Dracula

by Stoker, Bram

  Sure, must have given her a stick with the safety pin! All kidding aside, though, the fact that we have a living victim from one of Dracula’s feedings offers a new challenge: the individual who has entered a realm between the living and the Undead. Similar states of being exist in other “monster” stories, such as those bitten by zombies but have yet to turn and those who encountered a werewolf on a full moon. But this is the first time Stoker’s readers would have encountered such a horrible limbo, and so they may not have felt the full sense of anticipation and awe that we feel. However, they likely felt, at the very least, unsettled.

  All right, initially we might have some difficulty with Mina’s blaming herself for sloppy safety pinning to explain Lucy’s puncture wounds. But we sophisticated readers have one hundred–plus years of Dracula lore and vampire knowledge that Mina and her compatriots lack: They’ve not yet heard about Jonathan’s terrifying adventures with the supernatural. Van Helsing has not appeared as yet to set them wise to “all things vampire.”

  No, a safety pin–related injury is not all that sensible, but a poor explanation is better than no explanation.

  We can assume that these were popular musicians or composers of the era and would have been known to readers of Stoker’s time and for some years following (though I sure had no clue as to who they were or what they did when I first read it). Fortunately, neither Spohr and Mackenzie nor their music are essential to the narrative. It’s not as if Dracula is planning to attack them. But this brings up the topic of writers using contemporary references in their work.

  Readers in 1944 and today (and likely thirty years from now) know what your protagonist is eating when he reaches for the box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, but what if it were a box of Kellogg’s Pep? Introduced in 1923, Pep was a “fortified” cereal, like its competitor Wheaties. At one time, virtually every American kid knew Pep as the sponsor of the Superman radio serial. The Pep brand was discontinued in the late 1970s. Today’s readers and Pep? Not one of my students this semester had ever heard of it.

  Certainly there are ways to provide needed historical info in our fiction, but doing so can result in a stultifying information dump: Let’s stop the narrative dead while I provide a historical lecture. Despite the perils posed by “too contemporary references,” let’s remember that few complain, “I can’t read that F. Scott Fitzgerald without a ‘Jazz Age’ glossary!”

  Because we are reading as writers, studying Draculacraft, we’ve become aware of one of the tricks in Stoker’s sleight-of-hand bag: When a character remarks on the beauty of a scene, there will be an “uh-oh” moment quickly following. And sure enough …

  Enter … the bat! Which is not to say that a reader approaching Dracula in even a critical way would pick up on this device! It’s skillfully handled, not belabored, not accompanied by an authorial “wink, wink, nudge, nudge.”

  You know better, don’t you?

  That makes as much sense as the “safety pin theory of neck stabbing.” But Mina, seeking rational explanations in her heretofore rational world, might believe this.

  You think it’s a bird? Dracula’s shape-shifting powers have now driven us to the point of not trusting any creature great or small, any fog or smoke, any odd light, gust of wind, or funny-looking stranger. We are becoming as paranoid as the characters should be but aren’t yet.

  One of the words most frequently associated with the horror genre is dread. By having his characters note what they fear “is coming,” even if it is an abstraction, Stoker’s novel from the very first pages gives us a sense of dread, alternating with a sense of terror (when the dreaded arrives on the scene!) and a sense of hope and optimism—so that we can again be smothered in dread or smashed with terror!

  Interesting how many “human” collaborators Dracula has amassed. In fact, it seems as though Dracula accomplishes as much with clerks and lawyers as he does with his fangs. Let it be a hint to you that even your most ghastly creations might find a helping hand from the realm of the living, albeit unwittingly … or so you hope.

  Clearly Lucy has been affected by the supernatural and acknowledges that, even as it baffles her. Equally clearly, Mina is beginning to recognize the supernatural: Stoker gives us that with the word uncanny when he might have used curious or strange.

  Of course Stoker could have given us so much more about the (at last!) news of Jonathan and the flood of relief Mina experiences! But that would prevent the story’s forward motion; it would delay the plot events unfolding. The late modern master Elmore Leonard wrote, “Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.” Though in certain passages Stoker reveals himself to have come out of the nineteenth-century literary style, he is in many other ways a modern writer. Like Leonard, he understands the need to keep it moving.

