CHAPTER SUMMARIES

Chapter 1:

Tension - 3

Johnathon Harker travels to Transylvania, an unknown land, for work and gets warned of his
host, Count Dracula, before arriving at the castle

Chapter 2:

Tension - 4

Harker enters the castle, meets his strange host and slowly finds out that the noble lives
alone with no servants and wishes to move to England, he finds out he is trapped in the
castle.

Chapter 3:

Tension – 6

Harker notices they are the only two people in the castle, sees the Count crawling down the
castle for the first time. He then falls asleep and awakes to the three women vampires trying
to seduce him, Dracula sends them away giving them a baby to eat.

Chapter 4:

Tension - 7

Harker writes 3 letter home written to be sent at different dates in the future. He suffers
betrayal by the gypsies when he gives them a letter, Dracula frames him by going and
committing crimes in the village disguised as him, in his clothes and sees Dracula’s
transformation after he drinks blood.

Chapter 5:

Tension - 1

Letters between Mina and Lucy,

Chapter 8:

Tension - 6

Mina wakes up and Lucy is missing, she finds her with a ‘dark figure’, rescues her back inside
and they agree to never speak of it. The next day they find that Lucy has been bitten,
although they don’t know what the marks are, and in the evening, Lucy tries to ‘sleepwalk’
again. Lucy gets weaker over the next couple of days and the marks on her neck become
inflamed and red.

Chapter 10:

Tension - 5

Seward and Holmwood are concerned about Lucys health and give her blood transfusions.
Van Helsing receives garlic flowers and hang them around Lucy’s neck while she sleeps.
Chapter 11:

Tension - 9

Lucy’s mother had removed the garlic flowers from her room last night because she thought
they were “horrible” smelling. Lucy is found near death and recovers after another blood
transfusion from Van Helsing. Everything seems to be going well for the next 4 days. Then, a
large wolf is reported missing from a zoo nearby, and returns the next morning covered in
broken glass. Renfield cuts Seward’s wrist and licks up the blood saying, “the blood is life”.
The night of the wolfs escape howling sounds wake up Lucy and her mother, the wolf jumps
through the window and causes her mother to have a heart attack, then it runs away
because of the garlic.

Chapter 12:

Tension – 8

21st September - Lucy is dying and Quincey gives another blood transfusion, Mina writes
Lucy a letter not knowing her condition telling her she is married. When Seward checks on
Lucy during the night, he notices a bat hovering near her window. Sensing that Lucy is
nearing the end of her life, the doctors awaken Holmwood and bring him to say good-bye. In
a strangely seductive voice, Lucy begs Holmwood to kiss her, but Van Helsing pulls him away.
Lucy dies, and once she is dead looks more alive than she had in a long time due to her
illness. Van Helsing predicts more action to come: “It is only the beginning”

Chapter 13:

Tension – 7

Before the funeral, Van Helsing covers the coffin and body with garlic and places a crucifix in
Lucy’s mouth. After the funeral Van Helsing wants to mutilate Lucy’s body. He gives Lucy a
crucifix necklace, but it gets stolen in the night. Harker is travelling back with Mina after
getting married and they see Dracula. After Lucy’s funeral Van Helsing goes “hysteric” and
has a fit on the train laughing and crying. On the 25 th, a ‘bloofer lady’ is reported with young
children and those children are found the next morning with neck wounds.

Chapter 14:

Tension – 6

Mina reads Jonathan’s diary from when he was in the castle and shows it to Van Helsing.

Introduction of Seward and Harker:

 Conveys something of the personality of the character of Seward and to introduce the
character of Renfield and develop the curiosity of the reader towards his role in the plot. He
is a doctor
 Tone is quite personal and informal, but is interspersed with medical terminology
 The theme of the threat to science of the supernatural is highlighted through the struggle
for language to express and contain
Chapter 7:

Questions to consider:

 Why has this cutting been added to her journal? What is its purpose?
o It is to show that the supernatural event brought a lot of attention, provides a
reliable narrator to the reader, Harker questioning his sanity,
 What is the relevance of using a quote from “the rime of the ancient Mariner”?
o “idle” presents the ship as unknowing and not doing anything cautiously, waiting for
danger. “Painted” means set in stone forever, unchangeable and perhaps unnatural
or strange/abstract, seen as not possible in real life.
 Explore how the sea has been described as a supernatural creature
o Describing it as a destructive “monster”. Personification used to show it throwing,
snatching, and boats “running” away from it, shows how it’s just symbolic of what’s
really happening with Jonathon.
 What is the dramatic irony of the fog?
o Swept in in a “ghostly fashion”, already has the connotations of the undead and
even the standers by can feel the death in the air.
 What is ironic about the villagers wanting to find the dog?
o The dog had turned into a human and couldn’t be found if just looking for a dog,
they want to save the dog, when it could be the dog killing them

