Understanding Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” in 5 minutes

Summary

The book begins with travel diary entries by Jonathan Harker, a lawyer who is on his way to Transylvania to conclude the real estate contract for an estate in England with Count Dracula.

Despite warnings from the local people, he finally arrives at Dracula’s Castle. At first, the count seems like an older, very polite and well-educated man, but this image changes as soon as Jonathan realizes that he is trapped in the castle and gradually discovers his host’s supernatural abilities.

One night, despite the Count’s explicit warning, he wanders through the castle and is attacked by three vampire women. The Count “rescues” him at the last minute, as he wants him for himself, but shortly afterwards disappears to England on the ship Demeter with 50 boxes of Transylvanian soil. Jonathan manages to escape from the castle with the last of his strength.

In Whitby, England, Lucy Westenra, the best friend of Jonathan’s fiancé Mina Murray, has received three marriage proposals. One from the young doctor and head of the psychiatric institution Dr. John Seward, one from the American Quincey Morris and one from the English aristocrat Arthur Holmwood, who she finally chooses to marry.

After the Demeter docks in Whitby with a missing crew and a dead captain, Lucy begins to sleepwalk. One night, Mina finds her in the city’s cemetery and sees a pair of glowing red eyes bending over the young woman. A few days later, Mina receives the news that Jonathan has turned up in Budapest, so she decides to travel there to take care of her fiancé.

Lucy falls ill after the incident at the cemetery. She is very pale, anemic, and has two small wounds on her neck. Dr. Seward, who takes care of her, soon calls his old teacher and friend Professor Abraham van Helsing from Amsterdam for help. As soon as he arrives in Whitby and examines Lucy, he orders that fresh garlic flowers be placed in her room every night to protect her. This remedy helps until Lucy’s mother throws the flowers out of the window one night, unaware of their effect. Lucy is immediately attacked by Dracula again and loses so much blood that a blood transfusion is necessary. This happens several times until on the last night of her life, Dracula breaks through the window in wolf form. In the process, he scares her weak-hearted mother to death and sucks the last drop of blood out of the weakened Lucy.

Lucy wakes up as a vampire after her death and starts attacking children. Various newspaper articles appear that refer to her as the “bloofer lady” (= beautiful lady, according to the children). Van Helsing convinces Dr. Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris that Lucy has awakened as an undead and must be killed, so the four of them make their way to her tomb and perform a vampire killing ritual. This consists of driving a stake through the heart of the monster while it is sleeping, cutting off its head and stuffing its mouth with garlic. After this is done, the men swear to destroy Dracula.

After Mina and Jonathan, now married, return to England, they join the hunt for Dracula. Together with Van Helsing, Mina collects diary entries and letters to learn as much as possible about the vampire. However, he is onto the team and communicates with his loyal servant Renfield, who is housed in the psychiatric institution where the others are also sleeping. He grants Dracula entry the asylum and he attacks Mina over the course of several nights. Mina’s fate of becoming a vampire after her death seems to be sealed. The only way to prevent this is to destroy Dracula. To do this, the boxes of Transylvanian soil that Dracula needs to regenerate his power must first be rendered useless with sacred wafers. After this is done, Dracula is forced to flee back to his homeland.

The team travels to Transylvania, and once there, Mina and Van Helsing head to Dracula’s castle before he arrives to kill the three vampire women.
Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey and John follow Dracula on his journey. On the last stretch to the castle, they manage to overpower Dracula’s wagon. They kill the vampire by cutting off his head and piercing his heart with a knife, causing it to crumble into dust. Unfortunately, Quincey is fatally injured and dies, but this is the end of Count Dracula’s haunting.