1. Summary of chapter
1.1. VH suspects Dracula is onboard a ship retreating to Transylvania. On October 5th, Mina explains that VH learned called the Czarina Cathrine was headed to Varna, a man fitting Dracula’s description booked passage, carrying a large box onboard. On the same day, Seward also reflects about Mina, perhaps the vampire blood in her body gives her a connection to Dracula that jeopardises their mission, he then talks to VH who agrees with him bc Mina is showing early signs of becoming un-dead, but she excuses herself from the group before VH can say anything about her being kept in the dark. The men meet and discuss travelling overland, they can reach Varna in 3 days whereas the ship will take nearly 3 weeks, so, they have time to rest and get supplies. During the night, Mina forces Jonathan promise not to reveal their plans to kill Dracula because of Mina and Dracula’s connection to which he promises not to. Mina asks VH if she must travel to Varna, if Dracula calls her, she must go to him, even if it means deceiving her husband. The men decide to leave the next morning, meet the Czarina when it docks and place wild roses where Dracula rests so that he cannot escape, and when no one is around, open the box and destroy him. Harker writes that Mina becomes anxious as night approaches, he ends the entry by stating ‘she is calling to me’.
2. Theme of withholding information
2.1. The Dr Seward and Van Helsing decide it is best to exclude Mina out of their plans killing Dracula because they suspect that Dracula might be able to spy through her - just like she was able to spy on Dracula. Does he see through the new mark that she just got on her forehead? Or is he able to see because of the fact that she swallowed his blood (through his breast - maybe alluding to a mother like breastfeeding her baby?), and because he is now a part of her and his blood is circulating in her veins that he is able to use his supernatural powers to look through her eyes.
2.1.1. The blood which the Count gave is referred to as ‘horrid poison’ and Van Helsing calls it ‘the Vampire’s baptism of blood’
2.2. Mina is aware of the fact that Dracula is watching/spying on them through her and then makes Jonathan promise he will not ‘tell [her] anything of the plans formed for the campaign against then count’ and she then ‘solemnly pointed to the scar’ - might confirm the theory that he is watching through her new ‘third eye’
3. Seward recognises that Mina is ‘tongue tied’ and he knows that she can ‘form conclusions of her own’ about this situation and ‘how brilliant they must be’ but she ‘will not, or cannot, give them utterance’ - maybe Dracula is stopping her through his powers
3.1. It is only when she is hypnotised that she is able to say where Dracula is and tell the others what she knows - theme of subconscious and the boundaries between asleep, awake, and trance-like states - Dracula is unable to reach her / control her when her EGO (freud) is in control/awake. He is only powerful over her when she is conscious and actually she possesses power when she is unconscious.
3.1.1. Similar to how Lucy could see everything that was going on when she was sleep walking even tho she thought it was all but a dream - Dracula was able to control her even when she wasn’t conscious.
3.1.2. ‘
4. Dracula and Mina’s relationship
4.1. Fear that Dracula might take her under his control - Seward speculates this might happen, they are aware that her appearance is changing.
4.2. Mina represents everything that contradicts Dracula and what he stands for - he is ancient and she is modern , she is technological whereas he is not, she is resourceful. She is the brains behind the mission, while the rest of the men are speculating Dracula’s next step, she is very methodical and she writes every possibility of how he may go to the castle.
5. Rucrurring themes of sleep, dreams & trance-like states
5.1. Van Helsing hypnotizes Mina at sunset and sunrise, times that are not quite night and not quite day
6. Comedic relief
6.1. Van Helsing's report of the captain's language is one. The captain curses, using the epithet blood often, but Van Helsing, in his broken English (not his first language), translates the curse wrong. The captain says that Dracula had better, as Van Helsing puts it, "be quick—with blood—for that his ship will leave the place—of blood—before the turn of the tide—with blood"
6.1.1. Van Helsing's mistranslation is ironically accurate. Dracula does all things with blood, the blood he takes from prey. He currently has in him blood from most of the main characters—Mina, Lucy, and through Lucy, Holmwood, Morris, Seward, and Van Helsing.
7. Mina’s Mark on her forehead
7.1. Throughout this chapter a lot of the characters, including Mina, make remarks about her mark on her forehead
7.1.1. ‘I caught sight in the mirror of the red mark upon my forehead; and I knew I was still unclean’ - Mina
7.1.1.1. Similar to TBC when the female protagonist in the ending says ‘red mark on my forehead; I am glad he cannot see it…because it spares my shame’
7.1.1.1.1. Similarities: both characters show signs that they are ashamed of the mark on heir forehead and are constantly reminded of its presence. ‘Unclean’ + ‘shame’ - similar connotations of shame that is societally pushed upon women when something happens to them even tho it was complete out of their control, they should still be blamed for it.
7.1.1.1.2. Differences: the TBC protagonist’s lover doesn’t see her scar - prob bc this is a feminist book. Whereas, all of the male characters in Mina’s direct circle can see her mark on her forehead and it is a reminder of her growing vampiricness which scares them as they dont want their ‘sweet, sweet, good, good woman in all the radient beauty of her youth’ to be corrupted by her growing vampirism.
7.1.2. ‘It was only when I caught of the red blotch on Mrs Harker’s forehead that I was brought back to reality’ - Dr Seward
7.1.2.1. The fact that Dracula is no longer a direct threat to them because he is travelling back to Transylvania means that the characters are slowly beginning to think that these past few days were only ‘dream’. To a mondern reader, we are more likely to be like is it really that deep like idk why everyone is overreacting to the fact that she is seen as ‘unclean’ and ‘impure’ now, but if you look at the mark as a physicical manifestation of Dracula’s partically “raping” her (She did not consent to being a vampire nor did she consent to drinking his blood and ∴ him becoming a part of her) in front of her husband + all the other guys, esp considering that they are in the Victorian era, this would send the average Victorian person into shell shock if they were to see/experience this irl. Hence why the other male characters are reminded that all of this was real because of how traumatising of a scene they had to witness was.
