Deborah
ENGL 3850-02N
Supernatural Lit
Dr. Coats
17 February, 1998
Bram Stoker's Dracula
This edition of Dracula was very helpful to me as a reader. I know, I know, a good reader shouldn't have all the explanations handed to her; she should look up the obscure references herself. Well, maybe if I had a lot of free time to do the research myself I would, but since someone else has already done it for me, why complain? I put on a little Bach while reading one night, and I found that it did enhance the mood and make reading some of the heavier passages a little less of an uphill climb. At any rate, I did enjoy Dracula, and I think I'll read it again when I have the free time to read it all in a single night.
A certain series of incidents in the book amused me to no end. The men, being men of the Victorian age, excluded Mina from their "council of war," even though she always had a firmer grasp of the situation than they. They did not wish to alarm her during Lucy's illness, though she could have shed some light on the situation earlier on. She transcribes Jonathan's journal, she types up notes for Van Helsing to peruse, and she turns out to be the strongest of the group. But they leave her by herself when they set out to destroy Dracula at his home.
When she is left alone, Dracula comes to her and begins the process he started with Lucy all over again. Only Renfield notices the change that comes over her- he says she is "like tea after the teapot had been watered" (244). The men had only credited her weakness to the fact the she was a female who had been under stress. Only after Renfield makes this observation do the men think to check on Mina's condition. When they do, Lo! and behold, Dracula is found feeding with her. (As a point of interest, Jonathan is sound asleep in his bed while he is being cuckolded.)
When the men chase Dracula away, Mina lets out a cry of anguish. They have chased away a man who did not ignore her, but who appreciated her brains and intended to use them to his own end. He forced her to feed upon him, rather than feed upon her. Why is it that the only man to appreciate her is considered evil and must be destroyed? Van Helsing marks her with a Communion wafer and this visible mark of her "shame" will stay with her until "Judgement Day."
She did not chose to feed upon Dracula, but it seems to be her fault anyway. They finally find Dracula, but she is not allowed to participate in her own salvation; instead, she is placed in a holy circle- like Ariel trapped in a cloven pine in Shakespeare's The Tempest. When Dracula is finally destroyed, she alone notices the look of peace on his face before he crumbles into dust.