Mina Harker

* 1931
* 1958
* 1979
* 1992
* 2006

Dracula (NBC, 2006)

Stephanie Leonidas (2006)

Madam Mina

Arthur Holmwood (ally)

### Personalities

Innocent, faithful, dutiful, intelligent, spiritual, diligent, brave, pure, sweet, loyal, feminine, lively, romantic, strong, pragmatic, loving, pious, organized, attractive, determined, independent, sensitive, maternal, supportive, passive, submissive, confident, protective

### Allies

Jonathan Harker
Lucy Westenra
Van Helsing
Dr. Seward
Quincey Morris

Arthur Holmwood

### Goal

To protect Lucy from her sleepwalking (temporarily succeeded)
To nurse Jonathan back to health and marry him
To support Van Helsing and his men gather information about Dracula

To hunt Dracula and destroy him (all succeeded)

### Fate

Lives a new life with her husband and son seven years after destroying Dracula

> "*I am longing to be with you and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.*"
> ― Chapter 5
>
>

Mina Harker (neè Murray) is one of the protagonists in Bram Stoker's Dracula and is the wife of Jonathan Harker.

A schoolmistress and Lucy Westenra's close friend, Mina joins Van Helsing's team in piecing together Count Dracula’s information and how to defeat him. During the process, she is victimized by Dracula. While slowly transforming into a vampire, she uses some of her vampiric powers to pursue the Count to his castle in Transylvania. Her narratives are recorded in her journal entries.

## Description

Mina Harker and her friend Lucy Westenra are two Victorian women who are always brooding over the stereotypes of Victorian women and are primary targets in the story's conflict. They represent virtue, innocence and goodness, but each of them have a stark contrast to one another. While Lucy is a wealthy woman who often finds it difficult to propose which man to marry, Mina is the New Woman, as she desires not only to be the ideal Victorian wife, but she also wants to be a supportive companion to her husband, especially when she wants to assist him in pursuing Dracula.

## Storyline

### Mina and Lucy’s Letters

On May 9th, Mina writes to her best friend, Lucy Westenra. She explains how overwhelmed she is by her job as a schoolmistress and hopes she can join her to spend quality time together by the sea. She also explains she has been working hard to keep up with her fiancé Jonathan’s studies and learning how to write shorthand, and hopes that once they are married, she can be useful to his writing and type them into a typewriter.

She says that she and Jonathan sometimes write letters in shorthand, and he keeps a journal when he is travelling, and she’ll keep one, too, when she is with Lucy and will likely write an entry when she feels like it. She decides she will show her journal to him when she thinks it’s worth reading and will do her best to learn how female journalists conduct interviews, write descriptions, and remember conversations. She recalls that once she practices more, she can memorize anything.

Mina concludes her letter by saying she will tell Lucy more of her plans when they meet, and she just received a letter from Jonathan. She is relieved he is well and will return home in a week, wondering if they will ever travel to these strange countries together. She also asks Lucy to write back about anything going on in her life and the rumours that she’s in love with a handsome gentleman.

Lucy writes back to Mina, saying she wrote to her twice when they were apart, and she has no news or anything important to tell her. She writes that she is doing fine in London, and the handsome gentleman she has fallen in love with is named Arthur Holmwood, a young aristocratic gentleman. He often visits her, and she and her mother, Mrs. Westenra, get along with him. She recalls she has met another gentleman who knows Holmwood. His name is Dr. John Seward, and he runs an insane asylum, and Lucy thinks he is calm and intelligent. She thinks Dr. Seward would have been a suitable match for Mina if she wasn’t engaged to Jonathan.

Lucy confesses that she is deeply in love with Holmwood and finishes her letter by saying she doesn’t want to stop telling Mina all of her secrets and hopes she will respond about her feelings.

On May 24th, Lucy sends Mina a second letter, thanking her for her message. She reveals she has received three proposals in one day and begs Mina to keep this a secret, except for Jonathan. She writes that her first suitor was Dr. Seward, who told him how important she was to him and how he would be unhappy without her. Before he left her, he asked if she already cared for somebody else.

