Snow Day! Dracula: Chapters 17-25

Enjoy your snow day. We'll resume class on Tuesday, Jan. 9.

Just a few reminders:

• MP2 Portfolios are due 1/18. Very little time will be given in the lab due to testing. You'll have to largely work on your portfolio outside of class.
• Requirements include:
• 1. Reflection of your writing progress (not a critique of the class...)
• 2. A gothic inspired story
• 3. Multiple perspective or stream of consciousness story (inspired by Dracula or psychology unit)
• Pop culture presentations will be due next class (we'll perform them, though, after our discussion of Dracula).
• Complete Dracula. Test on Dracula & discussion will be Thursday, Jan. 11.

Dracula Assistance: Chapters 17 - 25

Chapter 16 concludes the second part of the novel. Lucy, the vampire, has been defeated, but the foreign threat to decent English culture has yet to be stopped. Our protagonists need to defeat the big boss!

Chapter 17: Seward invites Mina and Jonathan to the asylum, where Mina completes her typing report of Jonathan's journal (chapters 1-4). Seward realizes that Dracula may be his neighbor. Jonathan finds out that all 50 boxes of earth from the shipwrecked Demeter were delivered to Carfax Abbey. Aha! A clue!

Chapter 18: Mina speaks to Renfield, who falls for the innocent lady. Van Helsing, after reading Harker's journals, explains the folklore of vampires to the vampire hunters, dismissing Mina's role as a woman to help them. See, he's old school in his thinking. 

Chapter 19: Renfield refuses to speak to Van Helsing about "the master" and the vampire hunters manage to destroy 29 boxes of the original 50 before rats overwhelm them. More horrifically, Mina has disturbing dreams in which a white pillar of mist has invaded her room and the asylum grounds. Obviously, Dracula is attempting to strike!

Chapter 20: Harker discovers 12 boxes of earth in London houses and 9 more in Piccadilly. Breaking and entering, however, is a crime so the vampire hunters will have to be cautious not to alert the authorities. Renfield fears for his life and is found at the end of the chapter bleeding to death.

Chapter 21: Renfield confesses that he has been under the influence of Dracula. He fought Dracula when he realized Dracula had been feeding on Mina. With him dying, the vampire hunters check on Mina to find Dracula in her room. Mina is pressed to his side, forced to drink his blood. Biblical allusion: Dracula says that he is making Mina "flesh of his flesh"! This scene inspires the idea to future writers that Dracula is sexy. He is not. He is a monster. His attack on Mina (and Lucy) is tantamount to rape. Not sexy. Anyway, the hunters repel Dracula and save Mina, although not before he corrupted her, and destroyed some important papers and journals--luckily they have copies. Mina relates what happened to her. Stoker upends traditional gender roles in this chapter, so it's important to note Mina, Dracula, and Harker's activity. This chapter marks the first time all the hunters and heroes face their foreign enemy. 

Chapter 22: We find that Dracula has revisited Renfield and breaks his neck. Now he's really dead. The hunters place holy wafers in Dracula's coffins at Carfax Abbey, corrupting them. When a wafer is placed on Mina's forehead in a blessing, it burns--marking Mina as semi-vampire--corrupted by Dracula's powers. This clue will come in handy very soon, as we find out that Mina and Dracula are like Harry Potter and Voldemort, sharing their "souls" like a horcrux. Yep, seems J.K. Rowling has read Dracula too. 

Chapter 23 & 24: The hunters ruin Dracula's London resting places and 8 of the 9 in Picadilly. Mina informs them that Dracula is planning his escape. The hunters ambush Dracula and this is our second climax as the hunters directly confront their enemy again. All things are best in threes. So there'll be one more major confrontation at the end of the book. This chapter marks the turning point, as the hunters gain the upper hand and Dracula, once the hunter, is now the hunted. Under hypnosis, Mina relates to the men that Dracula is escaping by sea on the ship the Czarina Catherine. They make arrangements to hunt Dracula down to Varna, the Russian port. 

Chapter 25: Weakening, Mina asks the hunters to kill her if she transforms into a vampire. They travel to Varna on the Orient Express (there'll be a murder on that train in the 20th century...) Side note: the Orient Express was the fastest and more advanced way to travel across Europe at the time. A boat to Varna is slow compared to the speediness of a train. Technology! Anyway, Dracula tricks them by sailing to Galatz instead, but Mina, growing ever weaker, is able to track him with her telepathic powers.