Dracula, First Edition Cover

In the final installment of my plot analysis of Dracula, by Bram Stoker, we follow our heroes from the end of Act 2 to the exciting climax of this classic Gothic, horror, thriller.

To briefly recap the novel to this point, we learned in the beginning that Dracula and his minions preyed on human blood. At the start of Act 2, Dracula traveled to England, bringing his search for victims to a new shore. At the midpoint of the novel, after the death of young Lucy, we discovered that Dracula could create more undead like himself using his human victims and that killing the undead, although not impossible, was a grisly business. As we begin the scenes below, Mina is in danger of becoming a vampire and Dracula has managed to escape England.

Scenes 101 – 116

Scene: 101
Setting: Varna
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: The entire heroic team has taken the Orient Express eastward in pursuit of Dracula. Under hypnosis, Mina reveals that he is still on his ship. They wait for him to arrive at Varna.
Read on? Will Mina betray them?

(This scene is the end of Act 2 and what James Scott Bell, in his book Plot & Structure, would call Doorway 2. Although the knowledge that Dracula was on a boat headed home was acquired in an earlier scene, and is certainly the information that permits our heroes to pursue him, this scene cements their journey. Our heroes crash through the end of Act 2 in pursuit of their enemy and would find it very difficult to turn back at this point, even if that’s what they wanted. The hunt for Dracula in England has turned into a chase, as well as a race, as they make their way east to confront him.)

Scene: 102
Setting: Varna
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: The team continues waiting and Mina seems lethargic but reports the same ship sounds.
Read on? Will Mina betray them?

Scene: 103
Setting: Varna
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: They receive word that the ship will not land at Varna, but at Galatz instead. They will take the train to Galatz, first thing in the morning.
Read on? Will they get to Dracula before he gets out of his box at sunset?

Scene: 104
Setting: Train
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Via hypnosis Mina reveals he is close to land but is not yet on shore. They near Galatz.
Read on? Will they get to Dracula before he gets out of his box at sunset?

Scene: 105
Setting: Galatz
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: They discover that Dracula is being ported over, but don’t know where.
Read on? Are they too late?

(This is yet another setback for our team. They had hoped to get him on the ship.)

Scene: 106
Setting: Galatz
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mina composes a memorandum trying to deduce the location of the Count, possibly traveling via the Pruth river and perhaps another further on that loops close to his castle. The men are overjoyed at her work. They decide to pursue by river, carriage, and horseback along the banks. Van Helsing is with Mina at the hotel.
Read on? Can they catch up with him?

Scene: 107
Setting: Steam Launch on River
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan is on the river with Arthur. Mina and Van Helsing are traveling by carriage. Seward and Morris go by horseback.
Read on? Can they catch up with him?

Scene: 108
Setting: On the Road
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Seward and Quincey have heard that a river launch has had an accident but has continued on. They don’t know if it’s Arthur’s launch or Dracula’s.
Read on? Can they catch up with him?

(I should note that, in terms of deepening types of scenes, quite a bit of deepening goes on in this novel as the characters continually make flowery and emotional speeches to each other.)

Scene: 109
Setting: Veresti
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mina and Van Helsing have arrived at an intermediate destination. They stop for dinner and also stock up on food. He says they may not get other food for a week. They’ll be leaving after dinner.
Read on? Can they catch up with him?

Scene: 110
Setting: Carriage
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Mina sees, through hypnosis, that the Count is still on the river. They travel for days, during which time the sound of the water that the Count hears becomes louder, meaning he is further upstream.
Read on? Can they catch up with him?

Scene: 111
Setting: Carriage
POV: Van Helsing
Scene type: Action
Summary: At night, the three women from the castle come for Mina but Van Helsing keeps himself and Mina safe by sprinkling communion wafer crumbs in a ring around them. The three call to their “sister.” The horses all die.
Read on? Is Mina one of them now?

(Another setback.)

Scene: 112
Setting: On the Road
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: It was Jonathan’s launch that had the accident. They are behind now and setting off with horses.
Read on? Can they catch up with the others?

(Another setback for the team.)

