Why does Jonathan Harker first travel to Transylvania?

At the beginning of the novel, Harker has just been promoted from solicitor’s clerk to solicitor. He works with another solicitor named Peter Hawkins, who was hired by Count Dracula to find and purchase a house in London. Hawkins begins suffering from gout, so he sends Harker in his place to go over the details of the sale with the count. Harker is there to help the count with any legal documents, and also to help the count practice his English.

Where do Jonathan Harker and Mina get married?

Harker and Mina get married in a hospital in Budapest. He recovers there after escaping Dracula’s castle, and Mina hurries to be by Harker’s side when she learns of his illness. Relieved to be reunited, the couple “beg the Superior to let [their] wedding be this afternoon.” Their marriage day is significant because Harker gives Mina the diary containing notes from his time at the Castle, which she later reads in order to save Harker’s life.

Who gives Lucy blood transfusions?

As Lucy grows weaker and sicker, Dr. Seward realizes she must be losing blood, although he does not know how. He decides to treat her with blood transfusions, and he first takes blood from her fiancée, Arthur Holmwood. However, as the effect of the transfusions wears off quickly, Lucy ends up receiving transfusions from Dr. Seward, Van Helsing, and Quincey Morris so that “the poor pretty creature…put[s] into her veins the blood of four strong men.”

Why does Holmwood stab Lucy with the stake?

When Van Helsing explains the plan of how they will stab Lucy, he argues that they are actually saving her soul and freeing her from eternal torment; whoever does so will have the satisfaction of knowing that “it was [his] hand that sent her to the stars.” Since Holmwood would have been Lucy’s husband if she had not transformed into a vampire, the other men acknowledge his right to be the one to free Lucy from the curse. Driving a stake through her heart is presented as a way in which Holmwood shows his love for her, and offers Lucy the protection from vampirism that he could not give her before.

Who is killed in the final confrontation with Dracula?

When they catch up with the wagon carrying Dracula’s coffin, Morris, Harker, Holmwood, and Seward have to fight the Gypsies who are guarding it. In the struggle, the Gypsies stab Morris and he dies soon after. Before he dies, Morris gets to witness Dracula’s destruction and notices the mark disappear from Mina’s forehead. Morris dies saying that he is proud to have given up his life in service of a good cause: “It was worth for this to die!”

How does Dracula become a vampire?

The novel never explicitly explains how Dracula becomes a vampire, but Van Helsing hints at Dracula’s backstory in Chapter 18. There, Dracula is discussed as having studied black arts and alchemy at the academy of Scholomance in Transylvania. Otherwise, the reader knows that his body was buried in his castle, after having earned a foreboding reputation in his mortal life as a voivode, or military leader.

Why does Dracula want to move to England?

In Dracula’s view, Transylvania has reached the limits of its purposefulness. He no longer holds the same power there that he once did, as the locals are wise to his ways. The idea of London’s modernity and fast-paced lifestyle is attractive to him; the city would offer a feast of fresh victims for him to conquer.

According to Van Helsing’s instructions, how can a vampire be defeated?

Van Helsing instructs Dr. Seward, Arthur, and Morris that they must decapitate Lucy’s corpse, stuff garlic in her mouth, and drive a wooden stake through her heart. As Lucy’s feminine beauty returns following being staked, Van Helsing reiterates that this will save her soul from eternal damnation.

How does Dracula die?

Van Helsing and Mina take to the castle, where Van Helsing defeats the three female vampires. Meanwhile, Dr. Seward and Morris hunt Dracula down by horse, while Arthur and Jonathan search by boat. When they manage to reach him as the sun sets, Jonathan, meaning to decapitate Dracula, stabs him in the throat. Morris simultaneously stabs Dracula in the heart with his bowie knife. In his final moments, Mina sees a look of peace on Dracula’s face before he crumbles to dust. 

What prompts Van Helsing to join the hunt for Dracula?

Dr. Seward calls upon his former teacher, Van Helsing, to look into the troubling developments concerning Lucy’s worsening condition. Dr. Seward trusts Van Helsing as a foremost expert when it comes to strange diseases (Seward even once saved his life prior to the events of the novel), and Van Helsing is more than willing to promote otherworldly ideas as explanations for what has been happening to Lucy. He identifies her situation as that of vampiric influence, and leads the charge in identifying how her condition, and Dracula himself, may be stopped.

Popular pages: Dracula

Take a Study Break