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see-arcane · 2 years

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Love, Vampirism, and Metaphor in Dracula: Van Helsing and the Suitors VS The Harkers

I’m writing this on the day of the September 29th entry, fresh from the second death of Lucy Westenra, Bloofer Lady and Beloved of Many. I see myself posting this on October 3rd, the day of Dracula in the bedroom and the holiest love quote. You know the one.

‘To one thing I have made up my mind: if we find out that Mina must be a vampire in the end, then she shall not go into that unknown and terrible land alone. I suppose it is thus that in old times one vampire meant many; just as their hideous bodies could only rest in sacred earth, so the holiest love was the recruiting sergeant for their ghastly ranks.’

Harrowing, horrifying in its implications for our good friend Jonathan Harker, and, when held up against the wall-to-wall likeminded alignment of the Suitors Three, of Van Helsing, and, it seems, of Mina ‘Down to Self-Sacrifice’ Harker, a quiet but unmissable sore thumb sticking out of the rest of the novel’s dogma. Let’s turn the pages back a bit.

Say, to Jack Seward’s thoughts on the Bloofer Lady resting in her box, September 27.

‘It made me shudder to think of so mutilating the body of the woman whom I had loved. And yet the feeling was not so strong as I had expected. I was, in fact, beginning to shudder at the presence of this being, this Un-Dead as Van Helsing called it, and to loathe it. Is it possible that love is all subjective, or all objective?’

Here, Lucy is completely prone in her vampiric torpor. No action, no will. Just the same deathly stillness of the Count in his coffin, radiating an ominous miasma—the difference for her being that she rests with her eyes shut, and has no power to jumpscare her visitors with a turned head or the paralytic magic of Dracula’s ‘basilisk gaze.’ She is nothing more than a pretty corpse and yet Jack feels only mounting disgust in her presence. And, following the adventure of catching the Bloofer Lady in the act with his fellows, the cruelly tossed child, the supple supplication—

“Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!”

—and the grand reveal of her monstrous face when thwarted by Cross and Wafer, we come to the scene of Van Helsing and the Suitors Three in the tomb, hammer and stake at the ready.

‘She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth—which it made one shudder to see—the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity.’

[…]

“Instead of working wickedness by night and growing more debased in the assimilation of it by day, she shall take her place with the other Angels. So that, my friend, it will be a blessed hand for her that shall strike the blow that sets her free. To this I am willing; but is there none amongst us who has a better right? Will it be no joy to think of hereafter in the silence of the night when sleep is not: ‘It was my hand that sent her to the stars; it was the hand of him that loved her best;’”

[…]

“My true friend, from the bottom of my broken heart I thank you. Tell me what I am to do, and I shall not falter!”

[…]

‘Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set on action his hands never trembled nor even quivered.’

[…]

‘There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity. True that there were there, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and pain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth to what we knew. One and all we felt the holy calm that lay like sunshine over the wasted face and form was only an earthly token and symbol of the calm that was to reign forever.’

‘Van Helsing came and laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder, and said to him:—'

"And now, Arthur my friend, dear lad, am I not forgiven?"

‘The reaction of the terrible strain came as he took the old man's hand in his, and raising it to his lips, pressed it, and said:—'

"Forgiven! God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again, and me peace.’

‘He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and laying his head on his breast, cried for a while silently, whilst we stood unmoving. When he raised his head Van Helsing said to him:—'

"And now, my child, you may kiss her. Kiss her dead lips if you will, as she would have you to, if for her to choose. For she is not a grinning devil now—not any more a foul Thing for all eternity. No longer she is the devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him!"

…

……

………

Now, this is old ground. Old, old, old, essay-strangled ground. Throw a dart and you’ll hit a dozen far more articulate pieces about the undercurrents of it all.

The parallels with the Brides of Dracula. The Lilith-rooted fear of the Sexual, Powerful, Child-Endangering/Killing/Unmaternal Woman. Purity > Carnal Voluptuousness. We must destroy the sensual evil to rescue and preserve this fair maiden’s purity~. Made all the easier because 1) Lucy was implied to have given her consent and urging to Van Helsing on her deathbed to carry out just this procedure, purest pure sweet virginal angel maiden that she was, and 2) the boys had Abraham ‘Definitely not a Saintly Stand-In Patriarch Figure’ Van Helsing to follow as he gives his wise and brilliant and Godly orders (my child).

I get it. You get it.

But most importantly, and barely ever brought up, Jonathan Harker gets it. He has gotten it well before he ever learned about Lucy’s own hell with Dracula.

He had a front row solo-show of three vampires murdering a child. Then overhearing a second child’s death. Not a little sip! Not dainty nursing from wee pinprick bites! The Weird Sisters drank two kids like a three-way Capri Sun. They tried on multiple occasions to hit him with that sexy-soothing hypnosis to take their turns with him and drag him into the undead girl gang against his will. The first time he got away lucky with Dracula’s intervention—he had no clue what was happening, no one there to counter the effect or prove he wasn’t dreaming. They just stuck their hooks in his head and he laid there, frozen. In the ensuing attempts he clocked them and could only run to dodge their effect.