Scene: 113
Setting: On the Road
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Seward and Quincey are drawing closer on horseback.
Read on? Can they catch up with Dracula?

Scene: 114
Setting: The Castle
POV: Van Helsing
Scene type: Action
Summary: Van Helsing leaves Mina and kills the three women in their tombs.
Read on? Can they catch up with Dracula?

(Finally, we have an outright success for Van Helsing and our team of heroes.)

Scene: 115
Setting: On the Road
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mina and Van Helsing see the cart with Dracula in the distance, racing against the sunset, with Quincey and Seward in pursuit, and also Arthur and Jonathan. They all assault the cart, routing the gypsy drivers. With the sun setting, they open the box, but Dracula seems to be waking up. Jonathan and Quincey quickly knife him and he crumbles into dust. The castle of Dracula stands in silhouette against the red sky. Although they have triumphed, and Mina is able to step out of the holy circle that Van Helsing made for her, Quincey dies of a wound he has just suffered in the struggle.
Read on? Are there any more vampires out there?

(The climax of the novel couldn’t be more fitting. In a sense, we return to the opening of the book as Dracula and the team race toward his castle. The location is thematic as Dracula returns to his turf and his castle looms above them, darkly silhouetted against the red sunset. It is the last place that our heroes wanted to be and yet they will risk everything in order to eliminate him. Although they prevail in the final battle, a melee between our heroes and Dracula’s protectors, and Mina experiences a final evolution back to a human, the victory is tempered by the loss of Quincey.)

Scene: 116
Setting: England
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Seven years on, Jonathan and Mina have a son named Quincey and have visited Transylvania, which showed no traces of the horrors that had unfolded there.
Read on? The End. Hope, I guess that’s the end of the vampires.

(A brief denouement shows us that Jonathan and Mina have returned to a normal life and that the world has been made safe.)

The Major Plot Milestones

The Hook – Scene 2: The old woman at the inn is obviously terrified for Jonathan’s well being on learning that he is going to see Dracula. She gives him a rosary.

The Catalyst – Scene 8: Dracula tells Jonathan he will be staying for a month and not to fall asleep anywhere but his bedroom. Jonathan sees him crawl down the outside of the castle wall, head first.

Ticking Clock – Scene 13: The count asks Jonathan to write three letters saying that he’s left the castle and journeying home, and future date them. Jonathan now knows he won’t be leaving and how long he has to live.

Doorway 1 – Scene 20: Dracula is taken away in his box and Jonathan decides to escape through his window, rather than be left with the three women.

Midpoint Crisis – Scene 74: Seward and Van Helsing confirm that Lucy’s coffin is empty.

Pinch – Scene 82: Seward takes Mina for an amiable visit with Renfield because she is curious after listening to Seward’s diaries. Eventually, Van Helsing arrives to complete the team (Arthur, Quincey, Mina, Jonathan, Seward, and Van Helsing) and uses the word vampire for the first time in the book. As they hold their meeting, a bat hovers outside the window and Quincey tries to shoot it from outside, but misses, shattering the window. They decide to go to Dracula’s house in Carfax immediately, but leave Mina behind.

Doorway 2 – Scene 101: The entire heroic team has taken the Orient Express eastward in pursuit of Dracula. Under hypnosis, Mina reveals that he is still on his ship. They wait for him to arrive at Varna.

Climax – Scene 115: Mina and Van Helsing see the cart with Dracula in the distance, racing against the sunset, with Quincey and Seward in pursuit, and also Arthur and Jonathan. They all assault the cart, routing the gypsy drivers. With the sun setting, they open the box, but Dracula seems to be waking up. Jonathan and Quincey quickly knife him and he crumbles into dust. The castle of Dracula stands in silhouette against the red sky. Although they have triumphed, and Mina is able to step out of the holy circle that Van Helsing made for her, Quincey dies of a wound he has just suffered in the struggle.

Denouement – Scene 116: Seven years on, Jonathan and Mina have a son named Quincey and have visited Transylvania, which showed no traces of the horrors that had unfolded there.

