Whitby Whitby Tweet It rains rather a lot in Britain. Even the Tourist Board aren’t unwise enough to pretend it doesn’t. Most of our seaside resorts have, therefore, been spoilt by over-development to ‘cater for’ visitors when it’s too cold or wet for the beach. Whitby’s different. Certainly, there are amusement arcades, fortune-tellers and gift-shops in plenty. But, since Whitby is still a working fishing port, it hasn’t been taken over completely. Anyway, I was in Whitby researching for an article about explorer Captain James Cook. So, the weather didn’t really matter. I’d brought some no-messing mountaineering waterproofs with me, and faced the rain and the howling wind, and gained some amusement from the few tourists struggling with their cheap plastic ponchos. But, I hoped it would brighten later, because I also wanted some pictures of Whitby Abbey for a calendar project. I didn’t get them, but walked in the footsteps of Whitby’s fictional villain, as well as its real hero! James Cook looks out from the West Cliff Whitby Harbour is a narrow river-mouth.

On each side, a red cliff towers, and to its slopes, the old town clings. The West Cliff belongs to Captain Cook. His statue stands looking out to sea, atop the cliff. As a young man, he lodged with, and worked for a merchant named John Walker, in Grape Lane. Walker’s house still stands, and is now a museum, devoted to the achievements of his protégé. It was probably from the West Cliff that, on 31st October, 1885, Irish novelist Bram Stoker witnessed the cargo ship ‘Dimitry’ out of Narva, run aground on Tate Hill Sands. When, some years later, he wrote Dracula, he had the Count arrive in the ‘Demeter’, from Varna, steered by the dead hand of her Captain. The East Cliff is ‘Dracula Country’, but it doesn’t belong exclusively to him. On top of the cliff stand the ruins of 7th Century Whitby Abbey, where a simple herd-boy once sang to, and captivated the Abbess Hilda. Hilda went on to become a Saint; the Song of Caedmon is said to be the pioneer of English religious music.

‘Caedmon’s Trod’ is the name given to one of the two sets of steps leading up to the Abbey from the old town. Curiously, though, the commemorative Cross of Caedmon stands at the top of the other steps, called the Abbey Steps, or, more usually, simply the 199 steps. Don’t ask; I didn’t count them! Both sets are good for pictures looking across the red-tiled roofs of old Whitby. The sun shows the tiles to their best advantage … but, wind and rain ensures that the steps aren’t too crowded! You pays your money … or, you gets up early, or you comes in winter! The Abbey steps lead, as you might expect, to the Abbey. But, in front of the Abbey stands St. Mary’s Church, and its churchyard. Here, Stoker had Mina and Lucy watching the approach of the ‘Demeter’ … and here, the ill-fated Lucy Westenra met the Count while out sleepwalking … with the inevitable result! The graveyard on East Cliff ... haunt of Count Dracula! Everyone who’s ever been to Whitby remembers ‘a great fish and chip shop by the harbour’.

Most people I spoke to said the best of all was ‘Trenchers’… which, unfortunately, was destroyed by fire! But, there are many, many more! A lady in the Tourist Information Centre told me that it isn’t actually illegal to serve bad fish and chips in Whitby, but the competition is so fierce that anyone who does so, or is miserly with the portions, is unlikely to last very long. From the many, I chose the ‘Endeavour and Resolution’ because of the ‘Captain Cook’ work I’d come to do. I wonder if there’s a fish and chip shop named after the Count, though? There ought to be; it would be the ideal place to pop into for a quick bite! Leave a Comment Bram's View Stoker One of the most famous names associated with Whitby will always be ‘Dracula’, the central character of Bram Stoker’s novel that was published in 1897. Count Dracula is widely considered to be one of the most famous Gothic figures ever created. During his visits to Whitby whilst writing the book, Stoker was influenced by the local people and surroundings, and the town served as a backdrop for some of the best-known scenes.

The neighbouring address to ‘Bram’s View’, 7 Royal Crescent appears in the novel as the address (slightly amended to ‘7 The Crescent, Whitby’) for Count Dracula's solicitor, "Samuel F Billington”, who arranges for fifty crates of earth from the ship to be transported by Great Northern Railway from Whitby to “ Carfax, near Purfleet.” The Whitby Gazette reported on 24 October 1885 that “the Russian schooner Dmitri of Navra, with silver sand, came in suddenly, in heavy weather, but going ashore in “Collier's Hope” became a total wreck.” (Silver sand is a soft mortar sand used in building.) In Stoker’s novel, Dracula arrived in Whitby aboard the Russian schooner, the Demeter, whose cargo consisted of crates of earth, or “mould”, needed for Dracula’s safe repose. Bram Stoker enjoyed his first Whitby holiday in 1890, staying at No 6 Royal Crescent, a guesthouse run by Mrs. Emma Veazey (commemorated with a plaque by the front door).

The following week his wife, and their only child, the ten-year-old Noel, joined Bram and they stayed in the town for the next three weeks. It is probable that their bedroom was on the third floor and the sitting room would have been below, on the second floor. Whilst staying here and listening to stories told by the townsfolk, fact was easily woven into Stoker’s tale. His handwritten notes for Dracula, which survive at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia, PA – include the pages he recorded in Whitby: Coast Guard reports of ship wrecks at Whitby; conversations with seamen about local legends; sketched maps of the town; descriptions of both day and night scenes; and a glossary of local dialect. The ship washed ashore in a storm, all hands aboard dead, and Dracula, in the form of a dog, bounded ashore and ran up the famous 199 steps to St Mary's church and the graveyard at the top. Local folklore tells of ‘Barghest’ or ‘Barguest’, the huge black phantom hound, said to prowl the Yorkshire Moors, with a particular preference for the Whitby area.

