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They arrive at the castle and are greeted by a tall,
thin, clean- shaven old man with a white moustache clad all in black and looking
unusually pale. He introduces himself as the Count and tells him to enter freely
and at his own will. Jonathan finds the house looking desolate and eerie. He is
told that he would find his meals waiting for him each day as he Count would not
be able to dine with him everyday. Over dinner Jonathan notices that his host
has unusually sharp teeth protruding over remarkably ruddy lips. The Count tells
him to sleep as late as he pleases as he will be away all of the next day and
will only return the following evening.
Jonathan wakes the next day and finds a sumptuous
breakfast waiting for him but is surprised at the dearth of servants in an
otherwise lavish place. He also finds that the Count has a number of books on
England and discovers the following evening that the Count also speaks perfect
English. The Count tells him that he is free to go wherever he wishes about the
castle as long as he does not attempt to enter any of the locked rooms. Then
they discuss the purchase of a large property in Purfleet known as Carfax, just
the sort of large and deserted place that the Count is looking for.
The next day when Jonathan Harker is shaving the Count
comes to visit him. Jonathan is surprised to see that the Count has no
reflection in the mirror. In his surprise he cuts himself and begins to bleed
and the Count seeing blood makes a sudden grab for Jonathan’s throat, but when
his hand touches the beads that hold the crucifix around Jonathan’s neck he
withdraws suddenly and tells Jonathan to be careful how he cut himself ‘it is
more dangerous than you think in this Country’. He then breaks the mirror and
leaves. It is at this time that Jonathan realizes that he a prisoner in the castle.
The following night the Count tells him to write a
letter to his employer in Exeter saying that he will be staying on with the
Count for a month more. Jonathan Harker has no choice but to accept. Jonathan is
standing at his window and admiring the view when he sees the Count scaling down
the side of his castle like a lizard. On his departure Jonathan takes the
opportunity to explore the castle and sees that the main door is locked. However
he finds some other rooms open and decides to stay in one of them. Soon he
starts to doze and in this state sees three ravishingly beautiful women fighting
over him. Then one of them bends over him and is about to drink his blood when
she is stopped by the Count.
Jonathan now knows that he is in danger and tries to
escape by bribing some gypsies to post some letters for him so he can tell his
employer and fiancée about the imminent danger. But his attempt is foiled. He
even tries telling the Count that he wishes to go back to England. The Count
lets him leave but as he is about to step out he sees a pack of hungry wolves
waiting outside the door for him so he has no choice but to remain in the
castle. Finally in a desperate attempt to escape he does manage to scale down
the side of the castle like he has seen the Count doing and thus makes his
escape.
We are now transported to England and introduced to the
other characters in the story namely Mina Murray, Jonathan’s fiancée, her friend
Lucy Westerna, Dr. Seward, the doctor in charge of a large lunatic asylum, Quincy
Morris, an American and the Hon. Arthur Holmwood who is Lucy’s fiancée. Dr.
Seward has a strange patient at his asylum who has a hobby of catching and
eating flies and other insects because he believes that consuming other lives
will make him strong.
Mina is getting very worried, as she has not received
any news from Jonathan for a long time. Then there is a very violent storm and a
ship arrives at Exeter with no live passengers on board save a mad dog but with
all the cargo intact. Mina’s friend Lucy comes to live with her and Mina
discovers that she has a tendency to sleepwalk and on a couple of occasions
rescues her when she has walked to the pier in her sleep. Lucy starts to mumble
strange things in her sleep and Mina notices that she has begun to look very
weak and pale of late.
Some days later Mina receives a letter informing her
that Jonathan is alive but is suffering from brain fever. He is in a hospital in
Budapest. and keeps ranting and raving about strange things like wolves and
blood. Mina departs for Budapest to nurse him back to health and they are
married in the hospital itself. Jonathan Harker gives her his sealed journal
where he has written all about his experiences in the castle. Mina wows that she
would never open it unless it was for his safety.
Dr. Seward observes that his patient is behaving even
more weirdly and tends to get very violent in the daytime and calm at night. He
escapes once but is caught and brought back. Lucy is getting weaker by the day
and her fiancée Arthur Holmwood requests Dr. Seward to have a look at her. Dr.
Seward cannot find anything wrong with her except that she indeed does look very
pale and bloodless. He writes to his dear friend Van Helsing to come and offer
his valuable advice, as he is an expert on obscure diseases.
Dr. Helsing realizes at once that she is not suffering from anemia but has
become the victim of a vampire. However he does not reveal this to anyone. The
next time he is called urgently by Arthur and seeing Lucy’s condition he
immediately recommends a transfusion to save her life. After this incident the
professor or doctor keep a constant vigil on Lucy. But in spite of this Lucy is
found to be lacking in blood and requires another transfusion. The professor
gets some garlands made of Garlic flowers and hangs them all over Lucy’s room
and window’s and some around her neck as well. and stresses that they should
never be removed. However he learns that the night attendant has removed them
and once more Lucy is the victim of the vampire. Again they keep a strict watch
on her every night but one night due to a communication problem neither the
professor nor the doctor are present to guard her at night. When they realize
this they both rush to Lucy’s house and discover that all the servants have been
drugged and that Lucy’s mother lay dead besides Lucy who is looking very ill.
Quincy Morris also arrives in time to give his blood for yet another
transfusion. But somehow Lucy is bitten once again and this time succumbs. Her
fiancée Arthur is heartbroken and so is everyone else around them since they all
loved them so much. Everyone at the funeral notices that in death Lucy looks
even more beautiful than when she was alive. The professor places a golden
crucifix over her heart to keep the vampires away and some garlic flowers on her
coffin. He then tells Dr. Seward that he now plans to stuff Lucy’s head with
Garlic and remove her heart so that she may rest in peace. But the next day he
decides to abandon the idea because someone has already removed the crucifix,
which he had placed on her bosom, and now it is too late. Dr. Seward asks him
what he means but the Professor still does not give his reasons to the doctor.
Mina and Jonathan Harker arrive back in Exeter. They
are their way back home when Jonathan notices a tall thin man with very red lips
and sharp white teeth. Mina is puzzled to see Jonathan get so paranoid. But
Jonathan has recognized who it is. It is the Count and his family of vampires
who have migrated to England.
Click here for part 2
of the summary of Dracula |