For Uber-Plotters

I’ve split the 116 scenes of the novel into equal “parts” of twenty scenes each, except for Part 6, which had 16 scenes.

Compared to James Rollins (80% action scenes) or Dan Brown (51% action scenes), Bram Stoker uses action scenes 48% of the time. Often, though, the setup scene in Dracula serves to build tension and suspense, as we might expect for a novel that is also a gothic horror tale.

In terms of major milestones, we have the following:

As we might expect, the three act structure holds: Act 1 is 17% of the book, Act 2 is 70% of the book, and Act 3 is 13% of book, by weight. Many setbacks fill the lives the heroes in Act 2 and even the climax is not free from death.

Take Away

Although I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a novel written over one hundred years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn a few different things as a result of this analysis. Although not part of the scene-by-scene breakdown, I was encouraged by the fact that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula while he worked a day job. I also found it interesting that this classic didn’t spring full-blown from his forehead and that he changed his mind about the characters in the book, at least a couple of times.

Most of all, though, I found that the plot structure of the thriller shone through. Because Dracula isn’t strictly a thriller and also because audience expectations may have been very different, the story seemed too slow at times. The orations that the characters seem to create off the cuff, although they may have provided deepening to readers of the time (and to us), today they serve more to create an evocation of the time, an ambiance of gentlemen and ladies who never seem to forget who they are, even as they chase a vampire. Likewise, the dated letters and journal entries achieve the same end, while also emphasizing the pace of the proceedings, not to mention providing interesting glimpses into the different character points of view.

Although Dracula is a classic for many reasons that I haven’t touched upon here (character, theme, the enduring popularity of vampires), its solid plot provides a fabulous foundation.  If you’ve never read the book then treat yourself.  I can recommend it highly!

For your convenience, here are links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 of this plot analysis.

Scene: 41
Setting: Budapest
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: Mina has traveled to Budapest and is with Jonathan and they have been married.
Read on? Then what will happen to Lucy and the people in Whitby?

(We finally see, or rather hear, that our hero has been united with his love interest.  Their subplot now takes a back seat to the main theme in Act 2–the danger follows Dracula, and he’s in Whitby.)

Scene: 42
Setting: Whitby
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Writes to Mina that she and Arthur are doing wonderfully and will be married the next month.
Read on? Is she lying?

Scene: 43
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Renfield escapes at night again, fights like a madman until he sees a bat flying, and then is recaptured.
Read on? He’s trying to reach Dracula.

(It would appear that Dracula has an ally in England.)

Scene: 44
Setting: Albemarle Hotel
POV: Lucy, Diary
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Neither she or her mother are feeling well.
Read on? What’s wrong with Lucy?

Scene: 45
Setting: Albemarle Hotel
POV: Arthur
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Arthur writes to friend Dr. Jack Seward, worried about Lucy and knowing the her mother is terminally ill with heart disease. Has arranged for Seward to meet with Lucy.
Read on? What’s wrong with Lucy?

Scene: 46
Setting: Albemarle Hotel
POV: Arthur
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Telegrams Seward that he has been called to his father, who has taken a turn for the worse.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 47
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: He found Lucy anemic and recommends his old professor, Van Helsing, to Arthur for further scientific help.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 48
Setting: Unknown Location
POV: Van Helsing, MD, PhD, and even more degrees.
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Is on his way to see Seward.
Read on? Ho hum.

(We meet the mentor and vampire expert, Van Helsing.  His knowledge will act as the catalyst for many key scenes to follow.)

Scene: 49
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Seward sends word to Arthur that Van Helsing has come and gone, needs to think about a couple of things, and will get back to him.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 50
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Renfield is eating flies and feeling abandoned.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 51
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Lucy takes a sudden turn for the worse and Seward sends for Van Helsing. They decide to transfuse her. Arthur arrives and donates his blood. Van Helsing sees the puncture marks on her neck and leaves Seward to watch over her. The next day she is better and Van Helsing wires that he will be returning.
Read on? Has Van Helsing figured out that it’s Dracula?

(Two final allies, Arthur and Van Helsing, finally arrive in the flesh.)

