Chapter 9
Includes the October 11th entry of Dr. Seward’s diary; the October 15th, October 16th, October 17th, and October 24th entries of Jonathan Harker’s journal; telegram from Rufus Smith of Lloyd’s in London to Lord Godalming, dated October 24th; the October 25th, 26th, and 27th entries of Dr. Seward’s diary; telegram from Rufus Smith to Lord Godalming, dated October 28th; the October 28th entry of Dr. Seward’s diary.
Mina makes the five men promise that if she becomes a vampire, they will kill her rather than allow her to be damned. She also asks her husband to read the burial service for her now, in case it should come to the worst. The heroes secure passage on the Orient Express from Paris to Varna, arriving there early to await the Count. Hypnotism of Mina brings the same news constantly: the sound of waves, masts, the movement of a ship at sea. Finally, they receive news that the ship has boarded at Galatz instead of Varna.
The group takes the setback grimly, but they board the next available train to Galatz knowing that they now may have to face Dracula on land. Van Helsing believes that the Count’s unholy connection with Mina may have allowed him to discover their plans. He is optimistic, however, that the Count will not expect them to track him into his own country. A change comes over Mina, and Van Helsing believes that Dracula has released some of his hold over her spirit. The clue is in Dracula’s past, which Mina and Van Helsing analyze together: back when he was a mortal warrior invading Turkey, when the invasion failed he fled home and left his army to be cut to pieces. In the same way, he now thinks only of escape and has cut himself off from Mina not realizing that because she has tasted his blood, Van Helsing can still hypnotize her and learn of Dracula’s whereabouts.
Includes the October 29th and October 30th entries of Dr. Seward’s diary; the Ocotber 30th entries of Mina Harker’s journal; the October 30th entry of Jonathan Harker’s journal; the October 30th (later) entries of Mina Harker’s journal; Mina Harker’s memorandum (entered in her journal); the October 30th (night), October 31st, November 1st, and November 2nd entries of Jonathan Harker’s journal; the November 2nd, November 3rd, and November 4th entries of Dr. Seward’s diary; and the October 31st entries of Mina Harker’s journal.
Mina’s latest trance allows the group to learn that Dracula is still near the water from the signs of it, river water. Van Helsing believes that Dracula may have great difficulty being transported back to his castle, as both running water and daylight are dangerous for him, and an inspection of his coffin’s contents will undo him. The old professor hopes that the group can reach Galatz before the box departs. Seward notes that it is growing more difficult for Van Helsing to hypnotize Mina.
When they arrive in Galatz, they learn that the box was passed off to Immanuel Hildesheim. The ship’s skipper informs them that his “superstitious” Romanian crew wanted to destroy the box instead. The friends find the businessman and question him, to learn that he passed the box on to Petrof Skinsky, a trader who deals with the Slovaks who trade down the river to the port. Petrof is found shortly afterward in a cemetery, his throat ripped open. At a loss over their next step, the men retire to the hotel and try to figure out what to do. Mina takes the maps and all of the facts at her disposal and makes a thorough analysis of the situation, until she correctly reasons the most likely route for the Count’s escape. He is going to take the river Sereth up to the river Bistritza , which makes a loop up near the Borgo Pass. The men plan: Arthur and Jonathan will take a steamboat upriver, Quincey and Dr. Seward will take horses and follow the river, and Van Helsing and Mina will cut straight through to the castle, where the professor will sterilize Dracula’s home. Jonathan protests at being separated from Mina, and he hates the idea of Mina going to the castle. But Van Helsing needs to use hypnotism to track down the places that he will need to sterilize; otherwise, if Dracula escapes, he can sleep for centuries. Funded by Quincey and Arthur, the group arm themselves to the teeth and part ways. From Jonathan, Dr. Seward, and Mina, we read accounts of the early part of the journey into the country. Van Helsing buys a carriage and horses, so that he and Mina can make the seventy-mile trek. Arthur and Jonathan are detained by an accident when they try to make it up a very turbulent part of the river. No sign of the box yet.
Includes the November 1st and November 2nd entries of Mina Harker’s journal; a memorandum by Van Helsing, dated November 4th and November 5th; the November 4th entry of Jonathan Harker’s journal; the November 5th entry of Dr. Seward’s diary; the November 5th entry of Van Helsing’s memorandum; the November 6th entry of Mina Harker’s journal; and a final note by Jonathan Harker.
Mina begins to sleep more and more during the day, and she loses her appetite. Van Helsing can no longer hypnotize her, and he is worried about her changing habits. The two friends make it up through the Borgo Pass, using Jonathan’s journal for guidance. When Mina and Van Helsing are drawing closer to the mountains on November 4th, Van Helsing makes camp as night falls and makes a circle of crushed holy wafer around Mina. He asks her to move out of the circle, and she cannot; Van Helsing is overjoyed. What Mina cannot do, the vampires will be unable to do. The three women appear that night, calling Mina “sister” and asking her to join them. But Mina does not go outside the circle. Van Helsing stays within the protective circle as well, but the horses are not so lucky they die of fright.