This is the same man who, when all other options were lost, gambled his life on the cliffside and the wolves versus staying locked in Dracula’s stone box to let the Brides drink and turn him. He has more vampiric terror experience than the rest of the cast combined, even with Van Helsing’s secondhand know-how. He gets it.

…But now, here’s Mina.

Mina, Mina, Mina.

Bitten. Turning. If they do not end the Count in time, she will be a vampire.

Already she’s mulling suicide.

(Hello, flashback.)

Already the stalwart men around her are quietly steeling themselves should the worst happen and they must deliver the same mercy they did for Lucy.

(Hello, flashback.)

Already Jonathan has decided he will join her in undeath rather than have her be alone in the condition.

(Hello—wait, what?)

What? Everyone put down your crucifixes and holy cracker crumbs! Mr. Harker, say again?

Let’s look at all this implies on paper. Really look.

1. Jonathan has witnessed and endured the attentions of vampires with far fewer scruples and friendly attachment than Lucy the Bloofer Lady ever had.

2. Jonathan has learned of how vastly Lucy changed post-vampirism. Her danger, her ‘wanton and impure’ personality, the crazy demon bat face, all of it.

3. Jonathan knows she reached for Arthur. She still knew Arthur. She wanted Arthur with her.

4. Jonathan knows now that if he had powered through the spell of the Count’s inflicted fear and finished him off in his box back in Transylvania—if Jonathan had simply stayed with Mina, stayed awake and kept watch—she would not be in the peril she is. Lucy would be alive. So many would still be alive. Is he damned already for allowing this all to pass? What more is there to lose?

5. Jonathan is not Abraham. Neither Van Helsing, nor the biblical namesake who would slay the person he loves most under God’s command. It no doubt comes as a shock to him; him who has been protected by the icon of the Cross, has breathed endless prayers for his and Mina’s sake. Yet there it is. He loves Mina more than God. More than purity. More than humanity or sanity. He cannot bring himself to destroy her, regardless of what form she takes. And perhaps that is partly why…

6. Jonathan will give himself to vampirism, to Mina, to the Devil—Transylvanian or otherwise—rather than raise a hand or stake to her. If the curse cannot be lifted, they will be cursed together. Let Van Helsing and the Suitors kill two vampires if need be. But whatever she suffers, he will too.

7. Jonathan sees no point in being alive, human or not, if Mina ceases to exist.

Now, here comes the Big Issue.

The trouble of comparing the In-Canon, On-Paper Morality of this stance VS the Metatextual Metaphoric Morality.

On paper, his private oath is at once tragic, horrific, and skirting towards borderline villainous. Jonathan is willing to deny Mina’s desire to be destroyed rather than become a vampire and, by implication, endangering the lives of Van Helsing and the Suitors Three, and any potential future victims, by dint of planning to defend Mina against their wishes.

Now, this could just mean safeguarding her corpse, hiding her away from the others until she wakes as the undead. Hiding in the dark, sleeves rolled up, shirt collar open. Waiting.

It could mean a grudging confession and pleading session as he implores the others to let her wake long enough to turn him, to let them both be slain by their stakes and blades. If not, well, he was willing to die long before any of them. He won’t live long after her either way, so they may as well…

It could mean taking grislier methods if pushed into a corner. Because if Mina’s existence takes precedent over everything in Jonathan’s perspective, including the Will of God Himself, his new buddies will have a violent surprise coming if they try to pull their undead euthanasia routine on his watch.

It could mean, somehow, with all the worst stars aligned, Mina becomes a vampire under their noses, and approaches Jonathan at just the right time to see them both vanish into the night without notice. Maybe they go to join the Count. Maybe they stay behind, forced to follow murderous orders. Maybe they luck into the willpower shown by those mischievous Brides, and skulk away despite Dracula’s explicit commands, two monsters running away; eloping.

But what it absolutely means in all these cases, is that Jonathan is willing to put his friends and who knows how many strangers at risk, while purposefully going against Mina’s plea for holy destruction rather than vampiric existence. Jonathan is putting his own heart over the wishes of everyone else.

He will give all of himself under any other circumstances, will trust in God’s protection as far as he can, but he understands in this moment, without doubt, he will not, cannot, give away Mina. Not to a divine cause. Not to her own martyr’s mindset. Not for anything.

It is selfish, sweet, sad and nearly sinister in how covertly all this must play out in his mind and buried under the text.

So it must also look through the bluntest take on the novel and Stoker’s messages of Madonnas and Whores and the Preservation of Purity and the Heroic Killing of Evil that keep being cudgeled in throughout the narrative.

…But, even without a 21st century lens, you only need about two seconds’ worth of examination to see the metric ton of metaphoric power underscoring the difference between how Jonathan Harker loves and how Arthur, Jack, Quincey, and Van Helsing love. In plainest terms:

Jonathan Harker’s love is unconditional and all-encompassing.

I will love you no matter what you become. Whatever we must weather, I will weather it with you. I will take on any pain you have and make it my own. I will never abandon you, never hurt you, never judge you. I will love you forever, and if you must be a monster, I will be too.