Scene: 52
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Feeling much better.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 53
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Van Helsing returns to find Lucy nearly dead. They transfuse some of Seward’s blood and she improves.
Read on? Ho hum.

(I usually reserve “ho hum” for a setup or reaction scene, but this action is repetitive.  Although Stoker is building some tension as Dracula manages to outwit the heroic allies, this scene isn’t really advancing the plot.)

Scene: 54
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Van Helsing receives a box of garlic and askes Lucy to wear it around her neck.
Read on? He must suspect Dracula.

Scene: 55
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: She’s gratefully using the garlic.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 56
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Seward and Van Helsing return to Hillingham. Her mother had removed the garlic in the night. Another transfusion, this time from Van Helsing, who then stays with her.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 57
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Van Helsing has been watching over her for four days and she’s feeling great and an angry bat keeps flapping outside the window.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 58
Setting: Zoological Gardens
POV: Pall Mall Gazette Reporter
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The wolf was very agitated and then escaped through bars that had been bent. As the reporter watched, though, the wolf returned to the keeper like a stray puppy, and the keeper put it away.
Read on? More of Dracula’s doings?

(This will turn out to be the work of Dracula, creating allies.)

Scene: 59
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Seward is attacked by Renfield with a dinner knife, cuts his wrist, and laps his blood off the floor. He is summoned by Van Helsing to Hillingham.
Read on? What is happening with Lucy?

(The attack by Renfield is really an attack by Dracula, using him as a pawn and a surrogate.)

Scene: 60
Setting: Hillingham
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Action
Summary: As Lucy and her mother spend some time in Lucy’s room, the bat flaps outside then the window breaks and a wolf pokes it head in. Her mother dies of a heart attack and Lucy faints. The wolf leaves but is howling outside and maids arrive. Lucy leaves the garlic on her mother’s body, the maids drink wine laced with a narcotic and fall asleep. Lucy writes the above in a note and then waits.
Read on? Will she survive the night?

(This is an attack by Dracula, using the wolf. It’s quite the cliffhanger too!)

Although scenes 41 through 60 haven’t advanced the plot much, Stoker is creating a near claustrophobic atmosphere by placing most of the action in Lucy’s room or Renfield’s cell. We see that danger is drawing very close and that people who are desperate to help Lucy can’t seem to manage it for any length of time. In the next set of scenes, the tension will continue to build, and we will look for it to snap, with the approach of the midpoint of the novel.  We will not be disappointed.

Scenes 21 – 40

Scene: 21
Setting: London
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The story regresses in time and Mina writes to her friend Lucy, speculating positively on her future with Jonathan.
Read on? Is he still alive? Will she get a letter from him and understand it?

(We meet the love interest of the hero, who is a heroine in her own right and an ally of our hero, Jonathan.)

Scene: 22
Setting: London
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Lucy writes to Mina of the new man in her life, Arthur.
Read on? Ho Hum.

(So often, my reaction to the setup scene is “ho hum”.  This type of scene has to happen–mostly–and it doesn’t stop me from reading on–mostly–but it’s my least favorite type of scene.)

Scene: 23
Setting: London
POV: Lucy
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Lucy writes to Mina about three proposals of marriage that she has had in one day.
Read on? Ho Hum.

(We have our first encounter with Quincey Morris, her American suitor. He will later turn out to be an ally and hero. Dr. Seward was the other suitor and Arthur was the third, who she has decided to marry.)

Scene: 24
Setting: London
POV: Dr. Seward
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Seward writes in his diary about a patient he has seen, a Mr. Renfield. Seward seems like a psychiatrist, although I’m not sure the writers of the late 1800s really differentiated between medical doctors and psychiatrists in the way that we do now.
Read on? Ho Hum.

Scene: 25
Setting: London
POV: Quincey Morris
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Quincey writes a letter to Arthur Holmwood, inviting him to meet a friend of theirs, Jack Seward, to reminisce.
Read on? Ho Hum.

(In essence, the team is coming together, and these three men make up about half of the people who will eventually do battle with Dracula.)

Scene: 26
Setting: London
POV: Arthur
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Arthur telegrams Quincy to say he’ll be there.
Read on? Ho Hum.

