Dracula notes

Harker is on a business trip in Eastern Europe in an isolated area that is now known as Romania. He is going to meet the noble Count Dracula. Peasants are watching him in apprehension as he travels to the castle, he doesn’t understand their language but can make out the words for devil, werewolf and vampire. Chapter ends with Dracula’s castle coming into view.

Quotes: “I felt a sort of paralysis of fear” “all at once the wolves began to howl” “I grew dreadfully afraid and the horses shared my fear”

Carter: The Werewolf/ The Company of Wolves

Meets Dracula who is described as tall, and dressed in all black. Harker notices he has scarlet lips and unusually sharp teeth (androgynous) whilst having a meal with Dracula. Jonathan sleeps and wakes up late in the evening of the next day, the house of high standard yet has no servants, there are also no mirrors. The count is in the library and asks Harker about England. When Jonathan uses a small mirror to shave he notices that the Count does not have a reflection and cuts himself with the razor. Dracula becomes possessed at the sight of the blood and only grows calm at the sight of Harker’s crucifix. As Harker walks around the castle he realises that all the exits are bolted and he is a prisoner.

Quotes: “more like the hand of a dead than a living man” “doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted… I am a prisoner”

Carter: The Bloody Chamber/ The Lady of the House of Love

Harker wonders if the coachman who drove him here was also Dracula, and he notices that there are no servants in the house. Dracula talks to Harker about his ancestors in Transylvania. Count says he must only write letters to his employer Peter Hawkins but Harker is trying to find a way to write secret letters to his lover Mina. At night he sees Dracula crawling along the side of the castle face down. As Harker is asleep he sees three beautiful women who talk of who is going to “kiss” him first and Harker feels fear and lust. One of the women moves in to bite his neck and Dracula stops her and gives her a bag of which seems to be child, and Jonathan loses consciousness.  

Quotes: “white teeth that shone like pearls, against the ruby of their voluptuous lips” “I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” “which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck she actually licked her lips like an animal”

Carter: The Bloody Chamber/ Tigers Bride 

Jonathan tries to send his letters but they end up in Dracula’s hands, in anger Dracula burns them and whilst he is sleeping steals his clothes and belongings. He sees woman banging on the door of the castle and screams for Dracula to give her back her child, Dracula lets a pack of wolves on her and kills the woman. Jonathan tries to escape but sees Count lying in a trance like state and seems neither dead nor asleep. The count tells the women that Harker is theirs the very next night. As Harker spots Dracula sleeping in a coffin, he goes to hit him over the head with a shovel and the count awakens. Dracula is getting transported to England by the gypsies.

Quotes: “There was no cry from the woman, and the howling of the wolves was but short.” “There lay the count as if his youth had been half renewed”

Carter: The Company of Wolves/ The Bloody Chamber 

Back in England with letters between Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray. Dramatic irony as Mina speaks of how well her husband is doing (as the letters she received are fake from Dracula.) Lucy says she has received three proposals in one day. She accepts Arthur and rejects Dr Seward and Quincey.

Quotes: “why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?”

Carter: The Lady of the House of Love/ The Company of Wolves/ The Bloody Chamber/ The Werewolf

Mina is visiting Lucy and they make friends with a local named Mr Swales who speaks wisdom. Mina misses Jonathan however and he hasn’t written in a long time.

Dr Seward reports on the behaviour of Renfield who is fascinated by animals and he eats flies. Renfield starts eating birds. Dr Seward is depressed about his rejection by Lucy.

Lucy is sleeping walking again.

Quotes: “although she is well, has lately taken to her old habit of walking in her sleep”

Carter: Tigers Bride 

Clippings of a local paper into Mina’s journal. A Russian ship has been washed ashore by a storm with all the bodies gone except the captain who was tied to the wheel with a crucifix. Mina wonders of Jonathan and Lucy is restless she has been sleepwalking constantly and is in a terrible state.

