Final Chapter

The final chapter begins with the continuation the groups' pursuit of the Count. As Van Helsing and Mina approach Castle Dracula, Mina's power to be hypnotised and reveal the position of Dracula lessens before disappearing completely. She also starts to show other characteristics of vampires, particularly sleeping patterns. She begins to sleep on their journey during the day and experiences periods where Van Helsing is unable to wake her. At night she doesn't eat, claiming she isn't hungry and seems fuller of life all of a sudden. One night Van Helsing decides to test her by using a holy wafer and placing it around the fire. He then asks her to come nearer the fire, but she says she is unable to. The duo are then visited by the three female vampires that Jonathan met during his stay at the Castle. The wafer defends Van Helsing from the women and Mina is safe because she is practically the same form as them. They ask her to come with them, referring to her as "sister" but her soul is still clean, meaning that she is able to resist them. Van Helsing goes the next day to the Castle, discovers the tombs of the three females and destroys their sleeping bodies, similarly to how he set Lucy free. He then discovers the empty tomb of Dracula and places a holy wafer so that he can't return to it. He also covers all entrances to the Castle with the same thing, so that Dracula can never return to his home. He then leaves with Mina who seems to already be in better spirits their horses have been killed though so they have to walk. They can hear wolves in the distance and find a cave to hide in. In the distance they witness the Szgany being chased by Jonathan, Quincey, Dr Seward and Arthur. As they approach the cave Van Helsing and Mina appear and help to surround the fleeing group. Jonathan appears to become possessed with immense strength as he battles his way through the group to get to the cart and to kill Dracula with the help of Quincey who gets wounded and sadly bleeds to death. To be honest I was slightly disappointed with the ending of Dracula. That is because I was anticipating one final encounter with Dracula in his vampire form, rather than them being able to kill him easier as he was in his sleep. However I did actually enjoy reading the book as it was quite interesting and at times you don't want to put it down.

Chapters: 25 and 26

The group arrive in Varna after a journey of just three days from London. Before they leave however, Mina makes all of the men swear that they will not hesitate to kill her if she becomes a threat to their survival. Jonathan is the last to painstakingly swear to this. He then emotionally reads out the burial service for Mina at her request. Van Helsing and Dr Seward have their doubts about the safety of Mina and are very wary of any changes in her. They keep any suspicions they have, between themselves so as not to make the others more anxious, especially Jonathan. Mina is hypnotised every sunrise and sunset by Van Helsing and continually gives the same description of the Count at sea. Incidentally these are the times of day that she is most alert and awake. They make preparations in Varna for the Count's arrival and successfully get permission to search the ship upon its arrival. They then discover that the boat has been spotted at Galatz, with Dracula trying to deceive his pursuers. They head to Galatz the next morning in an attempt to catch him off guard. As they near Galatz by train, Mina's power and ability to warn of the positioning of Dracula is fading. Dr Seward suspects that the Count's power is strong over her and that they could be misled. After visiting the docks they discover that the boat has landed and the box has been collected by a man named Skinsky who is later found to be dead. They seem to be at a dead end. Mina decides to look through all of their information and ponders over the Count's possibilities of travelling by road, train or water. She comes to a conclusion that he travelled by boat and uses maps to find a route that can be taken to reach Castle Dracula. She is praised once again by the whole group for her brilliance. They then decide to split up to increase their chances of intercepting him. Arthur and Jonathan go by boat in an attempt to catch him up the river. Quincey and Dr Seward ride horses alongside the river to see if they can intercept the boat when it lands. Van Helsing takes Mina, hoping to use her powers to help them find Castle Dracula.