That evening, Lucy writes again to Mina. She reveals that her second suitor is a young American from Texas named Quincey Morris, who is well-educated and sometimes speaks with Texan slang. He is also so humorous and cheerful that she finds it hard to turn him away like Dr. Seward. Quincey flirted with her and told her that he would still be her friend if she were in love with another.

Lucy lamented why she couldn’t marry three men as she told Morris she couldn’t marry him. He praised her for her choice and admitted he would be lonely without her but hoped the man she loved would make her happy. After she kissed him, he thanked her for her honesty and left, leaving her in tears after she rejected him. She ends her letter by revealing that her third suitor is Holmwood, and she decides her heart belongs to him instead.

### Visit to Whitby

On July 24th, Mina travels to Whitby, a seaside town on the northeastern coast of England, and meets Lucy at the station.They arrive at their hotel named the Crescent, and Mina admires the environment. The Esk River runs through a valley and widens as it nears the shore, with a viaduct bridge. The valley is green and steep, and the houses in the old town are all red-roofed and piled over on top. Above the town are the Whitby Abbey ruins, and Mina has heard about the legend of a white lady who can be looking out of the windows. Between the Abbey and the town is the parish church with a large churchyard full of tombstones.

Mina finds the church the best spot in Whitby as it lies over the town and has an impressive view of the harbour and up to the Kettleness headland that stretches out into the sea. The church is so steep over the harbour that part of the bank has broken apart and its tombstones destroyed. A sandy path that connects to the churchyard includes benches where people can sit and enjoy the view and breeze. Mina was sitting at one of the benches, writing her journal entry while listening to three old men sit beside her and talk. On the far side of the harbour is a lighthouse surrounded by a long granite wall. A heavy sea wall runs outside the granite walls, and a second lighthouse is seen on the crooked elbow of the sea walls. A narrow opening into the harbour between the two piers quickly widens.

Mina enjoys the view when the seawater is high. Whenever the tide went out, the Esk stream could be seen, and outside the harbour is a lighthouse on the side where Mina was sitting. At the end of the lighthouse is a buoy with a bell that rings during bad weather, and she has heard a legend that when a ship is lost at sea, the bells can be heard ringing aloud. She meets a local elderly man with a twisted face, and he tells her that he is nearly a hundred years old and was a sailor in the Greenland fishing fleet during the Battle of Waterloo. She asks him about the legend, but he appears skeptical about it. He thinks none of this has happened during his lifetime, and these stories are mostly for visitors. Mina thinks he is an interesting man to talk with, and she asks him what whale fishing was like years ago. The clock strikes six, and the old man says he must go home as he doesn't want his granddaughter to wait for him when tea is ready. She watches as he hurries down the steps leading from the church to the town in a sloped curve. She decides to leave, too, as Lucy and her mother are out for the day, but she doesn't join them.

On August 1st, Mina returns to the churchyard with Lucy, where they meet the old man and two of his friends. Mina notices that the old men are drawn to Lucy's sweet nature, and she asks the old man to talk about the old legends. The old man, named Mr. Swales, talks about how the preachers invented the local ghost stories, which scare people into obedience. He also believes that almost all the churchyard's graves are empty. Mina is surprised and asks him if he is serious, and he replies that he knows what he is saying about the empty graves. He points Mina to a grave further ahead, and while she doesn't understand his dialect, she reads the tombstone of a young sailor who was killed by pirates off the coast of Andres in 1854. Mr. Swales wonders how the sailor's body was brought to Whitby for burial and recalls all the sailors he sailed with over the years who died at sea and doubts any of their bodies would make it back to Whitby. Mina objects that the tombstones comfort grieving families, but Mr. Swales denies this and points to a slab tombstone lying close to the bench they are sitting near the cliff.