Quotes: “as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean”- Coleridge ‘rime of the ancient mariner’

Carter: The Company of Wolves

Mina wakes and finds Lucy’s bed empty and searchs of her outside. She goes to the church where Lucy’s favourite seat is, and from a distance sees Lucy half reclined while a shadowy figure with red eyes bends over her. When Mina reaches her, Lucy is alone, asleep and breathing with difficulty and notices two holes on her neck. Lucy sleep walks back to her bed clutching her neck and Mina worries. Mina also learns that Mina’s mother is also dying. Lucy tells Mina that it was like an out of body experience and how it is was blissful (sexual connotations to Dracula’s phallic potency.) Mina finds out that Jonathan is unwell from brain fever.

Dr Seward reports that Renfield is talking about a “master” and making statements about Christ and he escapes and is later found against the door of the ruined chapel.

Quotes: “there were two little pin- pricks, and on her nightdress was a drop of blood”

Carter: The Bloody Chamber 

Mina writes to Lucy telling her that Jonathan can remember almost nothing that happened to him in Transylvania. (Dramatic Irony.) Mina and Jonathan agree to marry. Mina wraps Jonathan’s journal in wax and will never read it unless if really needed. Arthur has joined Lucy in Whitby.

Renfield has escaped again and was at the chapel, he grows calm at the sight of a giant bat that flies over-head.

Lucy can’t sleep and writes a diary explaining how she hears scratching at her window at night.

Quotes: “please almighty god” “with his poor weak hands” “moonlit sky except a big bat”

Carter: The Company of Wolves

Dr Helsing arrives and examines Lucy, who has grown even worse. Blood transfusion from Arthur to Lucy and then sends him away. Instructs Seward to stay and look after Lucy. Lucy feels better and insists that she can sleep without his company. The next morning Van Helsing returns from Amsterdam, discovering that Lucy is worse than ever. Garlic is hung on Lucy and they are smeared around the entrance of the doorway.

Quotes: “she was ghastly, chalkily pale; the red seemed to have gone from her lips and gums and the bones of her face stood out prominently” “fixed the wreath of garlic around her neck”

Carter: The Lady of the House of Love

Lucy’s mother arrives and asks them to remove all the flowers from the room including the wreath on Lucy’s neck, and open the window for fresh air.

Dr Seward is attacked by Renfield who attacks him with a knife. Renfield is licking up Seward’s blood off of the floor.

A wolf smashes through Lucy’s window and her mother has a heart attack, the wolf withdraws and Lucy faints. The maids cover Lucy’s mother’s body and Lucy orders them to calm their nerves and have some wine. When Lucy goes into the kitchen the four maids are unconscious the wine smells like the drug laudanum.

Quotes: “I was determined to go to sleep but could not. Then there came to me the old fear of sleep, and I determined to keep awake.” “Of the broken panes there was the head of a great gaunt grey wolf. Mother cried out in fright…”

Carter: The Company of Wolves/ The Werewolf 

The two doctors arrive the next day and smash through the window to notice that all the maids are unconscious. Mrs Westenra dead and Lucy near to death. Seward wakes the maids who run Lucy a bath. Quincey arrives and gives blood to Lucy. Seward reports that Lucy’s teeth look much longer and sharper. Jonathan and Mina have been made heirs to Hawkins family fortune after his death.

Lucy is near to death, whenever she is awake she pulls the wreath near to her, when she is asleep she pushes them away. The wounds on her throat have disappeared. Lucy talks to Arthur in a voluptuous manner and he goes to kiss her but is stopped by Van Helsing. She dies as Arthur kisses her on the forehead, and regains her colouring to her face.

Quotes: “in a soft voluptuous voice, such as I [Seward] had never heard from her lips” “death had given back part of her beauty”

Carter: The Lady of the House of Love - “in death, she looked far less older, less beautiful, for the first time, fully human”

Lucy and her mother are buried together, Van Helsing takes possession of Lucy’s diary. She looks more beautiful in death. He puts a crucifix and garlic in her coffin.

Jonathan and Mina are in London when Jonathan sees the count. He is so upset he passes out, and on waking remembers nothing. Mina resolves to reading Jonathan’s journal.

Newspaper show that a number of missing children in the same area that Lucy was buried. They return home with bite marks on their necks and claimed to have played with the “bloofer lady.”

Quotes: “his face was not a good face [count] it was hard, cruel and sensual… his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal’s” “being lured away by the ‘bloofer lady’” 

Carter: The Lady of the House of Love

Mina is troubled by the contents of Jonathan’s journal. Van Helsing visits Mina, she gives him jonathan’s journal and visits him the next day. Van Helsing states that the attacks to children have been made by Lucy herself.