And, interestingly, the myths of “Demeter” involve her daughter, Persephone, who was abducted by Hades, and became Queen of the Dead. Also staying at No 6 Royal Crescent were three ladies from Hertford, Isabel and Marjorie Smith and their friend Miss Stokes, and it has been suggested that Bram based the characters of Lucy, Mina, and Mrs Westenra on his fellow guests. Stoker carried out some of his research into East European folklore at Whitby library and it was probably here that he first came across the name Dracula, when he borrowed a book with the title ‘An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia’, written in 1820 by William Wilkinson. This book included in one of its paragraphs ‘Voivode Dracula’ whose history (largely fictional) is explained by Prof. Van Helsing and based on the historical truth that Dracula won in battle against the Turks and ‘Dracula in the Wallachian dialect means ‘Devil’!

Today, to recognize the part Bram Stoker and Dracula have played in the history of Whitby, a plaque on a bench overlooking the Whitby harbour marks the area that Bram reportedly sat to write his notes for Dracula. By day Whitby is a beautiful scenic town full of life and activity. But when the cool mist rolls in at nightfall and the idyllic town takes on a strangely sinister feel, it might be best to retreat to ‘Bram’s View’ The tombstones in the graveyard of St. Mary’s church provided a list of names for Stoker’s characters, not all of whom were included in the final draft of Dracula. Whitby residents Braithwaite Lowery, Andrew Woodhouse, John Paxton, and seaman Swales, however, will live forever on the pages of Dracula. Welcome to The Lansbury | Quality 4 Star Bed and Breakfast Accommodation In The Heart Of Whitby. Contact us Bram Stoker and Dracula Macabre tales from the local fishermen are said to have had a great influence on Stoker and he chose to set part of the novel in the town.

It was in Whitby in fact that Dracula first made his arrival on British shores, leaping in the form of a great black dog from the doomed ship Demeter as it crashed on the Whitby shoreline; it was here too that the character Lucy was seduced by Dracula and turned into a vampire herself. While living in Whitby, Stoker picked up several little snippets of knowledge which found their way into his novel. He heard of the Russian schooner Demetrius which, only a few years before, had foundered on the Whitby coast while bearing a cargo of coffins. Corpses in various states of decay washed up on the shore for some time to come. In the novel, Dracula himself travels to Britain on a Russian ship called Demeter which also bears a cargo of coffins. Today there is a memorial on the spot where Stoker is said to have received inspiration for this section of his novel. Modernity has arrived in Whitby as in everywhere else but its historical character has been rather well preserved, particularly in the cobblestone streets and winding passages of the Old Town.

When darkness arrives, standing in certain spots, it is easy to imagine oneself transported back to the nineteenth century and to recapture the sense of foreboding and of vulnerability which led Stoker to choose this location for the scene of Dracula’s arrival on British shores. Whitby has certainly made the most of its dark heritage. Almost every shop and establishment you can think of now boasts some Dracula association. The tourism trade has replaced the fishing industry as the economic mainstay of the town. Among the most compelling of the attractions offered are the Dracula Experience, which retells the classic story through a mixture of music, animation and live actors’ performance; and the Dracula walks which offer a tour of all the Dracula-related spots in the town together with helpful commentary from a local guide. Whitby also has a genuine haunted history as well as a fictional one and another walking tour is available which will give you some insight into the legions of local ghosts.

© THE LANSBURY 2013 Bram Stoker (1847-1912) - Whitby Online Bram Stoker (1847-1912) - Whitby Online Home / Whitby History / Bram Stoker (1847-1912) Bram Stoker (1847-1912) Bram Stoker (Abraham Stoker) was born in what is know today as Fairview, Ireland in 1847. He was the third of seven children born to Abraham Stoker and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornely. As a child Bram Stoker suffered from a sever bouts of illness that often rendered him debilitated and kept him bed ridden until the age of seven, when he was able to start school. Stoker managed to make so complete a recovery from the illness that by the time he attended Trinity College, Dublin in 1864 to study mathematics he was noted as a competent athlete. Stoker graduated in 1870 with Honours. After leaving University Stoker began his writing career, writing non-fiction books and reviewing theatre productions.

After penning a favourable review of [Sir] Henry Irving's (1838-1905) performance as Hamlet at the Theatre Royal in Dublin in 1876 he was invited to dine with the actor and the two became firm friends. In 1878 Stoker married Oscar Wilde's former beau Florence Balcombe (1858-1937) and the couple moved to London where Stoker took up the position of business manager of Irving's Lyceum Theatre; a position he held for the next 27 years and one which ensured him a position of note in London society. This move brought him into influential circles where he met the acquaintance of many acclaimed writers of the day including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde and William Yeats. The couple had their only child, Irving Noel Thornley Stoker on the 31st of December 1879. Although his work with Henry Irving enabled Stoker to travel the world and gave him rich creative insight on which to base his characters and settings he found the inspiration for a large part of his most famous work Dracula (first published 1897), after a trip to Whitby in 1890.

Whilst the Easten European sections of the Gothic novel have been argued to have been based upon tales of blood lust and the living dead regaled to him by the Hungarian adventurer and Orientalist Arminius Vambery, it was the realities of the harsh beauty of Whitby that found it's way into the author's heart and became the setting for so many pivotal scenes within the book. It is believed that Stoker spent his time in Whitby staying at the Royal Hotel situated on the town's West Cliffs. From here the author would have had a prime view down into the town, the harbour and across to the cobbled streets of the older East side, defined by the imposing ruins of Whitby Abbey and the dark silhouette of St. Mary's church which sits brooding atop the winding 199 steps which rise up the cliffs from the streets below. It is easy to see how this vista would have inspired a furtive and creative mind. One needs only to experience this view on a day when the fret clings to the town as it rolls off the sea to appreciate the macabre affect this can have on the imagination.

Whitby is the scene for a good section of the novel with the arrival of Count Dracula to England's shores aboard the Russian ship, the Demeter which runs aground on the shores of Tate Hill beach in the town's harbour during a fierce storm. All of the crew are missing, presumed dead, with the exception of the captain's body which has been lashed to the ship's helm. When the captain's log has been recovered it recounts tales of the strange and unexplainable events which led to the gradual disappearance of the entire crew and of a malevolent presence on board the ship. As the ship runs aground an animal resembling a large wolf or dog is seen leaping ashore from it's deck. The ill-fated ship's only cargo is described as silver sand and boxes of mould or earth from Transylvania. Bram Stoker died in London, on 20 April 1912. It has been argued by some biographers that he died of tertiary syphilis, a disease some say he may have shared with some of his novel's characters, but whilst this is debatable it is know that the author had suffered a number of strokes.