Van Helsing makes his way to the castle, entering and using his hammer to destroy the doors so that he cannot be locked in. He finds the tombs of the three vampire women. He is conflicted about his task: their beauty and sensuality affects him, even in their sleep, and he is able to make himself go on only by thinking of Mina’s peril. He also finds Dracula’s great tomb, which he renders useless with a wafer. He then uses the hammer and stake to kill all three of the vampire women, whose bodies turn to dust immediately after the moment of death the decay that should have taken place centuries ago happens in an instant. At the moment of death, there is a look of peace on each of their faces. Before leaving, he uses the holy wafer to block all of the entrances to the castle. On foot, they go east to meet the others. Snow is falling heavily, and the sound of wolves is terrifying. As sunset nears on November 6th, they come upon a cart driven by gypsies. On the cart is the last box. Van Helsing makes a protective circle around Mina and prepares for battle. Quincey and Seward are galloping up the road from the south, and Arthur and Jonathan are coming from the north. The cart is surrounded, but if Dracula is not destroyed quickly, he will be in full possession of all of his powers in a matter of minutes. There is a fierce fight, but the gypsies are overpowered. Jonathan flings the coffin to the ground, and he and Quincey pry open the lid. They then kill Dracula just as the sun drops below the horizon, Jonathan’s knife across the throat, Quincey’s bowie knife into the heart. Mina notes that even Dracula, at the very end, has a look of peace on his face. The gypsies flee in terror. Quincey has been mortally wounded in the fight against the gypsies. Mina rushes to him, now able to pass through the barrier of holy wafers, and Quincey tells her that his death was worth it. He points out that the scar on Mina’s forehead has vanished, signifying that the mark of the undead is gone from her, and then he dies, “a gallant gentleman.”
In a final note, Jonathan says that seven years have passed since the events of the novel. The Harkers have a son that they have named Quincey, and both Seward and Arthur are married. Their writings have all been compiled, but even those who wrote them seem at times unable to believe them.
Analysis
Stoker reiterates the threat of rampant female sexuality by reintroducing the three vampire women who threaten to seduce Harker in the novel’s opening chapters. The women pose two distinct threats. First, they stand ready to convert Mina, sapping her of her virtue and transforming her into a soulless vixen. Second, the women threaten to undermine men’s reason and, by extension, the surety with which they rule the world. As Van Helsing faces the voluptuously beautiful vampires, he is nearly paralyzed with the desire to love and protect them: “She was so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so exquisitely voluptuous, that the very instinct of man in me, which calls some of my sex to love and to protect one of hers, made my head whirl with new emotion.” Even the righteous and pious doctor is susceptible to the vampires’ diabolical temptation.
In the final chapters, we see a number of opposing forces meet for a final battle. These oppositions include not merely a conflict between Victorian propriety and moral laxity, but also one between East and West, and one between Christian faith and godless magic. The Gypsies who escort Dracula’s casket to his castle represent the powerful and mysterious forces of the East, of a land ruled not by science and economics but by traditions and powerful superstitions. Determined to defend the vampire against these Western invaders, the Gypsies are part of a landscape that is dark, foreign, and nearly ungovernable to the English. Storms and wolves bedevil Mina and Van Helsing as they make their way to the count’s lair, and the professor loses his power to hypnotize Mina.
Despite the hostility of the landscape and its natives, the invasion is successful. Van Helsing is able to cleanse Dracula’s castle and kill the three vampire women, returning them to an eternal state of purity and innocence. Stoker creates considerable drama and suspense when the band finally catches up to the count in the novel’s final pages. With the terrifying sunset ominously approaching, the Englishmen’s success hinges on a matter of seconds. They race against time, emerging victorious only after great effort and mortal sacrifice.
As Dracula dies, Mina notices a look of peace steal over his face. This moment in the novel speaks to one of Stoker’s overarching ideas, that of Christian redemption. Though Dracula can be discussed endlessly as a novel of Victorian anxieties, it is also a novel of Christian propaganda. It strictly adheres to Christian doctrine, which offers eternal salvation for those who have cleansed themselves of evil. Worrying that her scar will bar her from receiving God’s grace, Mina prays, “I am unclean in His eyes, and shall be until He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred His wrath.” In this prayer, Mina voices the wish of each of the other members of the band, whose struggle has been one of good against evil in an orthodox Christian context.
The short coda, which describes how the documents have been arranged, mirrors the Author’s Note that opens the novel. It is designed to reinforce a feeling of authenticity, assuring us that the events we have read are a matter of documented historical fact rather than fiction. In this way, Stoker hopes to bridge the gap between the real and the fictional, the natural and the supernatural worlds.