The letters are upside down for Mina to read, but Lucy reads them where she is sitting. It is the grave of a young man named George Canon, who committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs at Kettleness in 1873. Mr. Swales explains that the young man's mother erected the tombstone but says the mother and son hated each other because he was crippled. The son then shot himself to prevent his mother from inheriting his insurance. Lucy is dismayed that she is sitting by the grave of a suicide victim. Mr. Swales says he has been sitting by the grave for the past 20 years, which has done him no harm. He assures the women not to be worried about the fake tombstones, and after he hears the clock chime, he bids the women goodbye and leaves.

Mina and Lucy sit alone for a while, and Lucy brings up her upcoming marriage to Holmwood. This makes Mina despondent, as she hasn't heard from Jonathan for a whole month. Later that day, Mina returns to the churchyard, feeling upset that she still hasn't received a letter from Jonathan. The clock strikes nine, and the lights brightened the town that ran up to the Esk until they reached the curve of the valley. She hears the sheep in the fields behind her and the donkeys walking up the paved road below. The band on the pier is playing music, and further away along the quay, a Salvation Army is gathered for a meeting in a back street. She wishes Jonathan is here and wonders if he is thinking about her.

On July 26th, Mina is still worried about Lucy and Jonathan. She had written a letter to Jonathan’s employer, Mr. Hawkins, asking if he has heard from him. He writes back, saying an enclosed letter was written during Jonathan’s time at Castle Dracula, saying he was on his way home. Mina knows this is nothing like Jonathan, and it makes her uneasy.

Lucy’s sleepwalking habit gets worse, and when Mrs. Westenra informs her about this, Mina decides to keep their bedroom door locked every night. Mrs. Westenra suggested that sleepwalkers could climb on the roof and then fall off. She even told Mina that her husband also had sleepwalking habits and would get up, dress himself and go out if he wasn’t stopped. Lucy will be married in autumn and has already planned her wedding dresses and how her house will be arranged. Mina hopes to do the same, but she and Jonathan will have a simple wedding, and she will work hard to make ends meet. Mr. Holmwood will visit Lucy as soon as he can leave town since his father, Lord Godalming, isn’t doing well. Lucy wants to take Holmwood to the churchyard so they can view Whitby.

On July 27th, Mina still hasn’t heard from Jonathan, which worries her, and she wishes he could still write to her. Lucy’s sleepwalking keeps her awake at night. She also worries about her friend’s sleepwalking but is relieved she won’t be cold during summer. Holmwood has suddenly been called to see his father, who has suddenly become ill. His delayed visit makes Lucy anxious, but she is still her usual self. A week later, she hasn’t heard from Jonathan or his employer, Mr. Hawkins. She tries to cheer herself up with the last letter Jonathan wrote, but it doesn’t satisfy her. Lucy sleepwalks less this week, but Mina notices that she seems to stare at her in her sleep. She even tries to open the door, and she searches for the key when it's locked.

Three days later, there is no news of Jonathan. Lucy is still excitable, and some local fishermen warn that a storm is approaching. It is a gray day with thick clouds, and the seawater starts to rough. Mina meets Mr. Swales, and she is shocked by his changed appearance. He tells her he has been offended for talking about the dead in the churchyard to her and Lucy. He knows he will die soon but isn’t afraid of death, as he will have to die eventually. He comforts her as she starts crying and keeps pointing out to a strange ship out on the horizon approaching the harbour. After a few minutes of silence, Mr. Swales bids her goodbye with a blessing and leaves. Mina is left dismayed until the coastguard appears, and she feels better. He also points out the ship and can tell it’s a Russian ship, and it’s steering very strangely. He hopes they will find out more news about it tomorrow.

In Mina’s journal, she pastes an article from The Dailygraph, dated August 8th.The article describes that Whitby has experienced a sudden, unusual storm they have never seen before. Saturday starts off as a normal day, with tourists and visitors spending the day in nearby attractions such as Robin Hood’s Bay, Mulgrave Woods, and the neighbourhood near Whitby. The schooners also made trips up and down the coast. It wasn’t until the afternoon that everyone started to talk about the upcoming storm. A coastguard and an old fisherman stood on the East Cliff to monitor any warning signs of the storm. It was sunset and several of the sea captains prefer to keep their boats in the harbour until the storm had passed. By midnight, it was eerily calm followed by sounds of thunder. Very few steamers and fishing boats were in sight, and only a schooner could be seen in the distance, seemingly heading westwards and the sails flapping uncontrollably.