After his cremation his ashes were placed in an urn, to which his son's where added upon his death in 1961, and held in the Golders Green Crematorium in London, England. His wife Florence survived him by twenty-five years. Although Whitby's Gothic literary connection was established most strongly by Bram Stoker the town has also inspired many other authors- many of which have shared Stockers' supernatural fascination with the town. More often than not these writers are their works are influenced by the Dracula's connection, such as Robert Forrest's début novel based on the Demeter's to ill fated voyage from Bulgaria to Whitby. SEARCH WHITBY ONLINE Dracula Characters from LitCharts | The creators of SparkNotes An insane man kept in Seward's institution, Renfield has a desire to gain the "life-force" of flies, spiders, birds, and cats, and later has a desire for blood—he promises to be Dracula's student, and… (read full character analysis) Minor Characters Jonathan Harker A young solicitor's assistant, who marries Mina after his terrible interactions with the Count in Transylvania.

Harker believes his visions of the vampire are hallucinations, until he learns, from Van Helsing, that Dracula is really a vampire. Harker then helps in the group's efforts to find and kill Dracula. Quincey Morris A young gentleman from Texas, Morris is one of Lucy's former suitors; he dies, "gallantly," in the last effort to kill Dracula, as he is stabbed in the side by a gypsy protecting Dracula's wooden box. Mrs. Westenra Lucy's mother, Mrs. Westenra is in fragile health, and is killed by shock when Dracula, in the form of a wolf, plows through the window into Lucy's bedroom in England. Nurse Agatha A nurse who tended to Harker during his "nervous illness" in Budapest, after his visit to the Castle Dracula, Nurse Agatha communicates about Harker's condition with Mina via letter. Captain of the Demeter A sea captain who unknowingly transports Dracula to England, he eventually dies on his ship, ties himself to its wheel, and pilots the vessel, after his death, erratically into the Whitby port, where it becomes a local news sensation.

The Landlord and Landlady in Romania Romanian peasants, the Landlord and Landlady warn Harker that it might be dangerous to visit Dracula at his castle; the Landlady begs him not to travel there, although Harker does anyway. The Three Sisters Three of Dracula's sisters, the Three Sisters are vampires and spirits who haunt Dracula's castle, and who wish to feed on Harker's blood before Harker is "saved" by Dracula—since Dracula wants the first "draw" of Harker's vital fluids for himself. Arthur's Father A sick nobleman, Arthur's father dies during Lucy's illness, keeping Arthur away from Lucy at crucial moments, as Dracula is feeding on her blood. Hawkins The head solicitor of Harker's firm, Hawkins considers Harker like a son, and later names Harker and Mina in his will—they inherit the large share of Hawkins' money, making Harker and Mina quite wealthy as young people. Quincey Harker The child of Mina and Harker, born on the day Quincey Morris died, Quincey Harker was named after Morris in memory of his heroism in fighting to "truly kill" Dracula.

Cite This Page Dracula Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis from LitCharts | The creators of SparkNotes Download it! Mina is permitted by a harbor official to look over the logbooks of the ship, known as the Demeter; she is also permitted to read over a log found in a bottle lashed to the dead man's hands. Mina includes the account of this second log in her journal. Mina seems more than eager to solve the mystery of the ship, and she notes down the particulars of its strange journey. Although Mina does not yet know that this ship, Lucy's illness, and Harker's stay at the Castle are related, she nevertheless wishes to document "everything" she sees and hears. Active Themes Captain's Log of the Schooner Demeter. The Demeter set sail from Varna, in Bulgaria, on the 6th of July. No significant incidents were reported for the first two weeks of the ship's journey, as it passed through the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and into the Mediterranean Sea.

On the 16th of July, men began fearing that "something" was aboard the ship, that it was disturbing their rest and comfort, and that it appeared to be some kind of ill omen, a living evil spirit assuming the shape of a man. Although the reader knows that this strange disturbance, and the man not included in the ship's logs, is probably Dracula, that knowledge nevertheless does little to drain the suspense of this section, which owes a good deal of its power to the first-person narration of the ship journal. Stoker uses the first-person account throughout the novel to increase the characters', and readers', terror. Active Themes On the 17th of July, a crew member reports a tall, thin man is living on the ship, though he is not included in the crew logs. The captain vows to looks for the thin man, but cannot find him, nor can any other member of the crew. The ‘thin man' is also a common term, in West European legend dating back to the Middle Ages, for the devil, or for humans in league with the devil—as Dracula might be considered to be.

Active Themes Over the next week, men begin to be "lost" on the ship—the captain assumes they are jumping overboard, or being pulled over in the foul weather that besets the ship as it enters the Atlantic Ocean. Between July 24th and August 3rd, more men disappear, and the captain realizes that the ship has been enveloped in a thick fog, one that follows the ship as it travels northward. Whatever is on the ship, it is certainly frightening enough to cause hardened sailors to risk their own lives by leaping overboard. Sailors, like the villagers of Transylvania, are known for being particularly superstitious, and clearly the presence of the "thin man" has stoked their fears aboard the Demeter. Active Themes By August 3rd, it is only the captain, the mate, and the "thin man" aboard, although the captain still has seen no sign of the latter. The captain takes over steering the ship from the mate, who goes under the deck, and hears the mate, later, in the hold, with the large boxes of earth. The mate screams once and then falls silent.

The captain wonders if the mate has survived, if the thin man is real, and if he will ever get the ship to England. The captain seems prepared to follow the old sailing maxim, that the captain "go down with his ship." Although the captain is obviously afraid of the thin man, he seems, also, to be concerned about the precious cargo the boat is delivering to England—cargo that ends up being the wooden boxes used as safe havens for Dracula. Active Themes The captain realizes that the mate, too, has jumped overboard after his screaming fit down in the hold; the fog around the ship grows even thicker, as the ship approaches England's coast. In his last log entry, on the 4th of August, the captain says that he must go down with the ship, that he will lash himself to the vessel in order to steer it to port, and that, if he dies, at least he will have died like a man. The log ends. This final scene, wherein the captain ties himself to the wheel and sets the ship on course to land at the harbor, is one of the novel's more jarring and shocking, and is notable only for its implied presence of Dracula, rather than explicit description thereof.