Van Helsing and the Suitors’ love is conditional and hinges on the fair maidens in their lives being, ‘pearls among women.’

You are not what you were, despite all my efforts to stop this change. I will destroy the imperfect Thing that has usurped you. This is all I can do. All I will do. I will love the memory of what you were before I had to kill you.

Now, obviously, there is some nuance to appreciate here. There’s a whole separate essay to be had in examining the toxic nature of relationships built on a partner loving the other half to the point of worship, refusing to find fault or leave the romance when it’s clearly gone sour or dangerous. If Jonathan had fallen in with a legitimately cruel partner, with or without a monster angle in play, that talk might hold water. But not here.

Not when the whole crux of the vampirism threat for Lucy, Mina, and the Brides—once you scrape Stoker’s varnish off—is the Threat of the New Woman.

The Threat of Power Equal or Greater Than Men’s, Unrestrained Sexuality, and Unmaternal Behavior from the Pretty and Virtuous Young Lady. Or, considering the undertones of focusing on madness as another horrible affliction, vampirism as a mental illness and/or the assumption of mental illness.

(What’s up, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” parallels, didn’t think you’d make it in here!)

Or, if we want to knock down all the era-specific boundaries, vampirism is the conversion into, or revealing of, Otherness. The vampire is Wrong. The vampire is Not Like Us. The vampire is Unholy, Imperfect, Impure. Insert your marginalized group of choice here.

Against the Vampire-Other, we see Van Helsing and the Suitors positioned as the moral defenders, destroying the tainted and converted Bloofer Lady, preferring to see this New Lucy dead rather than suffer her vile voluptuous self to exist. It is too much! She would not want this any more than we would! Away, demon!

Then we take this hard swivel to Jonathan Harker, fully aware of their stance, of the full spectrum of vampiric menace, of Mina’s own hardwired, ‘Martyrdom! I am sullied and unclean because I was violated against my will! Self-sacrifice! I must give of myself until there’s literally nothing left!’ mentality, and of how it’s been painted that ending her may be the only way..!

And Jonathan discreetly but emphatically flips the bird to the whole concept.

Mina’s changing? Mina might be different? Mina is possibly doomed to be a monster, to be the Other, seemingly ruined by the very explicitly rape-coded assault on her by a predator? Hm. Hmm.

Fuck that, decides Jonathan.

He will not abandon her, period. No equivocations. No moral quandaries. No hand-wringing hemming or hawing. Just:

“Mina might become a vampire? Shit, I’ll have to be a vampire too. Let the rest of the world deal with it.”

Oh, sure, he’ll give it his all to prevent her turning with the rest of the vampire hunter gang. Even if vampirism didn’t come into it, he has a hell of a grudge to settle with Dracula for all the shit he’s pulled. But if that isn’t enough? If the fatal blow comes too late and Mina turns? That final choice is already premade in his mind. Whatever Mina is, he will be. Whatever fate waits for her, he will take it himself. Simple as math.

And, because you read the title up there, we must also address Mrs. Harker herself. Dear, devoted, devastatingly down for self-sacrifice Madam Mina, who would have herself destroyed by her husband and the others just as Arthur slew Lucy.

It is what’s right!

It is what must be done!

She dare not risk harming another as a foul new pet of the Count’s..!

Unless, we have to wonder.

Unless the shoe was on the other foot.

What if it was not her, but Jonathan in her place?

Jonathan, freed from considering his wife’s impending conversion, Jonathan, who was already prepared once to get himself killed for the sake of avoiding the Brides’ kisses, Jonathan, who is so much a mirror of Mina’s caring and self-giving nature that I can picture him parroting her own demands for a proper destruction rather than rising as a vampire to imperil the others.

What then, Mina?

Mina, who witnessed Jonathan at his lowest—struck down by fever and trauma and a shock so powerful and mixed with physical illness that it left him too weak to stand even for their wedding vows.

Mina, who fell in love with a gentle and sweet Jonathan, a boy so many, many leagues away from the lauded Man’s Man archetype. The inverse opposite to the New Woman, so endearing and warm and kind and eager to be an equal with her rather than a bully or married warden.

Mina, who chose a sweetheart over a common chest-pounder groom, who never thought less of him when shock and sickness left him weak, who chose again and again in a hundred little ways to stay by him, to love him, to protect him, to never abandon him, no matter his condition.

Mina, who would give anything for the man she loves.

Mina, who, I cannot help but suspect, would give her humanity and eternity itself.

(In another world, in another story, the quote changes: ‘To one thing I have made up my mind: if we find out that Jonathan must be a vampire in the end, then he shall not go into that unknown and terrible land alone.’)

Do not endanger yourselves with my devilish form! Destroy me, save yourself!

They are hypocrites, these two. They are selfish. They hold one another above all else, beyond good and evil, God and Devil.

To the point of madness in the book.

And to us outside the pages, to the point of holiest love.

#Nice job Bramarama Stoker #You accidentally composed a brilliant narrative for the power of loving the Other despite all pressures to perform the contrary IDIOT #jonathan harker #mina harker #arthur holmwood #jack seward #quincey morris #abraham van helsing #dracula #dracula daily #holiest love

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