Dracula

Jonathan Harker is a lawyer who provides the reader’s first exposure to Dracula. Jonathan visits Castle Dracula on behalf of his firm, which is brokering a real estate deal with the Count. During his time in the castle, Jonathan is brave, curious, and finally, determined to escape. The shock of his experience weakens him. However, once he learns that his experience was real—and not the result of a brain fever—he is tenacious and bold in his efforts to protect Mina and defeat Dracula.

When the novel begins, Mina is engaged to Jonathan Harker. She works as a schoolteacher. Mina—particularly when compared to Lucy, her best friend—represents an incorruptible Christianity and purity. She is the ideal Victorian woman: chaste, prim, supportive of her husband and the men in her life, and resourceful. She is also clever and practical. Her resourcefulness is particularly apparent when she collates the journals into a cohesive narrative. The men rely on her for comfort and sympathy, and it is her presence that often restores them resolute determination. Mina becomes one of Dracula’s victims, but when Dracula dies, his hold on her—and the fear that she will eventually become a vampire—dies. Van Helsing will remark at the novel’s conclusion that saving Mina—and by proxy, preserving the way of life that she represented—was the entire point of the story.

Lucy is Mina’s best friend. Stoker portrays her as more beautiful, flirtatious, and sensual than Mina. In one journal entry Lucy tells Mina of three separate marriage proposals she just received, and wonders why a girl can’t indulge herself and marry as many men as she chooses. However, she maintains her chastity until she becomes Dracula’s first victim in the novel. After she becomes a vampire, Stoker describes her as ravenous, wanton, and voluptuous. She becomes a creature of pure appetite that preys on children. Her sexualized state tests the men’s ability to resist temptation, even after she is a vampire. After her final death, she regains her purity and innocence as her soul is saved. Lucy symbolizes the consequences of giving in to sexual desire outside of Christian marriage.

Dr. Seward was a pupil of Van Helsing. He is in charge of a mental asylum in London. Throughout most of the story, Seward catalogues his interactions with a patient named Renfield. Seward is devoted to Lucy even after she rejects his marriage proposal, and he is present for most of the pivotal events in the book once the main characters are all in London. He skepticism plays a useful counterpoint to Van Helsing’s more expansive metaphysics, and he often serves as a stand in for the rationalist arguments against the supernatural.

Renfield is a pitiable, disturbed patient at Dr. Seward’s asylum. He spends his time devouring insects and birds. Seward classifies Renfield as a consumer of life seeking greater strength through this consumption. Renfield falls under Dracula’s spell and helps him in exchange for what he hopes will be eternal life. Dracula eventually kills him, showing that even though Renfield helped him, Dracula has no real allies.

Van Helsing is a learned philosopher, scientist, doctor, and metaphysician. He is also the teacher of Dr. Seward. Van Helsing is more open-minded than the other characters in the novel. He is not a worshipper of western medicine and knows that there are evils that cannot be conquered by reason and dogma. He is a kind, brave man who treats Lucy, Mina, Harker, and the other members of their party as if they were his beloved children. His knowledge of history and folklore make him the perfect antagonist for Dracula, whom he ultimately defeats.

Shortly after the novel begins, Arthur becomes Lucy’s fiancé. He comes from an aristocratic family and becomes Lord Godalming over the course of the story. He is the only other aristocrat in the novel besides Count Dracula. Stoker uses Arthur to show that not every nobleman is as cold, aloof, and avaricious as Dracula. Arthur shows extreme devotion to Lucy in both his grief at her death, and his willingness to save her soul by pounding the stake into her heart. Arthur is brave, loyal to his friends, and willing to do what he considers the right thing, even when it is difficult.