Some of the novel's most suspenseful scenes indeed involve only the hint of Dracula and his evil. Active Themes Mina adds to the bottom of the account, in her journal, that it is unclear who this "thin man" might be, and that the ship's fate might remain another "mystery of the sea." But the town of Whitby is atwitter with the strange goings-on of the ship and the harbor. Of course, this "mystery" will be gradually unraveled, along with the mystery of Renfield and of Lucy's illness—Dracula is at the center of all these intrigues. Active Themes Mina's Journal. August 8. Mina returns to an entry dated before the arrival of the Demeter in the Whitby harbor. Mina reports that Lucy, still, is sleepwalking, and that Lucy's desire to sleepwalk seemed to increase the night of the terrible storm that brought the Demeter into the harbor. Mina wonders whether Jonathan is returning to England by sea or by land, and if he is safe. It is not clear whether Lucy's sleepwalking predated Dracula's arrival by coincidence, or whether Dracula's arrival "activated" something within her, causing her to sleepwalk.

In either case, Dracula soon takes advantage of Lucy's "hypnotized" state, outside, in the cemetery. Active Themes Mina's Journal. August 10. Lucy and Mina attend the funeral service of the captain of the Demeter, held in the cemetery high in the rocks where Lucy and Mina used to talk to Swales. Mina reports, with fright, that Swales was found dead, in the cemetery, just before the captain's funeral; Swales' neck had been broken, and he had a look of fear in his face. Mina also says that dogs near the captain's funeral appear frighten by some kind of unseen spirit, although Mina is not sure what that might be. Again, some of the most horrifying of the events of the novel tend to happen "off-stage," and are only described by characters, rather than experienced by them. Here, Swales has died, probably of fright or shock, and Lucy and Mina only hear, later, about the look of extreme horror that was frozen on his face.

Active Themes Mina reports, also, that Lucy appears to be troubled by strange dreams, although Lucy will not say what these dreams are about, nor will she admit that the dreams, or her constant sleepwalking, are serious conditions. Strange dreams appear to presage a "meeting" or involvement with Dracula—Lucy, Mina, and Renfield all experience them at some point in the novel. Dreams are subconscious and non-rational, and there is a sense in the novel that the "civilized", rational characters are vulnerable at that level. Active Themes Westenra, Lucy | Article about Westenra, Lucy by The Free Dictionary Westenra, Lucy | Article about Westenra, Lucy by The Free Dictionary Westenra, Lucy (pop culture) Lucy Westenra, one of the major characters in Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, made her initial appearance in the fifth chapter, where her correspondence with her long-time friend Mina Murray was recorded. While never described physically in great detail, she obviously was an attractive young woman in her twenties, the object of the affection of three men, Arthur Holmwood, to whom she became engaged, Dr. John Seward, and Quincey P. Morris.

In the meantime, she lived with her mother. On July 24, Lucy met Mina at the Whitby station, and they retired to the home at the Crescent where they would stay for the next several weeks. On July 26, Mina noted that Lucy had begun walking in her sleep. On August 8, a sudden storm hit Whitby and the Demeter, the ship on which Dracula came to England, wrecked on shore. On August 11, at 3:00 A.M., Mina discovered Lucy had left her bed, and she went in search of her. Lucy was on the East Cliff in their favorite seat. As Mina made her way to Lucy, she saw “something, long and black, bending over her.” When she called out, the something looked up and Mina saw Dracula’s white face and red eyes. After she helped Lucy home, she saw two tiny marks on Lucy’s neck. Over the next few days Lucy grew more and more tired and the wounds on her neck did not heal.

At this juncture, Lucy seemed to get better and Mina, having finally heard from her true love Jonathan Harker on August 19, left for Budapest to join him. Lucy returned to London where Holmwood joined her, and they set plans to marry on September 28. However, her condition worsened, and Holmwood called Seward in to examine her. Unable to figure out what was wrong, he called Abraham Van Helsing as a consultant, as Van Helsing knew of obscure diseases. Lucy seemed to improve, but then turned pale and lost all of her strength. Van Helsing prescribed a blood transfusion. As they were about to perform the procedure, Lucy’s fiancé Holmwood arrived and the blood was taken from him. Later a second transfusion was taken from Seward and then, without giving his reason, Van Helsing surrounded Lucy with garlic. Dracula returned to attack Lucy on September 17. The attack followed the removal of the garlic that Van Helsing had ordered to be put around her neck. Morris was next in line to supply the blood needed to preserve Lucy’s life, but by this time it was already too late; she was turning into a vampire.

She died and was laid to rest in the family crypt. Van Helsing immediately wanted to treat the body as a vampire. Holmwood (who by this time had inherited his father’s title as Lord Godalming) opposed any mutilation of the body. Though they had not married, he saw Lucy as his wife. In his opinion, the transfusion had served to marry them; they were married in the sight of God. While the men rested, reports surfaced of missing children who, upon being found, told of being with a “boofer lady.” Van Helsing persuaded the men to institute a watch at Lucy’s tomb. They viewed her empty coffin and finally saw her walking around. In the end they cornered her in her coffin. Holmwood assumed his responsibility and drove the stake through her chest. At this point, it was noted that the harsh, fiendish expression, which had characterized Lucy’s appearance at the time of her death, departed, and a face of sweetness and purity returned. Van Helsing cut off her head and filled her mouth with garlic. The men then turned their attention to killing Dracula. When Dracula was brought to the stage and screen, the character of Lucy was handled quite differently.

She disappeared completely from Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Garuens (1922) and Hamilton Deane‘s Dracula play. She returned in John Balderston‘s revision of Deane’s play for the American stage, though now she was Lucy Seward, Dr. Seward’s daughter. Both she and Mina returned in the 1931 films, in both the English and Spanish versions. In 1958’s The Horror of Dracula, Lucy was transformed into Holmwood’s sister and the fiancée of Jonathan Harker. She was given strong parts in the Jack Palance version of Dracula (1973) and became central to the Frank Langella‘s Dracula (1979). She was returned to a role more closely approaching the one in the novel in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). In literature, her character has made few appearances. Apparently, authors have felt that, since Lucy was killed off fairly definitively in Dracula, she has no real place in the vampire literature of the last century.

