Since my previous analysis wasn’t enough to satisfy my burnt-out lit student heart, have some more prattling about death and narrative horror devices in the DracuDaily!
August 15th’s update is distressing as fuck. We’re given Lucy’s mother’s death sentence here - a fright will kill her for sure, and with all the terrifying stuff Lucy is doing, being subjected to by Dracula, and will theoretically start doing in a completely new way as the vampirism sets in… yeah, RIP old girl, I’d die too if my daughter fell prey to horrors beyond our comprehension. So here’s what I’m seeing today:
First, a critical horror mechanism in this novel is that Dracula doesn’t only affect those he is preying on. Death/vampirism isn’t the only awful thing he inflicts. He has long-ranging ripple effects on the loved ones of those he hunts - Lucy’s mom will die from it, Mina is growing deeply worried from it, and Lucy’s husband and other suitors will inevitably be affected by it too. The fact that you don’t need to be targeted by Dracula to still have your life upended by him is blood-curdling. And it harkens back to when Jonathan first met all those concerned Romanian villagers, who wept and offered him protection - they’ve all been harmed by Dracula too, by the horrific ripples his vampirism causes. They live in fear, in grief, on a timer ticking towards zero - and that’s how Mina and all of England will be living soon, too. It’s clearer than ever that Dracula’s hunts have several victims, which makes him even scarier than before.
Second, there are some very interesting implications wrt Lucy’s mother discussing how she’s grieving her daughter. Obviously, the explicit meaning is that in Victorian marriages, the bride left her birth family and effectively became her MIL’s daughter, integrated into the new family, etc. But Stoker emphasized this sentiment for its double meaning: Lucy is bitten. Lucy is a vampire. Lucy is dead, and her mother is grieving the daughter she used to have. And she doesn’t know that’s what she’s grieving. Lucy’s mom doesn’t even know how right she is to grieve, to miss her daughter, to wish for her protection - because her daughter will never be the same again, and all Mina can do is try to keep Lucy safe from further attacks, from even more corruption and pain. She’s grieving only half of what she needs to grieve, and that’s possibly more tragic than having to grieve at all.
And finally, I see a gradual shutting-down of Mina’s immediate allies. Mr. Swales is dead from mysterious circumstances. Lucy’s mom cannot be kept in the know of what is happening to her daughter. Jonathan is mentally unwell. Mina is all alone in her observations of these strange supernatural happenings, just like Jonathan was all alone, just like the First Mate and then the Captain of the Demeter were all alone. And that loneliness? That inability to tell, to strategize with someone else, to seek comfort in a friend? That’s terrifying. That’s what drove Jonathan mad. That’s what drowned the First Mate and bound the Captain’s corpse to his ship. For the fourth time now, someone is experiencing these horrors and they’re all alone.
But Mina won’t be alone for long, I don’t think. Arthur will be back for Lucy shortly, and she might be able to get in touch with the correspondent who detailed the landing of the Demeter, and Lucy’s other suitors might join the party as well. And once Mina has allies, perhaps that’s when the horrors become a little more bearable. A little more beatable.
