What gets me about the old woman who begs Johnathan not to go to Castle Dracula is that Drac is the one who made the reservations for Johnathan to stay at that inn. He contacted her husband. He knows of this couple and where they live. If Johnathan failed to show up, they would be the first people questioned. They live in fear of the count and both they and the rest of the area probably have for centuries and yet this little old woman is putting herself potentially in Dracula’s sights just for the slight chance of saving this poor boy. If Drac knew she warned him and made him turn away there’s no way he’d let that slide and there’s no way she doesn’t know this! It’s probably why they take orders from him in the first place. yes, he pays them, but come on, they can’t even say his name without crossing themselves, fear is doing far more work than money here and if they are doing it for the money because they are that desperate, that’s still a great deal of control Dracula has over them. The whole area has probably been taught to fear Dracula for generations, this woman has spent her whole long life in the shadow of a monster, living every day knowing that it knows where she lives and could come kill her whenever it pleased, and yet she defies that fear to save this poor young man she hardly even knows.
And Johnathan is, of course, completely ignorant to just how much courage that must have taken, how much she’s risking just by warning him. He thinks it’s a nice enough gesture and all and he tries to be kind about it and accepts the crucifix despite it going against his own beliefs, which is very kind of him, but his ignorance to just *how* desperate she is gets to me for some reason.