Whitby, a small town in northern England, was the setting for a major segment of Bram Stoker‘s novel, Dracula. Whitby is located in Yorkshire at the mouth of the Esk River. Stoker provided a fairly accurate description of the town as background to the story. Dominating the town, on the east side of the river, was St. Mary’s (Anglican) Church and the ruins of Whitby Abbey. The abbey dates to the seventh century. It was destroyed in the ninth century, rebuilt, and later abandoned. As chapter 5 began Lucy Westenra met her friend Mina Murray at the train station and together they went to what has been identified as Number Four Crescent Terrace, where Mina joined the Westenra family in the rooms they had taken for a summer vacation. Stoker selected Whitby as a site for the events in his novel because he knew the town from his own visits in the years 1885 to 1890. During their first days in town, Lucy and Mina visited the local tourist spots—Mulgrave Woods, Robin Hood’s Bay, Rig Mill, Runswick, and Staithes.

Meanwhile Dracula was aboard the Demeter, which was speeding north from Gibralter toward the British coast. Two weeks later, the Demeter was spotted off Whitby shortly before a storm hit. The ship was beached on the sand near Tate Hill Pier, one of two piers at Whitby, and Dracula (in the form of a dog) was seen leaving the ship. On board the wreck, the boxes of earth that Dracula traveled with were discovered. Dracula stayed in Whitby for a week and a half and attacked Lucy twice. The first attack came several days after the wreck. Mina discovered that Lucy (who had a record of sleepwalking) had disappeared. Standing on the West Cliff, Mina looked across the river to where she could see St. Mary’s Church and the ruins of Whitby Abbey. She saw a figure in white (Lucy) seated at what was called the “suicide‘s seat,” under which was a stone noting the death of George Canon who had committed suicide on that spot. Mina then ran to the bridge that connected the two parts of town on either side of the river.

From where Mina stood to the spot Lucy was located is almost a mile and required her walking down the cliff face on one side of the river and walking up the cliff face on the other side. As she reached the top of the steps near Whitby Abbey, she saw someone with Lucy, but he disappeared in a moment of darkness as a cloud briefly blocked the moonlight. Several days later, Mina saw Lucy lean out of the window of her room. Beside her on the windowsill was “something that looked like a good-sized bird,” which turned out to be Dracula in the form of a bat. By the time Mina reached Lucy’s room, Dracula had completed drinking Lucy’s blood, and Mina helped her to bed. Shortly after this second attack, Dracula, his boxes of earth, and the action of the novel moved to London. Today modern tourists can visit all of the sights mentioned by Stoker in the novel, including the apartment on the Crescent where Lucy and Mina were supposed to have stayed. Bernard Davies of the Dracula Society has prepared a walking-tour guide. Local vampire enthusiasts have organized to meet the needs of Dracula-oriented visitors.

The main event is the Whitby Gothic Weekend a bi-annual gathering for Goths, first held in 1994, continued until 1997, and a bi-annual event since. The Goth Festival occurs in April and at the end of October over Halloween weekend. Those unable to make the pilgrimage, may learn about Whitby by visiting the Dracula-in-Whitby website ( where it is also possible to sign up for the free Dracula-in-Whitby Newsletter. Sources: Chapman, Paul M. Birth of a Legend: Count Dracula, Bram Stoker, and Whitby. York, UK: G H Smith, 2007. 268 pp. Davies, Bernard. Whitby Dracula Trail. Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Department of Tourism and Amenities, Scarborough Borough Council, n.d., 11 pp. Stoker, Bram. The Annotated Dracula. Leonard Wolf, ed. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975. 362 pp. ———. The Essential Dracula. Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu, eds. New York: Mayflower, 1979.

320 pp. Dracula Chapter 6-10 Summary and Analysis | GradeSaver Buy Study Guide Summary Chapter 6 Taken from the July 24th and August 1st entries of Mina Murray's journal; the June 5th, June 18th, July 1st, July 8th, July 19th, July 20th; the July 26th, July 27th, and August 3rd, August 6th entries of Mina Murray's journal. As Mina said she would, she keeps a diary during her visit to Lucy. The two women are in the quaint seaside town of Whitby, on the northeast coast of England. She describes the beauty of the area and it's quaint provincial history. There is a ruined abbey nearby that is supposedly haunted by a "white lady." The town church has a large graveyard, but the grounds are pleasant and the view is beautiful. Many townspeople go on strolls there during the day. Lucy and Mina become friends with a gruff, no-nonsense local named Mr. Swales. He is a grandfatherly figure, speaking in dialect and full of provincial wisdom.

He knows a good deal of the local history, and Mina and Lucy spend long hours talking to him about the area. However, Mina sorely misses Jonathan. He is not yet home, nor has he written in a long time. Dr. Seward reports on the strange behavior of Renfield . Renfield is fascinated by animals that devour each other. He catches flies and feeds them to spiders, and he also eats the insects himself. He catches some sparrows and begins feeding the spiders to them, and he eventually asks Dr. Seward if he can have a kitten. Dr. Seward refuses. The next day, the sparrows are gone. Dr. Seward asks where they went, and Renfield responds cryptically that they all "flew away," but there are feathers around the room and blood on Renfield's pillow. Later, he vomits up feathers. Seward invents a new classification for Renfield, calling him a "zoophagous" (life-eating) maniac. Renfield seeks to "absorb as many lives as he can." Dr. Seward's journal reveals a wish to experiment further on Renfield, although the idea seems to trouble him ethically.