  “My husband,” Mina calls him, though they are not as yet married! She writes of the letter “he has seen and touched” as a source of great comfort. So few words to reveal the depth of her feeling for Jonathan! Concise prose is powerful prose.

  Brain fever seems to have been a common malady of the nineteenth century: Poe was supposed to have been suffering from it when he died. As for what it really was, as the term was used then: a potentially fatal malady brought on by “severe emotional upset.” Certainly Jonathan’s had that!

  Though he’s been traumatized, Harker does rally magnificently in the battle against Dracula, as we shall find, and that makes this an epic love story as well as a tale of Good vs. Evil.

  We’ve not had hard evidence of Renfield’s complicity with Dracula, but we’ve noted the implications. Implying rather than overtly stating often leads to greater engagement for the reader.

  We’ve seen “brain fever” and now “religious mania.” Such antiquated maladies are excellent ways to give your own stories a hint of nineteenth-century psychological horror.

  Once more, Dr. Seward seems to be exhibiting symptoms of a narcissistic disorder: He is so high above the social station of the attendant that only a madman like Renfield would not be aware of that!

  Dr. Seward is entitled to show the class consciousness that most of the characters exhibit, but in his “contemptuous arrogance,” he is closer to the “Mad Doctor” Stoker first conceived than to the “upper crust.”

  Not exactly a useful diagnostic tool. One wonders if Stoker did all the research into mental illness that he might have. Then again, despite the strides of modern medicine and psychology at the end of the nineteenth century, treatment for mental disorders was almost as primitive, if less outright brutal, as it had been during the Middle Ages.

  Renfield’s statement sounds vaguely Biblical, in keeping with his religious mania/God-like grandiosity. Most important, it is in keeping with the character of “Madman/Dracula’s Minion,” less “enigmatic” to the reader than to Dr. Seward!

  Renfield, like all the important characters in Dracula, is multilayered and memorable because of it!

  Dr. Seward worries about developing a drug habit, then praises himself for being such a good boy.

  No question, we must see Renfield as Dracula’s agent in place. We see—but Dr. Seward cannot. He knows nothing of Dracula. An epistolary point of view gives Stoker all the advantages of a fully omniscient point of view with none of the clunkiness.

  Sheppard was an eighteenth-century criminal known for his jailbreaks. A reference Stoker’s contemporary readers might understand, but one that has lost its effectiveness over time. Keep this in mind when you write your own stories.

  Renfield no longer gives reason for concern because Dr. Seward is in the dark about what Renfield knows. But the reader is not in the dark.

  Chapter 9

  LETTER, MINA HARKER TO LUCY WESTENRA

  BUDA-PESTH, 24 AUGUST.

  “My dearest Lucy,

  “I know you will be anxious to hear all that has happened since we parted at the railway station at Whitby. Well, my dear, I got to Hull all right, and caught the boat to Hamburg, and then the train on here. I feel th
at I can hardly recall anything of the journey, except that I knew I was coming to Jonathan, and that as I should have to do some nursing, I had better get all the sleep I could. I found my dear one, oh, so thin and pale and weak-looking. All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his face has vanished. He is only a wreck of himself, and he does not remember anything that has happened to him for a long time past. At least, he wants me to believe so, and I shall never ask. He has had some terrible shock, and I fear it might tax his poor brain if he were to try to recall it. Sister Agatha, who is a good creature and a born nurse, tells me that he wanted her to tell me what they were, but she would only cross herself, and say she would never tell; that the ravings of the sick were the secrets of God, and that if a nurse through her vocation should hear them, she should respect her trust. She is a sweet, good soul, and the next day, when she saw I was troubled, she opened up the subject again, and after saying that she could never mention what my poor dear raved about, added: ‘I can tell you this much, my dear: that it was not about anything which he has done wrong himself; and you, as his wife to be, have no cause to be concerned. He has not forgotten you or what he owes to you. His fear was of great and terrible things, which no mortal can treat of.’ I do believe the dear soul thought I might be jealous lest my poor dear should have fallen in love with any other girl. The idea of my being jealous about Jonathan! And yet, my dear, let me whisper, I felt a thrill of joy through me when I knew that no other woman was a cause for trouble. I am now sitting by his bedside, where I can see his face while he sleeps. He is waking! … When he woke he asked me for his coat, as he wanted to get something from the pocket. I asked Sister Agatha, and she brought all his things. I saw amongst them was his notebook, and was going to ask him to let me look at it, for I knew that I might find some clue to his trouble, but I suppose he must have seen my wish in my eyes, for he sent me over to the window, saying he wanted to be quite alone for a moment. Then he called me back, and he said to me very solemnly:—