The waves become rough and the wind stronger, and even the strongest men couldn’t stand still. It was also very dark, that the townsfolk believe that anyone lost at sea would quickly perish. Whenever the mist cleared, the townsfolk would witness several dramatic scenes out at sea, such as a fishing boat desperately trying to escape the storm. On the summit of the East Cliff, several men worked on the new searchlight, and used it to help some fishing boats reach the shore. When a fishing boat safely arrived in the harbour, the townsfolk would rejoice of the boat’s safe arrival. Before long, the searchlight spotted a schooner in the horizon that looked similar to the one that was seen earlier, and the townsfolk shuddered that the schooner was in even more danger from the storm. They believe it would be impossible for the schooner to reach the shore from the powerful winds. With the high tide approaching, the schooner began to pick up high speed. The sea became shrouded by thick mist again, and the townsfolk watched anxiously as the searchlight shone on the harbour. The wind shifted northeast, and the schooner finally arrived on shore under the Tate Hill Pier, with the searchlight following it. However, everyone was horrified when they saw a corpse of the ship’s captain latched to the ship’s helm, and nobody else was seen on deck.

As soon as the schooner landed on shore, a large dog leapt out from the deck, ran up to the cliff where the churchyard was located, and disappeared in the darkness. A coastguard who was on duty on the eastern side of the harbour was the first to climb aboard, along with the reporter, with the searchlight turning toward the schooner. The coastguard investigated the body latched to the helm, and was startled to see the captain’s hands fastened to the wheel, holding to a crucifix in one hand. During the storm, he had been dragged to and fro on the ship, that the cords tied around his hands had been deeply cut. A local doctor, J.M. Caffyn, came on board and after examining the body, concluded that he had been dead for at least two days. A corked bottle was found in the man’s pocket that contained a little roll of paper that was an addendum from the ship’s log. The coastguard suggested that the captain had tied himself up, and fastened the cords with his teeth. Whoever owns the schooner is a legal question that still needs to be decided.

On August 9th, Mina, becoming interested in the story, pastes another article about the shipwrecked schooner in her journal. The reporter writes that the schooner is from Varna, Russia, and is called the Demeter. The only cargo that was found aboard was some boxes containing some mould. The local solicitor, Mr. S.F. Billington, takes the boxes and goes abroad with them, while a Russian consul claims the ship and pays the harbour fees. Everyone tries to find the dog that escaped the Demeter, but it is nowhere to be found, and some people assume it has fled to the moors. That morning, a coal merchant’s half mastiff dog was found dead. It had been fighting something, and its throat and stomach were slashed open.

With some permission from a Board of Trade inspector, the reporter was given access to look over the Demeter’s log book. He also views the addendum inside the bottle, and with some help of the Russian consul’s clerk’s translation, he records everything that was written in the logbook.

On July 18th, the Demeter noted that strange, unusual events were happening and would record it in the logbook leading up to the journey from Varna to Whitby. A week earlier, on July 6th, the cargo of silver sand and earth was placed onboard before setting sail. But within the following days, the crew became anxious and paranoid, and were constantly crossing themselves. The same day the captain began his logbook entry on July 16th, one of his crew went missing. The next day, another crew member came into the cabin and reported that there was a strange man aboard the ship and hiding behind the deckhouse. It was a tall, dark man that didn’t look like one of the crew, and it made the crew member who saw him terrified. Later that day, the captain brought the crew together and said they would search the mysterious man spotted onboard. They searched everywhere, but found nothing but the boxes of earth. On July 22nd, the ship endured rough weather for three days, but the crew seemed to have gotten over their fear. Another crew member went missing, and everyone became paranoid again. They were also exhausted, so a shipmate took over steering while the others slept. The next day, a third crew member disappeared, but the captain was at least overjoyed that they are approaching England. Two more crew members, including the steersman, also disappeared.