LUCY

 “I couldn’t help feeling a sort of exultation that he was number two in one day” – chapter 5
p.80 – negative
 “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her” – chapter 5 p.81 –
negative
 “so I leant over and kissed him” – chapter 5 p.81 – negative – she is being active in the
relationship
 “Lucy met me at the station, looking sweeter and lovelier than ever” – chapter 6 p.85 –
positive
 Lucy is asleep and breathing softly. She has more colour in her cheeks than usual, and looks,
oh, so sweet – chapter 8 p.118 – positive
 “I wanted no witness of poor Lucy’s condition” – chapter 8 p.120 – negative
 “She was breathing – not softly, as usual with her, but in long, heavy gasps” – chapter 8
p.121 – negative
 “I was filled with anxiety for Lucy… for her reputation in case the story should get wind” –
chapter 8 p.122 – negative
 “the fresh breeze had braced her up, and her pale cheeks were really more rosy” – chapter 8
p.130 – positive
 “Oceans of love and millions of kisses” – chapter 9 p.140 – positive
o DEATH
o “her eyes which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous
voice, such as I had never heard from her lips:- “Arthur! Oh my love, I am so glad you
have come! Kiss me!” – turning into a vampire, becoming more active and violent,
“voluptuous” used when talking about Dracula’s brides
 o TRANSFORMATION
o “God how beautiful she was” – chapter 13 p.218 – is a sexualised being as a vampire
o “Whilst asleep she looked stronger, although more haggard, and her breathing was
softer; her open mouth showed the pale gums drawn back from the teeth, which
looked positively longer and sharper than usual” – chapter 12 p.198-199 – different
when awake to when asleep

QUINCEY

 (“Who will open his veins for her?”) “What’s the matter with me, anyhow?” – chapter 12 –
frames as a hero from chapter 12 onwards, giving his blood to Lucy, has to die at the end
because he is American

Mina
 “‘Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina,’ he said, ‘pearl among women.”’ (p.281)
o She is still just a woman, as helpful as they get
 ‘“Come, there is dinner. We must keep one another strong for what is before us; we have a cruel and
dreadful task.”’ (pp.286-287)
o Mother of the group, making sure they are prepared, backbone of the group helping keep
them alive
 ‘I felt an infinite pity for him, and opened my arms unthinkingly. With a sob he laid his head on my
shoulder, and cried like a wearied child, whilst he shook with emotion.’
o Mother of the group
 ‘We women have something of the mother in us that makes us rise above smaller matters when the
mother-spirit is invoked; I felt this big, sorrowing man’s head resting on me, as though it were that of
the baby that some day may lie on my bosom, and I stroked his hair as though he were my own child.’
(p.295)
o Motherly tendencies, looking after them and helping them explore but being protective
 ‘“If ever the future should bring to you a time when you need a man’s help, believe me, you will not
call in vain.”’ (p.296)
o Dependent on men
 ‘“Little girl, you will never regret that true-hearted kindness, so long as ever you live!”’ (p.297)
o Calling her a little girl even though she is an adult, belittling but also showing her innocence,
praising her
 ‘Here was my own pet lunatic...with the manner of a polished gentleman. I wonder if it was Mrs
Harker’s presence which had touched some chord in his memory. If this new phase was spontaneous,
or in any way due to her unconscious influence, she must have some rare gift or power.’ (p.300)
o She has a way with men, they want to impress her

CONTEXT
1897

Some critics have speculated that stoker may have been gay, although there is no evidence of
particular physical relationships, he certainly had strong homosocial bonds, intimate and long-term
relationships with men. In Dracula, Draculas’ relationship with Harker is a sexually possessive one,
albeit controlling and horrifically predatory.
1760 – industrial revolution

British empire was powerful in 1886

Darwin’s evolutional theory came out and were very controversial. Stoker focused on the devolution
of humans instead of the evolution. He talked about the idea that humans don’t progress but can
slip back or regress to a previous evolution. Dracula and his link to animals suggests a bestial context.
Those who were criminals were seen as sub-species or sub-human in Victorian society and could be
identified by physical defects. This can be linked to Dracula and his appearance. This represents a
fear of society being dragged back to a degenerate and savage time stoked by the rise in political
rights. This is an age where women wanted to be individual, to learn and have the same rights as
men. The character Lucy is predatory and has a sexual nature, excited by the fact that she has 3 men
after her. The fact that Lucy takes the blood for three men suggests she is polyandrist and hints at
the fact of eroticism. This is a fact that Dracula faced, as Lucy is the main consumer competition,
humans being the products.