  “‘Wilhelmina’, I knew then that he was in deadly earnest, for he has never called me by that name since he asked me to marry him, ‘You know, dear, my ideas of the trust between husband and wife. There should be no secret, no concealment. I have had a great shock, and when I try to think of what it is I feel my head spin round, and I do not know if it was real of the dreaming of a madman. You know I had brain fever, and that is to be mad. The secret is here, and I do not want to know it. I want to take up my life here, with our marriage.’ For, my dear, we had decided to be married as soon as the formalities are complete. ‘Are you willing, Wilhelmina, to share my ignorance? Here is the book. Take it and keep it, read it if you will, but never let me know unless, indeed, some solemn duty should come upon me to go back to the bitter hours, asleep or awake, sane or mad, recorded here.’ He fell back exhausted, and I put the book under his pillow, and kissed him. I have asked Sister Agatha to beg the Superior to let our wedding be this afternoon, and am waiting her reply …

  “She has come and told me that the Chaplain of the English mission church has been sent for. We are to be married in an hour, or as soon after as Jonathan awakes …

  “Lucy, the time has come and gone. I feel very solemn, but very, very happy. Jonathan woke a little after the hour, and all was ready, and he sat up in bed, propped up with pillows. He answered his ‘I will’ firmly and strong. I could hardly speak. My heart was so full that even those words seemed to choke me. The dear sisters were so kind. Please, God, I shall never, never forget them, nor the grave and sweet responsibilities I have taken upon me. I must tell you of my wedding present. When the chaplain and the sisters had left me alone with my husband—oh, Lucy, it is the first time I have written the words ‘my husband’— left me alone with my husband, I took the book from under his pillow, and wrapped it up in white paper, and tied it with a little bit of pale blue ribbon which was round my neck, and sealed it over the knot with sealing wax, and for my seal I used my wedding ring. Then I kissed it and showed it to my husband, and told him that I would keep it so, and then it would be an outward and visible sign for us all our lives that we trusted each other, that I would never open it unless it were for his own dear sake or for the sake of some stern duty. Then he took my hand in his, and oh, Lucy, it was the first time he took his wife’s hand, and said that it was the dearest thing in all the wide world, and that he would go through all the past again to win it, if need be. The poor dear meant to have said a part of the past, but he cannot think of time yet, and I shall not wonder if at first he mixes up not only the month, but the year.

  “Well, my dear, what could I say? I could only tell him that I was the happiest woman in all the wide world, and that I had nothing to give him except myself, my life, and my trust, and that with these went my love and duty for all the days of my life. And, my dear, when he kissed me, and drew me to him with his poor weak hands, it was like a solemn pledge between us.

  “Lucy dear, do you know why I tell you all this? It is not only because it is all sweet to me, but because you have been, and are, very dear to me. It was my privilege to be your friend and guide when you came from the schoolroom to prepare for the world of life. I want you to see now, and with the eyes of a very happy wife, whither duty has led me, so that in your own married life you too may be all happy, as I am. My dear, please Almighty God, your life may be all it promises, a long day of sunshine, with no harsh wind, no forgetting duty, no distrust. I must not wish you no pain, for that can never be, but I do hope you will be always as happy as I am now. Goodbye, my dear. I shall post this at once, and perhaps, write you very soon again. I must stop, for Jonathan is waking. I must attend my husband!

  “Your ever-loving

  “Mina Harker.”