The Demeter endured two foggy days, with no sail in sight, and the captain hoped there would be some signs of help when crossing the English Channel. He couldn’t risk raising the sails and his only crewmate became more terrified. On August 2nd, the captain was awakened at midnight by a scream. He and his mate run onto the deck, where the watchman had vanished. The mate said they must be in the North Sea and the fog was becoming difficult to pass through. The next evening at midnight, the captain went out to the deck to take over the helm, only to find the steersman had vanished, too. He refused to leave the helm and called for his mate, who appeared haggard and fearfully told him that he saw the strange man onboard last night and tried to stab him with his knife, but the knife went passed through the man’s body. He decided to find the man by opening the boxes of earth, hoping he’ll be in them. The captain stayed at the helm while the mate went below the ship with the lantern and toolbox where the boxes of earth were kept.

Just when the captain thought they would be alright, he heard the mate knocking away at something below, before he let out a startled scream and ran to the deck. He claimed he now knew the secret of the boxes, as the strange man was in them. He begged the captain to leave with him, and hoped the sea will save him, before he leapt overboard into the water. The captain then realizes that the strange man onboard is the reason all his crew have disappeared and worries that he won’t reach the port in time.

In the last entry, dated August 4th, the fog is still thick, but the captain refused to abandon his ship and was determined to stay onboard at all times. As he grew weaker, he was also determined to fight the strange man by tying his hands to the helm with a crucifix, with hopes that he’ll die with honour and that his bottle with the addendum will be discovered.

The reporter then concludes that because there was no evidence that the captain killed his crew, the public views the captain as a hero and he deserves a public funeral. Everything is then arranged for the captain’s body to be brought to Tate Hill Pier, carried up the abbey steps, and then buried in the churchyard. The large dog is never seen again and the reporter thinks that it should have been adopted by the town.

In Mina’s journal, dated August 8th, she writes that Lucy has been restless all night, and Mina herself also couldn’t sleep from the thunderstorm. While the storm doesn’t wake Lucy, she gets up twice and gets dressed, but Mina manages to wake up in time to undress Lucy without waking her and put her back to bed. Early that morning, the women get up early and go to the harbour to see what has happened last night. The harbour is filled with very few people and Mina worries again about Jonathan. Two days later, the captain’s funeral is held, and everyone attends as the local captains carry the coffin up the Tate Hill Pier to the churchyard. Mina and Lucy also attend by sitting at their stone seat by the churchyard while all the boats gathered in a cortege, offering them a lovely view. The captain is interred under their stone seat.

Lucy appears despondent from the funeral, but that morning, Mr. Swales was found dead on their seat from a broken neck. The doctor assumes that Mr. Swales saw something that terrified him and caused him to fall back and break his neck. One of the men often comes to the spot where the women sit, followed by his dog. They are quiet most of the time, but during the funeral, the dog kept its distance from its owner and would bark and howl. The owner tries to call his dog to him, but it won’t obey him until the man gets angry, kicks the dog and throws it against a tombstone. The dog then trembles and quivers, which makes Lucy sympathetic but doesn’t touch it, as she is still sensitive from the captain’s body on the ship and the funeral. Mina hopes they if they go for a walk at Robin Hood’s Bay, she will be too tired and will sleep without sleepwalking.

### Lucy’s Illness/Reunion with Jonathan

Mina and Lucy had a nice walk at Robin Hood’s Bay, and Lucy is now in good spirits. The women have some tea at a local inn before returning to their hotel. Lucy is so exhausted that the women go straight to their room to sleep. While Lucy is calmly sound asleep, Mina is happy to see how much better she is, but would have been more happier if Jonathan was with them. But on the early morning of August 11th, Mina wakes up with a sense of fear and dread. She can’t see Lucy’s bed in the darkness, so she gets up to feel her, but Lucy isn’t in her bed. Mina lights a match and notices Lucy isn’t in their room, and the door is closed but not locked. She fears of waking Mrs. Westenra, as she is in frail health, so she puts on some clothes to look for Lucy. As she leaves her room, she remembers that Lucy’s clothes gives her a clue where she is, and that she isn’t far away.