And he expresses a wistful envy for Renfield, because the madman has a purpose. Dr. Seward is still depressed about his rejection by Lucy, and is trying to throw himself into work. In Whitby, Mina is growing more worried about Jonathan and Lucy. Jonathan has not written, and Lucy has returned to her old childhood habit of sleepwalking. Lucy encounters Mr. Swales while she is out on a walk, and the old man tells her that he senses his own death is nigh. At that moment, they see a great ship out at sea, moving as if no one were at the helm. Analysis Chapter 6 Whitby, although full of history and ghost stories, provides a strong contrast to Transylvania, continuing to express the theme of contrast between England and the East. In Whitby, the ghosts are eerie but do little more than provide local color. The white lady of the abbey is seen occasionally through a windowshe does not walk the earth and prey on the living. Whitby has a quaint graveyard through which people stroll, as well as benign ghosts that frighten people only from a distance.

The town is a far cry from Transylvania, where peasants live in constant fear of the undead, and, in Jonathan Harker 's words, "where the devil and his children still walk with earthly feet." Renfield's behavior parallels Dracula 's need to absorb life. Renfield longs to be a being like Dracula, and later the madman will become Dracula's henchman. Dr. Seward's journal entry touches on the important theme of madness. Madness is a kind of creeping threat throughout the novelthe heroes will plan their counterattack against Dracula within the walls of Dr. Seward's asylum, a place where madness, though contained, surrounds them (Hindle xxv-xxvii). Throughout the book, madness and the supernatural are always threatening to invade the order of sane, "natural" lives. Both forces threaten the stability of the characters' normal English lives, and Seward's strange envious comment about Renfield hints at the slippery nature of the divide between madness and sanity. Summary Chapter 7 This chapter is taken from clippings in the local paper (pasted into Mina Murray's journal).

The clippings include the log of the Demeter, the ship seen at the end of Chapter 6. Also taken from the August 8th entry of Mina's journal. The Russian ship Demeter is washed ashore by a terrible and sudden storm, and it is discovered that the entire crew was missing. The only body found is that of the captain, tied to the wheel and grasping a crucifix. A huge dog is seen running from the ship; the animal escapes into the woods. The ship's cargo, a great number of large wooden boxes, are handed over to a local solicitor. The log reveals an ill-fated journey: the ship started from the Russian port of the Varna, and ten days into the voyage a crew member disappeared without a trace. Another sailor claimed to have seen a tall man who was clearly not a member of the crew. The men searched the ship but could find no one, and a few days later another sailor disappeared. Sailors continued to vanish, one by one, and the first mate began to go mad. When they were within reach of England, an impenetrable fog enveloped the ship, causing the vessel to lose its way.

Only four men were left by then, but the two sailors soon vanished and the first mate was driven completely mad. After an encounter with Dracula, he chose to die in the sea. The captain initially believed that the first mate was the murderer, but shortly afterward he saw the vampire and resolved to go down with the ship. He tied himself to the wheel and held on to a crucifix. He died long before the ship reached land. The people of Whitby who find the ship treat his body with reverence; they plan to give him a large funeral. The dog that ran from the ship is nowhere to be found, although a local dog has been found brutally killed by another animal. In her journal Mina wonders about Jonathan's fate and reports the events of the day. On the day of the sea captain's funeral, Lucy is restless. She has been sleepwalking constantly, and is in a terrible state. Mr. Swales has been found dead, his neck broken, his face frozen in an expression of terror. At the funeral, the dog of one of the locals becomes furious and then terrified.

Mina notes the strange behavior, and the effect it has on the sensitive Lucywho looks at the dog in "an agonized way." Analysis Chapter 7 The terrifying events of the voyage form a story within a story, a frightening foretaste of what is to come and one of the novel's great successes. Dracula destroys the entire crew, allowing them to live only long enough to facilitate his voyage to England. The ship's name, Demeter, is an allusion to the Greek earth goddess whose sorrow for her missing daughter causes winter. The name fits the vessel, which transports the earth that Dracula needs for his sleep. The story of the goddess has certain parallels to what is to come: Demeter's daughter Persephone, a beautiful and virtuous young woman, was taken and forced to wed Hades, lord of the Underworld. Demeter's mourning for her daughter, who must spend a certain part of the year in the realm of the dead, is the cause of winter. Like Persephone, Lucy and Mina are two virtuous and beautiful young women. Like Persephone, they will be forced to enter a kind of marriage with a lord of the Underworld.

And like Persephone, they will dwell partly in the world of the living and partly in the world of the dead. Note also that during the sea voyage, Dracula (or Stoker) operates in a way that is very conscious of hierarchy: he kills the sailors first, and leaves the first mate and captain for last. Dracula's method on the voyage is consistent with the contempt of peasants he expressed to Jonathan Harkerhe kills off the subordinates first, saving the higher-ups for last. On the other hand, rather than act as commentary on Dracula's predilections, the valorization of the captain and the one-dimensional victim status of the common sailors may say something about Stoker's conceptions of class and leadership. We see more of the extent of Dracula's powers: he conjures the great fog and the storm that sends the ship ashore. He also is immune to the knife of the first mate, who tries to attack him. He apparently has the power to transform himself into animal form: note that the captain's log makes no mention of a dog on board the ship, and yet a dog is seen fleeing from the vessel. Lucy's behavior indicates that she is already a victim.

In her strange sleepwalking she seems to have a place where she wants to go, but she gives up peacefully if someone stops her. It is as if she wants to reach a place without being discovered. When she witnesses the incident with the frightened dog at the funeral, she seems to understand why the dog is behaving so strangely. One interpretation is that Lucy has already seen Dracula and that the dog, in both its fear and its very being, hints at things that Lucy cannot really (and would rather not) remember: Dracula is part of the time in dog or wolf shape, and these chapters at least suggest the idea of bestiality. At the very least, the lust the vampires feel and incite is animal-like. In the Francis Ford Coppola film version of Dracula, these suggestions of bestiality are made explicit in a scene where a werewolf-like Dracula copulates with a willing Lucy. Summary Chapter 8 Taken from the August 8th, August 11th, August 12th, August 13th, August 14th, August 15th, and August 17th entries of Mina Murray's journal. Also includes correspondence between Samuel F.

