After Jonathan’s diary entries in the beginning of the book, there is very little to show the reader what a vampire’s personality is like. Dracula turns Lucy into a vampire and a newspaper excerpt reveals that a woman, who the reader infers to be Lucy, has been seen by many children in the middle of the night. Known as the “Bloofer Lady”, Lucy’s corpse takes children into the graveyard where they are found later with small wounds on their necks. Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood (Lucy’s fiancé), and Quincey Morris (who had asked for Lucy’s hand but was turned down) went to the cemetery one night and they see her holding a young child. Lucy’s “sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty” (231).
Later on, Renfield, a patient at Seward’s mental institution, is severely beaten; his back is broken and he suffers severe injuries to his head. Renfield admits to letting Dracula inside in the past because he promised to give him the animals he desired. However, Renfield had noticed Mina’s recent weakness, and, believing it was the Count’s fault, he attempted to stop him from entering through the window.
Seward, Van Helsing, and Morris rush up to Mina and Jonathan’s room and break the door down. They find Jonathan cowering in fear on the bed as Dracula holds Mina’s face to his chest, forcing her to drink his blood. This incident had “a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink” (311).
Through these events, the reader can see that in Dracula, vampires are portrayed as ruthless beings. Lucy, who had been so caring in life, was transformed into heartless monster. When Dracula is unable to get his way, he nearly kills whoever is trying to stop him. Stoker doesn’t go much further than this in his descriptions of his vampires. The mystery behind these creatures makes it seem as if they were only meant to be beasts and nothing more. Stoker makes it clear what Dracula the vampire wants, but not what the Dracula with possible feelings and emotions wants.
Later on, Renfield, a patient at Seward’s mental institution, is severely beaten; his back is broken and he suffers severe injuries to his head. Renfield admits to letting Dracula inside in the past because he promised to give him the animals he desired. However, Renfield had noticed Mina’s recent weakness, and, believing it was the Count’s fault, he attempted to stop him from entering through the window.
Seward, Van Helsing, and Morris rush up to Mina and Jonathan’s room and break the door down. They find Jonathan cowering in fear on the bed as Dracula holds Mina’s face to his chest, forcing her to drink his blood. This incident had “a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink” (311).
Through these events, the reader can see that in Dracula, vampires are portrayed as ruthless beings. Lucy, who had been so caring in life, was transformed into heartless monster. When Dracula is unable to get his way, he nearly kills whoever is trying to stop him. Stoker doesn’t go much further than this in his descriptions of his vampires. The mystery behind these creatures makes it seem as if they were only meant to be beasts and nothing more. Stoker makes it clear what Dracula the vampire wants, but not what the Dracula with possible feelings and emotions wants.
2 comments:
How does all these posts tie into your focus because as i go through reading i feel more as if im getting just brief descriptions of the book your reading. Antoher thing cam to mind as I was reading. Do vampires pick there victims at random or is there motives behind there victims. Because you tell us how Lucy takes little children to the grave could it be Lucy had a troubled childhood of some sort?
There is a method to my madness. As I read other books, the focus will come more into view. My focus is to compare vampire books of different eras and see where the similarities and differences lie. So far, I've been picking out different parts of the vampire stories in order to make it easier on myself later when I read other books. For example, every story has its own description of how people are transformed into vampires and what powers vampires have. Later I will look at those qualities in other books.
How do vampires pick their victims? Again, this varies by source. Many times it is random; the vampire needs a drink and an unexpecting person just happens to be nearby. However, I suppose they could feed off of someone for revenge if they wanted to. There are books that give vampires a more human side, where they need companionship. In these books, the transformation process is generally a bit different and vampires choose to turn other people in order to have someone to talk to that isn't going to die on them in 50 years.
There is no particular reason that I'm aware of that Lucy takes young children. The book does not delve into her past at all, but she had a very sweet and caring nature when she was human, so I doubt she had childhood troubles. She probably chose children because they're easy.
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