mina, Harker'slover, writes to her friend Lucy, whomshe will be joining soon at Whitby, bythe seaside in England. Mina is anassistant schoolmistress and islearning to write in shorthand, so thatshe can read Jonathan's writing andkeep a journal of her own, which sheplans to do with Lucy when at thebeach. Mina tells Lucy that she hasheard, one can develop a nearly"absolute" memory of certain eventsby journaling them quickly afterexperiencing them.

An important introductory note. Minawants to increase her ability totranscribe events exactly—and of coursea great deal of the remainder of the novelwill involve her doing just that. It isconvenient that Mina is so concernedwith ideas of transcription andreproduction of written texts, as, withouther, the group might not have a singleaccount of its hunt for Dracula, to serveas a reference and guide.

Mina ends her letter saying she hasonly received a very quick letter fromHarker, saying he has arrived atCastle Dracula. Mina asks Lucy forinformation about a tall, handsomesuitor of Lucy's.

Mina seems to worry, based on this shortletter, that Harker is not telling hereverything he has seen and experiencedat the Castle—and, of course, he's not.

Letter from Lucy to Mina (undated).Lucy tells Mina that she has fallen inlove with the "tall, handsome suitor," aman named Arthur Holmwood, whilein London. Arthur gets along well withLucy's mother, which pleases Lucy.Lucy has also met a man named Dr.Seward, who runs an insane asylum,and who Lucy believes would be agood match for Mina, if she weren'talready promised to Jonathan Harker.Lucy ends her letter saying herdeclaration of love for Arthur is asecret.

Arthur, Seward, and Morris areintroduced in the novel as potentiallover's of Lucy's. Lucy's functions in thenovel are twofold—first, as a subject ofromantic interest, and second, as a kindof test-case in the progression ofvampirism. In this sense, Lucy isconstructed as a somewhat passivecharacter, whereas Mina, her foil, is farmore active—helping the group todiscover what is wrong with Lucy, and tohunt down Dracula.

Letter from Lucy to Mina, May 24. Lucybegins this letter by telling Mina thatshe has had three suitors come to herin one day. The first was Dr. Seward,psychologist and head of the insaneasylum, whom Lucy respects butwhom she does not love. Lucy had adifficult time telling Seward that shewas in love with another man, andalthough Seward was upset, he wentaway as a gentleman.

The only "unrealistic" part of Lucy'scourtship process is, perhaps, the speedwith which her suitors are willing to befriends with one another, and with Lucy.Seward, in particular, is upset but morethan happy to help Lucy in the days andweeks going forward. At the same time,this very "unrealistic" nature of thecourtship identifies Lucy as a kind ofideal Victorian woman, who is so chasteand good that even those who court herlove are happy to "just be friends." It alsoestablishes Lucy as the core of acommunity of friendship, in starkcontrast to the solitary Dracula and hissolitary life.

Later that evening, Lucy resumes herletter, and tells of the second suitor, aTexan named Quincey Morris, who isin England for unexplained businessreasons. Morris, also a gentleman,asks Lucy if she wouldn't mindhitching up herself to him, in a kind ofTexas slang—Lucy finds him charmingbut tells Morris she is in love withanother man. Morris understands,and the two part as friends.

Morris is, in many ways, an exemplar ofAmerican goodness—he is forthright,honest, trustworthy, almost a Boy Scoutin his willingness to help and ask fornothing in return. Morris will be given thechance to sacrifice everything for thegroup's cause—and he is the onlymember of the group not to survive theirjourney to Transylvania.

Lucy includes, as an addendum to herletter, the fact that she has acceptArthur's proposal, and that the twoare to be married soon.

Lucy's romance with Arthur is hardly afiery or tumultuous one—Arthur is adevoted and loving fiancé, and he doteson Lucy. This sort of love against standsin contrast to the profound andoverwhelming "seductions" of Dracula.

Dr. Seward's Diary, May 25. Dr. Seward,head of the insane asylum, notesdown that, as a way of remedying hissadness after Lucy's rejection of hisoffer of marriage, looks to his patients.He interviews one, a man namedRenfield, who experiences "periods ofgloom" and morbid fascinations, of akind Seward cannot entirely make out.Seward resolves to study the patientin greater depth in the coming days.

The introduction of Renfield, who willprove to be an interesting test-case atthe hospital, and an energetic adherentto the teachings of his "master," Dracula.Seward begins to suspect Dracula'ssupernatural powers (before Van Helsingconfirms them) based on the Renfield'sstrange behavior.

Letter from Morris to Arthur, May 25.Morris writes quickly to Arthur to tellhim that he and Seward remainfriends with Arthur, and wish tocelebrate Arthur's success with thebeautiful Lucy. This letter appears toindicate that Morris, Seward, andArthur have been friends for sometime.

Again, the three men very quickly settletheir differences and agree to celebrateArthur's success with Lucy together.Stoker wishes to establish, quite quickly,that the men are the best of friends, andloyal to one another.

Telegram from Arthur to Morris, May 26.Arthur agrees, happily, to celebratewith Seward and Morris.

One of the novel's few telegrams.Another, more important telegram will bedelivered late, thus impacting the eventsof the novel (and Lucy's illness).

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CHAPTER 6Mina Murray's Journal. July 24. Whitby.The narrative jumps forward; Minahas traveled to Whitby, on thenortheastern coast of England, tomeet Lucy, her friend, and to stay withLucy and her mother in The Crescent,a resort hotel. Mina describes thebeauty of Whitby, the small rivernearby, and scenes of the ocean andthe harbor.

Mina and Lucy are clearly of sufficienteconomic status and means to be able totake long vacations in the Englishcountryside, near the sea. Although it isnever stated outright, it is stronglyimplied that all the major characters inthe novel, including Dracula, are quitewealthy, and capable of supportingthemselves without working.

Mina reports of an old man namedSwales with whom she converses,overlooking the harbor at Whitby.Although his dialect is very thick, Minareports his speech; the old man isabout to talk about the olden days ofwhaling at Whitby before heinterrupts himself and says he has toreturn home. Mina promises to recordmore of her adventures in the comingdays in her journal.

Swales, the old man introduced here, isan interesting counterexample to thenovel's predominant economicstatus—he is most certainly noteducated, nor is he wealthy, and hisknowledge of town custom provides awindow onto the town Lucy and Minaotherwise would not possess.

Mina Murray's Journal. August 1. Minareports another conversation she andLucy have with Mr. Swales, the oldman she met previously above theharbor, and two other old men fromnear Whitby. Swales tells some of thetales of goblins and ghouls known toinhabit the ruined abbey of Whitby,then dismisses these tales as rubbish.Mina and Lucy are excited to hearthese stories.

It is not clear whether Swales believesthe tall tales and legends he tells to thegirls, or whether he is simply teasingthem in the hopes that he might scarethem. This, in juxtaposition to Swaleslater comments about the cemetery, inwhich he senses that something terriblehas come to Whitby (namely, Dracula).

Swales, his friends, and Mina andLucy walk through a graveyard nearbyand look at names on the graves.Swales says graves and tombstonesare unnecessary, mere trifles, butMina wonders whether they aren't aservice to the family the dead leavebehind. Lucy and Mina sit for amoment on the grave of a man Swalesinforms them to be a suicide, despitethe flowery language on histombstone. Swales takes this asevidence of tombstones' unnecessaryuse, and their potential forhypocrisy—hiding the truth aboutthose who lie beneath them.

Swales believes that cemeteries tend tolionize their dead, rather than the tell thetrue stories of those that lie beneaththeir soil. Lucy and Mina, on the otherhand, believe that cemeteries exist inorder that families might revere theirdead and find some solace after thedeaths of their loved one's. This is aninteresting scene of foreshadowing, asLucy's death and burial, in a tomb, willform an important part of the novel'splot.

Later that day, Mina comes back up tothe graveyard to journal alone. Shewrites that she has received no wordfrom Harker for some time, and sheworries that some accident hasbefallen him. She wonders if Jonathanis thinking of her, wherever he is in theworld.

It seems reasonable that Mina would beworried about her fiancé, from whom shehas heard very little. But under thecircumstances Mina appears to takeHarker's lack of communication in stride,perhaps attributing this lack to the greatdistance between England andTransylvania.

Dr. Seward's Diary. June 5. Sewardreports in his diary of his interactionswith Renfield. Here, Seward notesthat Renfield appears to have a greatlove of animals, including flies, butSeward does not understand for whatpurpose Renfield keeps the flies, orhow he disposes of them.

Renfield's interest in animal subjectsbegins with one of the lowliest ofanimals—the common fly. That Sewarddoesn't understand Renfield's the reasonbehind Renfield's interest suggests thatthe reason will become important/

Dr. Seward's Diary. June 18. Sewardreports that Renfield has acquiredspiders, which he feeds the flies hehas previously been given(presumably by the staff at theasylum).

Renfield considers spiders to be the nextstep "up" on the evolutionary ladder.Spiders, of course, also feed themselveson flies.

Dr. Seward's Diary. July 1. Sewardreports that Renfield's spiders andflies are becoming a nuisance. Sewardobserves Renfield catching and eatinga fly, which Renfield claims is full of"strong life." Seward believes Renfieldeats his spiders and flies rather than"disposing" of them. Renfield alsotakes furious notes on his practicesand studies of "animal life," whichSeward does not read.

The introduction of the concept of "life"and "life force" in the novel. What is notentirely clear here, or elsewhere in thenovel, is whether Renfield develops thisphilosophy first, and finds out thatDracula, too, shares it, or if Renfieldlearns somehow of Dracula's power andwishes to follow in his way of life.

Dr. Seward's Diary. July 8. Sewardnotices that Renfield has begunkeeping a pet sparrow, and that thenumber of spiders in Renfield's roomhas decreased.

The sparrow, again, is considered evenmore complex, and powerful, than thespider, because the sparrow eats thespider.

Dr. Seward's Diary. July 19. OnSeward's next visit, he sees thatRenfield now has a large number ofsparrows, and relatively few flies andspiders. Renfield begs Seward to givehim a cat, but Seward says this won'tbe possible. Seward notes that hebelieves Renfield is a homicidalmaniac, based on his desire to havelarger animal eat smaller ones.

And the cat would eat the sparrow.Seward realizes that Renfield isconcerned with chains of power andfeeding among animals—Renfield relatesone animal to another based on thatanimal's ability to feed on another.

The same day, at 10 p.m., Seward findsRenfield once again begging for a cat,and brooding in the corner. Sewardagain refuses.

Renfield tends to alternate periods ofalertness with periods of terrible gloom,indicating he might have what is nowcalled bipolar disorder.

Dr. Seward's Diary. July 20. Sewardwalks in to find only masses offeathers and a speck of blood onRenfield's pillow—the birds are gone.An orderly tells him, later thatmorning, that Renfield has simplyeaten all the sparrows, raw.

Another reference to blood. It appearsthat Renfield has not just consumed theblood of the sparrow, however—he haseaten the entire thing, without cooking it(much as Dracula feasts on livingpeople).

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Later that night, at 11 p.m., Sewardrealizes exactly what Renfield desires.Seward decides to refer to the patientas a zoophagus, or life-eater—Sewardbelieves that Renfield wishes to gainthe life-essence and power of theanimals he eats, and that, ingraduating to larger animals, Renfieldis pursuing a kind of experiment in"life-power." Seward vows to continueobserving Renfield.

Because Seward is a man of science, hedevelops a theory regardingRenfield—that Renfield believes he canharness the life-power of animals byeating them raw. Again, Seward developsthis theory in parallel to his interactionswith Dracula—only later in the noveldoes Seward link the Dracula- andRenfield-plotlines.

Mina's Journal. July 26. Mina writesthat she is worried about two people:Jonathan and Lucy. Of Jonathan,Mina has received word fromHawkins—a one-line note saying he isleaving the castle. Mina believes thisnote doesn't sound at all likeJonathan, and worries something hashappened to him. Mina also learnsthat Lucy has beensleepwalking—Lucy's mother is upsetby this, and Mina fears for Lucy, sinceMina has heard that sometimessleepwalkers can walk off cliffs, or doother dangerous activities in thenight, without their knowing.

The introduction of Lucy's sleepwalking.After Harker's brush with hypnotic stateswhile at the Castle Dracula, now Lucy isthe next character in the novel to beafflicted by a state of neither waking norsleeping—an intermediate zone notdissimilar from undeadness. Minaworries that Lucy's sleepwalking mightbe an indicator of a deeper-seated illness.

Mina's Journal. July 27. Mina has beenlooking after Lucy, whom she believesto be in stable condition, even thoughher sleepwalking has not completelystopped. Arthur cannot visit the twoat Whitby, because his father is sick inLondon; Arthur must tend to himthere. Lucy awaits Arthur's arrival inWhitby and is excited for theirwedding in the fall.

A good deal of parallelism exists in thenovel, with regard to sickness andcaretaking. Mina cares for Lucy's illness;Mina cares for Harker's; Harker latercares for Mina's; Arthur cares for hisfather's; Lucy cares for her mother's.

Mina's Journal. August 3. Mina notesthat Lucy's sleepwalking is continuing,and that Jonathan still has notwritten. Mina is beginning to fear forJonathan's life.

Only now, after some weeks, does Minafear outright that something terrible hashappened to Jonathan.

Mina's Journal. August 6. Mina notesthat the weather over Whitby hasbeen severe of late, and that the skyand everything around has achieved ashade of gray, as though a storm iscoming. Mina meets with Swales, theold man, on the high rocks aboveWhitby, when Mina iswalking—Swales apologizes for hisjokes, earlier, about the dead in theWhitby graveyard. Swales says thereis a wind or storm coming that "smellsand looks like death," and he says he isprepared for it, even if it means hisown death. Mina is horrified bySwales' comments.

Swales' shift in temperament here isquite notable. He seems to sense, in theair, that something demonic andterrifying is headed to Whitby. Here,Stoker seems to participate in one of thestandard tropes of the horror genre—thatof the "sage" figure who understands thatsomething is wrong, and who is killed forsensing this evil before it arrives. Swales,in this sense, is a rather underdeveloped,if interesting, character.

Swales leaves Mina, and a coast-guardsman arrives to tell Mina that aRussian ship appears to be swinginginto the port at Whitby—it looks asthough no one is piloting the vessel asit approaches the harbor.

Sure enough, just as Swales finishesspeaking, Mina hears that a strange shiphas arrived in the port—and the narrativeshifts to include the tale of this vessel.

CHAPTER 7Cutting from "The Dailygraph," August 8.(Pasted in Mina's Journal). Minaincludes this article from the Whitbynewspaper, describing the strangestorm of August 8, and the beavhior ofa ship entering the Whitbyharbor—the same ship seen by Minaand the coast-guardsman earlier thatday. The day was, at first, gray andsilent, then a tempest ripped over theharbor, then a mist fell, obscuringmost of one's sight of boats entering.

The inclusion of news reports is a deviceoften associated with "modernist" and"postmodern" novels—that a narrativemight be crafted out of the foundmaterials encountered in the narrativeby the characters themselves. Thus theaccount that Mina assembles, with herclippings, is the account the reader reads.

Suddenly, the Russian schooner-shipis spotted running very quickly intothe harbor, being steered erratically,but with sails set in fixed position. TheRussian ship runs directly into thesandy shoal of the harbor, rocking theboat (but not destroying it); thosegathered nearby find that a dead manhas been lashed to the steering-wheelof the vessel. Just after the boat hitsthe shoal, a large dog bounds off itsdecks and runs away into Whitby. Thedog is not found or caught.

A macabre and grisly scene—one of themost grisly in the novel. That a dead manmight be lashed to his vessel and stillsteer it into port perhaps pushes beyondthe reader's belief, but neverthelessStoker succeeds, in this section, incrafting a genuinely scary and affectingtale of horror and suspense, even thoughthe reader understands that Dracula isprobably to blame.

When members of the coast guardinspect the boat, they find only oneman aboard, the captain lashed to thewheel—they realize he is holding acrucifix, and that he has tied himselfdown by his own power. The stormand mist pass as the boat stops as theharbor, but the authorities areperplexed by the strange and macabrescene.

The idea that the reader knowssomething the characters in the novel donot is called "dramatic irony." Here, thereader figures that Dracula is likelyaboard the vessel, but Mina is not awareof Dracula's abilities as of yet, and so isunaware of his possible presence.

Mina's Journal. August 9. Mina reportsthat the Russian schooner came fromVarna, a port in what is now Bulgaria,near Transylvania, and that itcontained a large number of woodenboxes, filled with earth, and no othersignificant cargo. The boxes weregiven over to a man named Billington,a solicitor in Whitby. Attempts weremade by the animal humane society inWhitby to find the large dog that leaptfrom the boat, but he could not belocated. Another dog was found dead,later that day, perhaps killed by theescaped dog; the other dog's throatappeared to have been ripped out.

Again, the motif of the dog recurs, and bythis point the reader has beenconditioned to associate these dogs withDracula, as creatures that tend topresage his arrival, and to signal thatsomething terrible is in the offing. As ofyet, and as above, Mina does not know toassociate dogs with Dracula, and so shewonders how it could be that the dogcould leap from the boat and totallyelude all those who wished to capture it,in the small town of Whitby.

Mina is permitted by a harbor officialto look over the logbooks of the ship,known as the Demeter; she is alsopermitted to read over a log found in abottle lashed to the dead man'shands. Mina includes the account ofthis second log in her journal.

Mina seems more than eager to solve themystery of the ship, and she notes downthe particulars of its strange journey.Although Mina does not yet know thatthis ship, Lucy's illness, and Harker's stayat the Castle are related, shenevertheless wishes to document"everything" she sees and hears.

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Captain's Log of the Schooner Demeter.The Demeter set sail from Varna, inBulgaria, on the 6th of July. Nosignificant incidents were reported forthe first two weeks of the ship'sjourney, as it passed through theBosporus and Dardanelles, and intothe Mediterranean Sea. On the 16thof July, men began fearing that"something" was aboard the ship, thatit was disturbing their rest andcomfort, and that it appeared to besome kind of ill omen, a living evilspirit assuming the shape of a man.

Although the reader knows that thisstrange disturbance, and the man notincluded in the ship's logs, is probablyDracula, that knowledge neverthelessdoes little to drain the suspense of thissection, which owes a good deal of itspower to the first-person narration of theship journal. Stoker uses the first-personaccount throughout the novel to increasethe characters', and readers', terror.

On the 17th of July, a crew memberreports a tall, thin man is living on theship, though he is not included in thecrew logs. The captain vows to looksfor the thin man, but cannot find him,nor can any other member of thecrew.

The ‘thin man' is also a common term, inWest European legend dating back to theMiddle Ages, for the devil, or for humansin league with the devil—as Draculamight be considered to be.

Over the next week, men begin to be"lost" on the ship—the captainassumes they are jumping overboard,or being pulled over in the foulweather that besets the ship as itenters the Atlantic Ocean. BetweenJuly 24th and August 3rd, more mendisappear, and the captain realizesthat the ship has been enveloped in athick fog, one that follows the ship asit travels northward.