Mina first searches the sitting room, but Lucy isn’t there. She fearfully searches all the rooms until she finds the front door opened. Worried that Lucy has wandered outside alone this late, Mina knows there’s no time thinking what will happen next. She puts on a thick shawl and runs outside. The clock strikes one and there’s nobody in sight, not even Lucy. At the edge of the pier, she looks across the cliff, hoping she’ll find her at their stone seat by the churchyard. It is a bright full moon with heavy clouds, and when a cloud passes, the ruins of the Abbey can be seen. The churchyard becomes visible, and Mina sees Lucy half reclining on their stone seat, with a dark figure bent over her. She hurries down the pier steps and across the fish market, as it’s the only way to reach the East Cliff. The town is quiet with nobody around, and she’s relieved as she doesn’t want anyone seeing Lucy in her poor condition. She hurries up the steps to the Abbey, and when she’s close to the top, she thinks she sees Lucy on their stone seat, along with a long, dark figure bending over her. As Mina calls Lucy, she sees a pale face with glowing, red eyes. Lucy doesn’t answer, so Mina runs to the churchyard entrance, and for another minute, she loses sight of her. When the moonlight returns, Lucy becomes visible again on the stone seat, but the figure has vanished.

When Mina bends over to examine her, she sees that Lucy is still asleep, but breathing heavily and gasping for breath. As Mina gets closer, Lucy pulls up her nightgown as if she’s cold, so Mina wraps her with her shawl to keep her warm. Since she is scared to wake her, she fastens the shawl at her throat with a safety pin. But she accidentally pricks the pin on Lucy’s neck, that Lucy holds her hand at it and moans in pain. After carefully wrapping her with the shawl and putting her shoes on her feet, Mina gently tries to wake Lucy, but she keeps moaning and sighing, so Mina shakes her until she finally wakes up. She doesn’t seemed surprised to find Mina with her, and doesn’t know where she is. Mina orders her to come home with her immediately, and Lucy obeys. As they walk back to the hotel, Mina’s bare feet start hurting from walking on the gravel. Lucy insists she should wear her shoes, but Mina refuses. At the pathway outside the churchyard, Mina finds a puddle from last night’s rainstorm, so she covers her feet with mud so in case they met anyone, they won’t notice her bare feet.

They walk back to the hotel without being spotted. Along the way, they spot a drunk man stumbling around, so they hide in a door until he’s gone. Mina is not only worried for Lucy’s health from exposure, but from her reputation of sleepwalking being exposed. As soon as they return to the hotel, they wash their feet, say a prayer of gratitude, and Mina tucks Lucy into bed. Before falling asleep, Lucy begs Mina not to tell anyone about her sleepwalking incident. Mina initially hesitates, but remembers that Mrs. Westenra won’t handle the story from her frail health, and how the public would react if it came to light, so she promises. Mina locks the door and ties the key to her wrist.

Mina wakes Lucy at noon and she has slept well. However, Mina notices two, tiny puncture wounds on Lucy’s neck and thinks she has accidentally pricked her neck from the safety pin. She apologizes to Lucy, but she laughs it off, saying she didn’t feel anything. Mina is still relieved that the puncture wounds won’t leave a scar. Later that day, the women picnicked at Mulgrave Woods and strolling along the cliff-path and joining Mrs. Westenra. She is disappointed that Jonathan isn’t here, but knows she must be patient. After they visit Casino Terrace, they go to bed early. Lucy falls asleep quickly, Mina locks the door and secure the key, hoping Lucy will rest all night.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 5
2. ↑ Chapter 6
3. ↑ Chapter 7
4. ↑ Chapter 8