Although Bram Stoker’s name is nearly synonymous with the famous vampire character that he created for Dracula, the novel that I’m analyzing for the plot structure of a thriller, I’ll bet you didn’t know that he never gave up his day job.
For the several years that he performed research into eastern European folklore and mythology–and wrote Dracula–he was also the acting manager and then the business manager for London’s Lyceum Theatre. In fact, Stoker spent 27 years with the Lyceum, starting in 1878 when his friend, famed actor Henry Irving, took over management, until 1905, the year of Irving’s death.
Although he had worked as a civil servant in Dublin and had also written some non-fiction, he was writing published fiction as early as 1872, at the age of 25. Fiction writing would be a recurrent them for him, even through the Lyceum years: his first novel, Snake’s Pass was published in 1890 and Dracula was published in 1897, when he was 50.
Recap
At this point in our plot analysis, we’ve seen Act 1 open and close in Part 1. In Parts 2 and 3, we watched Stoker build the tension, introduce all of the major characters, and build the team that will eventually take on Dracula.
In the following scenes, we find the midpoint of the novel, which takes our action off into a new even more horrifying direction and, finally, the entire team comes together physically in one place.
Scenes 61- 80
Scene: 61
Setting: Exeter
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mina and Jonathan have returned and are living with Mr. Hawkins, who has essentially adopted them. Mina inquires about Lucy and her mother, not having heard from her in some time.
Read on? It must now be time for Dracula to harass them.
(You may recall that we left scene 60 on the edge of a cliffhanger, wondering if Lucy–her mother has already died–will survive the attack of the wolf and the persistent bat.)
Scene: 62
Setting: Whitby
POV: Dr. Patrick Hennessey
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Renfield had escaped again and assaulted some workmen on a cart but was recaptured.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 63
Setting: Exeter
POV: Mina
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Mina reports that Mr. Hawkins has died and Jonathan is in a funk about the responsibilities that weigh on him.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 64
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Lucy dies but, just before she does, she tries to bite Arthur on her deathbed. Van Helsing suspects that something has just begun to happen to her.
Read on? Has she turned into a vampire?
(Beloved Lucy’s death is obviously a major setback. What kind of hero can’t rescue the damsel in distress when she’s right under your nose?)
Scene: 65
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Van Helsing proposes to Seward that they remove Lucy’s head and heart, but then decides against it.
Read on? Has she turned into a vampire?
Scene: 66
Setting: Exeter
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: After Hawkin’s funeral, Jonathan apparently sees Dracula on the street stalking a beautiful girl, but doesn’t mention the name.
Read on? Will Dracula seek Jonathan out?
Scene: 67
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Arthur and Quincey depart after the funeral. Van Helsing is going back to Amsterdam but will be back in a day or so.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 68
Setting: Hampstead
POV: Hampstead Gazette
Scene type: Action
Summary: A woman is praying on children at night, leaving little marks on their necks.
Read on? Is it Lucy?
Scene: 69
Setting: Exeter
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Mina has read Jonathan’s foreign journal and now knows about Dracula.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 70
Setting: Unknown location
POV: Van Helsing
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Van Helsing writes to Mina about Lucy’s death and asks if he might come see her. She telegrams him with a day and time.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 71
Setting: Exeter
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: She meets Van Helsing and relates some of her and Jonathan’s experiences and gives him Jonathan’s journal. They exchange quick letters that don’t particularly conclude much.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 72
Setting: Exeter
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Jonathan meets Van Helsing and promises to help him but then Van Helsing rushes off when news from the Westminster Gazette reaches him.
Read on? Ho hum.
(I say “ho hum” and yet, now that Jonathan and Mina have both met Van Helsing, all of the key players are now aware of each other. The laborious setup isn’t helped by the fact that it takes time for Van Helsing to read Lucy’s papers, to send a letter to Mina, for her to send a telegraph, and for trains and carriages to ramble hither and thither.)
Scene: 73
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Van Helsing tells Seward that he thinks Lucy was attacked by a bat (or creature) and that she has attacked the children.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 74
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Seward and Van Helsing confirm that Lucy’s coffin is empty.
Read on? Ho hum.
(The novel’s midpoint has arrived. Here, although it’s hard to imagine as modern readers, who know exactly what to expect from any vampire tale, the story takes its most horrific turn. We discover that normal people can become the undead and that they have to be killed in a certain way to keep them dead. That knowledge puts our heroes on a course of action that they must finish. The world as they once knew it–with the exception of Van Helsing–is gone and they must deal with a new and very grim reality.)
Scene: 75
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: The next night, Seward and Van Helsing confirm that Lucy has returned to her coffin.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 76
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The next night Van Helsing lays out garlic and a crucifix to make sure Lucy can’t leave and is hungry. The following night he convinces Arthur, Quincey, and Seward to accompany him to the tomb. They find the coffin empty. They see Lucy bring back a child and bite it. Van Helsing allows her to enter the tomb as fog through chinks in the wall.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 77
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: They all return the following night and Arthur drives a stake through Lucy’s heart, killing the undead.
Read on? Finally, some payback for us pitiful humans. Now go get Dracula!
(The team makes the hard choices, knowing that they’re doing an awful thing for a higher purpose.)
Scene: 78
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mina Harker arrives.
Read on? Why has she come?
Scene: 79
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward & Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Mina learns about the details of Lucy’s death and exchanges information with Seward. Mina then listens to his audio diary and learns everything. Jonathan arrives. He and Mina set to typing up all the stories, put together.
Read on? Ho hum.
Scene: 80
Setting: King’s Cross
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Jonathan discovers that Dracula had 50 boxes of dirt delivered.
Read on? Ho hum.
By the end of scene 80, all of the main characters are now in play. The very serious threat that Dracula represents to every human on the planet has been gruesomely demonstrated. As we leave Jonathan searching for Dracula’s whereabouts, it seems inevitable that the novel will now move to the end of Act 2 and eventually a climactic struggle between our heroic team and the evil protagonist and his allies.
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