Quotes: “oh you clever woman!” “ah, it is the fault of out science that it wants to explain all… everyday we see the growth of new beliefs” 

Seward is doubtful about Van Helsing’s theory of Lucy, but he agrees to accompany him to examine one of the child victims. The wounds are nearly identical to the ones that were on Lucy’s neck and the child has asks upon waking if he can go and play with the “bloofer lady” (lucy’s seductive power.) Lucy’s coffin is empty, just before daybreak a white figure is seen moving across the graveyard. The next day they look in Lucy’s coffin and she looks just as beautiful as ever. She is now the undead. Helsing tells Quincey and Arthur and that he will have to decapitate her, Arthur is furious and refuses but agrees to visit the tomb.

Quotes: “may I cut off the head of dead Miss Lucy? Heavens and earth no!”

Carter: The Lady of the House of Love

The night Van Helsing, Dr Seward, Arthur and Quincey go to Lucy’s tomb and it is empty as Van Helsing had promised. After a while a figure in white appears carrying a child, it is unmistakably Lucy although far more cruel and sexual than she previously was. As the four men surround her, she calls Arthur her husband and he moves toward her as if under a spell. Van Helsing holds a crucifix to her and she tries to treat to her tomb but cannot. The child is hurt but still alive.

The next day, they visit again and Helsing promises that if Lucy is killed her soul will be free with god, and anyone who dies at the hands of the undead become vampires themselves. Arthur stakes Lucy through the heart, Lucy again looks as she did in her previous life. They then decide to track down Dracula so he can’t keep doing this.

Quotes: “the sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty and the purity to voluptuous wantonness” “he looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy bearing steak…”

Carter: The Courtship of Mr Lyon

The Harker’s come to stay at the asylum with Dr Seward. Mina is impressed by the Dr’s use of diary being as a phonograph.) In reading Jonathan’s diary he realises that the counts moving to Carfax may be the reasoning behind Renfield’s behaviour.

The next day Arthur and Quincey Morris arrive. Mina gives them the papers to study. Arthur is overcome by grief, and opens his heart to Mina, despite the fact he’s never met her. Mina then offers support to Quincey.

Quotes: “as he spoke he laid his hand on the phonograph. I felt quite excited over it”

Mina wishes to see Renfield, before she enters he swallows all his flies and spiders. He treats her with extreme courtesy and his speech becomes coherent and articulate.

Van Helsing praises Mina’s virtues and her intellect but warns the men that she must be protected from Dracula. He lists Dracula’s strengths: he has unbelievable physical strength, he can see in the dark, he can vanish and reappear, he can change shape, to mist, bat or wolf, he can summon animals at his will, he can control the weather.

They are shocked as Quincey who went outside has shot a bat. Renfield asks to be released by the men and there would be consequences if he was not released. Dr Seward refuses.

Quotes: “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has a man’s brain- a brain that a man should have were he much gifted- and a woman’s heart”

Carter: Wolf Alice/ The Bloody Chamber

Armed with crucifixes, garlic, the bible, electric lamps, knives, and revolvers the men go to investigate Carfax. Jonathan leads them to the chapel. Arthur takes the keys and throws open a chapel door to the outside, he blows a whistle for his dogs to come and they are timid yet get rid of all the rats.

Mina reports bad dreams. The night the men go to Carfax, she can hear Renfield screaming, but he is being silenced by those at the asylum. In a half- sleep, she thinks there is mist in her room, in the mist she can see two red eyes. She wakes feeling unrefreshed. When she visits Renfield he kisses her hand and blesses her. She later asks for sleeping pills, which she regrets taking as she may not be able to wake up.

Quotes: “a livid white face bending over me out of the mist” “I was so frightened that I crept into bed, and pulled the clothes over my head”

Carter: “with trembling fingers” “burst into a tumult of sobbing” The Bloody Chamber

Jonathan tracks down where all the boxes have been moved, and are different places around London. They wonder how they will break into the houses in the populated areas.

Renfield seems more articulate but his ideas are bizzare. He is often in deep remorse.

The men say they are going to destroy all fifty boxes in one day. Seward wonders if everyone has gone mad.