  LETTER, LUCY WESTENRA TO MINA HARKER.

  WHITBY, 30 AUGUST.

  “My dearest Mina,

  “Oceans of love and millions of kisses, and may you soon be in your own home with your husband. I wish you were coming home soon enough to stay with us here. The strong air would soon restore Jonathan.

  It has quite restored me. I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well. You will be glad to know that I have quite given up walking in my sleep. I think I have not stirred out of my bed for a week, that is when I once got into it at night. Arthur says I am getting fat. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Arthur is here. We have such walks and drives, and rides, and rowing, and tennis, and fishing together, and I love him more than ever. He tells me that he loves me more, but I doubt that, for at first he told me that he couldn’t love me more than he did then. But this is nonsense. There he is, calling to me. So no more just at present from your loving

  “Lucy.

  “P.S.—Mother sends her love. She seems better, poor dear.

  “P.P.S.—We are to be married on 28 September.”

  DR. SEWARD’S DIARY

  20 AUGUST.—The case of Renfield grows even more interesting. He has now so far quieted that there are spells of cessation from his passion. For the first week after his attack he was perpetually violent. Then one night, just as the moon rose, he grew quiet, and kept murmuring to himself. “Now I can wait. Now I can wait.” The attendant came to tell me, so I ran down at once to have a look at him. He was still in the strait waistcoat and in the padded room, but the suffused look had gone from his face, and his eyes had something of their old pleading. I might almost say, “cringing”, softness. I was satisfied with his present condition, and directed him to be relieved. The attendants hesitated, but finally carried out my wishes without protest. It was a strange thing that the patient had humour enough to see their distrust, for, coming close to me, he said in a whisper, all the while looking furtively at them:—

  “They think I could hurt you! Fancy me hurting you! The fools!”

  It was soothing, somehow, to the feelings to find myself disassociated even in the mind of this poor madman from the others, but all the same I do not follo
w his thought. Am I to take it that I have anything in common with him, so that we are, as it were, to stand together. Or has he to gain from me some good so stupendous that my well being is needful to him? I must find out later on. Tonight he will not speak. Even the offer of a kitten or even a full-grown cat will not tempt him. He will only say, “I don’t take any stock in cats. I have more to think of now, and I can wait. I can wait.”

  After a while I left him. The attendant tells me that he was quiet until just before dawn, and that then he began to get uneasy, and at length violent, until at last he fell into a paroxysm which exhausted him so that he swooned into a sort of coma.

  (…) Three nights has the same thing happened, violent all day then quiet from moonrise to sunrise. I wish I could get some clue to the cause. It would almost seem as if there was some influence which came and went. Happy thought! We shall tonight play sane wits against mad ones. He escaped before without our help. Tonight he shall escape with it. We shall give him a chance, and have the men ready to follow in case they are required.

  23 AUGUST.—“The expected always happens.” How well Disraeli knew life. Our bird when he found the cage open would not fly, so all our subtle arrangements were for nought. At any rate, we have proved one thing, that the spells of quietness last a reasonable time. We shall in future be able to ease his bonds for a few hours each day. I have given orders to the night attendant merely to shut him in the padded room, when once he is quiet, until the hour before sunrise. The poor soul’s body will enjoy the relief even if his mind cannot appreciate it. Hark! The unexpected again! I am called. The patient has once more escaped.

  LATER.—Another night adventure. Renfield artfully waited until the attendant was entering the room to inspect. Then he dashed out past him and flew down the passage. I sent word for the attendants to follow. Again he went into the grounds of the deserted house, and we found him in the same place, pressed against the old chapel door. When he saw me he became furious, and had not the attendants seized him in time, he would have tried to kill me. As we were holding him a strange thing happened. He suddenly redoubled his efforts, and then as suddenly grew calm. I looked round instinctively, but could see nothing. Then I caught the patient’s eye and followed it, but could trace nothing as it looked into the moonlight sky, except a big bat, which was flapping its silent and ghostly way to the west. Bats usually wheel about, but this one seemed to go straight on, as if it knew where it was bound for or had some intention of its own.