Billington and Son, Whitby solicitors, and Messrs. Carter, Patterson, and Company, of London, in business letters dated August 17th and August 21st. Taken again from the August 18th and August 19th entries of Mina Murray's journal. Also contains the letter from Sister Agatha to Mina Murray, dated August 12th. Closes with the August 19th entry of Dr. Seward's diary. In the middle of the night, Mina wakes up with a sense of dread and finds Lucy's bed empty. Frantically Mina searches for him, first through the house and then outside. She goes to the Church, thinking that Lucy might be at their favorite seat in the graveyard. From a distance, Mina sees her there: Lucy is half-reclining, while a shadowy figure with red eyes bends over her. When Mina reaches her, Lucy is alone, asleep, and breathing with difficulty. Later, Mina discovers puncture wounds on Lucy's throat, but she believes the wounds were caused by her own clumsiness while fastening Lucy's shawl.

The next few nights, Mina locks their door so that the sleepwalking Lucy cannot get out. One day, while the two women are out on a walk, Lucy murmurs, "His red eyes again! They are just the same." Looking out at the graveyard spot where Mina found Lucy, Mina thinks she sees a shadow with red glowing eyes, but after a moment it seems to be a trick of the light. That night, Mina comes home and from outside sees Lucy asleep at their window, sitting on the sill with the window wide open and something like a large bird sitting next to her. By the time Mina gets upstairs to their room, Lucy is sleepwalking back to bed, clutching at her own throat. Mina continues to worry: as the days pass, Lucy grows paler and weaker. Mina also learns that Lucy's mother is dying Mrs. Westenra reveals to Mina that her heart is weakening, but asks that Lucy not be told. Mina continues to find Lucy sitting on the sill at night, and the puncture wounds on Lucy's throat grow larger. Letters between solicitors in London and Whitby reveal that the fifty boxes of earth are to be delivered to Carfax.

They are to be placed in the old ruined chapel of the mansion. In Mina's journal, she reports that Lucy grows more haggard, although her spirits are high. Lucy even speaks of the night that Mina found her in the graveyard, telling Mina that she had an out-of-body experience and a strange, blissful feeling. And finally, Mina hears news of Jonathan. Sister Agatha of the Hospital of St. Joseph and St. Mary in Budapest sends a letter to Mina, reporting that Jonathan has been found and has been terribly sick with brain fever. He made it to Budapest by train, but has been ill and has ranted constantly of demons and wolves. Mina goes to join Jonathan and to help him return to England. Dr. Seward reports that Renfield's behavior has been even more bizarre. He speaks constantly of a coming "Master," in cryptic phrases that parallel many of the statements about Christ made in the New Testament. On a night when Dr. Seward, still depressed by Lucy's rejection of him, is contemplating taking chloral hydrate to help him sleep, Renfield escapes.

He is found at nearby Carfax, pressed against the door of the ruined chapel, pledging allegiance to his Master. They return him to his cell after a vicious fight. Amazed by Renfield's ferocity and strength, Dr. Seward orders that he be chained and put in a straitjacket. Analysis Chapter 8 Lucy's seduction by Dracula parallels sexual seduction. The virgin is ruined by the aristocratic vampire, in keeping with a common Gothic theme of the aristocracy preying on women of non-aristocratic blood. His penetration of her parallels the penetration of sex, and Lucy is unable or unwilling to save herself from him. Lucy is far more vulnerable than Mina to Dracula's seduction: because of her flirtatious nature, she is an easier target for the vampire. Although she is still basically innocent and pure, Dracula will eventually corrupt her.

She describes her sensations in the graveyard as blissful, and during her out of body experience the imagery she employs continues the theme of penetration: she says that during her out-of-body experience she felt that the "West Lighthouse was right under me." Then she feels " a sort of agonizing feeling, as if I were in an earthquake." Intentional or not, the lighthouse is a powerful phallic symbol, and the earthquake could arguably symbolize female orgasm. Here again, we see the theme of desire coupled with fear. The vampires are a grave threat to female purity, and so they are a threat to Victorian culture and order. The graveyard as the site of the seduction foreshadows Lucy's future status as one of the undead. Briefly we see a dark side to Dr. Seward, who has been using the sedative chloral hydrate to aid his sleep. He resolves not to let the use of the drug grow into a habit. His conflict over the drug provides a glimpse of his character's darker side, and contributes to the ambiguous depiction of his asylum. The asylum is a place where darkness is contained and subjected to the analysis of science, but also where darkness surrounds and threatens the world of the sane.

His anxiety over chloral hydrate hints at the threat of drug addiction and indicates the heavy toll his work takes on him. The asylum's proximity to Dracula's new estate also symbolizes the permeability of the barriers between the supernatural, the threat of madness, and the rational world of Victorian science and everyday life. Renfield's ravings and his new position as Dracula's henchmen continue to develop the perverse parallels between Dracula and Christ. Much of Renfield's language borrows and reshapes scripture: "The bride-maidens rejoice the eyes that wait the coming of the bride; but when the bride draweth nigh, then the maidens shine not to the eyes that are filled." Renfield becomes an evil version of John the Baptist, one who prepares the way for a greater Lord. And at Carfax, as at Dracula's ancestral castle in Transylvania, the Count sleeps in a ruined chapel. He turns a Christian place of worship into a lair of evil, instating himself as the chapel's new Lord.

Summary Chapter 9 Taken from letters between Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra , dated August 24th and August 30th; the August 20th and August 23rd entries of Dr. Seward's diary; the August 24th and August 25th entries of Lucy Westenra's journal; letters and telegrams between Arthur Holmwood and Dr. Seward, dated August 31st, September 1st, and September 2nd; a letter from Abraham Van Helsing to Dr. Seward, dated September 2nd; a letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood, dated September 3rd; the September 4th entry of Dr. Seward's diary; telegrams from Dr. Seward to Abraham Van Helsing, dated September 4th, 5th, and 6th. Mina writes to Lucy, telling her that Jonathan can remember almost nothing of what happened to him Transylvania. He believes his journal contains the secret of the origins of his brain fever, but he is afraid to read it. He gives Mina the journal, giving her permission to read it but asking that she never tell him what is written there.