Quotes: “I sometimes think we must all be mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait- waistcoats” “I think that through the cloudliness of his insanity he saw some antagonism in me”

Renfield is injured and has a broken back. Dr Seward asks Van Helsing to help find out how he did this. Renfield tells them that on the night they went to Dracula’s house, Dracula appeared to him and told him he could feast on countless lives if he would fall down and worship him. Dracula did not give Renfield any of the lives he’d promised, as Renfield noticed that Mina was drained he tried to fight Dracula and was flung across the room due to Dracula’s strength.

The men go to Harker’s room, they find it locked and break it down. They see Harker unconscious and Mina Harker being forced to drink Dracula’s blood from a cut on Dracula’s chest. The vampire pushes Mina aside as he prepares to fight. Helsing throws holy water on Dracula, the room turns black as the cloud covers the moon and he disappears. Mina screams in horror. Mina is crying that she has been made unclean and awakes Jonathan. Renfield is found dead.

Quotes: “his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast, which was shown by his torn-open dress” “unclean, unclean! I must touch him or kiss him no more.”

Carter: The Bloody Chamber/ The Company of Wolves/ The Lady of the House of Love

The group plan their attack. The men go to Carfax and place communion wafer in each box. They then move to Piccadilly, where Arthur and Quincey secure a locksmith to help them break into the house. Only eight of the nine boxes were there. They rush off to the other lairs.

Quotes: “But dear Madam Mina, are you not afraid…” “Ah no! my mind is made up”

The men receive a message from Mina saying that Dracula is in human form and without his powers at daytime and he has left Carfax and is heading their way. Dracula enters the house where they were and escapes through a window. Before fleeing, he taunts them saying that they will all be his servants in time through their women.

That night Mina wakes and urgently asks for Van Helsing. She asks him to hypnotise her, as while it is dark she believes she can have a connection with Dracula and see where he is. They find out he is in one of his boxes on board a ship, Helsing is determined to find out where this is.

Quotes: “poor, poor, dear Madam Mina. All we can do not is done; and we can there, at least protect her. But we need not despair. There is but one more earth-box and we must try to find it…” “your girls that you love are mine already”

Continue to hunt Dracula down. Van Helsing confides in Seward that time is running out. Mina is already changing; her teeth grow even sharper. Van Helsing is worried that Dracula will use Mina as a way to find out their plans, just like they were able to with Mina. She stays out of group discussions just incase, but she asks if she can go with the men when they travel to Dracula. She must go because if left on her own with no one to guard her, she must go if the count summons her.

Quotes: “the very place where he have been alive, Un-Dead for all these centuries, is full of strangeness of the geologic and chemical world”

Carter: The Lady of the House of Love

They travel on the Orient Express from Paris to Varna arriving there early to await the Count. Mina reveals that he has infact gone to Galatz and they will now have to face him on land. They are using physiognomy to gain Dracula’s whereabouts which shows their use of modern technology. 

The new owner in possession of the box is found by the group in a cemetery with his throat ripped open. They plan where the count would’ve escaped and split up. Jonathan protests at being separated from Mina, and doesn’t like the idea of her going to the castle. Van Helsing needs her to help him see Dracula’s movements. The group arm themselves.

Quotes: “Our dear Madam Mina is once more our teacher. Her eyes have seen where we were blinded”

Carter: The Bloody Chamber/ The Werewolf/ The Company of Wolves. 

Van Helsing can no longer hypnotise Mina and is worried about her. Mina and Helsing are getting closer to the mountains and they make camp as night falls and makes a circle of crushed holy water around Mina. The three women appear calling Mina sister and asking her to join them. The horses die of fright.

When in the castle, the beauty of the three women affect him, even in their sleep. He then finds Dracula’s tomb which he renders with the water. He then uses the hammer and stake to kill all three of the vampire women, whose bodies turn to dust. Cart driven by gypsies is the last box. They kill Dracula as the sun is setting with Quincey’s bowie knife into the heart. Mina notes that he has a look of peace in his face after this happens. Mina helps Quincey, he notices that she is better again, but he then dies.

They have a son called Quincey and both Seward and Arthur are married.

Quotes: “this boy will someday know what a brace and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake” Harker