Whatever is on the ship, it is certainlyfrightening enough to cause hardenedsailors to risk their own lives by leapingoverboard. Sailors, like the villagers ofTransylvania, are known for beingparticularly superstitious, and clearly thepresence of the "thin man" has stokedtheir fears aboard the Demeter.

By August 3rd, it is only the captain,the mate, and the "thin man" aboard,although the captain still has seen nosign of the latter. The captain takesover steering the ship from the mate,who goes under the deck, and hearsthe mate, later, in the hold, with thelarge boxes of earth. The matescreams once and then falls silent. Thecaptain wonders if the mate hassurvived, if the thin man is real, and ifhe will ever get the ship to England.

The captain seems prepared to follow theold sailing maxim, that the captain "godown with his ship." Although thecaptain is obviously afraid of the thinman, he seems, also, to be concernedabout the precious cargo the boat isdelivering to England—cargo that endsup being the wooden boxes used as safehavens for Dracula.

The captain realizes that the mate,too, has jumped overboard after hisscreaming fit down in the hold; the fogaround the ship grows even thicker, asthe ship approaches England's coast.In his last log entry, on the 4th ofAugust, the captain says that he mustgo down with the ship, that he will lashhimself to the vessel in order to steerit to port, and that, if he dies, at leasthe will have died like a man. The logends.

This final scene, wherein the captain tieshimself to the wheel and sets the ship oncourse to land at the harbor, is one of thenovel's more jarring and shocking, and isnotable only for its implied presence ofDracula, rather than explicit descriptionthereof. Some of the novel's mostsuspenseful scenes indeed involve onlythe hint of Dracula and his evil.

Mina adds to the bottom of theaccount, in her journal, that it isunclear who this "thin man" might be,and that the ship's fate might remainanother "mystery of the sea." But thetown of Whitby is atwitter with thestrange goings-on of the ship and theharbor.

Of course, this "mystery" will begradually unraveled, along with themystery of Renfield and of Lucy'sillness—Dracula is at the center of allthese intrigues.

Mina's Journal. August 8. Mina returnsto an entry dated before the arrival ofthe Demeter in the Whitby harbor.Mina reports that Lucy, still, issleepwalking, and that Lucy's desire tosleepwalk seemed to increase thenight of the terrible storm thatbrought the Demeter into the harbor.Mina wonders whether Jonathan isreturning to England by sea or by land,and if he is safe.

It is not clear whether Lucy'ssleepwalking predated Dracula's arrivalby coincidence, or whether Dracula'sarrival "activated" something within her,causing her to sleepwalk. In either case,Dracula soon takes advantage of Lucy's"hypnotized" state, outside, in thecemetery.

Mina's Journal. August 10. Lucy andMina attend the funeral service of thecaptain of the Demeter, held in thecemetery high in the rocks whereLucy and Mina used to talk to Swales.Mina reports, with fright, that Swaleswas found dead, in the cemetery, justbefore the captain's funeral; Swales'neck had been broken, and he had alook of fear in his face. Mina also saysthat dogs near the captain's funeralappear frighten by some kind ofunseen spirit, although Mina is notsure what that might be.

Again, some of the most horrifying of theevents of the novel tend to happen "off-stage," and are only described bycharacters, rather than experienced bythem. Here, Swales has died, probably offright or shock, and Lucy and Mina onlyhear, later, about the look of extremehorror that was frozen on his face.

Mina reports, also, that Lucy appearsto be troubled by strange dreams,although Lucy will not say what thesedreams are about, nor will she admitthat the dreams, or her constantsleepwalking, are serious conditions.

Strange dreams appear to presage a"meeting" or involvement withDracula—Lucy, Mina, and Renfield allexperience them at some point in thenovel. Dreams are subconscious andnon-rational, and there is a sense in thenovel that the "civilized", rationalcharacters are vulnerable at that level.

CHAPTER 8Mina's Journal. August 10. 11 p.m.Mina reports that Lucy appears to bedoing somewhat better—and shewonders, in her diary, what the "newwoman" (the socially-liberated womanbecoming more prevalent during thistime, especially in London) would do inher position: would a "new woman"wait for Jonathan? Give him up fordead? Would a "new woman"sleepwalk? Or is the "new woman"more powerful than these typicallyfeminine, Victorian urges—fainting,fits of hysteria, and weakness?

A pointed reference to competing socialtheories of the time. In late-VictorianEngland, the "new woman" wasemancipated from her husband, was ableto work and look for fulfilling life-experience outside her marriage, andwas believed, by some, to be sexuallyliberated (and therefore corrupt) as well.Mina and Lucy appear to take pride inthe fact that they are both "powerful"women and also ladylike in the "old"manner.

Mina's Journal. August 11. Minaawakes to find that Lucy hassleepwalked out of the house—Minafollows her up to the cemetery, whereshe sees Lucy, in her nightgown, half-reclined over a tombstone,enshrouded by fog, with a shadowyfigure bent over her. When Minareaches Lucy, the figure and fogdisappear—Lucy appears flushed andis breathing heavily.

An important scene in the novel. It mustbe noted that Dracula's attacks on Lucyand Mina are, essentially, scenes ofsexual assault—here, the sexualimplications are obvious, from Lucy'sreclined posture in the cemetery toDracula's bending over her in asuggestive position.

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Mina takes a pin and closes Lucy'snightgown at her throat, then half-carries, half-drags Lucy back to thehouse in Whitby, where they sleep forthe remainder of the night. Mina is notsure what has happened to Lucy, butbelieves that she has simplysleepwalked again, and that she(Mina) has dreamt the vision in thecemetery, of the shadowy figure.

This "pin," which of course is not thecause of Lucy's holes in her neck,nevertheless serves as a method ofrationalization for Mina, who seems notto want to believe that something orsomeone could have bitten Lucy while inthe cemetery. Again and again in thenovel the characters are unable tobelieve the occult things occurring andtry to explain those events using non-occult means.

Later that day, at noon, Mina looks atLucy, sleeping soundly, as sees thatLucy has a small cut and trickle ofblood at her throat. Mina believes shehas cut Lucy by pinning hernightgown, and so apologizes to Lucy.

The first reference to Lucy's blood, whichhas been drawn (by Dracula) and will becontinually drawn over the course of herstrange "illness."

Mina believes, that evening, that Lucyhas somewhat recovered herstrength, although Lucy has beenquiet. Mina wonders, again, whereJonathan is—and she wishes he wereclose by, to provide comfort to her andto Lucy.

Mina's worries for Jonathan seem only tobe interrupted by her worries for Lucy,there in Whitby. Mina is very much in acaretaker role at this point in the novel,although she, too, will need to be takencare of, later on.

Mina's Journal. August 12. Mina issurprised to note that, in the night,Lucy tries, twice, to leave the lockedbedchamber; but in the morning, Lucyappears healthy, and Mina issomewhat relieved.

Lucy is drawn by some kind ofsupernatural force to return to the sceneof her assault—behind the fact that Lucyis under Dracula's control lies theVictorian fear that women, once sexuallyliberated, would become sexuallyvoracious.

Mina's Journal. August 13. Lucy, in hersleep (and without her knowledge),sits up and points to the window,where Mina, woken up, spies a battrying to get in. Mina finds this odd,but Lucy goes back to sleep and doesnot wake till morning.

The bat, unlike the dog, is not just asymbol presaging Dracula—it is thephysical, animal embodiment ofDracula—as it appears he can turn into abat at will, to approach his victims.

Mina's Journal. August 14. Mina notesthat Lucy appears to be longing forsomeone or something with "redeyes" in her sleep. Mina believes this issimply nervous exhaustion fromLucy's strange night in thecemetery—about which Mina has notspoken to Lucy, nor has Minamentioned this strange night toanyone else in the family or in Whitby.

Dracula's red eyes are mentioned severaltimes in the novel. They, more than anyother feature of his face or person, seeman indicator of his evil—for there is nohuman who has, naturally, red eyes. Thered of his eyes is also a symbol for hisbloodlust—his desire for the blood ofothers.

Mina's Journal. August 15. Mrs.Westenra, Lucy's mother, confides inMina this day that she (Mrs.Westenra) is quite ill, with only a fewmore months to live, and that anygreat shock could kill her. Minabelieves it is right, then, that she hasnot told Lucy's mother about Lucy'sstrange night of sleepwalking all theway to the cemetery.

Just as Arthur must care for his sickfather, Lucy must care for her sickmother, who here is said to have a weakheart. What is more complex for Lucy,however, is her own illness—and Arthurmust find time to care both for his fatherand his fiancée.

Mina's Journal. August 17. Lucy'scondition has taken a turn for theworse. Although Lucy eats well andsleeps well, Lucy wakes in the morningfeeling drained and tired, and Minanotices that the pricks on Lucy's neck,which she thought were from the pin,appear to be growing larger, ratherthan healing. This upsets Mina, whovows to see a doctor in a day or two, ifthe wounds do not heal.

What is inexplicable at first—the factthat Lucy appears to get better, and thenappears to get worse, without muchexplanation for either case—is finallyexplained by Dracula, and his visits.When Dracula manages to "get to" Lucy,her condition deteriorates; if he does notget to her, she improves.

Letter from Billington to Carter,Patterson and Co., London. This briefbusiness letter, sent from the Whitbysolicitor to a London propertymanagement company, announcesthat the 50 wooden boxes, filled withearth and taken from the Demeter,are to be deposited at the houseCarfax, in Purfleet, as soon aspossible.

This small, technical letter is a useful"stage direction" in the novel, in case thereader is curious as to how the boxeswere actually transported from Romaniato England to Dracula's estate atPurfleet.

Letter from Carter and Co. to Billington.Carter and Co. acknowledge thepreceding telegram and promise todeliver the boxes to Carfax.

Again, the exact progress of the boxescan be tracked using these letters,lending "verisimilitude," or real-seemingness, to the narrative.

Mina's Journal. August 18. Seatedonce again at the cemetery with Lucy,Mina asks her friend if Lucy dreamt atall during the strange sleepwalkingnight earlier that summer—Lucy saidshe did in fact dream, of a shadowyfigure with red eyes, and that sheheard dogs barking loudly all aroundher, until Mina woke her up in thecemetery. Mina finds this dreamterrifying, but Lucy laughs it off as atrifle.

What is interesting, here, is that thedream ends up not being a dream at all,but an accurate memory of anevent—Dracula's assault—that reallytook place. In the novel, characters arecontinually confusing real events withdreams, and dreams with events theythought to be impossible or fantastical,but are actually real.

Mina's Journal. August 19. Minareceives word from Hawkins thatJonathan is alive, though he isrecovering from an illness "out east."Hawkins tells Mina that she ought totake the train and meet Harker "outthere." Mina is thrilled to have newsthat Jonathan is not dead.

Finally, Mina receives word from Harker.One might feel that Stoker hasdownplayed Mina's worries aboutHarker during this intervening period oftime, but it is not clear how long hisbusiness trips usually take, and Minaseems to understand how difficultcommunication is between England andTransylvania.

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Letter from Sister Agatha, Nurse, inBudapest, to Mina. August 12. Thepresiding nurse, caring for Jonathanin Budapest, writes to Mina thatJonathan is suffering from brain feverthere, but that his condition appearsto be improving. The nurse says thatJonathan was found in Klausenberghby a policeman—Jonathan was ravingabout blood, demons, and violence,and the policemen helped him ontothe train to Budapest, where he wasfound by authorities and delivered toNurse Agatha's hospital. The nurseasks that Mina come quickly toBudapest to see her fiancé.

Here, again, Stoker places together thetwinned notions of "illness," or"madness," and genuine dismay at eventsthat defy scientific explanation. In thebeginning, the authorities and nursesbelieve that Harker must have beencrazy, to have "raved" about blood andthe supernatural. But of course it turnsout that Harker is correct, and that thosedenying his visions were in fact the one'swho were "crazy," or at the very leastincorrect.

Seward's Diary. August 19. Early on the19th, Seward is called by orderlies tosee Renfield, who appears to be in akind of mania. Renfield has given upon his experiments with insects andbirds, saying, now, that "the Master isat hand," and that he, Renfield, has noreason to deal with any other earthlyauthorities. Seward is shocked by thisbizarre change in Renfield's behavior.

Renfield is a more interesting case of theabove problem. He probably is "crazy" bymedical standards—his behavior fits thecommon description of bipolardisorder—but he also is, truly, beingvisited by Dracula, and is under the"master's" influence.

Later that night, Seward is woken upby guards to hear that Renfield hasescaped from the asylum. Renfieldruns into the neighboring estate atCarfax, which Seward does not knowhas been purchased recently byDracula. There, as Sewardapproaches Renfield, he hearsRenfield pledging allegiance to theMaster, but does not see with whomRenfield might be speaking. Sewardand the guards manage to get Renfieldinto a straight-jacket, but Renfieldcontinues to promise that he willserve his master. Seward is shockedby Renfield's immense strength, as theguards restrain him.

Again, Seward is unable to connectRenfield's insanity and ravings to thepresence, so close by, of Dracula's newproperty, Carfax. Of course, Seward doesnot know that Dracula owns that house,but Seward surely sees, as in this episode,that Renfield is attracted to that house,that the Carfax estate is a source ofpower for the supposed "lunatic," andthat Renfield will stop at nothing to servehis master, whoever that may be.

CHAPTER 9Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy. August 24.Mina tells Lucy that Jonathan is inpoor but stable condition in Budapest,that he does not seem to remembervery much of his time at CastleDracula, and that Mina is afraid to askJonathan too many questions, lest shedredge up these terrible memoriesand visions of demons.

Now Mina is, once again, in the caretakerrole, and Harker, who is devoted to hisnow-wife, wishes to do everything he canto "get better" and return to normalEnglish society—even if that meansignoring the terrible visions he had whileat the Castle. In other words, he tries torepress his visions of the occult—to treatthem as hallucinations rather than real.

Jonathan, on waking up, gives Minahis journal from the castle, and asksher to keep the journal fromhim—Harker does not wish to re-readit, nor does he wish to know whetherhis visions at the castle were real ordreams. Harker tells Mina she ispermitted to read the journal, if shepromises never to share its contentswith Harker. Harker also asks that thetwo be married there, in Budapest,and Mina eagerly agrees.

Harker believes, now, that his journal isexplicitly a document of madness, andthat to trust the journal as an accurateaccount of his time with Dracula wouldbe madness as well. But Mina, of course,learns eventually that this is not the case,and that the journal of Harker's is a veryuseful document in the search forDracula.

Mina closes her letter to Lucy bybriefly describing the weddingceremony, which is a bit solemn(taking place at Harker's bedside), butstill, in Mina's words, quite romanticand lovely. Harker promises lifelongdevotion to Mina, and she promiseshim the same. Mina ends her letter toLucy by wishing Lucy all the happinessthat she (Mina) now possesses.

Mina is perhaps right in having Harkermarry her right away—Lucy, who waits tomarry Arthur until after Arthur's father istaken care of or passes away, dies unwed,whereas Mina may rely upon herhusband, and he upon her, in a socially-recognized union.

Letter from Lucy to Mina. August 30.Lucy writes a brief letter back toMina, saying that she (Lucy) is feelingbetter, and that Arthur has come fromLondon to visit her. Lucy wishes Minaall happiness and good cheer on herrecent wedding.

Lucy seems to think, at this point, thather own wedding will take place soon,and that she will soon be joining Mina inthe realm of married bliss, with Arthur ather side.

Seward's Diary. August 20. Sewardnotes that Renfield has assumed apattern to his strangebehavior—during the day he hasparoxysms of rage and oddness, butduring the night he is calm, evennormal-seeming. Seward resolves toleave a door open to allow Renfield toleave the asylum at night—Sewardwishes to track where Renfield goes.

Here Renfield appears to invert thetypical pattern of the vampire. WhileDracula operates at night and must"sleep" during the day (more like rechargein his wooden box), Renfield, on the otherhand, finds normal human calm only atnight.

Seward's Diary. August 23. This night,Seward writes, Renfield escapesagain to the nearby house, Carfax, andtravels all the way to the "old chapel"door in the rear of the house—but justas Seward and the hospital orderliescatch Renfield, he looks upward, andthey all spot a large bat flyingominously above. At this, Renfieldbecomes calm, and says he will goquietly back to the asylum. Seward ispuzzled.

Renfield appears to recognize the formDracula can take—the bat. Seward,again, persists in a condition of not-knowing, thus prompting a good deal ofdramatic irony on the part of the reader,who has, at this point, deduced thatRenfield is a disciple of Dracula's.

Lucy's Diary. August 24. Lucy beginskeeping a diary, and reports that shehas left her summer lodgings inWhitby, with her mother, andreturned to their home outsideLondon. Lucy says that Arthur isworried, when he sees Lucy—Lucyappears, once again, to be relapsinginto weakness and illness, with noknown cause.

Lucy is simply losing too much blood tocontinue to maintain her weight, health,and healthy appearance. Yet all of thecharacters think that the cause must besome illness—there must be a natural, asopposed to supernatural, explanation forwhat is happening.

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Lucy's Diary. August 25. Lucy reports,briefly, that she has terrible sleep andawful dreams, which she does notremember except for their terror.Lucy longs for Arthur's return to theirhouse—Arthur has been spendingtime visiting his own sick father.

Again experiences of the occult manifestas dreams for rational Westerners. Onemight wonder why Arthur does not splithis time between his father and hisfiancée more evenly—as it seems hespends a good deal with the former. Butperhaps this is an unfair position inwhich to place a grieving and over-taxedyoung man. (Also, him being aroundwould mess up the plot of the story.)

Letter, Arthur to Seward. August 31.Arthur asks Seward if he will come tolunch the next day and observe Lucy,without Lucy's knowing—Arthurunderstands that this could bedifficult for Seward, since he wasrejected by Lucy, but Lucy is still sick,and Arthur wishes desperately toknow the cause of her illness.

Arthur knows that Seward wasdevastated when Lucy rejected hisproposal of marriage, but now he can callupon their friendship to ask that Sewardlook after Lucy, as a favor to himself (toArthur).

Telegram, Arthur to Seward. September1. Arthur writes, briefly, that hisfather has taken a turn for the worse,and so Seward is to visit Lucy withoutArthur's presence, and to report toArthur what he sees of Lucy'scondition.

Again, Arthur is forced to choosebetween Lucy's health, which heconsiders more stable, and his father's,which he considers to be far moreprecarious.

Letter from Seward to Arthur. September2. Seward reports that Lucy seemedwell, but was only performing in frontof Seward and her own mother—onceshe and Seward were alone, however,Seward examined her more closely,and saw that she looked "bloodless,"without the usual signs of anemia.Lucy also complains of occasionallydifficulty breathing. Seward tellsArthur that he has asked for his friendVan Helsing, a famous doctor andscientist and Seward's old teacher inAmsterdam, to consult on Lucy'scondition. Van Helsing is a specialist in"odd diseases," as Seward calls them.

