By: Syrie James
I have to admit it has been many years since I've read Dracula so, for all intents and purposes, I remain completely ignorant of the details in the story, but I am still aware of the basic plot. This book rightfully claims that one need not have read Dracula in order to understand what is happening in the story, as all of the characters are explained as they appear.
Mina Murray is a young, engaged woman who is vacationing in the small seaside village of Whitby with her best friend Lucy, when she unwittingly starts to fall for a handsome man who is NOT her betrothed. While Lucy encourages this "harmless" interaction with the fascinating Mr. Wagner, Mina is increasingly concerned about her fiance, who has yet to return from Transylvania while conducting a real estate transaction with one Count Dracula.
Fast foward a bit.....Mina has received word that her fiance, Jonathan, is sick with a brain fever and is in a hospital overseas. Mina leaves immediately, without saying goodbye to Mr. Wagner and sets off to rescue her beloved. Upon finding him, they are married in the hospital and Mina vows to nurse her Jonathan back to health.
What follows is the story of how Dracula comes to England for the sole purpose of meeting Mina, and his interactions with her and her friends, who are intent on destroying the "beast". Jonathan gives an account of his time in Count Dracula's castle, about how he was held prisoner against his will, and about how creepy Dracula's behavior was, etc. Later on in the story, we get to hear Dracula's side of the story and learn "what really happened." I have to admit, I really enjoyed this part. It was funny to hear Mina's recounting of Jonathan's version of events and then hear Dracula's rebuke, "is THAT what he thought he saw? No wonder he was terrified!" Dracula had a reasonable exlanation for all of the creepy behavior that Jonathan had "witnessed", as well as explanations for all of the morbid events that seemed to follow him around wherever he went.
Throughout the story, Dracula is portrayed as the misunderstood, lonely, benevolent (to a degree) vampire who never really meant to harm the few people he admits to harming. He treats Mina with utmost respect, falling into mutual temptation on occasion. He keeps every promise to her, from when and where he will contact her, to not harming any of her friends who are out to kill him. He starts to study the skills of Gregg's shorthand and typewriting, simply because they are passions of Mina's. He protects her and watches over her, and sees that no harm comes to her. Can this guy really be all that bad? Why go through all this trouble of wooing a woman that he clearly could have taken by force? As Dracula explains to Mina, "I want you willingly, or not at all." Dracula, it seems, really is in love.
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With all this said and done, why did Dracula turn into a monster at the end of the book? Why the sudden mocking, derisive behavior? This seemed totally out of character for him, seeing how respectful he was towards Mina throughout the rest of the story. Then the threats to kill her......? I simply didn't understand this sudden change of attitude. At the end of the story, we hear Dracula tell Mina "You WILL be mine, even if I must kill you here and now, and keep you here by force!" All throughout the story, Dracula repeatedly tells her that she wants her to stay with him voluntarily...that seems so important to him...yet by the end of the story, that little requirement of his is irrelevent. In the epilogue, we hear a description of Mina's young son, and we know that Dracula is obviously the father. If this is the case, there is only one instance when this child could have been conceived....and that was during Mina's "dream" of making love to the Count, as she and Jonathan never had any other children. Was this a rape? Mina most likely would have done the deed willingly with him, as she fantasized about it quite frequently, and she was so deeply in love with him. And Mina killing Dracula so suddenly and furiously, this didn't sit well with me. I realize she was angry that Dracula didn't tell her about the baby (did he even know it was his?) but she was so deeply in love with him, that her killing him just seemed a bit rash for my liking. I don't know....perhaps I'm over analyzing this because, after all, we are talking about Dracula here, but it just seems to me that he really had changed for the better and that he was so in control of his temper throughout most the story. Much too in control to simply "lose it" so suddenly like that at the end.
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So, at the end of the story, we see a different side of Dracula that we aren't privy to during the reading of the novel. Dracula behaves rather well up until the very end of the story, where we see a sudden change in temperament. This goes against the characteristics that I came to expect from him, so I was disappointed in how the story ended. I thought the ending (and Dracula's fate) should have been more suited to the character that I had come to respect throughout the novel. Instead the ending seemed rushed and, dare I say, unreasonable to me.
Other than the ending, I rather enjoyed the story and Syrie James's writing style.