Society hierarchy –

o Lord Coldaming
o Van Helsing
o Psychiatrist
o American

That Quincy dies suggests that British is re-asserting its dominance over America

GOTHIC LITERATURE
History:

o First gothic novel in 1764 by Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, subtitled A Gothic Story
o Extends the idea of repressed/ancient experience brought terrifyingly to light
o First edition published in 1764 claimed to be translation of a work printed in Naples
in 1529 and newly discovered in the library of ‘an ancient Catholic family In the
north of England’
o The word gothic used to mean barbarism, “not classical”
o Heavily linked to romance
o Mid-Victorian gothic novels are concerned with the ideas of wills and legacies the
consequences of ancestral crime or folly visited on later generations

A style of writing:

Themes:

o Danger
o Darkness
o Death
o Doom
o Melodrama
o Uncanny
 o Female sexuality
o Good vs evil
o Religion
o Technology
o Madness
o Masculinity

Settings:

o Isolation
o Wild landscapes
o Deserted buildings
o Wild weather
o Dark rooms
o Crypts and catacombs
o Candlelight
o Closed doors and boundaries
o Sinister objects
o Hints of hauntings
o Unfriendly animals

Characters:

o Heroes - flawed
o Villains
o Innocents
o Heroines – innocent and doomed

TRAVEL
Travel:

o Journey
o People
o Customs – beliefs
o Environment
o Food

Examples in Dracula

- Page 7 - ‘should have arrived at 6.46, but train was an hour late.’
- Page 7 - ‘a chicken done up some was with red pepper.’
- Page 7 - ‘I found my smattering of German very useful here.’
- Page 7 - ‘The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the
most Western splendid bridges over the Danube.’
 - Page 8 - ‘In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the
south, and mixed with them the Walachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians;
Magywars in the west and Szekelys in the east and north.’
- Page 11 - ‘Here comes the coach.’
- Page 11- ‘May. The Castle.’

First encounter with Dracula

- Dracula is described as a ‘tall old man’ showing his dominant figure.

- Dracula speaks perfect English although speaks with a small twist.
- His hand is described as the hand of a dead man.
- Dracula is very courteous and kind leading to Harker dropping his defences.
- Dracula acts like his servants.
- He hides his face.
- White pointy teeth.
- Bright red lips.
- Pale skin.
- Animals fear him because they see him as a threat.

1) How does Stoker create the impression that Johnathon is travelling to a part of the world
beyond the reach of the average Victorian reader?
o The main way that Stoker creates this impression is through a decline in the accessibility
of the method of travel. It declines from boat to train to carriage. The decrease in
modernity from the most modern of the time, boat, to suggesting far distance travel,
train, to a traditional and rural transportation of horse and carriage.
2) What can we learn about Johnathon from the observations that he makes about his exotic
surroundings?
o Johnathon Harker is portrayed as a lover character who pays deep attention to his
surroundings. He appreciates all the food and culture, and is generally friendly to all the
people he meets. His descriptions are in high detail, suggesting intelligence and care for
Mina, who he wants to make feel as if she was with him.
3) How does Stoker create an atmosphere of suspense in the opening sections of this chapter?
o The long journey previous to Dracula and Harker’s first meeting builds tension due to the
negative and terrified attitudes of those he meets towards his fate. The people he meets
pray and give him blessed items such as a crucifix, it allows him to have suspicions about
the future and creates apprehension.
4) How does Johnathon react when faced with sights for which he can find no rational explanation?
o Johnathon ultimately ignores any red flags when it comes to Dracula, because he does
not believe in the paranormal and has a positive outlook due to him wanting to succeed
in his job for his job. He ignores Dracula’s appearance of red lips and sharp white teeth,
along with supernatural strength.

P52 – 53

How does stoker create a sense of terror?

At the beginning of this extract, Johnathon is lured into a false sense of security and comfort. “A sort
of calm stole over me” suggests a supernatural force taking over and making his body relax. This
allows him to drop his guard and be weaker and more shocked when the “three ghostly women”
materialize. This is cause by three “quaint little specks” in the moonlight. He has been comforted by
the moon in the past but this is taken from him as the specks become threatening to him. As he is
lulling off to sleep, he realises he is “becoming hypnotised” when he is awakened out of the trance
by a “piteous howling of dogs”. He has to be awake for the next section as it strikes terror into him
and the readers, because he knows something he is not supposed to and may lose his life because of
it. When the readers are introduced to the woman outside, she displays animalistic qualities that
would distress the readers. For example, she “tore her hair and beat her breast”, these hysterical
actions of self-destruction are inhumane.

Dracula is a supreme supernatural being that is shown as more powerful than God. This would scare
the Victorian readers as they were mostly religious. He controls the wolves, and describes the
release of the wolves as a “pent-up dam when liberated”, a terrifying thought as anyone stood in
front of an suddenly opened dam would be hit by a force of water that there is practically no chance
of escaping. This ‘water’ hits the woman, but Stoker does not describe the wolves eating the woman
and effectively leaves it to the imagination of the readers, only describing the wolves walking away
while “licking their lips”