Van Helsing is introduced. The Professoris a strange man, and what is mostnotable about him, to the reader, is hisbizarre manner of speaking, in a kind ofbroken English that must derive from hisheavy Dutch accent. But Van Helsing isan intelligent man, a man of both scienceand broad cultural learning, whoseknowledge of eastern legend andsuperstition, and willingness to trustthese legends, place him in contrast toSeward and all of the other Westerncharacters who don't grant any reality tothe occult described in superstition andso are vulnerable to it.

Letter from Van Helsing to Seward.September 2. Van Helsing sends aquick note to Seward, asking forrooms at a hotel in London, and sayinghe will be happy to visit with Lucy anddetermine the cause of her distress.

It is not mentioned how Van Helsing isable to travel between England andHolland at a moment's notice, but itappears that train and ferry travelbetween these location is quite efficient.

Letter from Seward to Arthur. September3. Seward reports that Van Helsinghas had an initial visit with Lucy, thatVan Helsing agrees with Seward thatLucy has lost a good deal of blood butdoes not seem typically anemic. VanHelsing, who must return briefly toAmsterdam before traveling back toLondon, says he will think on the causeof Lucy's sickness—Seward tellsArthur he believes Van Helsing hassome idea of the nature of it, but isthinking it over to be sure. VanHelsing has not described to Sewardhis hunch as to the cause of Lucy'sdistress.

Van Helsing seems to suspect right away,when he labels Lucy's anemia as being"atypical," that something supernatural isto blame. But Van Helsing appears alsoto understand that he must slowly andcarefully lead Seward, and others of thegroup, to the conclusion he suspectsfrom the beginning—that Lucy has beenbitten, and is being visited, by a vampire.

Seward's Diary. September 4. Sewardreports that, once again, Renfieldbecomes unhinged around noon,during the day, and subsides in hisanguish at night. Seward is stillconfused as to the cause of thismadness, as are the orderlies present.Later that day, in the late afternoon,Renfield plays happily with his flies,but that evening, he begins yellingagain, and when Seward visitsRenfield says that he is sick of the fly"rubbish," and that "he" (Renfield'smaster) has abandoned Renfield.Seward is again confused.

Renfield's behavior grows moredisturbed, and Seward struggles to find areason. What is interesting is the factthat Renfield's behavior is onlyinexplicable if one disregardssuperstition, legend, and instances of theoccult. Seward, a man of science, isblinkered by his inability to considerexplanations beyond the scientificrealm—and Van Helsing helps Seward tosee these supernatural explanations.

Telegram from Seward to Van Helsing.September 4. Seward reports thatLucy's condition seems to beimproving.

Another instance of false hope, as Lucy'sblood has returned in sufficient quantity,only to be sucked again.

Telegram from Seward to Van Helsing.September 5. Seward reports, again,that Lucy appears even healthier, witha ruddy glow in her cheeks.

This ruddy glow, in Victorian culture, wasoften associate not just with health, butalso with sexual arousal.

Telegram from Seward to Van Helsing.September 6. In this message, however,Seward notes that Lucy has gottenmuch worse, and that Van Helsingmust come immediately to look afterher.

It appears that Dracula has been to visitLucy, after a brief respite—and Lucy'scondition deteriorates accordingly.

CHAPTER 10Letter from Seward to Arthur. Sewardreports to Arthur that Lucy has takena step backward, and that any suddenshock might be enough to kill her; butSeward says he has hope that VanHelsing can both cure Lucy and makemore comfortable Lucy's mother, whoherself is very ill.

Arthur realizes, at this point, that hemust care for Lucy just as he cares for hisfather, and that both thesepeople—whom he loves more thananyone else in the world—might die verysoon, if left untreated.

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Seward's Diary. September 7. VanHelsing tells Seward that he has someidea what is causing Lucy's illness, buthe does not want to reveal that idea toSeward yet, as he must test a fewhypotheses on Lucy before he isconvinced. Seward is frustrated bythis but agrees to Van Helsing's tack,since Van Helsing was Seward'sProfessor, and is an extremelyknowledgeable man.

Van Helsing, still a man of science and ofgreat occult learning, realizes that hemust "prove" his supernaturalexplanation, if this explanation is to haveany power at all to convince Seward.Therefore Van Helsing waits to collectmore evidence related to Lucy'scondition.

Van Helsing visits Lucy and sees thatshe has lost even more blood. VanHelsing determines that Lucy musthave a blood transfusion, and Seward,who is younger and in better health,offers to give the blood. But just atthis moment Arthur returns from hisfather's bedside, and Van Helsing asksArthur, the youngest of them all, andalso Lucy's fiancée, to donate hisblood. Arthur readily assents.

An important plot point or wrinkle is hereglazed over—neither Van Helsing noranyone else ever checks to see whatLucy's blood type might be, meaning thatall of the men are donating blood to herwhich might not match her blood type.Stoker seems to be unconcerned withthis small bit of scientific "smudging" inthe novel.

The transfusion is performed, andLucy appears to be healthier for it.Seward and Van Helsing both noticethe wound on Lucy's neck, which tillthen had been covered by a velvetband (Lucy appears to have beenembarrassed by it, though she doesnot understand where it comesfrom)—Seward asks Van Helsing if hebelieves the wound has something todo with the illness, and Van Helsingsays he must return to Amsterdam toconsult some books, and see if there isa connection.

Again, Van Helsing senses that thewound on Lucy's neck could have aconnection to the illness—in fact, hesurely knows that Dracula is involved, atthis point—but his reluctance to share hisdiagnosis with Seward seems, once more,to stem from a desire to prove,absolutely, that vampirism is the cause ofLucy's distress.

Before he leaves, Van Helsing asksSeward to look over Lucy all the nightthrough, in case anything should"disturb" her. Seward does notunderstand what Van Helsing issaying, but he agrees to look afterLucy regardless.

Here, Van Helsing states for the first timethat some person or entity, capable of"disrupting" Lucy in her sleep, might be toblame for the illness.

Seward's Diary. September 8. Sewarddoes observe Lucy as she sleeps, butbefore she goes to bed, she tellsSeward that she does not wish tosleep, as she is, of late, tormented byeven more terrible dreams. Seward,however, tells her that he is there forher, and this seems to calm Lucy—shesleeps peacefully, and Seward wires toArthur and Van Helsing to say thatthe transfusion appears to haveworked well for the patient.

We do not learn the nature of Lucy'sdreams here, but they probably involve avariation on her previous visions—of "redeyes," and a thin man, whom we know, atthis point, to be Count Dracula himself.Van Helsing is pleased that thetransfusion has worked in the short term,but he knows that the vampire must beaddressed as the root cause of Lucy'sproblems.

Seward's Diary. September 9. Lucy, whosays she is feeling much better, doesnot allow Seward to stay up all thenight and watch over her. Sewardconsents to this new arrangement, ashe is exhausted—he sleeps on a couchin an adjoining room, with the dooropen in case something befalls Lucy.

Seward's devotion to Lucy might beunderstand as a kind of displaced lovefor her—since he is not able to love her asa husband, he can care for her as aphysician and as a friend.

Lucy's Diary. September 9. In her owndiary, Lucy announces that she isfeeling much better, that her love forArthur is stronger than ever, and thatshe goes to sleep this night withpleasant thoughts for her futuremarriage.

The transfusion appears to haveprovided Lucy with a good deal of hope,even if it cannot cure her in the longterm, as Van Helsing (but not Seward)knows at this point.

Seward's Diary. September 10. VanHelsing wakes Seward the nextmorning—he has returned fromAmsterdam. The two go in to check onLucy, who has taken another turn forthe worse—she is more pale than ever,though Van Helsing detects a pulse,and says that Lucy can survive withanother blood transfusion. VanHelsing asks Seward, this time, todonate blood, which Seward does. Thetransfusion appears to be anothersuccess, and Lucy and Seward bothrest afterward; Van Helsing tellsSeward he may return home for theevening, and two servant-women ofthe Westenra house agree to lookafter Lucy in the night, while VanHelsing studies his medical books, forLucy's case.

The first transfusion was Arthur's blood,since Van Helsing and Seward believedthat the trading of blood was an intimateactivity, ideally suited for affiancedcouples. Here, however, they must resortto Seward's blood, and the sexualsuggestion in the scene is powerful.Throughout the novel, blood is seen as anintimate bodily fluid, one that is pumpedby the heart and therefore representativeof the "soul" and "power" of a person. ForSeward to share this with Lucy, thecircumstances must be dire indeed.

Seward's Diary. September 11. WhenSeward returns the next day, VanHelsing has gathered a great deal ofgarlic flowers, a wreath of which hegives to Lucy to wear around her neck.Van Helsing also smears Lucy'sbedroom with crushed garlic, andplaces other garlic flowers all over.Although Lucy, Seward, and others inthe house are surprised by this, VanHelsing says that, finally, he himselfcan get a good night's sleep, and thatthe garlic will "protect" Lucy.

The garlic flowers, which were firstencountered by Harker in Transylvania,reappear here in the context of Lucy'scure. Harker dismissed the flowers whenhe saw them in Transylvania, and the"rational" characters of London don'tunderstand their purpose here. But it isnoteworthy that the superstitions ofTransylvania have now come to"civilized" London.

CHAPTER 11Lucy's Diary. September 12. Lucy writesbriefly in her diary that, once again,she feels better, that Van Helsing'sgarlic flowers have brought her somemeasure of peace, although shedoesn't understand their purpose, andthat she expects to sleep well thisnight.

The scent of the flowers is a powerfulone, and one can't imagine that it's anentirely pleasant odor, but Lucy seems tobe responding to the idea that thispowerful, strange odor is used to protecther, and to improve her health—thus shebelieves she likes the smell.

Seward's Diary. September 13. Sewardpicks up Van Helsing at his hotel, andthey return to Lucy's home. There,they encounter Mrs. Westenra, whotells them that she has also helpedLucy's cause by emptying herbedroom of all the smelly garlic VanHelsing had placed in it the nightbefore. Van Helsing is shocked by this,but maintains decorum until Lucy'smother leaves—then, Van Helsingorders Seward to rush into Lucy'sbedroom with him, to check on her.

Another powerful instance of dramaticirony. The reader knows what VanHelsing knows—that the garlic is beingused to ward off Dracula. But Seward,and to a greater extent Lucy's mother, donot understand what is happening at all,and when Lucy's mother takes away thegarlic, the reader and Van Helsingunderstand what terrible effects thismistake might have.

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Van Helsing proceeds to give some ofLucy his own blood—she has againlost some in the night, and looks morewaxy and pale than ever. After theprocedure, Van Helsing tells Lucy'smother, softly, that she is not toremove anything from Lucy's roomduring the remainder of thetreatment. Seward wonders in hisjournal about the significance of thegarlic ritual in protecting Lucy.

Although this Dracula visit does not killLucy, it means that there must beanother transfusion, this time from VanHelsing, who is old and relatively frailhimself, and who probably cannot givevery much of his own blood withoutimperiling his safety.

Lucy's Diary. September 17. After fourdays, Lucy writes in her diary that sheis again feeling better—it seems thatVan Helsing's garlic treatments in theroom are working. Van Helsing hasspent the night in Lucy's room, on achair, the past four nights. Lucy hasnot been disturbed in her sleep, buthas heard the wings of a bat batteringagainst the window of her room.

Van Helsing is not willing to leave Lucy'scare, at this point, to anyone other thanhimself, as he realizes that only hepossesses full knowledge of the vampiricthreat. Soon, Van Helsing will initiate hisformer student Seward into themysteries surrounding vampiric legend.

From The Pall-Mall Gazette newspaper.September 18. "The Escaped Wolf"(article). A newspaper article isincluded in the account. In it, anunnamed reporter investigates theescape and disappearance of a wolffrom a local London zoo. The reporterinterviews a husband and wife whowork at the zoo, as a means of figuringout how the wolf escaped. They seemto argue that the wolf managed toescape of no fault of their own—themarried couple also tells the reporterthat the wolf is no more dangerousthan a London dog, although thereporter seems not to believe this.Later that day, again without anywarning, the wolf returns to the zoo ofits own accord—after having beenabsent for at least one night. Thereporter ends the small article with akind of humorous "shrug," as though itis simply another trifling and strangeevent in the great city of London.

Again, a reference to a strange wolf,which the reader has come to associatewith the presence of Dracula. Dracula'srelationship to wolves and dogs could bethe subject of an interesting paper, asDracula does not appear to control themcompletely, but rather Dracula'spresence excites in wolves and dogs asimultaneous fear, excitement, and rashof strange behavior. Later on in the novel,a wolf will actually leap into a room, andat that point it will be difficult todetermine if Dracula has inhabited thatwolf, or if he has merely ordered a wolf todo his bidding, while he waits behind fora chance to enter the room.

Seward's Diary. September 17. Sewardreports, briefly, that Renfield burstinto his office earlier that night with adinner-knife, in an attempt to stab andkill Seward. Seward managed toprotect himself behind his desk, andescaped with only a small cut on hiswrist before Renfield was tackled byorderlies and taken back to his room.Seward writes that he will rest thisevening, as Van Helsing has not askedhim to tend to Lucy—who appears tobe improving, based on the garlictreatments of her bedroom.

Renfield sense that Seward wishes tostand between him (Renfield) and themaster, although Seward does not knowexactly, as of yet, who this master mightbe. Renfield is an intriguing case in thenovel—a man whose insanity is neverreally in doubt, but a man, too, possessedof a kind of "special sight," a man who iscapable of communing with the occultand with Dracula. Within the civilizedWestern world only those who are insanecan commune with the occult, becausethe rest of society does not grant that theoccult is real.

Telegram from Van Helsing to Seward.September 17. Van Helsing, who hashad to go away for a day toAmsterdam, asks Seward to placefresh garlic in Lucy's room that night.

Sadly, this telegram is not addressedproperly, and is not delivered ontime—with dire consequences for Lucy.

Seward's Diary. September 18. Sewardrealizes that Van Helsing did notinclude the correct county on histelegram, meaning it reached Sewarda day late. Seward immediately travelsto see Lucy, wondering how she haspassed the night without theprotection of the garlic. Sewardcurses their bad luck inmiscommunicating.

Another instance of dramatic irony.Although Seward senses that somethingmight have gone terribly wrong, thereader is without a doubt that Draculahas chosen this night, without garlic tokeep him away, to visit Lucy.

Memorandum left by Lucy. September17. Night. Lucy has trouble sleepingthe night of the 17th, without VanHelsing or Seward present. She goesto her window in the night and sees abig bat outside. Her mother walks intoher bedroom and Lucy asks hermother to sleep with her in the bed, tokeep her company, and so that bothcan stay warm as they sleep. Hermother agrees.

The relationship between mother anddaughter, here, is really one of the novel'svery few, and it is a sweet reminder of themutual dependence children have ontheir parents, and parents on theirchildren. Sadly, this scene is to beinterrupted by horror, and the entry ofDracula.

Suddenly, as they sleep, a large, graywolf smashes through the window ofthe bedroom but jumps backoutside—a misty pallor, filled withmesmerizing specks of light, enters,and Lucy's mother, shocked, points atthe pallor and appears to fall into a fit.Lucy's mother, in her fit, tears thegarlic flowers off Lucy's neck andplaces them on her own chest, andfalls into a coma-like state in the bed.

Another instance of dramatic irony. Thereader knows that, once the garlic isstripped from Lucy and grabbed, byaccident, by Lucy's mother, Lucy will nolonger be protected from the vampire,and will be left open to a final attackwhich could have fatal consequences forher.

Four maids come into the bedroom tosee about the commotion—Lucy saysthat they ought to go back outside andhave a drink of wine, since all four arein hysterics, and Lucy must figure outwhat to do, since the gray wolf is stillpacing outside the broken window.The four servants go into the diningroom, have a drink, and collapse—Lucyrushes out and realizes that the winehas been poisoned with laudanum,and that the four servant-women willsleep the night through in a drug-induced daze. Lucy is alone in thehouse.

The presence of these maids points to animportant but typically overlookedaspect of the novel—its treatment of therelationship between people of differentclasses. Here, the maids are purelyvictims, and Stoker does not make muchof an effort to inhabit theirconsciousness. Instead, the novel treatsof the intimate thoughts of manycharacters who all happen to be middleclass, upper middle class, or upper class(like Arthur).

Lucy takes this written account andfolds it, placing it on her breast. She isstill surrounded by a mist and specksof light in the room, and outside, thewolf still stalks around angrily. Lucybelieves that her mother has diedfrom the shock of the night's events,and Lucy believes that she, too, willnot survive the night.

Lucy manages to protect her writtenaccount by hiding it on her person. This isan important device ofStoker's—otherwise, the reader wouldnot trust that any other character couldhave knowledge of the events that Lucyexperienced alone.

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CHAPTER 12Seward's Diary. September 18. Sewardarrives at Lucy's house that morningand finds he cannot get in—VanHelsing arrives just after, and the tworealize the confusion with thetelegrams has caused them both toleave Lucy unattended. They fear theworst and break into the house in therear, via a window. They walk throughthe rooms of the house and find thefour servants, still drugged and asleepor groggy on the floor. Then they headinto Lucy's room.

Although the reader suspects, at thispoint, that something terrible hashappened to Lucy, the reader does notknow whether she is dead or severelyweakened—this combination of surety(that Lucy is in trouble) and anxiety (thenature of her distress) is what makes thenovel, and Stoker's description ofDracula in general, so persuasive andsuspenseful.

In Lucy's bedroom they find Lucy andher mother in bed—the latter stone-dead, and the former on the verge ofdeath, having lost a great deal ofblood. Van Helsing begins working ina fury to bring her back; he noticesthat the garlic garland has been placedaround Lucy's mother's neck, and notLucy's. Seward sends a telegram tonotify Arthur to come, and they placeLucy in a warm bath, in an attempt torevive her heartbeat.

Again, the scientific and medicalusefulness of the procedure heredescribed—putting Lucy in a warmbath—might be debated. Even duringVictorian times, medicine was fairly welladvanced, and doctors were beginning torealize the root causes of many diseases.Nevertheless, some of Van Helsing's"treatments" might be considered oldwives' tales today.

After the bath, Seward and VanHelsing consult as to what to do withLucy. When they turn around, theyfind that Morris has arrived—Arthurhad sent him a telegram asking him tocheck on Lucy's house, since Arthurhad not heard from Lucy for severaldays. Morris agrees to transfuse bloodto Lucy, and the operation appears,once again, to improve her condition.After the operation, Van Helsingshows Seward the memorandum Lucywrote and left on her breast, whichhad fallen off when they moved herinto the bathroom for her bath.

Morris is the fourth strong young man toprovide Lucy with fresh blood—andagain, his blood type is not checked,suggesting either that Lucy is a universalrecipient (type AB), or that all the men ofthe group are universal donors. Or, morelikely, Stoker was not aware of bloodtypes, or was not convinced that it wouldinterrupt his reader's experience of thestory if the types were not included.Regardless, now another of the men whocourted Lucy has shared sustainingblood with her, while Dracula assaultsher and takes that blood.