Chapters: 23 and 24

Dr Seward, Van Helsing and Jonathan wait at the Piccadilly house until Arthur and Quincey return; thankfully this is before the arrival of Dracula. They get in position to attack him when he arrives. He was expecting the attack though and tries to fight back despite being stabbed in the chest by Jonathan. The crucifix again scares him off and he threatens the five of them that he will seek revenge, before fleeing. The stress of everything and dealing with what his wife has been through has made Jonathan look a lot older and more 'haggard'. This is in contrast to the Count, who is made younger and more energetic by feeding on Lucy and on Mina. Early the next morning, Mina asks Van Helsingto hypnotise her and this helps them to discover that he is on a boat. They visit the dockyard in search of boats that have set sail for Transylvania. They discover that the Count is aboard a boat for Varna, which will land in about three week's time. Eye-witness accounts confirm it is the Count from his physical description and his superior strength, which is showcased when he easily lifts his heavy box. The group decide that they will travel across land because it is much quicker and will meet the Count at the end of his voyage. Van Helsing and Dr Seward both have doubts over the safety involved in telling Mina all of their plans. This is because of the possibility that Dracula has previously hypnotised her and could learn their plans of attack through her. They are saved the trouble of telling her when she decides not to attend a meeting and then makes Jonathan promise not to tell her anything of their plans until her red scar has disappeared. He promises, but then she seems to have a sudden change of heart and becomes adamant that she comes along on the journey. She believes she could be helpful and would be safer if she stayed with them. It is hard to tell whether or not Mina has the best intentions of the group at heart, or if she is in some horrible way still being influenced by Dracula...

Chapters: 21 and 22

Dr Seward arrives in Renfield's room to find him lying in a heap on the floor. The attendant believes that he may have broken his back. Van Helsing is sent for and then Arthur and Quincey also come down to see what's happened. Renfield wakes and recalls what happened. He explains that the Count came into his room a few days ago in his smoke form. Renfield however realised, that Dracula had been feeding on Mina, because of her pale appearance when he last saw her. Wanting to protect Mrs Harker, he tried to attack the Count when he came to visit him again. The Count's strength was too much for him and his injuries led to his eventual death. It is a mystery though as to why the Count fed on Mina, but not Renfield and similarly on Lucy and not Jonathan whilst he was staying at Castle Dracula. He may possibly prefer female victims or he was just using Renfield and Jonathan for purposes other than food? Dr Seward, Van Helsing, Arthur and Quincey go straight to Mina's room, where they have to barge their way in and are horrified to see the Count forcing Mina to suck blood from his chest. She has bite marks on her neck and Jonathan is still asleep and in a trance thanks to the Count. Dracula advances on the four of them until Van Helsing produces a crucifix, which scares him off. Mina and Jonathan soon come to their senses and are terribly upset and horrified about what has happened. Arthur goes to the study to find some manuscripts have been burned, luckily there was a spare in the safe. Mina is now going through similar stages that Lucy suffered and the others have time against them now in their battle against Dracula. The next day they visit Carfax and in each of the boxes of earth, they place a piece of 'sacred wafer' rendering them useless in future for the Count. They also manage to get into his Piccadilly home and do the same to eight more boxes, meaning they only need to find one more. Arthur and Quincey go to search the remaining houses whilst the other three wait at Piccadilly. Religion is a major theme in the novel that is particularly evident in this section of it. Renfield was heard shouting "God! God! God!" as he's being attacked by the Count in an attempt to get help from him. It is used as a superstition against vampires, which is evident when Dracula flees at the sight of Van Helsing's crucifix. This is also evident when the cross used to bless Mina burns into her forehead leaving her to believe "Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh!"

Chapters: 17, 18, 19 and 20

These chapters involve the start of the search and hunt made for Dracula by Van Helsing, Dr Seward, Lord Godalming, Quincey Morris and Jonathan Harker. After her initial help, they relieve Mina of any further duties as she may not be able to deal with the scary reality of some of the things she may discover. The fact that they don't let her help anymore could be seen as sexist or it could just be that they want to protect her. She helps them prior to this by typing up Dr Seward's phonographic diary and then by chronologically ordering all diary entries and newspaper cuttings they have. Once this collection is read by everyone, a meeting is held in which they discuss how to deal with Dracula. Van Helsing informs the others of typical strengths (e.g - can transform into bats and wolves and human blood regenerates them) and typical weaknesses (e.g - garlic, crucifixes and daylight) of vampires. Once it is discovered that the house next door to the asylum is owned by Dracula the five men decide to investigate it straight away. This fact also again raises suspicions that the Count has in some way possessed the lunatic Renfield, who twice escaped and ran to the house where he was heard talking to his 'master'. In the house they discover that twenty one boxes of earth are missing. Jonathan manages to trace them to a house in Piccadilly which they plan to investigate further. He also begins to notice that Mina is looking paler than usual and has been sleeping for longer. Mina has a dream in which she wakes in the middle of the night and is surrounded by a thick smoke. It is said earlier in the chapter that vampires can take this form. This worries the reader, as she is also showing similar symptoms to ones which Lucy had and Mina might not have been dreaming after all... Dr Seward starts to keep a much closer eye on Renfield, as he believes that his mood swings can be linked to the actions of the Count. He also believes that Renfield is after a 'human soul' which could also signify his cooperation with the Count in some way. Chapter 20 ends with a cliffhanger as Dr Seward learns that Renfield has "met with some accident" and is "covered with blood". Could this be linked to an impending attack of some kind that the Count is preparing to make?