Scene: 27
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Mina writes in her journal that she is walking around Whitby, near the sea, simply looking at whatever strikes her fancy. Lucy and her mother are absent.
Read on? Ho Hum.

Scene: 28
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Deepening
Summary: She and Lucy have a strange conversation with an old sailor about the gravestones.  Mina is missing Jonathan since she hasn’t had a letter from him in a month.
Read on? Ho Hum.

Scene: 29
Setting: London
POV: Dr. Seward
Scene type: Deepening
Summary: Seward discusses his patient, Renfield, a homicidal maniac, who may have eaten his own bird collection, raw.
Read on? Ho Hum.

Scene: 30
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Deepening
Summary: Lucy has started walking in her sleep again and Mina has received a cryptic letter from Jonathan, which doesn’t seem like him. The old sailor says they’re in for a storm. There’s a Russian ship steering around strangely in the harbor.
Read on? Ho Hum.

Scene: 31
Setting: Whitby
POV: Newspaper
Scene type: Action
Summary: After the storm, a boat has been found in which a dead man was tied to the wheel, holding a crucifix. In his pocket was a bottle with an addendum to the ship’s log. The hold had empty wooden crates. Reading between the lines of the log, it seems that Dracula has arrived.
Read on? About time.

Scene: 32
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: She and Lucy see the aftermath of the storm and also the captain’s funeral.
Read on? Ho hum.

Scene: 33
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: Lucy had been sleepwalking and was apparently found and bitten by Dracula. Mina can’t quite make out in the darkness what has happened. Lucy sleeps late the next morning and Mina assumes her safety pin must have punctured Lucy’s throat. Otherwise, Lucy appears better than she has.
Read on? What will happen to Lucy now that she’s been bitten?

(We may not, as readers in the late 1800s, know what will happen to Lucy once she’s bitten, but we’ve seen the three women at his castle.)

Scene: 34
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Lucy keeps trying to escape at night. She points out the window and Mina sees a giant bat flying around.
Read on? Is the bat Dracula?

Scene: 35
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Mina goes out for a walk at night and returns to see Lucy at the windowsill with what appears to be a large bird. Once inside, Lucy is already going to bed.
Read on? Has Dracula been visiting?

Scene: 36
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Lucy is not feeling well and is in decline. Mina cannot understand why Lucy is doing so poorly.
Read on? Has Dracula been visiting?

Scene: 37
Setting: Whitby
POV: Billingston and Son, Solicitors letter to Carter, Paterson, & Co.
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Arranging delivery of fifty boxes for their client. Carter, Paterson reply that all has been done.
Read on? Is this Dracula’s stuff?

Scene: 38
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Lucy is feeling much better.
Read on? Why?

Scene: 39
Setting: Whitby
POV: Mina
Scene type: Action
Summary: She receives news that Jonathan had been unwell but is now improving. A caretaker’s letter, from Budapest, says he’s been through some sort of ordeal with wolves and poison and ghosts. He’ll convalesce another few weeks.
Read on? So, he’s survived. Will he make it back in time to help Mina and Lucy?

Scene: 40
Setting: Whitby
POV: Seward
Scene type: Action
Summary: Renfield says that the Master is at hand and escapes, but then is recaptured.
Read on? Is Dracula the master?

Tension is continuing to build as we primarily watch Lucy and Mina interact, mostly through Mina’s point of view.  Although we have yet to hear his name mentioned or see a clear description of him, we know that Dracula has arrived in England.  Essentially, the plight of our hero and heroine have reversed and we hope that Jonathan makes it back from Budapest in time to help Lucy (and Mina, although she will shortly leave to join Jonathan).

In the next post, we’ll see Act 2 continue with more setup, as the team of heroes is completed.

So, yes, Dracula is horror.  It’s also Gothic, part travelogue, an invasion tale, and even a romance.  More to the point of this blog, though, it’s also a thriller.  Despite the archaic speech patterns, not to mention speeches (conveyed via journal entries, letters, and news clippings), the structure of the thriller shines through.