Seward reads the memorandum butdoesn't understand what itimplies—Van Helsing says that, in duetime, he will explain to Seward. Morrisdraws Seward aside and remindsSeward that Lucy has had the blood of"four strong men" in her veins, in largequantities, but that somethingappears to be taking that blood outagain, at night. Seward wracks hisbrains to find an answer to thisstrange question, but cannot find one;nor can Morris.

Morris appears to understand, at thisjuncture in the novel, that Lucy is nottaken by any typical or normal illness.Because the large amounts of blood thathave been put into her veins must havegone somewhere, and since she is notnormally anemic, someone must actuallybe taking the blood out of Lucy. Havingthe blood of "four strong men" in herveins again ascribes a kind of sexualintimacy to the transfusion.

Lucy finally wakes up after thetransfusion, and seems to havesurvived, though she is in a greatlyweakened condition. Before she wokeback up, Van Helsing placed hermemorandum back on her chest, tomake it seem that the group did notknow of her activities the nightprevious.

Van Helsing does not yet want Lucy toknow that the rest of the group—Seward,himself, Morris, and Arthur—are aware ofthe terrible events involving Lucy'sprevious night, and her mother's demise.

Seward's Diary. September 19. Arthurarrives at Lucy's house and sees hisfiancée in a severely weakenedcondition—although the transfusionhelped, it seems that Lucy simply haslost too much blood to survive.Seward worries what will become ofher, and continues speaking hisjournal entries into Lucy'sphonograph, in the house.

It should be noted, here, that Seward'sdiary "entries" are really dictations. Theyappear quite fluid and well-written to bedictations, however—here is anotherinstance where Stoker appears tosuspend belief, unless Mina, in her lateredits of Seward's journal, has "smoothedout" his prose.

Letter from Mina to Lucy. September 17.(unread). Mina writes a letter to Lucy,since she has not heard from Lucy fora long time. Mina and Harker havereturned from Budapest to Exeter, inEngland, and have set up house withHawkins, Harker's boss, whoconsiders Harker to be his son, andwho informs the pair that they shall bethe sole inheritors of his estate afterhis death. Mina is happy in her letter,and asks about Arthur and Lucy'smother—Mina does not know whathas befallen Lucy, of course, and Lucydoes not see the letter to respond toit.

As Lucy's life continues in a downwardspiral, Mina's, on the other hand, is onlytrending upward, and it seems that herand Harker's good luck cannot bestopped. Hawkins exists primarily in thenovel as a means to provide for Harker(professionally) and Mina (as bequeatherof an enormous amount of money to thetwo). For his part, Harker is said to loveHawkins like a father.

Report from Patrick Hennessey toSeward. September 20. An employee ofthe asylum, Hennessey reports toSeward in a brief letter than Renfield,taking air outside the asylum, recentlysaw men bringing large wooden boxes,filled with earth, into the Carfaxestate bordering the asylum—Renfieldseized the two men carrying the carts,believing they were stealing ratherthan delivering them, and nearly beatthem to death before being placed,once again, a straitjacket. Hennesseywas confused by the incident, andtherefore notified Seward.

Renfield is aware of the power of thewooden boxes that are being placed inthe Carfax estate. One wonders again ifRenfield has total knowledge of vampiriccustom because he has read up on thesubject, or because he has somehowbeen communing with Dracula, perhapsby secret messages or by meetings atnight. Or, as a third option, Renfieldmight, in his madness, sense theimportance of the boxes without actuallyknowing what they are.

Letter from Mina to Lucy. September 18.(unread). In another brief unreadletter, Mina informs Lucy thatHawkins has died, so that she andHarker are now very rich, and musttravel to London to mourn Hawkins,where he is to be buried with hisfamily. Mina says that she is trying tokeep a cheerful face, though sheknows Hawkins' death is a terribleblow for Jonathan.

Just after Hawkins has left his estate toMina and Harker, he dies, thus meaningthat Mina and Harker never again haveto worry about money, and their social,as well as financial, position in Londonsociety is secure. Again, Mina and Harkerseem to have a good deal of economicluck in the novel.

Seward's Diary. September 20. Morris,Arthur, Van Helsing, and Sewardsurround Lucy on the last night of herlife. In the morning of the 20th, atdawn, they notice that the marks onher neck have fully disappeared; butVan Helsing reports that Lucy is aboutto die, and Seward is greatly puzzledby this. Van Helsing brings Arthur into see Lucy one last time.

The disappearance of the marks onLucy's neck is a terrible sign, for VanHelsing, and later on, the reader willunderstand why. At this point, Lucy'sbody has been given over fully to itsvampiric form, meaning Dracula nolonger needs to draw blood from it, andLucy is on her way to becoming undeadherself.

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But as Arthur takes Lucy's hand, VanHelsing and Seward notice that Lucy'spallor has changed—she appearsserene, and her gums are drawn back,showing pointy teeth. Lucy's eyesopen wide, and she asks to kissArthur—Arthur nearly consents, butVan Helsing jumps between andforbids it. Arthur is shocked by VanHelsing's response.

Van Helsing has never been more forcefulin his injunction, and Arthur and Sewardare shocked, but of course the reader canguess what is happening—that Lucy isnow in an undead state, and that, ifArthur were to kiss her, she might try tobite him and draw his blood.

Then Lucy goes back into a gentlerepose, and Seward and Van Helsing,the only two remaining in the room(Morris and Arthur, overcome, havegone outside), watch as she slips fromlife to death. Seward says that, now, atlast, Lucy will have some rest, but VanHelsing ominously replies that this isnot the end. Seward remains confusedas to what Van Helsing is saying, butVan Helsing does not yet clarify whathas killed Lucy, and what causes her,now in death, to look so composed,almost alive.

The characters, other than Van Helsing,begin to comment on how "lifelike" Lucyappears, once she has died. Of course,they will soon realize that Lucy has nottruly died at all, and that, now, her bodyhovers between life and death in acondition of undeadness that is part ofthe condition of being a vampire. Soonthe group will have to effect the "truedeath" of Lucy.

CHAPTER 13Seward's Diary. September 20.(continued). Seward takes command ofpreparations for Lucy's funeral, asArthur's father has also recentlypassed away, and he must take care ofthat funeral himself. Van Helsing sayshe will watch the bodyovernight—Seward does notunderstand why Van Helsing is soconcerned with watching Lucy afterher death. The funeral directors saythat Lucy makes a beautiful corpse,and indeed in death she looks morebeautiful than in life.

One wonders whether Van Helsing is inthe right in keeping, for so long, thedetails of Lucy's demise from Seward. Itseems as if Van Helsing believes that theother characters wouldn't be able tobelieve what was happening unless theysee it for themselves. That anyexplanation of the occult would be so farbeyond their comprehension that theywould simply dismiss it. The funeraldirector unknowingly notices Lucy'sundeadness.

Van Helsing asks for surgicalinstruments from Seward for thatnight, since he wishes to cut off Lucy'shead and cut out her heart. Seward isshocked and horrified to hear that VanHelsing wishes to desecrate Lucy'sbody. But Van Helsing asks Seward totrust him, saying he wishes to do thisto Lucy's body for the same reason hepresented Arthur from kissing Lucyone last time, on her deathbed—hehas reason to believe that Lucy mightbe dangerous. Seward trusts VanHelsing but is greatly unnerved.

Here, finally, Van Helsing begins a slowexplanation of what might havehappened to Lucy, but he does sopiecemeal, first by saying that Lucy'sbody will not be lying in repose, but mustrather be "taken care of" through grislymeans (the cutting off of the head, thestake through the heart). Seward, alwaysthe good student, goes along with VanHelsing after a long discussion.

Arthur returns to the house after hisfather's funeral, and cannot believethat Lucy is really dead—he andSeward remark that she looks like shemight only be sleeping. Arthur is nowcalled Lord Godalming, since he hastaken over his father's name and titleafter his father's death. Van Helsingasks Arthur if he might havepermission to read all Lucy's diaryentries, letters, and other personaleffects, to find out the cause of herillness, and Arthur agrees to this.

Arthur has had two people very close tohim die, but because his father was aLord, he now inherits that title. And justas Harker and Mina, on Hawkins' death,are now wealthy, so too is Arthur nowpossessed of an enormous fortune.Stoker appears fixated on the idea thathis characters move up the social ladder,even as they are beset by other problemsin the hunt for Dracula.

Mina's Journal. September 22. InLondon for Hawkins' funeral, Minaand Jonathan go for a walk after thesolemn ceremony, and as they do,Jonathan stops suddenly and appearscompletely afraid. He tells Mina thathe sees "the thin man," Dracula,walking around the streets of London.They walk quickly away, and Jonathannaps for a time and re-collects himself,though Mina worries for him, and forthe spasm of fear it caused him to seesomeone resembling Dracula (as shedoes not believe it is really the Count).

It is not clear to Mina whether Harker ismerely repeating one of the visions hehad while "ill" in Transylvania, or whetherDracula is actually capable of walkingaround London. Interestingly, Harkerhimself dismisses this vision, soon after,as the product of a hysterical mind thathas not fully gotten over whatevertrauma happened to Harker while hewas in Romania. He continues to rejectthe idea of the occult as impossible andtherefore his experiences of it ashallucinations.

Later that day, Mina receives atelegram from Van Helsing that Lucyand her mother have both died, andthat the funeral occurred that day, the22nd of September. Mina is shockedand greatly saddened by this news.

The reader might have forgotten, at thisjuncture, that Mina was not aware of thedeath of Lucy and her mother, and sothis telegram informs Mina of the newreality.

Seward's Diary. September 22. Sewardbelieves he is finishing his diary—hereports that he, Van Helsing, Morris,and Arthur all attended to Lucy as shewas placed in a marble mausoleum in acemetery near her house; after doingso, Arthur remarked that, bytransfusing his blood into her veins, hefelt that he and Lucy were trulymarried. None of the others in thegroup tell Arthur that they all, too,gave Lucy their blood.

Arthur makes explicit the link betweenthe transfusing of blood and the joiningof man and woman in holy union. Thisblood-link will be perverted, later on inthe novel, when Dracula and Mina swapblood, as Harker sleeps unknowinglybeside them. At that point, Stoker makesexpressly clear the relation betweenvampirism, blood-sucking, and romanticcoupling.

After the ceremony, Van Helsing andSeward take a cab together, and VanHelsing goes "into hysterics," asSeward describes it, alternatingbetween crying and laughing aboutLucy's death, and the way sheappeared so serene after death.Seward says he does not understandwhy Van Helsing behaves in this way,but Van Helsing replies that he simplyworries for Lucy after death—thisappears to appease Seward, whodrives off alone, after dropping offVan Helsing at his hotel. Seward vowsthat this is his final diary entry.

Van Helsing might be understood as aneccentric, not entirely in touch with hisemotions as regards certain instances of"politeness," such as is called for now. Inthis sense, Seward is his complete foil, asSeward, here, appears concerned withpropriety—how one ought to behaveafter the funeral of a friend. But VanHelsing also sees the dastardly work thata vampire has done, whereas Sewardgoes on thinking, still, that Lucy wasmerely sick.

From The Westminster Gazette.September 25. Another news clippingis included, this one from a Londonpaper, which describes how, of late, a"dark woman" or "dark lady" in theneighborhood of Lucy's cemeteryappears to be grabbing children,taking them off for a time, andreturning the children with wounds intheir neck. The reporter asks thatanyone with information about this"dark lady" report it to the authorities.

More dramatic irony. It is hard to imaginethat any reader would not make sense,immediately, of this article as relating toLucy. One then realizes, at the end of thenovel, that since this account along withthe others was assembled by Mina, she,too, had a sense of the narrative "arc" ofthe struggle for Dracula as the eventswere unfolding.

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In another short follow-up article, thereport notes that another child hasgone missing, and was then foundsome time later, very week, withanother gash in his neck—manybelieve that the "dark lady" is againresponsible, and that she must befound and brought to justice.

The reader might anticipate, here rightly,that the group's next effort will be totrack down and eliminate the dark lady.And the reader might also sense that VanHelsing possesses the knowledge to dojust this.

CHAPTER 14Mina's Journal. September 23. Mina,who is worried about Jonathan afterhis vision of the Count in London,spends the day reading JonathanHarker's Journal of his time at thecastle, while Jonathan is away for theday on business.

Mina finally decides it is necessary toknow what Jonathan has experiencedwhile at the Castle, although she has stillpromised not to share this informationback with Harker, who wishes to forgetall he can.

Mina's Journal. September 24. Minavows to transcribe Harker's journalvia typewriter, as she fears that theCount might now be in London, andHarker might come in contact withhim once more—in this case, Minawants to have copies of Jonathan'saccount of the castle, even though sheknows Jonathan does not wish toshare his "ravings" with anyone.

But as Mina reads, she realizes that thisinformation is of great value, and that itmight somehow be connected to Lucy'sillness—even in a small way. Minaappears, in this way, to be far moreadvanced than Seward in her hunch thatDracula is ultimately to blame.

Letter from Van Helsing to Mina.September 24. Van Helsing writes andintroduces himself to Mina, sayingthat he has read Lucy'scorrespondence with Mina (withArthur's and Seward's permission);Van Helsing asks to meet with Mina todiscuss Lucy's "illness."

Here, again, Mina begins to sense that,because Van Helsing is asking herquestions about Lucy, Van Helsing mighthave some knowledge, too, of Harker'stime with Dracula.

Telegram from Mina to Van Helsing.September 25. Mina agrees to meetVan Helsing that day to discuss Lucyand her death.

These telegrams set out of the time andplace of Mina's meeting with VanHelsing.

Mina's Journal. September 25. Thatmorning, Mina worries why VanHelsing wishes to discuss Lucy withher—Mina fears that she has donesomething negligent, which hasallowed Lucy to sleepwalk more andtherefore to get sicker and die. Minaalso fears that there is a connectionbetween Lucy's illness and Jonathan'stime with Dracula, though she quicklyannounces, to herself, this can't bepossible—she believes the events tobe unconnected.

Now Mina seems to worry that Draculamight have something to do with Lucy,and she states that there cannot be aconnection. But the very fact that shefeels it is necessary to deny thisconnection belies the idea that she reallydoes sense the two are related afterall—that Lucy's illness is no normalillness, and that Harker's ravings werenot ravings at all.

Later that day, Van Helsing comes tomeet with Mina, who shares with theProfessor her journal from the time ofLucy's illness. Van Helsing reads itquickly, thanks Mina profusely, andremarks that Mina has a great eye fordetail, and that her account hashelped him immeasurably. Mina saysshe is worried about Jonathan, afterhis attack upon seeing the Count inLondon, and Mina also says thatHarker has his own journal with theevents from the castle, which Minahas typed up. Van Helsing asks to readit overnight, in order to help Jonathan,too, and though Mina is worried thatshe is breaking the promise she madeto her husband, she lets Van Helsingread the typescript.

Van Helsing takes an immediate liking toMina, and the more one considers theirrelationship, the more one realizes thatMina, and not Seward, is actually VanHelsing's "star student" at this point inthe narrative. From the beginning, Minahas sensed the need of collecting andcollating the various journals and diarieskept by the characters of thenovel—Mina believes that theirexperiences might be related beforeanyone else other than Van Helsing,while Seward continues to have troublefinding these links as he is too ensconcedin the rational world to accept thatsupernatural events may be occurring.

Letter from Van Helsing to Mina.September 25. 6 p.m. Van Helsing tellsMina, in a brief letter, that Harker is avery brave man, that he was notafflicted by madness during his time atthe Castle Dracula, and that hisaccount of Dracula is thereforeaccurate.

Mina takes this as a great relief, since thereader might have sensed a certain fearon Mina's part, that her husband, for therest of his life, would suffer from mentalillness related to his "ravings" at theCastle.

Letter from Mina to Van Helsing,September 25. 6:30 p.m. Mina repliesthat she is greatly relieved to hear thisfrom Van Helsing, and that she willmeet with him the next day.

Mina makes sure to telegraph her exactemotional state to Van Helsing; Stoker issometimes rather heavy-handed in hisprivate communications, making surethat characters spell out exactly howthey feel.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. September26. Harker writes that he cannotbelieve he has started up his journalagain, since his time with the Count,but that he wishes to continue todocument events related to theCount. Harker meets with VanHelsing and the two discuss Harker'stime at the Castle—Harker providesVan Helsing with some of the papersrelated to Dracula's purchase ofproperty in England. Van Helsingcommends Mina to Harker, sayingthat she is a beautiful and intelligentwoman, and Harker thanks him.

For Harker, it is not just the visit to theCastle that was traumatic, but the actualkeeping of a journal, which Harkerassociates with the terrible events inTransylvania that almost killed him. ButHarker seems also to sense, like Mina,that the terrible events surrounding Lucyand others might in fact be related to histime spent with the Count.

Van Helsing comes upon an article inthe newspaper that causes him someconsternation, but he does notannounce what the article isabout—he quickly takes his leave fromHarker.

Van Helsing appears close to a pointwherein he will share all with the groupand with the reader—the theory he hasconnecting Dracula and Harker to Lucy'sillness.

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Seward's Diary. September 26. Sewardmentions that he is starting to writeagain, though he believed his diarywas finished following Lucy's death.Seward says that Renfield appears tobe somewhat "sane"; Seward ispuzzled by this, but does not know thereason why Renfield has becomemore normal-seeming. Van Helsingcomes in and shows Seward thenewspaper article about the "darklady," the one he stumbled upon whilespeaking with Mina—Seward readsthe article, but does not understandwhy it so upsets Van Helsing.

Seward, once more, seems to doubt thatthere can be any link between thestrange events in the news and Lucy'srecent death. But a more sympatheticreading of Seward's hesitation might behad: because Seward loved Lucy, he feelsa need to mourn here in a normal andproper way, and he has a hard timebelieving that a woman he so adoredmight have changed into somethingdemonic. Fortunately, Van Helsing is notblinkered by love and so can share withSeward the awful truth of Lucy's state.

Van Helsing finally explains what hebelieves to have happened toLucy—he asks whether Sewardbelieves in "astral bodies, hypnotism,"and other instances of occult andmagical phenomena—Seward says hebelieves somewhat, as far asexperiments seem to prove that thesepractices are real. Van Helsingannounces that Lucy is probably avampire—that she was bitten by a batand slowly transformed into one, andthis is why Lucy was losing so muchblood. Seward is shocked by this, andhas a difficult time believing, but VanHelsing reiterates that he is a man ofscience, and that he can prove, byexperiment, that this "magic" is real.

A key scene in the novel. Van Helsingmakes a case that in fact science andmagic are unified, if "magic" in this senseis defined strictly as things that appearnot to be true, but which can be provedtrue through diligent means if only themind is open to these possibilities. In thisway, there is actually no distinction at allbetween science and belief—both requirean openness of mind and of heart, andboth ask that the researcher never jumpto conclusions, but wait to assemble hisor her observations and facts.

Van Helsing goes on to say that "faith"is the "faculty that enables man tobelieve in things that we know to beuntrue." Van Helsing asks Seward tobelieve in his research and to workwith him to track down Lucy, whomVan Helsing says is the "dark lady," andtherefore responsible for the childabductions happening in London.Seward is further shocked and has agreat deal of difficulty believing hisformer professor.