Chapters: 13, 14, 15 and 16

Van Helsing contemplates carrying out an autopsy on Lucy's body before the funeral, but then changes his mind saying "it is too late - or too early". He then gets permission form Athur to read through Lucy's papers. This leads him to Mina, who he visits in Exeter. Here he learns all about Jonathan's ordeal and his sighting of a 'younger Dracula' in London. Van Helsing tells Mina and Jonathan that he will keep in touch with them. He then discovers an article about a child with wounds in his neck, identical to Lucy's, when he returns to London. After showing it to Dr Seward they visit the child to see him personally before visiting Lucy's tomb, where they discover that her body is missing. Seward implies that her body was stolen but Van Helsing is determined to prove him wrong. They hide in the graveyard until seeing a 'white figure', which they advance upon and find a child. It is suspected that the child was to become another of Lucy's victims. They return to Lucy's tomb during the day only to find her body there, however she is very healthy looking for a week-old corpse, with red lips and rosy cheeks. Her appearance here can be linked to Jonathan's sighting of Dracula, who looked younger and healthier. This could be evidence that the consumption of blood makes vampires younger and fuller of life. Van Helsing and Dr Seward return to Lucy's tomb a few days later along with Quincey and Arthur, who reluctantly come after hearing Van Helsing's plan to remove Lucy's head. They hide in the graveyard until she arrives again with another child. This is when they first see Lucy's "unclean and full of hell-fire eyes" and their feeling of love for her turn to hatred. The four of them return the next day to finish the job. Van Helsing allows Arthur to hammer the stake as it will set Lucy's soul free and she would have wanted him to do it. When Arthur and Quincey leave the tomb Van Helsing and Dr Seward finish the job by removing her head and filling her mouth with garlic. The four of them all swear to help in the hunt for Dracula...

Chapter 12

The chapter begins with Dr Seward's diary as he arrives at Lucy's home the day after her attack. He grows impatient when there is no answer to his knocking. Van Helsing then comes running up to the house and they decide to find somewhere to force their way in. Once inside they discover the maids, passed out on the floor. They go to Lucy's room and find the dead, Mrs Westenra laying with her. After hearing Lucy's heartbeat Van Helsing realises that she can still be saved. The maids are awoken and ordered to run a hot bath as Lucy is extremely pale and freezing cold. Whilst contemplating how they will perform the blood transfusion, Quincey Morris appears and volunteers to be the blood donor. The transfusion however, isn't as effective this time. Later on Quincey asks Seward what is wrong with Lucy and also tells him that he had a nightmare in which she was bitten by a bat. An unopened letter from Mina to Lucy asking how she is and about her wedding also informs us that Mina and Jonathan are back in Exeter and are currently staying with Mr Hawkins. Seward then receives a letter updating him on Renfield, saying that he escaped and attacked two men who were moving boxes into the old abandoned house. Whilst attacking them he shouts "They shan't rob me! I'll fight for my Lord and Master!". Mina then writes another letter to Lucy informing her that Mr Hawkins has suddenly died and that she might see her soon when visiting London. The next night, whilst Seward is watching over Lucy, he notices her teeth "seemed longer and sharper" (Typical vampire characteristic). When Arthur comes in the morning she wants a kiss but Van Helsing doesn't allow it. He holds her hand instead before Lucy has a fit of rage and then suddenly dies. Seward then consoles Arthur before being told by Van Helsing that "It is only the beginning!"