Jonathan and Mina decide to marry immediately. Mina wraps Jonathan's journal, ties it, and seals the knot with wax, resolving to never read the book unless for Jonathan's sake or because of "some stern duty." Lucy sends a letter congratulating Mina and telling her that Arthur has joined her at Whitby. In Dr. Seward's diary, we learn more about Renfield. Locked up, he continually murmurs to himself, "I can wait." He escapes again, and is found once more at the door of the chapel of Carfax. As the attendants try to subdue the enraged madman, Renfield grows suddenly calm at the sight of a giant bat flying across the sky. Lucy begins to keep her own diary. She is back from Whitby, but her health is still failing. At night, her sleep is disturbed by the sound of something scratching at her window. Her throat hurts terribly. Arthur writes to Dr. Seward, asking that he come and see Lucy. Her health is deteriorating, and Arthur is worried. Although concerned about his fiancée, he is suddenly called away to the side of his father, who is very ill. Dr.

Seward goes to Lucy and reports to Arthur that he can find no cause of her illness. Dr. Seward writes a letter to his old mentor Abraham Van Helsing, a brilliant doctor with a vast knowledge of obscure diseases. Van Helsing makes a brief visit, unable to pinpoint the cause of Lucy's illness but visibly disturbed by Lucy's symptoms. He tells Dr. Seward to alert him to any changes in Lucy's condition. Renfield is back to catching flies and eating them, using sugar as bait. But then he has a sudden change of heart, saying that he is sick of his old peculiar behaviors. On September 4th and 5th, Dr. Seward sends telegrams saying that Lucy's condition is improving. On September 6th, he sends an urgent telegram saying that there has been a terrible change. He tells Van Helsing to come right away. Analysis Chapter 9 For much of the novel, Stoker indulges the reader with dramatic irony, meaning that the reader knows the significance of events long before the characters do. When Mina seals Jonathan's journal, she does not realize that she is causing a costly delay in understanding the force that is attacking Lucy.

Because of the structure of the epistolary novel, the reader is able to assemble all of the narrative fragments before the characters do, making the reader, along with Dracula, the only person who understands everything that is happening. The wounds on Lucy's neck, Jonathan's diary, the bat that swoops across the skythe novel is replete with objects and events of which the characters lack full understanding. Jonathan's brain fever develops the theme of the threat of madness. Jonathan literally goes mad, raving incoherently and then unable to remember anything of his experience. The theme of the threat of madness plays itself out in different ways throughout the novel: anxieties about the possibility of madness at times make characters doubt their own senses or the senses of those they trust. Jonathan's madness might come in part from the shock of having everything he thought he knew thrown into question. In his case, real madness may have been a protection against what he had witnessedthe idea of madness operates in the reverse direction later, when other characters use the possibility of madness to avoid the conclusion that the supernatural is at work. The theme of madness fits well in a novel about vampires.

Perhaps the greatest horror of the vampire is that it does not merely kill: its victims eventually lose themselves and become members of the undead. As in madness, there is a loss of self. In dealing with vampires and the insane, the greatest fear is not that you might be killed by a monster, but that you might become one. Summary Chapter 10 Including a letter from Dr. Seward to Arthur Holmwood, dated September 6th; the September 7th, September 8th, and September 9th entries of Dr. Seward's diary; the September 9th entry of Lucy Westenra's diary; and the September 10th and September 11th entries of Dr. Seward's diary. Dr. Van Helsing arrives and examines Lucy, who has grown even more haggard. He performs a blood transfusion from Arthur to Lucy, and then sends Arthur away. Van Helsing instructs Seward to stay up with Lucy, and then the older man returns to Amsterdam to retrieve some necessary books and supplies. The next day, Lucy is much refreshed.

She writes in her diary that she feels as though Arthur's presence is with her at night, and that she feels safe in the presence of these men. Seward is exhausted from staying up with her the past two nights, and Lucy insists that she is well enough to sleep without his watch. Seward sleeps on a couch in a room adjacent to Lucy's. The next morning, the returned Van Helsing wakes Seward. The two men are horrified to discover that Lucy is worse than ever: she has lost an incredible amount of blood, and her gums have shrunken back from her teeth. Van Helsing performs another transfusion, this time using Seward as the donor. The next day, a package containing garlic flowers arrives for Van Helsing. He makes a wreath for Lucy to wear and hangs flowers all around the room, smearing them around all the exits. Lucy is allowed to sleep alone that night, but she instructed not to remove the wreath or open the door or window. Analysis Chapter 10 Some critics have claimed that in Dracula, modern science is represented as useless against the vampire's primal evil, and that only the old knowledge of superstitions and folklore provide any kind of defense.

But a close look at Van Helsing reveals this position to be an overstatement: although the Victorian mindsets of the characters makes it difficult for them to recognize that they are up against a vampire, science and rationality, when employed properly, become powerful weapons for fighting Dracula. Van Helsing is able to correctly diagnose Lucy's condition. In him, seemingly contradictory modes of knowledgeEastern and Western, ancient and modernare combined. He is a rational scientist, but he is also a student of the occult. His blood transfusions, the products of modern medicine, help to buy time for Lucy, and the methods of scienceobservation, experiment, analysisare staples of Van Helsing's strategy. Combined with these tools, Van Helsing also uses the old superstitions and Christian faith. Seward, still unaware that a vampire has caused Lucy's illness, remarks that Van Helsing's use of the garlic is unlike anything from a medical book; Van Helsing is more than just a modern Western medical practitioner. Van Helsing's national origin is a symbol of this combination of different modes of thought: he is from Amsterdam, which is geographically located between England and Transylvania.

The theme of East versus West rises again, with the science of the West and the superstition and folklore of the East playing themselves out as two different forms of knowledge. Van Helsing is a bridge between these two very different worlds. Van Helsing's combination of modern science and superstition suggests a critique of an unimaginative scientific outlook that leaves no room for the spiritual. While science and rationality are useful and powerful tools, there is a place, suggests the novel, for older and non-rational forms of thinking. Christian symbols and faith will be mobilized as the most important weapons against the vampire. In these ways, the novel suggests that science and reason must be tempered by deep humility before the unknown and by respect for forces beyond man.

Question: Which fictional character arrived in Whitby on board the Demeter?
Answer: Dracula