The key point, here, in Van Helsing'sstatement is that we think we "know"certain things to be untrue, but in fact wedo not know that they are not true—weonly think they are not possible. Truefaith means that we can believe beyondour own private prejudices, and be opento a world that is perhaps more complexand strange than we once thought.

CHAPTER 15Seward's Diary. September 26.(continued). Seward accuses VanHelsing of madness, but Van Helsingcounters that he tried, slowly, toconvince Seward of the nature ofwhat was occurring to Lucy—VanHelsing says, further, that Sewardmust trust him, that he (Van Helsing)has Lucy's best interests at heart, andthat he simply wishes to protectLondon, and the children near Lucy'scemetery, from harm. Seward finallyagrees to help the professor, and theyvisit one of the boys who was brieflytaken by the "dark lady"—he haspuncture wounds on his neck,indicating that he has been bitten by avampire, and that some quantity ofblood has been sucked from his veins.

Seward eventually comes around to VanHelsing's view, although some ofSeward's complaints mimic thosecommon to late-Victorian values—theidea that the dead must not be disturbedin their "sleep," and that to do so wouldbe unchristian or somehow unethical. Itis interesting to note that Arthur, too,shares these concerns, whereas Harkerand Morris are more willing to believeVan Helsing immediately and to aid inthe fight against Dracula withoutquestioning Van Helsing's interpretationof events.

Van Helsing and Seward go to thecemetery that evening to check onLucy's tomb (she has been interred ina mausoleum above-ground). Theyboth go into the tomb, and VanHelsing pries open the casket thoughtto contain Lucy; it is empty, andthough Van Helsing says this provesthat Lucy walks the night as a vampire,Seward says that, quite easily, Lucy'sbody may simply have been stolen bya graverobber.

This scene might be noted for itssimilarity to the Biblical scene, depictedin the Gospels of the New Testament, ofJesus being looked for in his tomb on thethird day after his death, and the tombbeing empty. Some people in the area atthat time thought Jesus' body, too, hadbeen stolen by grave-robbers. Yet theecho in this case serves as acontrast—whereas Jesus had ascendedto heaven, Lucy is not in the tombbecause she is locked, undead, into herbody.

They leave the mausoleum but stay inthe cemetery. Seward believes hesees a "white streak" in the cemetery,among the graves, and he and theProfessor soon find that this "streak"has deposited a child nearby—thestreak then disappears. Van Helsingand Seward help the child and placehim in the view of a police officer, thenleave the cemetery to regroup—theydo not want to involve themselveswith the authorities, as they fear thepolice will believe they seek to rob ordamage Lucy's grave.

It is interesting to note that both Lucyand Dracula have an interest in theblood of small children (rememberingthat Dracula took a child back whenHarker was at the Castle). Small childrenare probably easier to catch, and it mightbe that their blood, being young itself, ismore potent for the undead.Alternatively, taking children as "prey"functions to further deepen the vampire'sevil, and also captures the Victorian ideaof contagion—that bad morals couldaffect those around you, affect the nextgeneration.

Seward's Diary. September 27. VanHelsing and Seward wait through thenight, then visit the grave the nextafternoon. Van Helsing shows Sewardthat Lucy, in her tomb no (and"asleep," since she can only be "active"at night) is Un-Dead, meaning that shelives as a vampire; her incisor teethhave grown long and pointy, and sheappears not to be dead at all—onlyasleep. Seward seems to believe, now,that Lucy truly is a vampire, butSeward hesitates to agree to "trulykill" Lucy.

Although it is not explained howbiologically it happens, it is neverthelessreported by many of the characters inthe novel that, once someone becomes avampire, their teeth lengthen in order tobe able to bite the necks of unsuspectingvictims. As Lucy gets sicker, and later asMina does, too, their teeth lengthen inanticipation of their final undeadness.

Van Helsing says that, if he had hisway, he would "truly kill" Lucynow—thus releasing her soul fromvampire-dom. To do this, he would cutoff Lucy's head and drive a woodenstake through her heart. Seward isappalled by this, and Van Helsing saysthat he must have Arthur present forthis "release," since it will provide hima measure of closure, knowing thatLucy's illness was really vampirism,and that this grisly method of "truekilling" is necessary to let her soul riseto heaven. Van Helsing and Sewardthus leave the tomb for the night andhead out to find Arthur, for the nextday.

Van Helsing's interpersonal andpsychological intelligence is here ondisplay. He recognizes at once thatArthur will not believe his fiancée wastruly afflicted with the form ofvampirism, unless he sees it for himself.Further, Arthur might never forgive VanHelsing and Seward for their "barbarism"unless he knows that the "true killing" isnecessary to free Lucy's soul andguarantee her time in Christian heaven,after death.

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Note left by Van Helsing, for Seward(undelivered). September 27. VanHelsing leaves Seward a brief note,saying that he is going to procuremore garlic and communion wafers(the "host")—since vampires cannotcross boundaries lined with thesematerials. Van Helsing says that hehas left this note in case hedisappears, or is attacked by Lucy,while performing the rituals designedto keep Lucy in her tomb.

Again, the mechanism of the wafers isnever explained, but it is presented asfact by Van Helsing—vampires cannot benear anything holy, meaning that thewafers, as symbolic embodiments ofChrist, are too much for the vampires,who need shadow instead of light, fearinstead of God's grace.

Seward's Diary. September 28. In a briefentry, Seward wonders whether VanHelsing is, in fact, mad—but Sewarddecides that it is right to follow hisprofessor and mentor, since VanHelsing is, after all, one of Europe'smost learned men of science.

For the first time, Seward wonders aloudif he, like Harker before him, is goingcrazy. But Seward decides that it is moreimportant to trust Van Helsing than toworry about his own sanity.

Seward's Diary. September 29. Morning.Van Helsing calls a meeting, in hishotel room, of Arthur, Morris (who isstill in London), and Seward, in orderto determine what must be doneregarding Lucy in her tomb. Arthurbegins the conversation by saying thathe is willing to help the cause (notknowing anything of what Van Helsingintends), but he cannot violate anyprinciples of gentlemanliness orChristianity. Van Helsing agrees, thenproceeds to say that the men mustenter Lucy's tomb and open hercasket. At this, Arthur says VanHelsing is mad, and that his proposal isun-Christian.

Arthur's response is typical forgentlemen of this time, and as above, itmimics the response Seward has, whenhe hears what Van Helsing intends forLucy's body. Victorian views of proprietyextended through marriage into "lifeafter death," and it was thought that, todisturb a body in this way, whileentombed, was to disturb also the soulwithin that body, and the Christianmemory of the person who used toinhabit that earthly frame.

Van Helsing counters by saying thatLucy is Un-Dead—a vampire herself,hovering between life and death,capable of moving only at night, whenshe feeds on the blood of the youngand innocent. Van Helsing attempts toconvince Arthur, by saying that hemust be with them to free Lucy's soul,so that she might receive herChristian reward of an eternity spentin heaven. After a while, Arthur, stillwith strong reservations, agrees atleast to accompany the men to thetomb, to see Lucy in her Un-Deadstate.

It is important to note that, despite theirreservations, all the characters, includingArthur and Seward, come around,eventually to Van Helsing's point of view,perhaps because they trust Van Helsing'slearning, or are persuaded by his words.Or perhaps the characters merely realizethat Van Helsing is their best hope in aworld they are struggling to understand.

CHAPTER 16Seward's Diary. September 29.(continued). The four go to Lucy'stomb that day around midnight.Before they open the tomb, VanHelsing asks Seward to verify thatLucy was present the last time theyvisited—Seward says yes, and whenthey open the tomb, they discover it isonce again empty. Morris askswhether Van Helsing is playing apractical joke, but the Professor saysthat Lucy is, in fact, Un-Dead, and thatshe has been roaming in the night,searching for fresh prey.

Morris does not seem worried by theproblems of vampirism, but instead feelsthat, if Seward and Van Helsing areplaying a joke on him, that would be anaffront to his manhood. In this way,Morris's gentlemanly nature isrepresented as being typically American,or cowboy-like—Morris is the most"manly" of the men of the group, and alsothe least willing to be taken for a fool.

Van Helsing then takes up garlic andcommunion wafers, crushing both,and rubbing them as a paste to linethe door-jambs and other crevices ofthe tomb. When the rest of the groupasks why Van Helsing is doing this, hereplies that he is keeping Lucy fromre-entering the tomb—meaning thatthey can trap her outside of hervampiric "home."

One wonders what the looks on the facesof the other group members are, whenVan Helsing takes this bizarre paste andstreaks it on the tomb. There aremoments when the preparations againstvampires approach kitsch or humor, andthese moments tend to be downplayedby Stoker, who does not wish to interruptthe horror of his narrative.

Suddenly, Lucy, in Un-Dead form,appears, moving towards the group asthey assemble just outside the door ofthe tomb (which they have exited).Lucy drops of a child she has justbitten on the neck—the child is aliveand only slightly wounded, sittingdazed in the corner of the scene—andLucy, sighting Arthur, begins to referto him as her "love," and to beckon himto come with her. Arthur isflabbergasted and horrified, as areMorris and Seward, but Van Helsingseems to have expected exactly this.

No one is laughing, however, when Lucyactually returns to them in the shade ofher former self. Lucy's vampirism doesseem slightly different that Dracula's,perhaps because she is only a recent"convert" to undeadness—while Draculaappears as a man, Lucy, on the otherhand, is more of a wraith or ghost,haunting the cemetery in which she wasentombed.

Van Helsing asks Arthur whetherthey may go ahead with theirplan—releasing Lucy from hervampiric state—and Arthur, in shockat Lucy's Un-Deadness, agrees readily.Van Helsing takes away a bit of thecrumbled host-and-garlic lining onechink in the doorway to the tomb, andLucy, since she is a spirit, now, inhuman form, passes through to theinside, and back into her tomb. Thegroup (minus Van Helsing, again) isshocked. Van Helsing then seals thetomb once more with garlic and thehost, and the group leaves thecemetery for the night.

It is not clear why Van Helsing decidesthey need one more day to plan, butperhaps he and the rest of the groupsimply don't have the supplies necessaryto carry on with the "true killing" of Lucy.Van Helsing might also want to giveArthur more time to make sure he isready to "release" his fiancée from theterrible fate forced upon her her byDracula.

Seward's Diary. September 29. Night.The next night, the group once againgathers in the cemetery and visitsLucy's tomb. She has been "keptinside" by the garlic-and-host whichline the cracks and crevices of thetomb—there Van Helsing asks thegroup, especially Arthur, if they arereading, finally, to release Lucy fromher vampiric state. The group agreesthey are ready.

This scene, in which Lucy is freed fromher vampiric form, is one of the mostchilling and bizarre of the novel, andStoker's restraint here is admirable—thesober way in which the events aredescribed, from this point until the end ofthe chapter, makes the events seem allthe more plausible and real.

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Van Helsing asks Arthur to do thedubious "honors" of releasing Lucy,since they were to be married, andthis will allow Arthur, finally, to befreed of the horrors of not knowingwhether Lucy is alive or dead. Aftersome hesitation, Arthur agrees, andon Van Helsing's signal, drives awooden stake into Lucy's heart with ahammer. Lucy writhes for a momentand appears ghastly and horrifying,shrieking loudly, then "truly dies"—hersoul is released to heaven. Arthurwavers and sweats greatly, exhaustedthat the ordeal is over.

Lucy's peace is disturbed, initially, by thestake into her heart, but this is only thedemonic shout of the shade which hasinfected her soul—her true and pure soul,however, is released and is allowed to livein heaven, with other Christian souls.This final Christian consolation is whatcauses Arthur to believe that it is right todrive a stake into Lucy's heart. All of thisalso establishes that the vampires arethemselves trapped—it's not just that theoriginal person has turned evil, but ratherthat they have become infected by eviland forced to stay within the now-evilshell of their body. In the logic of thenovel, vampires, in the moment of beingkilled, actually find freedom and peace.

Van Helsing then quickly cuts offLucy's head, leaving it also in thecasket, and stuffs Lucy's mouth withgarlic, to ensure that she is truly freedfrom her vampiric state. Van Helsingasks the group members, when this iscompleted, whether they will help himin the final task—finding the Count,and doing the same to him. All fouragree that they will do so until "thebitter end," if necessary, to make surethey and their loved ones are safefrom Dracula.

Again, here the description of the terribleviolence done to Lucy's body is quiteclear and written in a matter-of-factstyle, which only makes its gruesomenessall the more chilling, especiallyconsidering that this violence is enactedupon her by her close friends andacquaintances. At the same time, there isan extent to which it is hard to not to seethese events as a metaphor for howVictorian England treated women whohad sex out of marriage—they were cutoff by family and friends, and thrown outof society.

CHAPTER 17Seward's Diary. September 29.(continued). Van Helsing returns to hishotel, with Seward, and finds atelegram from Mina saying thatJonathan is in Whitby, and that she(Mina) will be taking the train toLondon to meet with Van Helsing andSeward immediately. Van Helsinggives Seward Mina's and Jonathan'sdiaries to read, to learn more abouttheir histories with Dracula and withLucy's sleepwalking. Seward meetsMina at the train station and bringsher to speak with Van Helsing and theremainder of the group.

Finally, Mina and Harker might be drawninto the group, so that the fullcomplement of the novel's maincharacters—those who havesurvived—might be brought together inthe fight against Dracula. After Lucy'strue killing in the cemetery, the novelmoves into its third and final stage—thehunt for, and eventual true killing of, theCount himself.

Mina's Journal. September 29. Minatalks first with Seward in his study,where she sees his phonographmachine, on which he dictates hisdiary. Mina says that she would like totype up a transcript of Seward's diaryand add it to the typed transcripts shehas of her own letters with Lucy, andher diary and Jonathan's. Sewardreadily agrees to this, and Mina beginsher work.

Mina starts, at this point, actually‘writing' the text that the reader isreading, the novel written actually byBram Stoker. This is a device oftenassociate with Modernist or evenPostmodern novels, but Stoker is writingat the tail end of the Victorian periodthat preceded Modernism.

Seward's Diary. September 29. Sewardsees Mina later that day, as she comesdown for supper in his house. Sheappears distressed, and Sewardworries that his diary has causedgreat sadness in her—but Mina saysthat, though the work can beunpleasant, it is important that theyhave a complete record of all that hasgone on related to the Count and hispowers—and that all the rest in thegroup should read it, such that theyare convinced of Dracula's evil andbetter prepared to fight him. Sewardagrees with this, too, and finds Mina,once again, to be an intelligent andcourageous addition to the group.

More interesting still, Mina insists thatother members of the group be asked to"read" her accounts as she producesthem, meaning that, at this point in thenovel, all the other major characters areengaged in the reading of the novel itself,in order to come to terms with the natureof Dracula's evil and what he might do tothem as they hunt him. Here, then, thecharacters become readers of their ownstory, in an amazing and intriguing"meta-moment" that Stoker inserts intothe novel.

Mina's Journal. September 29. Minacontinues assembling the typedtranscript of all Dracula-relatedmaterials—in effect "writing the book"which the reader is now reading. Sheswoons a bit, out of sadness and fear,in reading about Lucy's "first" and"true" deaths, but Seward comes in togive her brandy, which clears hermind. Mina continues with her work.

One might imagine how difficult it wouldbe for Mina to transcribe, in great detail,the mutilation of her friend. But Mina is ahearty individual, perhaps the mosthearty of any person in the group savefor Van Helsing, and she recognizes thatshe has a job to do in transcribing theaccounts.

Seward's Diary. September 30. Sewardmeets Harker and immediately findshim "uncommonly clever." Later,Seward visits with Renfield, whom hefinds to be incredibly "sane"-seeming—this, too, puzzles Seward,who expected Renfield to rave about"life forces," as he had done previously.Seward has learned, from readingHarker's and Mina's letters andjournals, that the Count lives nextdoor to the insane asylum—Sewardnow believes that Renfield's madnessis linked to the presence or absence ofthe Count.

Seward finally makes the connectionbetween Renfield and the close proximityof Carfax, which Seward now knows ishome to Dracula. Of course the readermight find it to be an enormouscoincidence that Dracula's home inEngland is next to Seward's asylum, butboth the asylum and Carfax are oldhouses, and Dracula has expressed a loveof old buildings of a particular style.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. September29. On train to London. Harker, on hisway back from Whitby, writes in hisjournal that, on his visit to the Whitbyport, he met with Billington, whomanages the Count's import andexport in England—Billington reports,to Harker, that a delivery of fiftywooden boxes, filled with earth, wasmade to Whitby from Varna, nearRomania. Harker resolves, to himself,to find out where these fifty woodenboxes are to be sent, since he fearsthey are somehow involved inDracula's infernal business.

Harker now senses the true importanceof the wooden boxes, and realizes hemust do all he can to track them downand neutralize them, to keep Draculafrom using them as a hiding place and aplace to restore his powers. Theremainder of the novel will consist of twosimple tasks—rounding up the 50 boxes,and finding and destroying Draculahimself.

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Jonathan Harker's Journal. September30. Harker, in London, speaks with theoffice managing transport of thewooden boxes from Whitby to theestate Carfax, in London. Harker isconvinced that the fifty boxes havebeen delivered to the chapelbasement of Carfax—a man whomoved them reported, as did thedockworkers in Whitby earlier, thatthe boxes were immensely heavy andfilled with earth.

Harker has experience with the boxesbeing located in a basement, as he is theonly member of the group to have seenthem in Dracula's Castle, and to haveseen Dracula himself "sleeping" insidethe earth of the one of the wooden boxes.

Mina's Journal. September 30. Mina,Van Helsing, Arthur, and Morris meetin London, along with Seward andHarker, at Seward's office in theasylum. Morris and Art expressappreciation, gratitude, and a gooddeal more understanding about thevampire "problem" after having readthe typed-up account of all thedocuments, assembled by Mina.

Morris and Arthur are now fully initiatedinto the vampire problem. Morris seemsto believe most of what he reads, so longas he trusts the men who propound thetheory, and Arthur, for his part, is sowilling to do his Christian duty that hewill act in accord with his conscience andto defend the honor of those he loves.

Later, Mina and Arthur sit together inthe office, while the others are out ofthe room—Arthur begins to weepabout Lucy's death, since he knowsLucy and Mina were close friends;Mina, somewhat surprised by thepower of Arthur's outburst,nevertheless comforts him, and thetwo promise to be good friends, andto help in the defeat of the Count.

But Arthur, unlike Morris, cannot hide histrue feeling of sadness and fear, andArthur chooses to confide in Mina, whoseems, on the one hand, happy that hehas done so, and on the other, a bitsurprised by the effusiveness with whichhe cries. In other words, she seems to seehis emotion as a bit unmanly.

CHAPTER 18Seward's Diary. September 30. Sewardreports that Mina asks to meet withRenfield at the insane asylum, sinceMina, too, believes there to be a linkbetween Renfield and the Count,next-door at Renfield. When Minagoes to him, accompanied by Sewardand Van Helsing, Renfield appears toact quite sane, and repudiates hisprevious "madness," saying that he(Renfield) once believed he couldacquire life-force from eating liveanimals, but now, he understands,rationally, that this cannot be done.

