#seward is a doctor so he should but gives off heavy vibes of someone who doesn’t

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Just noticed something in today’s Dracula Daily entry that I hadn’t noticed before!

Van Helsing says, “I have asked [Lucy] to send me her maid, that I may ask just one or two question, that so I may not chance to miss nothing. I know well what she will say.”

This stood out to me because I had just been thinking that, given Victorian sensibilities, if you have a young lady who appears to be losing inordinate amounts of blood but has no visible injury, the maid is exactly who you should ask. Because a young lady like Lucy would likely not have talked about her period to a man even if it was medically relevant, as it would Not Have Been Done, and the maid would be the one changing the sheets, so they’d know if the woman they worked for had been having unusually heavy periods.

I don’t know if that’s what Van Helsing was asking about, but it would be a sensible (if, by standards of the time, indelicate) thing to do.

#this is kind of the obvious first guess #for “why is this woman losing a ton of blood with no visible injury”? #i wonder how many of the male cgaracters in dracula know about periods? #van helsing may be the only one #seward is a doctor so he should but gives off heavy vibes of someone who doesn’t #jonathan might #arthur doesn’t #dracula daily #dracula #abraham van helsing #van helsing