7.1.2.1.1. Theme of dreams and the boarders of dreams and reality. Is this maybe a part of Dracula’s spell? Or maybe it’s a coping mechanism of all of the stress that the characters have experienced the past few chapters.
7.2. Allusion to mark of cain
7.2.1. God tells Cain and Abel each to make a sacrifice, and then God prefers Abel. Then, in an act of malicious envy toward Abel and spite towards God the father, Caín kills his younger brother. And then God puts a mark on Cain’s forehead as a form of punishment and reminder. By marking Cain, God identifies him as someone who has committed a grevious sin. The mark is a symbol of Cain’s guilt and his separation from the community, as he becomes a “fugitive and wanderer.” Thus, while it protects him, it also signifies the consequences of his actions and serves as a constant reminder of his wrongdoing.
7.2.1.1. Much like Cain’s mark, Mina’s scar sets her apart, symbolizing both her contamination and guilt by association with the vampire. Just as Cain’s mark reminded him and others of his wrongdoing, Mina’s scar is a visible reminder of her interaction with Dracula’s evil.
7.2.1.2. Both marks also serve as symbols of protection. Cain’s mark prevents others from killing him in vengeance, while Mina’s mark, given by Van Helsing, shows that he tried to shield her from further harm by Dracula. In both cases, these characters bear signs that make them different and mark them as having crossed a boundary that isolates them from others. Yet, these marks also hold a paradoxical purpose: they protect as much as they condemn.
7.2.1.3. Through this link, Stoker draws on the complex symbolism of guilt, punishment, and protection that the “Mark of Cain” represents, using it to explore themes of contamination, redemption, and the struggle between good and evil within Dracula.
8. Ending of the chapter
8.1. Ends with each character updating wills and taking care of other last affairs, each in a different mood. Morris, characteristically, takes everything in stride. Von Helsing urges last-minute preparations, and Harker worries as the Sun sets that som e new pain may have to be born before Mina can be freed from the curse.
8.1.1. Significance of them writing their wills - they are preparing for any event that might happen + they are prepared to die if it means that Dracula will die
9. Superstitions
9.1. Roses
9.1.1. ‘we shall place a branch of wild rose on it’ - a superstition, mixing science with superstition, ‘superstition we must trust at the first…man’s faith in the early…root in faith still’ - superstition protected early human-kind from the monsters before science.
9.1.1.1. Roses in Roman times - a rose would be hung or carved over a dinner table or meeting space to ensure that any conversations held beneath it (‘sub rosa’) would stay secret. That’s why today, the decorative plaster surrounding a pendant light fitting is known as a ‘ceiling rose’.
9.1.1.2. The ancient Romans regarded the flowers as symbols of death and rebirth and a festival of Roses, Rosalia, was celebrated on various dates between May and July. Rose bushes were often planted on graves, or carved onto stone tombs. Because of their colour, red Roses were equated with blood. Therefore, strewing graves with red Rose petals or by planting red Roses by them was regarded as a way of propitiating the deceased with a form of sacrifice.
9.1.1.3. An American anthropologist, Martha Warren Beckwith, was researching African-Jamaican burial customs in Jamaica in the 1920s. Beckwith was told by Wilfred, one of her interviewees, that “’some plant sweet Roses all over the grave’”. It is unclear whether Wilfred meant that Roses were planted as some form of decoration or grave marker, or as a means of keeping the dead bound into their resting places as was the case with Pigeon peas . These were planted on the place of burial as it was believed that as their roots grew downward, they would prevent the grave’s occupant from rising
9.1.1.3.1. This is a similar method that Dr Van Helsing is going to do, he wants to contain Dracula in his box.
10. East vs. West
10.1. Theme of east and west as the unknown
10.1.1. East - anything east of Austria - symbolises mystery danger and the unfamiliar,
10.1.1.1. Van Helsing’s reference to the heroes of this story as Crusaders travelling ‘towards the sunrise’ aligns them with Western invaders confronting an Eastern “foe”.
10.1.1.1.1. This portrayal implies that the East is both a place of threatening evil and hidden wisdom - resonating with historic views of the east
10.2. Imperialism and East as a site of fear
10.2.1. Stoker’s portrayal of East includes dark, sinister landscapes with supernatural elements (grim peasants, daemons, wolves etc), though he also presents aspects of beauty and sympathy for the people.
10.2.2. The comparison of the Crusaders implies that the West is justified in invading the East, casting the West as a “holy” force against a dangerous and mystical enemy.
11. Xenophobic + Racist undertones
11.1. Dracula can be interpreted as a metaphor for the “foreign threat” from the East, with the Count as an immigrant “invading” London
11.1.1. The Plot echoes xenophobic threats of immigrants taking over the native population and diluting “native” values and identity.
11.1.1.1. Vampirism serves as a metaphor for xenophobic fears of outnumbering and cultural or racial “contamination”
12. Mina
12.1. Van Helsing doesn’t shy away from hurting her when trying to get something out of her, similar to how Seward exploits Renfeild in order for scientific advancement. Renfeild is dehumanised in Seward’s eyes.
12.1.1. both mina and Renfeild have become commodities and physical tools to their plan to end Dracula
12.1.1.1. Mina has lost her humanity both from Dracula but also from the men around her who use her and her knowledge to end Dracula. The first time she is kept in the dark is for the reason that she is too “fragile” and can’t handle what they are talking about - I find this stupid as up until this point, she was the one to gather all the information and orgamnise it, so if anything, she’s the one who knows everything that’s happened better than everyone else