What is not clear, in this section, iswhether Renfield is truly "cured" orwhether he is so far advanced in hisinsanity that he is capable of mimickingthe behavior of a well person. The otheroption, the third, is that Renfield isneither ill nor sane, but rather underDracula's spell, and Dracula himself isasking that Renfield be released, usingRenfield as a kind of puppet.

Mina finds Renfield somewhatrational, but Seward believes thatRenfield is only hiding hismadness—or only appearing torepudiate his illness in order todisguise the influence Dracula hasover him. Mina and the others leaveRenfield, and Mina finishes the typingup of the documents related toDracula—in effect "finishing" theaccount of Dracula up till this point inthe novel.

Now all the characters are caught up onall the activities of the other charactersin relation to the Dracula problem. Thispresents a strange reality in thenovel—that there is now no gap inknowledge among the protagonists. Thisis not a normal state of "informationawareness" in a novel, as usually somecharacters know a great deal more aboutgiven events than others.

Mina's Journal. September 30. VanHelsing calls a meeting of the "group":Seward, his "first mate," Mina,Jonathan, Arthur, and Morris. VanHelsing begins this "meeting" by goingover, briefly, Dracula's history, and thenature of his vampirism. Vampires cando the following: they possess thestrength of many men; they canmarshal the forces of wind, thunder,and rain; they can command rats, bats,wolves, foxes, and other "lower"animals; and they must suck the bloodof the living in order to survive.

Van Helsing finally takes the time to gothrough the basic blueprint for vampirebehavior. It seems that Dracula is thechief among this group of vampires, andthat others like the Three Sisters mustobey him. Dracula's history, too, is simplyDracula's own long life, rather than thehistory of his family, since Dracula canlive a very long time, feeding on the bloodof the innocent.

But Van Helsing tells the group, too,that Dracula can be defeated—histhoughts are the thoughts of a "child-brain," although he is quite strong—itis difficult for Dracula to make andmaintain complex plans of attack.Dracula can only enter a space onceinvited by the victim whose blood hewishes to take. Dracula can operateonly at night, between dusk and dawn.And Dracula can be stopped bycrucifixes, garlic, and the holy host.

Conveniently, however, Dracula can bedefeated easily, so long as the groupfollows the simple rules of vampirehunting that Van Helsing here lays out. Inessence, what Van Helsing is doing hereis taking a scientific, methodicalapproach and combining it with anopenness to the occult.

Van Helsing goes on to say thatDracula has no reflection—asobserved by Harker—and can slipthrough difficult spaces once invitedinto them, as Lucy did while enteringher own tomb (once the garlic-and-host were removed). Van Helsing saysthat a comparative review of thesuperstitions and traditions of variouseastern and western Europeancountries reveals a commonmythological understanding of thereality of vampires.

Again, the scientific basis for Dracula'slack of reflection is never explained, but itseems that having a reflection, in thisaccount, is related to having a soul, andbecause Dracula's soul is trapped insidehis body, this soul cannot be shown backto him in a mirror. This is an extension ofan ancient legend in medieval Europerelated to the "nonreflectiveness" of alldemoniac figures.

Van Helsing also states that Draculahas lived an immensely long time, andthat Dracula himself fought in thebattles he claimed to have involved his"ancestors" in the Middle Ages. VanHelsing adds that Dracula can bedefeated—i.e., released from hisvampirism—with a sacred bullet shotinto his casket; with a wooden stake inthe heart; or by having his head cutoff. Rose bushes may also be laid onhis casket to prevent him fromentering or exiting it.

Now Van Helsing lays out exactly howDracula will be killed, when that killing ispossible. The readers of the novelprobably have very little doubt as to theultimate conclusion of the tale—thatDracula will be defeated—and yet it isthe hunt for Dracula that provides agood deal of suspense nonetheless.

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Morris, after this speech, walksoutside and tries to shoot a bat whichhas flown around the house—hemisses, but this reminds Van Helsingthat the Count could be near them atany moment, in the form of a bat orrat. Van Helsing goes on to add thatthe group's goal is twofold: they mustfind and neutralize the fifty woodenboxes, through a method Van Helsingwill demonstrate, in order to keepDracula from repairing to those boxesto rest during the day; and once allthese safe-havens for Dracula aredestroyed, the group must findDracula himself and free him from hisvampirism, using one of the methodsabove. The group agrees to put thisplan in motion, starting the next day.

It is unclear whether Morris senses thatthis bat might be Dracula himself, orwhether Morris simply believes the batto be a pest and a nuisance, somethingthat he should shoot as he would havedone back in the old days of his youth inTexas. But Van Helsing and Sewardrealize that this bat is in fact a physicalmanifestation of the Count, meaningthat the group must waste no time ineliminating his boxes and freeing his soul,lest they all be targeted by Dracula andturned into vampires themselves.

Seward's Diary. October 1. 4 a.m. Earlythat next morning, however Seward iscalled to see Renfield by one of theasylum's orderlies—Renfield hasasked to speak with Seward, VanHelsing, and the rest of the group.When they go down to see Seward,they realize that his reason has beencompletely restored—or at least itappears this way. It turns out thatRenfield knows a friend of Arthur'sfather—and Renfield, in turn,discusses Van Helsing's scientificachievements, making it evident thathe has researched the personalhistories of all members of the group.

Renfield, in this section, makes a finalappeal to Seward. It is interesting to notethat this appeal takes place as a kind of"chat" between gentlemen, as it isimplied that Renfield himself is of upper-class stock. Seward is willing to listen toRenfield for this reason, but of course, inthe end, Seward does not free Renfield inaccordance with the patient's wishes,and this spells final doom for the patient,at the hands of Dracula.

The group, after this speech ofRenfield's, believes that he is sane,and is poised to accede to hisrequest—that Renfield be permittedto leave the asylum at once, and to gofar away as a free man. Seward,however, worries that Renfield isagain only feigning his rationality, as ameans either of getting closer toDracula or of wreaking other havoc inLondon. Seward tells Renfield that hecannot support Renfield's release.Renfield responds that Seward canthrow him in jail, or do anything to himso long as Renfield is not kept in theasylum near Carfax and Dracula.

Seward seems to place a great deal offaith in Renfield's ability to dissemble histrue emotional state—to pretend that heis in fact sane, when in reality he is stillnot well psychologically. Renfield'sdesperation here is quite affecting, and itmakes his death a little later on all themore tragic, in the sense that it couldhave been prevented, if only Sewardcould have seen the link betweenDracula and Renfield more clearly.

But Seward ultimately decides tokeep Renfield in the asylum. Renfieldappears to understand Seward'shesitation, but he asks ominously, toclose the chapter, that Seward and therest of the group remember thatRenfield did "everything he could" toconvince Seward he had to be faraway from Dracula. Renfield impliesthat, if anything bad is to happen tohim in the near future, Seward haskept Renfield from running away andprotecting himself.

Renfield's words, that he has beggedSeward with all his heart to be removedfrom the asylum, are intended to weighheavily on Seward, and in fact they do,when Seward realizes that he is partly, byneglect, responsible for Renfield's death.But Van Helsing will later cheer Sewardup by reminding Seward that he has anobligation to keep the whole group safe,not just one insane man, his possibly-dangerous patient Renfield.

CHAPTER 19Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 1. 5a.m. The group discusses whetherSeward was right not to releaseRenfield—and Van Helsing reassuresSeward that he is doing his best, andthat it is still possible that Renfield is,in fact, insane, and only appearing tobe rational in order to gain his releaseand join forces with Dracula. Thegroup (with Mina left back atSeward's chambers in the asylum)decides it is time to break intoDracula's house, on the presumptionthat he is not home, and they can findsome of the boxes hidden in thechapel basement of the estate atCarfax.

The group here benefits from the factthat the chapel in the Carfax house iseasy to find and to reach, and that theCarfax house is not in a part of town thatmight be observed by the authorities.Throughout the novel thus far, the grouphas done everything it can to avoidcontacting the police about Dracula,since they fear that the police would onlymake their own investigation into thevampire's activities more difficult toexecute.

The men of the group break intoDracula's house and make their waydown to the basement, directlythemselves based on Harker'sknowledge of Carfax, derived fromreading the plans and documents ofthe house earlier. They reach thechapel and find that 29 of the boxesare present, meaning that 21 havebeen removed. Suddenly, the chapel isoverrun by rats—many hundreds ofthem—but Seward blows a silverwhistle and three dogs from theasylum rush in, dispelling the rats andmaking the room seem "cleared" of itsevil atmosphere.

Rats, like dogs, seem to be anotheranimal that can be controlled byDracula, and that are related to histerrible power. But Dracula does notseem to be able to inhabit the bodies ofthe rats—they merely come when hebeckons them. It is interesting to note,then, that the "good dogs" Seward callsare strong enough to dispel the ratsassociated with Dracula's own demonicpower.

Van Helsing is cheered to learn thatother animals can drive away thoseanimals (here, the rats) that Draculaappears to summon to do his bidding.Van Helsing also announces that theyhave only to locate the other 21boxes. The group returns to thehouse, and they sleep.

Conveniently, the number of boxes thegroup needs to locate has been droppedto a more manageable number, althoughthe reader perhaps senses that it will notbe easy to secure and locate the final fewboxes.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 1.Later. Harker wakes up the nextmorning next to Mina, who complainsof having terrible dreams, and whoseems to be quite tired. Harker letsher sleep longer, and does not appearconcerned at her distress, thinking itis just "normal" sleeplessness.

Terrible dreams seem always toaccompany the first stages of vampirism,or vampiric attack—as Lucy, too, wasvisited by terrible dreams as she beganher sleepwalking in Whitby.

Seward's Diary. October 1. Seward, VanHelsing, and Harker have a briefconversation, in which Van Helsingshares the details of his latest meetingwith Renfield, who appears sullen andwithdrawn, unwilling to talk to theProfessor, whom he had praised theday before. Seward wonders ifRenfield hasn't reverted to his"normal" state of madness.

Ironically, Seward now believes thatRenfield is once again mad, whereasRenfield's total dejection probablyderives from a very sane response to hisinability to avoid death at the hands ofDracula, since Seward will not let himleave the asylum.

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Mina's Journal. October 1. Mina writesabout the previous night's sleep, inwhich she heard dogs barking loudly,and Renfield shrieking in the roombeneath her. Mina is worried that themen of the group are keepinginformation about the Count fromher, because they fear thisinformation would worry Mina. Minareports a dream that occurs later inthat night, in which she is surroundedby a dense fog or mist, with two redglowing eyes embedded within it.Mina wonders what this dream canmean, and vows to talk to Jonathanand Van Helsing about it the next day.

Once again, these dogs seem to beassociated with the coming of CountDracula—they presage his entrance. Thefog and red eyes, too, are signs thatDracula is drawing near, and here Stokermarshals the detail of this "haunting"quite well, even as the readerunderstands now that these are signs ofDracula and that Mina is probably nextin Dracula's terrible chain of assaults.

Mina's Journal. October 2. Mina meetswith Renfield during the day—heappears quiet and withdrawn, again,though neither "mad" nor"rational"—only depressed. Mina asksSeward for a sleeping aid (an opiate)in order not to have anothernightmare, as of the fog and red eyesthe night before. Seward gives her asmall prescription for this.

An instance wherein drugs are used as away of inducing an artificial "hypnotic"state, which might keep Mina fromworrying too much about the dangerthat seems to be drawing closer to her,day by day.

CHAPTER 20Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 1.Evening. Jonathan speaks to one ofthe men who moved the boxes fromCarfax to another location, to see if hecan't find out where exactly this otherlocation is. But the man, a lower classEnglish worker, talks playfully withJonathan and cannot give him anyexact information about thewhereabouts of the boxes. Jonathanreiterates that he is glad the group iskeeping Mina "out of the loop" onthese latest Dracula developments, ashe fears she is now overcome with anervous condition about the Count.

Harker must interact with this "lower-class" worker in order to figure out moreinformation about the missing boxes.Harker seems to understand that thisman might be playing with him, in ordernot to divulge all the information of theboxes' whereabouts, simply because theworker enjoys "yanking the chain" of anupper-class man to whom he musttypically speak with reverence.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 2.Evening. Harker continues seeking outplaces where Dracula might havestored the other 21 boxes—he does soby talking to various tradesman whohave handled the boxes in London.One tradesman points him to a housenear Piccadilly, in a central part ofLondon—Harker reports back to themen of the group that he believessome number of the boxes to bestored there. But Arthur and Morrisremind Harker that breaking into ahouse in so busy an area would bedifficult—the group agrees they needto figure out a different way ofapproaching and "neutralizing" theseboxes.

It turns out that Dracula has purchasedother properties. There might benumerous reasons for this. PerhapsDracula wanted to be in a morefashionable part of town, as Piccadilly is;perhaps he wished to spread the boxesaround, to make it more difficult forpeople like the group to track down all hisseparate safe havens.

Before sleep that night, Harker writesthat Mina's breathing has becomeeven heavier, and her complexionappears withdrawn and pale.

Mina begins her sickness, which mirrorsthat of Lucy some chapters previous.

Seward's Diary. October 1. Seward hasanother meeting with Renfield, whoappears again to lust after "life" and"power"—his madness has returned.But this time, Renfield says he doesnot want animal souls, nor souls atall—he has found another source,which he strongly hints to be blood.Seward is terrified by this, at a secondmeeting later that day, and realizes,after this second, afternoon meeting,that Renfield and Dracula are almostcertainly in cahoots, and that perhapsRenfield wishes, also, to suck on theblood of innocents.

Renfield's most explicit admission thathe is now under the power of Dracula.Before, his interest was in power and life-forces, but now his interest is in blood,which might be considered the ultimatelife source, and which is also linked to thekind of sexual intimacy that was madeapparent in Dracula's attacks on Lucy.

Once again, that day, in the evening,Seward and Van Helsing go in tospeak with Renfield and find himsinging—he does not acknowledgetheir presence, and Van Helsing, likeSeward, believes that Renfield mightonce again be in league with Dracula.

Renfield appears, now, to return to"insane" states when he no longer wishesto share his plans to those he believes areattempting to destroy his "master," theCount.

Letter from Mitchell and Sons to Arthur.October 1. In a brief letter, Mitchelland Sons, broker to the house inPiccadilly the group believes to beinhabited by Dracula and his boxes,writes to Arthur, whom Harker hasput in touch with the broker,pretending that Arthur wishes tolease this house from Dracula.Mitchell replies that Arthur can seethe house soon. Mitchell seemsswayed by the idea that Arthur is alord, and that, therefore, his interestin the house in genuine.

Arthur uses his power as a nobleman togain a meeting with the real estate agent.This small scene is Stoker's way ofpointing out the manner in whichwealthy people in England at the timeare able to get exactly what they want,simply by virtue of their social status,rather than their actual needs. The poorvery rarely have this luxury.

Seward's Diary. October 2. Sewarddispatches an orderly to stand outsideRenfield's room, to look after him, ashe and Van Helsing sense thatDracula might visit Renfield. Sewardremarks that Arthur and Harker areworking on an entry into the Piccadillyhouse, and Morris is working toprocure horses in case the groupneeds them. Seward wonders if theyall aren't mad in their preparations tocatch Dracula—but only half-seriously.

Again, the money the group possesses ismore than sufficient to allow them togather the resources they need in orderto fight Dracula. One notes here, again,that if the members of the group werenot so wealthy, it is almost inconceivablethat they would have all they required totrack down Dracula.

Seward reports, in a quick entry, thatlater that evening Renfield is found inhis room, his face smashed, lying face-down in a pool of his own blood.Seward rushes back into the room toinvestigate the cause of this.

Finally, Renfield has been injured in theway he thought he might be—in his ownroom. And though Seward is surprised atfirst, he quickly realizes that Dracula hashad it out for Renfield for some time.

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CHAPTER 21Seward's Diary. October 3. Van Helsingand Seward rush in to find Renfield onthe verge of death, his back brokenand face smashed in. Renfield,between gasps, tells the two thatDracula appeared outside his windowand promised Renfield an "infinite"amount of red blood in the form ofrats, bats, flies, moths, and otherforms of life—Renfield was so excitedby this prospect that he bowed downto worship Dracula forever, and indoing so, invited Dracula into thehouse. Dracula then came into thewindow that night, as a mist, andproceeded to form into human shapelong enough to beat Renfield to theverge of death.

Finally the relationship of Renfield toDracula is explained in more detail.Dracula appeared to manipulate thenature of Renfield's illness, knowing thatRenfield desired more kinds of life onwhich to feed—and in doing this, Draculagot himself invited into the building inwhich the group was planning to destroyhim. Although Van Helsing repeats thatDracula is not a very clever monster, henevertheless, here, deploys a cleverstrategy to enter the asylum.

Before dying, Renfield also tells thetwo that he fears Dracula wants toharm Mina, as Renfield believed hefelt Dracula asking for Mina theprevious night. The Professor andSeward are, naturally, quite worried,and decide to break into Mina's roomto see what has happened to her andto Jonathan.

Dracula always seems to target womenfirst, perhaps because there is a sexualelement to his "blood link," or because hefeels that it is easier to catch womenunawares than to catch men.

They do just this, and find a terriblescene in the bedroom. Mina has beenbitten on the neck by Dracula—herblood is smeared all over his face, andhe is holding her head to a wound inhis (Dracula's) own chest, forcingMina to lap up the blood, Dracula'sown blood, pouring out of the wound.Van Helsing and Seward are horrifiedby the scene, and Harker sleeps nextto Mina and Dracula, unaware of whatis going on, as though in a deep stupor.

One of the most horrific and explicitscenes in the novel, one that seems quiteclearly to depict a sexually suggestiverelationship between Mina and Dracula,although of course only blood is beingexchanged, and the two are not havingsex.

Van Helsing pushes some of the holyhost at Dracula, who is aghast at thesight and escapes through thewindow, where the group cannotpursue him. Morris and Arthur hearscreaming (they appear to be residingin the asylum as well, while Dracula isbeing hunted) and say that someonehas burnt one of the copies of all thedocuments related to Dracula—VanHelsing announces to Arthur that thiswas Dracula himself, and tells themwhat has happened to Mina, who hasawakened in a groggy state, along withHarker.

It is important to note that, duringDracula's attack on Mina, Harker waslying nearly unawares, powerless to doanything to stop it. This seems asimportant to Dracula as the actualattack—the idea that the mensurrounding him, the men attempting tothwart him, are not powerful enough toprotect the women in their lives. Draculahopes that Harker will feel that Dracula,now, is Mina's true consort. This,perhaps, answers the question of whyDracula attacks women—because hisassault on women is also an assault onthe men who love them (of course, theVictorian sexism inherent in such a belief,that the men would be unmanned byhaving their women sexually assaulted, isa different story).

Harker, while waking up, realizeswhat has happened and demands anexplanation of what took place fromSeward and Van Helsing, whoattempt to calm him down. Mina,realizing that she has drunk Dracula'sblood, fears that she has been"contaminated," and that she is nowunclean, and unfit even to kiss herhusband. Seward and Van Helsing andHarker promise that this isn't so, andsay they are determined to help herand to protect her.

Mina recognizes at once that her bloodlink with Dracula will probably haveterrible consequences. Not only hasDracula drunk her blood, meaning thatMina is on the path to becoming avampire, but Mina has drunk Dracula's.Since no character in the novel has yetdone this, the consequences of thisterrible act cannot yet be known.

Van Helsing then asks Mina torecount exactly what sheexperienced—in a dream, she felt awhite mist enveloping her, and saw, onwaking in the dream, that Dracula wasbending to suck her blood—she waspowerless to stop him, and thenDracula forced her to drink his own, insome kind of reciprocal ritualdesigned to unite them spiritually.Mina curses herself for not doingmore to prevent Dracula fromsecuring this "transfer" of blood, butthe rest of the men in the group saythat it is not Mina's fault, and that, thenext morning, they must set outneutralizing the wooden boxes, inorder to begin fighting Dracula.

Again, the components of Dracula'sseduction are in place. The mistrepresents the terrible viral quality ofDracula—that he can be anywhere atonce, and that he can infect those nearhim. And Mina's response, that sheshould have done more to protect herselffrom this assault, sadly mirrors theresponse of many women after a sexualassault—that somehow they have invitedthe attack, and that they blamethemselves for the violence done tothem.

CHAPTER 22Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 3.Harker records the preparationsmade at stalking and killing CountDracula. He notes, also, that Sewardand Van Helsing have told a "white lie"about Renfield's death, calling it anaccident from falling out of bed, inorder to avoid police attentiongenerally regarding Dracula'smovements in London. The groupdecides not to conceal its furtheractivities from Mina, however, as shehas now been roped into the group'sactions through her terrible night withDracula.

Once again, the group decides not to callin the police, figuring that, at this point, ifthey can manage to avoid police scrutinya little longer, they might be able to findall the boxes and catch Dracula withouthaving to involve the authorities at all.This is only possible, of course, since thegroup has the monetary means to trackDracula themselves.

When Van Helsing, Seward, andHarker speak to Mina, she says that, ifshe believes her living would causethe group harm (by luring Dracula tothem, for example), she would ratherkill herself than cause others to behurt. Van Helsing, however, tells Minathat, if she kills herself, she willbecome an Un-Dead, a vampire, andwould thus be even more dangerous.Mina vows instead to strive for life,and not to kill herself.

Mina believes, at this point, that it wouldbe better to end her own life than tocause pain to those she loves. She is evenwilling to violate the Christian teachingagainst suicide in order to so. However,Van Helsing luckily informs her that tokill herself would be to give in to thedemon possessing her, rather than tosave anyone in the group from harm.

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The group decides on a plan. They willfirst attempt to eliminate as many ofthe wooden boxes as possible, those inthe Carfax house and those in thenewer Piccadilly house, because, asVan Helsing says, these boxes, filledwith earth from Dracula's native land,allow him to "recharge" and to fullydeploy his powers. Without the boxes,Dracula is greatly reduced instrength—he cannot, for example,turn into a mist and slip into cracks indoorways and walls.

No one in the group, including VanHelsing, seems to understand the exactmechanism by which Dracula "sleeps"and "reenergizes" inside the woodenboxes. But the group-members accept atthis point that the boxes are the key toDracula's survival while in England.

As the men of the group arediscussing this plan, Van Helsingattempts to bless Mina by taking apiece of the holy host and crossing herwith it, then touching it to herforehead. Van Helsing does so andappears to "burn" Mina on herforehead. Mina looks at herself in themirror and discovers a red scarthere—a mark, she believes, of her"pollution" by having drunk Dracula'sblood. Mina is horrified, but the menof the group bend on their knees andpledge to protect Mina, to vanquishDracula, and to remove this blotchfrom upon Mina's forehead. Then thegroup splits—Morris and Arthur toPiccadilly, and the rest (minus Mina) toCarfax, to sterilize the earth of thewooden boxes.

A very important scene in the novel, onethat serves to motivate the remainder ofits action. Not only has Dracula "taken"Lucy away and forced the group to stabher through the heart—Dracula has nowmanaged to "mark" Mina with a sign thatMina is now in communion with darkvoices. In this, Mina's honor has beentouched, and the group not only wants torid the world of Dracula—it is anassemblage of gentlemen who now wish,also, to restore Mina's lost honor. (Onceagain these events mirror the fact that asexually assaulted Victorian womenwould also be seen as having lost herhonor despite the honor not being herfault).

The process of sterilization is rathersimple: the members of the groupbreak off a piece of the holy host andput it in the earth, after screwing offthe lids of the boxes. In a short time,Van Helsing, Seward, and Harkerhave sterilized all 29 boxes at Carfax,and they head to Piccadilly to meetwith Morris and Arthur. Twenty-oneboxes remain.

The sterilization process is finallydetailed, and it involves, perhapspredictably, merely the introduction ofthe holy host, a task that takes only ashort period of time. Far more difficultwill be finding the remainder of theboxes.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. Piccadilly.12:30 p.m. Van Helsing, Seward, andHarker look on as Arthur and Morrisconvince a locksmith to open up thehouse (as before, Arthur pretendsthat he has an interest in purchasingthe property from Dracula, itsabsentee owner). The five then enterthe house and find, in its basement, amusky smell similar to the Carfaxestate; they sterilize eight boxes theyfind here. Morris and Arthur also finddeeds to two other properties ownedby Dracula in different parts ofLondon, and leave to sterilize theseremaining boxes. Van Helsing, Harker,and Seward decide to wait for theother two to complete theirsterilizations before proceeding withtheir plan for trapping the count.

One begins to realize, at this point inStoker's account, that the programmaticsearch for Dracula is more or less aforegone conclusion: Dracula will befound, as will all the boxes. The novel isnow less an exercise in "how and who-dunnit" and more an exercise in thesymbolic restoration of Mina's honor.There is also the large question of whichof the group-members will survive thisdifficult task of finding Dracula and trulykilling him, thus releasing his soul. Thatquestion provides most of the remainingsuspense in the novel.

CHAPTER 23Seward's Diary. October 3. In Seward'soffice, Van Helsing explains to Sewardand Harker that Dracula usedRenfield, whom he considered a weakand "mad" mind, to enter Seward'shome, which is also the insaneasylum—for Dracula cannot enter anew home unless invited in bysomeone. Thus Renfield's invitation toDracula, earlier in the novel, wassufficient for Dracula to gainadmittance to Seward and Mina.When Van Helsing and Seward havefinished consoling Harker, who isterribly worried about Mina's fateafter her encounter with Dracula,they receive a telegram from Mina,which says that Dracula has left hisCarfax estate (as she has observed)and headed south, perhaps looking forthe five men.

Now the action of the remaining part ofthe novel picks up steam. Once Minarealizes that Dracula is no longer atCarfax, but is probably coming towardthe group, there is a sense of impendingdoom that has been building, slowly,since the death of Lucy. Once Draculaleaves Carfax, he will never return; at thispoint in the novel, Dracula is on the runand will be until he heads to Romania,where a final confrontation with thegroup will take place.

Morris and Arthur return, saying thatthey sterilized six boxes in each of thetwo houses—this means that, in all, 49of the 50 boxes have beensterilized—the group must findDracula's final box. When the five menare in Seward's office, with Minadown the hall, Van Helsing tells themto prepare for Dracula, whom hebelieves to have made the rounds ofLondon that day, in search of boxes inwhich he might "rest." Van Helsingbelieves Dracula is now poised toattack the group to keep them fromsterilizing his 50th and final box.

As might have been predicted, the grouphas found all but one of the boxes,meaning that Dracula is keeping one lastbox and is taking it to an undisclosedlocation. Stoker has marshaled thebook's resources to narrow to this verycircumscribed search—the group willattempt to find Dracula and sterilize hislast box, thus allowing them to defeatDracula once and for all.

All of a sudden, Dracula leaps intoSeward's office, crashing through awindow, and confronts the five men.Harker attempts to stab Dracula witha knife but narrowly misses; Seward,holding a crucifix, drives Dracula backout the window and into thecourtyard of the asylum, whereDracula promises that he has a finalbox, or resting place; that he can fightthe five men for a long time; and thathe "already" has possession of Lucyand Mina, the women of the group.

Just as the reader expects that Dracula ison his heels and running away, however,Stoker has Dracula leap into the houseand present himself, in all his horror, tothe group. Here, Dracula explicitly statesthat he will continue to terrorize thewomen, including Mina, as he sees fit,and that he plans to do everything hecan to elude the group.

After Dracula runs away, however,Van Helsing tells the shaken memberof the group that the group has theupper hand, and that Dracula appearsafraid. Van Helsing also notes that agood amount of the gold stored in theCarfax basement was not there whenthey sterilized the boxes, meaning thatDracula appears ready to flee. Thegroup members go to check on Mina.

An important and interesting parallelism.Just as Harker took some of Dracula'sgold before Harker fled the Castle inTransylvania, here Dracula takes some ofhis own gold from Carfax before fleeingEngland and heading back to the land ofhis birth.

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Mina, however, has not been touchedby Dracula, and appears proud of themen that they have repelled himsuccessfully—at least for now. Themen and Mina have supper andprepare to go on watch, for the night,to guard for the Count, as theyformulate a plan to find him out, andthe final box, and to destroy both.

For the first time, Dracula has beencaught in the act, and the group hasmanaged, through Seward's quickthinking with the crucifix, to keepDracula away from her—at least for thetime being.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 3-4.Close to midnight. During the night,Harker is awakened several times byMina, who tells him she think shehears something. But the other menof the group, on watch, seem to guardsuccessfully against Dracula, as noone attempts to enter the house.

Harker and Mina, as recent victims ofDracula, remain nervous. But the othermen, now united in knowledge andpurpose, are able to guard againstDracula's incursions. Dracula is nolonger able to prey on their lack ofknowledge or refusal to believe in"superstition.

Later that night, Mina calls for VanHelsing, as she has an idea to discusswith him. Van Helsing comes into theroom, and Mina asks him if he canhypnotize her—she feels that, sinceshe is now "connected by blood" toDracula, perhaps she can behypnotized into a state in which shecommunes with the Count, or at leasthas knowledge of his whereabouts.Van Helsing proceeds to hypnotizeMina, as Harker watches.

Dracula's link to Mina is supposed to givehim power, is supposed to mark her ashis and in so doing emasculate the men.But Mina is able to use that link and touse occult practices such ashypnosis—voluntarily putting herself in atrance rather being put into a trance byDracula—against him.

In her hypnotized state, Mina says shecan see only darkness and hear thelapping of waves—this causing VanHelsing to think that the Count isattempting his escape, with the finalwooden box, aboard a boatsomewhere. He and the rest of thegroup resolve to find out where thisboat might be headed, and VanHelsing, waking Mina up, has Harkerstay with her to watch over her, incase Dracula returns.

Mina's idea works! Now the roles havereversed, and Mina and her friends arehunting Dracula, as opposed to the otherway around.

CHAPTER 24Seward's Diary. (Spoken by Van Helsing,as a note to Seward). October 4. VanHelsing reports to Harker that therest of the group believe Dracula tohave left England for Varna, a portnear Romania—they expect that hehas retired their with his final boxbecause it is close to his ancestralland, and perhaps a source of his finalpower of resistance. Van Helsing vowsthat they will meet tonight to discusshow best to approach Dracula.

The novel has a symmetric, book-endedstructure. At the beginning, Harkerescaped Dracula in Transylvania andheaded to England—then Lucy wasafflicted in England, then Mina—andnow the novel circles back toTransylvania, where Dracula is the onefleeing, and the group chases after him.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 4.Harker notes that he has told MinaVan Helsing believes the Count to beout of the country—Mina brightens upin hearing this, knowing that she issafe from the Count for a time. Harkerlooks at the red scar on Mina'sforehead, however, and begins toworry again about her, and about thegroup's ability to catch Dracula.

Harker reminds himself, in essence, of the"stain" that has been placed on Mina'ssoul, through her unwanted communionwith Dracula. The mark on her foreheadis as clear a symbol as possible, onedetailing her lack of purity so long asDracula remains alive.

Mina's Journal. October 5. 5 p.m. Thegroup holds a meeting in order to goover its plan for catching Dracula, andto outline recent news of hiswhereabouts—Mina keeps theminutes in her journal. Van Helsingreports that, after digging around inship documents from the Port ofLondon, the group has found that onlyone ship, named the CzarinaCatherine, is headed for the BlackSea—Van Helsing believes that theCount is on this ship, complete withhis last wooden box.

The wooden boxes which had been usedas sleeping containers for Dracula arenow, essentially shipping containers—hehas placed himself in the final one inorder to transport himself back toEngland. The group appears, at thispoint, fairly sure that they are on theright track as regards Dracula's location.

Van Helsing says that Mina's hypnoticdream earlier that day was proofenough that Dracula is on the CzarinaCatherine—Van Helsing also notesthat the men aboard that ship, wheninterviewed earlier by a few membersof the group, recounted interactionswith a strange passenger, whom theycould not name but who brought up"blood" several times, and sounded agood deal like the Count.

Another instance of the novel'ssymmetry. In earlier chapters, Draculafound his way onto the ship Demeter,and terrorized the crew en route toEngland. Here, Dracula is on anothership, and the crew and those near theship wonder what his business is, andwhether he is not an evil oruntrustworthy man.

Mina says that she will go to sleepmore soundly this night, after themeeting is over, since she feels thatthe group is closing in onDracula—she also notes down,however, that when she sees herselfin the mirror, and the scar on herforehead, she still feels "unclean" andpossessed by Dracula's spirit.

Mina feels that, even though Dracula isfar away, her blood link to him, and thestain upon her forehead, are enough toremind her that Dracula is, in a sense,always present to her, always hauntingher, somehow within her. Again, these arefeelings that often afflict women ofsexual assault.

Seward's Diary. October 5. Sewardnotes in his diary that the groupappears better rested on thisday—that they appear resolved totrack down Dracula at the ends of theearth, back in Romania. Van Helsingcalls Seward aside, however, and tellshim that he fears Mina is "changing"already, becoming more and more likea vampire (pale in complexion, withthe shape of her teeth beginning tochange), and Van Helsing asks Sewardthat, if the time comes and it benecessary, they do what they have todo to "free" Mina from her vampirism,meaning killing her by stabbing her inthe heart and cutting off her head.Seward is horrified by this, once again,but after the interaction with Lucy, heknows Van Helsing is telling the truth,and agrees to do this, if needed.

Just as the tension was draining away,just as it begins to seem likely that themen will eventually find and kill Dracula,Stoker ratchets back up the tension bymaking it so that the friends not onlyhave to find Dracula; they have to findhim fast, before Mina changes into avampire.

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The group meets again, minus Mina,who complains she is not feeling well,and remains in her room—this causesVan Helsing and Seward to besuspicious, thinking that indeed Minais turning into a vampire—but theydecide not to air their concerns infront of the group at present. Morrissays that they ought to armthemselves with rifles, as they willtravel over-land to Romania, a journeylasting three days, once they haveword that the Czarina Catherine isapproaching Varna, the Black Sea portfor Romania.

Morris, as before with the bat, is themost gun-happy of the crew, and hebelieves that it will take a good deal ofviolence to overcome not only Draculabut those surrounding him, who mighthave a vested interest in protecting him.The group seems to agree with Morris'sidea, though none are so ready to useweaponry as he is.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 5.Afternoon. Harker looks after Mina asshe lies in bed—he fears she isbecoming weaker, and Mina asks thatHarker keep all plans about trackingDracula from her, as she fears she willshare them unknowingly with theCount, since her blood has been"linked" with his, in some sort ofshared consciousness. Harker agreesnot to share any word with VanHelsing's blessing.

Mina seems to recognize that there areparts of her mind that are no longercompletely her own—she attempts toguard herself and the remainder of thegroup by keeping herself in the darkregarding the group's actions. This is acounterpoint to earlier in the novel, whenthe group hid some secrets of their huntfrom Mina, in order not to scare herunduly.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 6.Morning. Mina calls in Van Helsing,however, and changes her mind—shehas thought more about it, andrealizes that she must accompany themen on their journey to Romania, asher ability to have a hypnotic"connection" with Dracula will providethe group information on hiswhereabouts. Van Helsing considersthis for a time, then agrees withMina's proposition, and the groupprepares to bring Mina along.

A quick reversal—Mina believes she willdo more help to the group than harm.But one wonders, in light of laterevidence, if Dracula didn't "order Mina'smind" to get her to go along, so that shecould supply the group, unknowingly,with false information regardingDracula's location in Romania.

Van Helsing announces that theentire group, including Mina, willleave for the overland journey toVarna the next day, in order tointercept the Czarina Catherine whenit reaches the port there. Morris vowsto stab Dracula in the heart as soon ashe sees him. Later that evening,Harker draws up his will, leaving hisestate to Mina in case somethingshould happen for him as he battleswith Dracula. The group thenprepares the leave the next day.

Even in the thick of all these events,Harker still finds time for that mostbourgeois of activities—the planning ofhis estate. The novel contains anundercurrent of money- and property-management which is very much areflection of the prosperity and concernsof late-Victorian times in England.

CHAPTER 25Seward's Diary. October 11. Evening.Mina calls one more meeting of thegroup, as their travel has been delayedfor some time, based on a lack ofinformation about the whereabouts ofthe Count's vessel bound for Varna.Mina announces, around dusk (she is,for some unknown reason, more"free" around dawn and dusk, perhapsbecause Dracula's hold is lesspowerful then), that each man of thegroup must promise to kill her, if thetime comes and she turns into avampire. She asks this in the name ofthe group, and for the safety of thosearound her. Each of the men agrees, inturn, including Harker.

Mina falls into the dawn and duskschedule that has been seen, earlier inthe novel, with regard to Dracula,Renfield, and Lucy. Mina appears to beless under Dracula's thrall during thesetransitional times, perhaps becauseDracula himself is undergoing changes(he can only be active at night), and hishold upon Mina's psyche is lesspronounced during these times oftransition. Now it is Mina who demandsthat the men kill her should she changeinto a vampire. She wants the contagionto be stopped; she places the value of thegroup above her own.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 15.Varna. Harker reports briefly on thegroup's trip to Varna, from England toParis by boat and then train, and thenby the Orient Express east to Varna.The trip takes, in total, three days.When the group arrives in Varna,however, there is no word of Dracula,and Mina reports, from her hypnoticstate, only the sound of more waveslapping against the Count's ship.

The continual vision of waves lappingagainst Dracula's boat is fed into Mina'sconsciousness as though it is a repeatingloop of tape or film—this will appearmore true once it is revealed thatDracula has been intentionally deceivingMina as regards his actual location inRomania.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 16.No more news of the Count's ship;Mina still reports the "lapping ofwaves" from her trance-state.

The short bursts of narrative here mimicthe monotony of a ship's log in whichnothing changes.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 17.Harker recounts briefly the plans forattacking the Count, once his shiparrives at Varna—Harker will stab himthrough the heart, and Van Helsingand Seward will quickly cut off hishead to ensure that he is dead. Nonews of the Count's arrival at Varna.

The members of the group play-act theirroles as they approach the scene ofkilling Dracula. One senses that they areexcited to dispatch the thin man fromthis earth.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 24.Still no news of the Count's arrival atVarna, and Mina reports, again, onlythe sound of waves from the Count'sship.

Again, the monotony of a ship's log isrepeated here.

Telegram, October 24, from Lloyd's ofLondon to Arthur. The London ship-company reports that the CzarinaCatherine has been reported crossingthe Dardanelles, a small channel enroute to Varna.

One wonders whether Stoker needs allthis "filler" at the end of the novel, butthe pace of the book is maintaineddespite these final sections—it is a quickand exciting end to the novel.

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Seward's Diary. October 25. Sewardannounces his worry that the Counthas not arrived sooner, and says that itis frustrating actually to write in hisdiary, as he is accustomed to dictatinghis entries via phonograph. Sewardnotes that Mina has become morelethargic, although she is still capableof channeling the Count via herhypnotic trances.

Seward expresses, again, his preferencefor speaking his thoughts than forwriting. In a book where so much is takendown in writing, Seward is anexception—one who prefers talking andlistening to recorded speech. Meanwhile,the race against time continues.

Seward's Diary. October 26. Still nonews of the Count, although Sewardreports that a fog has fallen overVarna in the past day.

This fog, of course, tends to presage thecoming of Dracula.

Seward's Diary. October 27. Still nonews of the Count. Seward reportsthat Mina's lethargy is increasing.

Mina's condition worsens in a mannersimilar to Lucy's condition, as sheapproached the undead state.

Telegram, October 28, from Lloyd's ofLondon to Arthur. The CzarinaCatherine is reported at Galatz,another port far from Varna, at onep.m. that day.

As it turns out, Dracula is not where thegroup expected, but at another port faraway.

Seward's Diary. October 28. The groupdecides to catch the next availabletrain to Galatz. In the meantime, VanHelsing, Seward, Harker, and Minatalk, and Van Helsing relates to them atheory he has of the Count'sdeception—that the Count was awareof the "connection" he had with Mina'smind, and deliberately fed Minaincorrect visions for her hypnotictrances, ones that would make it seemthe ship was headed for Varna, whenin reality the Count had alreadyarrived at Galatz. Van Helsing cursesthe Count for his misdirection, buthaving figured it out, vows to track theCount, with the rest of the group, tohis castle, and to find him and truly killhim.

Van Helsing develops a theory, which thereader might have imagined allalong—that Dracula was giving Minafalse information in order to buy time onhis flight back to the castle. AlthoughVan Helsing tends to respect Dracula, healso tends to underestimate Dracula'sintellect in key moments—although VanHelsing believes Dracula has a "child'sbrain," Dracula is nevertheless capable ofa few surprises before he is ultimatelycaught outside his castle.

CHAPTER 26Seward's Diary. October 29. Sewardwrites from the train to Galatz, fromVarna—the group is preparing to findDracula, on calls on Mina, againhypnotized by Van Helsing, to giveinformation as to Dracula's location.She says only that she feels Dracula ison land, and that there are wolvesnear him.

Once again, the wolves symbolize notonly Dracula's presence but his desire todo some harm, as they have throughoutthe rest of the novel.

Seward's Diary. October 30. 7 a.m. VanHelsing again hypnotizes Mina, who,in a trance, says that Dracula is still onland, and that she can hear cattle inthe distance. Mina wakes up and askswhat she was saying in her trance,indicating that she truly is beinghypnotized, and that Dracula appearsto have set up a "direct link" to herconsciousness, of which Mina is nototherwise aware.

Dracula's turn back to land means thefinal sequence in the novel canbegin—the hunt for Dracula toward theCastle that bears his name. This Castledoes seem to be an important location inthe novel—the point where Dracula isdiscovered by Harker and thereader—and the point where he is to betruly killed.

Mina's Journal. October 30. Minanotes, briefly, that the men have thegroup have gone off to determinewhere exactly the Count's ship haslanded at Galatz.

Another brief logistical section, in thelead-up to the final showdown.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 30.Harker, Van Helsing, and Sewardspeak with some English customsworkers working near Galatz, whohave heard stories about the Count'sship as it approached harbor in thecentral Europe—the workers say thatthe Romanians on board the shipwere "frightened" of something theship was carrying, but would notidentify what it is. Harker, Van Helsing,and Seward determine that they mustintercept the final wooden box,wherever it is, and then hope thatDracula is near it.

These workers, like the sailors on the shipDemeter, have heard terrible storiesabout Dracula, and about the cargoaboard the ship that landed at Galatz.Again, sailors and dockworkers havetended, in the novel, to be some of themore superstitious characters, perhapsbecause their work involves interactionwith people from different lands and,therefore, the stories and legends ofmany different cultures.

Mina's Journal. October 30. Evening.Mina, in her journal, works out a planfor where Dracula and the box mustbe. She determines that it would beeasiest for Dracula, and the mostsecretive, for him to transport himselfand the final box over water (probablya river) to his castle. Mina determinesthat it could be either the Sereth orthe Pruth rivers, nearby, based ontheir ease of navigation and proximityto the castle.

Mina, despite her ailment, is neverthelessable to marshal her considerable powersof thought to find Dracula on one of tworivers approaching his castle. This makesthe task of hunting Dracula downsignificantly easier, if still a challenge forthe men of the group.

Mina's Journal. October 30. (continued).Mina tells what she has conjecturedabout Dracula's path to the castle toVan Helsing, who believes it is a soundhypothesis. He vows to stay back withMina while Harker, Seward, Morris,and Arthur go off to find Dracula.Mina marvels at the bravery of herhusband and the others, and Harkerhopes that Van Helsing and Mina willbe safe together in Galatz.

One gets the sense that Mina's trials, andHarker's efforts, have brought the couplecloser together. This, in distinction toArthur and Lucy, who from the beginningwere separated both by Lucy's illness andby Arthur's father's illness, whichrequired Arthur to be away for longperiods of time.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 30.Night. Arthur, Morris, and Harkertake a launch, a small boat, up theSereth river to the castle to findDracula. Harker notes in his journalthat he is nervous about approachingthis "infernal" region again. Seward ison his own way by horseback to thecastle, and Van Helsing and Mina willtake a carriage over land to the castle.

One can only imagine the stress involved,for Harker, in going back to the scene ofso much of his torment, before he knewanything about Dracula or the nature ofhis vampirism. Harker returns, in effect,to wrestle with some of his own demons.

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Jonathan Harker's Journal. October 31.The group in the launch continues upthe river in their small boat, huddlingtogether to keep warm, and praying toGod for their safety in confronting theCount.

The final journey to the Castle takesplace over land and by sea, depending onwhich part of the group is traveling.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. November 1.Evening. As the group's launchcontinues up the river, they pass bysome Slovaks, who say they saw alarger boat heading up the river aheadof them—Harker believes that theCount is on this other boat.

Mina was correct—and the river shechose, the Sereth, was the river on whichboth Dracula and Harker traveled. Thefinal showdown with Dracula isapproaching.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. November 2.Morning. Harker wonders about VanHelsing and Mina, who by this timehave ordered a carriage and horsesand have headed to the CastleDracula by land, to meet up with therest of the group. Harker estimatesthat Van Helsing and Mina should nowbe about to enter the Borgo Pass,through which Harker traveled thatprevious spring.

The Borgo Pass is another traumaticscene for Harker, and it can be describedas the threshold between Dracula'scastle and the normally settled landsbeyond it. The pass, then, is a kind ofpoint of no return. For Harker, the idea ofgoing through the pass reminds him ofhis own previous journey, and he is in asense returning to that same battle. Hisconcerns about Mina highlight their loveand domestic happiness, all of which arethreatened by Dracula.

Seward's Diary. November 2. Sewardwrites that he is cheered to betraveling on horseback, and that hehopes Harker, Morris, and Arthur, intheir launch, are proceeding easily upthe river to the castle.

All members of the group, includingSeward, appear somewhat relieved tohave a set series of tasks to do in order tofind Dracula. Seward relishes this part ofthe search.

Seward's Diary. November 3. Sewardworries, at a break in his journey,whether the snow on the river willhamper Harker's, Morris's, andArthur's travels.

Seward also guesses, correctly, that theother members of the group, traveling onthe river, will meet with delays becauseof the terrible winter-like weather.

Seward's Diary. November 4. Sewardhas heard through fellow travelersalong the horse-path near the riverthat the launch is still progressing upthe river, but that blocks of ice haveimpeded its progress and slowed itdown on its way to the castle.

It is not clear whether Seward speakssome Romanian, or whether thislanguage is translated to him. It couldalso simply be an omission on Stoker'spart, that Seward in fact could notunderstand the language of theRomanian locals.

Mina's Journal. October 31. Mina notesthat Van Helsing has procured acarriage and horses, and that she andthe Professor are starting off on theirway over land, through the BorgoPass, and off to Dracula's castle. Minasays that she worries for Harker'ssake, as he is on the river, followingclose to the trail of the wooden boxand the Count, and she hopes thatHarker remains safe.

Again, the group's significant resourcesare very useful here, as they might beused to gain means of transportation tothe castle. It is hard to imagine how thispart of the search, in particular, would bepossible without a significant cash outlayon the part of the group. Again, Stokeremphasizes the love between Mina andHarker, this time from Mina's point ofview.

Mina's Journal. November 1. Minareports that she and Van Helsing aremaking good time toward the castleover land.

The final showdown is approaching fromthe perspective of each group member.

Mina's Journal. November 2. Minaremarks that she has taken over someof the driving of the carriage, fromVan Helsing, who has been growingtired. The carriage nears the BorgoPass. Van Helsing quickly hypnotizesMina, during a break in their trip, andshe responds in her trance that theCount and his box are still on the riverand heading toward the castle. Minaworries for Harker's safety—as he,Arthur, and Morris are still on theriver, too.

Mina can still be hypnotized, but as willbe reported later, she becomes less andless willing to go into this trance as sheapproaches the Castle, perhaps becausethat is the ancestral seat of Dracula'spower, and his hold over that region isstrong—thus Dracula can moreeffectively control Mina's mind in thisarea.

Mina also writes, in her journal, thatshe feels her scar on her forehead andknows that she is still "marked" by theCount—she hopes that, once theCount is destroyed, she can be madeclean once again.

A reminder of the group's other majorpurpose—to make sure that Mina is onceagain "clean" of soul.

Memoranda of Van Helsing. November4. Van Helsing begins a series ofmemoranda for Seward, in casesomething happens to him and toMina en route to the castle. VanHelsing attempts, at several timesduring their journey, to continue hishypnotism of Mina, but the hypnosisno longer workers. Van Helsing fearsthat Mina is now more underDracula's control, or that, perhaps,the proximity of the castle hasincreased his strength over her.

Van Helsing is very quick to understandthe power of the Castle in disrupting hishypnotisms of Mina. Van Helsing knows,now, that the group must be very close tofinding, and hopefully to destroying, theCount.

Memoranda of Van Helsing. November5. Morning. As they continue throughthe Borgo Passs, Van Helsing stopsfor the night and tries to get Mina toeat, but she appears paler than ever,more desirous of sleep during the day,and she won't be hypnotized anylonger. Van Helsing surrounds the twoof them, while stopped by theroadside, with crushed holy host, a"holy circle" which he believes willprotect them both from Dracula.

This "holy circle" is a new development, anew tactic against evil spirits, but onethat builds, too, off the tactics VanHelsing has already used to keepvampires and the undead in their place,or far away from a protected zone. Thisholy circle will be of great use to VanHelsing and Mina in the remainder of thenovel.

During the night, the three sisterswho tried earlier to seduce Harkerappear around Van Helsing and Mina,outside the holy circle, and attempt toget Mina to leave and "go with them."But Van Helsing tells the three womento be gone, and the holy circleprotects them from these evil spirits.The women disappear. Mina fallsasleep and Van Helsing believes that,for the moment, they are safe.

The return of the Three Sisters, who,now, no longer lust after Harker butappear to sense that Mina is close tobecoming undead. The Three Sistershope to speed Mina along in that effort,which again correlates to the Victorianfear that sexual liberation among womenwas somehow contagious anduncontrollable if left loose, and must berigidly constrained (just as Mina isconstrained by the "holy circle").

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Jonathan Harker's Journal. November 4.Harker notes that the launch has beendelayed by the ice-floes on the river,and that he, Arthur, and Morris arenow en route to the castle onhorseback.

Seward was correct, and Harker and thecrew are behind schedule on the river, onaccount of terrible weather. This meansDracula, however, is probably alsobehind schedule.

Seward's Diary. November 5. Sewardhas met up with the men of the launch,and the four proceed on horseback tothe castle. On their ride, they hear thesound of wolves howling, and wonderwhether they will make it out of thisregion alive.

The wolves indicate Dracula's power inthis wild region, a place where all themen from the city are unfamiliar and indanger.

Memoranda of Van Helsing. November5. Afternoon. Van Helsing leavesMina in the holy circle, asleep, andproceeds to the castle, which is nowwithin short hiking distance. In thecastle graveyard, he finds the tombs ofthe three sisters of Dracula, and usingall his strength, opens them, drivesstakes into the sisters' hearts, andcuts off their heads. The sisters writheas their souls are released, but VanHelsing knows he has freed them andeliminated their ghosts from thecastle.

In this somewhat anticlimactic and quickscene, Van Helsing takes care of theThree Sisters once and for all. In doing so,he eliminates a source of temptation forMina, and his thoughts remind thereader that in killing the vampires he is infact freeing them. That in killing them heis saving them.

Van Helsing coats the entryways tothe castle with his mixture of garlicand host, in order to keep Draculafrom being able to re-enter there. Hethen returns to Mina, who looks evenpaler and more ill, and drags her alongto meet up with the other four, nearthe castle.

Van Helsing continues to use hisknowledge of the occult and religionagainst the vampires. But Mina's descentinto vampire-hood is nearly complete.

Mina's Journal. November 6. Mina andVan Helsing arrive at the dirt path onthe way to the castle, and lie in waitfor Dracula and his cart, bearing thewooden chest. As snow begins to fall,and the weather grows extremelycold, Mina and Van Helsing spy thechest coming up the trail near them, ina wooden wagon dragged by horsesand piloted by gypsies from the area.Van Helsing and Mina believe thatDracula is "sleeping" in the woodenbox. Van Helsing and Mina hide andmaintain a lookout for the other fourof the group.

The final confrontation begins. As mighthave been supposed, Dracula isentombed in his final box, which meansthat, if this box is opened and Dracula isstabbed, he will be truly dead—no otherpreparations will be necessary. VanHelsing and Mina, like the reader, have afront-row seat onto this final bit of actionin the novel.

Van Helsing and Mina spot Harker,Morris, Seward, and Arthursurrounding the cart and ordering thegypsies to stop. Morris and Harkerthen use their strength to pry openthe box, and in doing so, Morris stabsDracula in the heart, and Harker cutsoff his head in an instant. Harker hasbeen wounded slightly in the side byone of the gypsy's knives, and Morrisappears also to have been woundedmore gravely. Dracula crumbles todust in the wooden box, finally killed,and the gypsies, terrified, run awayfrom the cart.

The men work together—using theirstrength and the occult knowledge aboutvampires they have learned from VanHelsing to kill Dracula. Dracula is trulykilled, and there is a palpable sense ofrelief among the members of the group,except for Morris. From the beginning,Morris has been the most gung-ho of thegroup members, and it appears, here,that his energy in fighting Dracula hastaken him too far—he didn't see thegypsy who attacked him, and his woundsare very serious.

The castle Dracula glows red againstthe evening sky—they have managedto free Dracula's body before the sunsets. Mina notes that there was a lookof total peace in Dracula's face justbefore he crumbled to dust—thismeans he really was set free.

A wonderful, brief scene, in which Minanotices that even Dracula himselfappears happy to know that his soul hasbeen freed to heaven, away from theputrid decay of his blood-desiring,undead body.

The holy circle, which Van Helsing haddrawn around Mina and himself again,while aweaiting Dracula, no longer isnecessary to protect them. They runto the wagon to see Harker, Seward,Morris, and Arthur. Harker appearsonly slightly wounded, but Morris,who has been gashed in the side, isbleeding profusely and about to die.

Harker survives, and he and Minamaintain their family unit, but Morris isunable to survive his wound, and hisdeath near the castle Dracula forms afinal, tragic scene at the novel's end.

Morris announces that it was anhonor to work with them all to defeatDracula, and as he dies, he points toMina's forehead with a look of joy andwith praise to God—the scar has beenremoved, and her forehead now ispure white. Mina is freed fromDracula's power, and Morris dies onthe roadway, surrounded by Harker,Mina, Van Helsing, Seward, andArthur.

But Morris also recognizes that the stainhas been removed from Mina's forehead,and this seems like happiness enough forhim—he knows that the group has doneits job, not only in finding and truly killingthe Count, but in removing the terriblestain from Mina's honor. Morris—anEnglishman's stereotype of a Texanthrough and through—dies contented inthis chivalrous knowledge.

CLOSING NOTEHarker writes a closing note to theaccount of Dracula, seven years afterDracula's final death. Mina andHarker now have a child, namedQuincey, who was born on theanniversary of Morris's death. Sevenyears later, Mina, Harker, and youngQuincey traveled to Transylvania, andMina and Harker were shocked bothby the beauty of the country and bythe memory of what had happenedthere.

A brief epilogue. New family units havebeen created: Mina and Harker have achild, and both Seward and Arthurmarry. Thus, not only has Dracula beendestroyed, but from his destruction newbonds of love and family are finallyformed. Further, Morris has been"reborn" in a natural way: he died, andthose who loved him named a new babyafter him.

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Back home, Harker and Mina thoughtof Arthur and Seward, both happilymarried. As Harker and Mina go overthe documents comprising theaccount of Dracula, they think of VanHelsing's words, uttered to themrecently—that although thedocuments were assembled as proofof Dracula's existence, and of hisdeath, they still remain accounts, andwould have to be verified by someother means. But Van Helsing saysthat, of course, Quincy, Harker andMina's son, will know how courageoushis mother and father were, and howmany men banded together to protectMina from harm, to restore her goodname, and to hunt Dracula until hissoul might be freed. Harker ends theaccount here.

Another important point. Van Helsingrealizes, at this juncture, that there isnothing to prevent anyone reading thisaccount from considering the entire thingfiction. Of course, the novel is fiction, andhere Bram Stoker has engaged in anotherbit of meta-narrative play which is moreoften associate with modernist andpostmodern texts. Stoker seems toacknowledge in his novel the tenuousborder between fact and fiction thatexists in all accounts of events. AndHarker and Mina know that, in order tobelieve in the story of Dracula, one mustbelieve, more generally, that there are inlife some events that are strange, beyondour experience or rationalcomprehension, and yet inevitably true.

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