Why Dracula

One of the reasons that I selected Dracula was its price:  free!  You can get it from Project Gutenberg, and there are also free ebooks out there, including the iTunes store.  I read a free ebook  that came with Adobe Digital Editions on my Mac laptop.

Another reason that I chose Dracula is my belief that many people may not actually know the novel, or even the full story, for that matter.  I know I didn’t and I had even read it as a teenager.

Finally, though, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable classic–for good reason.

Plot Analysis

For my analysis, I’m using a method advocated by James Scott Bell in his oh-so useful book on novel writing called Plot & Structure.  I don’t care how many fiction writing books you own, you should not miss out on this one.  I’ve read several but Plot & Structure really made a few key things click for me.

At approximately 161,000 words, Dracula is a lengthy work.  In this exercise, I’ll be breaking it down, scene by scene (116 in all) and noting the following for each scene:  the setting, the POV character, the scene type (setup, action, reaction, deepening), a two or three sentence summary of what happened in the scene, and my assessment of whether I should read on or not (typically phrased as a question).  Along the way, I’ll be noting down the milestones of the plot as they go by–the real point to the exercise.

Without further ado, let us begin Dracula!

Scenes 1 – 20

Scene: 1
Setting: Transylvania
POV: Jonathan (journal entry)
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Jonathan Harker has traveled to Transylvania from London and receives a letter from Dracula making arrangements for transportation to meet Dracula.
Read on? It’s only the most famous setting in all of horror-dom. I guess I’ll read on!

(We meet the protagonist, our hero, and our opening image is one of a strange and foreboding landscape.)

Scene: 2
Setting: The Inn
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: The old woman at the inn is obviously terrified for Jonathan’s well being on learning that he is going to see Dracula. She gives him a rosary.
Read on? What does she fear?

(This scene works as a disturbance, our first substantive hint that something is very wrong with this trip. The woman at the inn, and just about everybody else in the story, is uneasy or downright fearful when they hear about Dracula and that our protagonist is on his way to the castle.)

Scene: 3
Setting: Two coaches through the countryside
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Jonathan’s coach is met by Dracula’s coach, which conveys him through the creepy countryside to the castle.
Read on? What will he find in the castle?

Scene: 4
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: He is visiting as a solicitor to explain the purchase of a London estate. He meets the Count and he eats dinner–Dracula does not. The Count is strong but cold to the touch, making Jonathan nauseous when he’s too close.
Read on? What is wrong with the Count?

(We meet the antagonist and the namesake of the novel.  It had been titled “The Un-Dead” while Stoker was working on it but the title changed shortly before it was published.)

Scene: 5
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: He has a late breakfast by himself, spends the latter part of the day talking with Dracula, mostly about the estate he’s purchased. Again he dines solo and Dracula keeps him up until the first light of morning.
Read on? What is wrong with the Count?

Scene: 6
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Setup
Summary: Dracula doesn’t have a reflection in a mirror, is excited by the sight of Jonathan’s blood, but is then put off by the rosary. Jonathan has breakfast alone again and explores the castle to find many locked doors.
Read on? Is he a prisoner?

Scene: 7
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan is convinced he is a prisoner. He spies Dracula doing all the servant’s work. He needs to draw information out of Dracula without raising suspicion that he knows something is going on.
Read on? Can he escape?

Scene: 8
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Dracula says Jonathan will be staying for a month and tells him not to fall asleep anywhere but his bedroom. Jonathan sees him crawl down the outside of the castle wall, head first.
Read on? What kind of creature is Dracula?

(This scene could be characterized as a Call to Adventure or an Inciting Incident. Jonathan knows he’s up against something non-human and that, if he’s going to survive, he must take matters into his own hands, conquer his fear, and escape.)

Scene: 9
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Jonathan sees Dracula scaling the wall again and confirms that virtually all doors in the castle are locked. He finds one unlocked.  It was apparently once occupied by ladies in the castle.
Read on? What kind of creature is Dracula?

Scene: 10
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan is found by three women who want to suck the blood from him but Dracula intervenes, saying that Jonathan is his. He tosses them a small child in a bag to quiet them and they leave. Jonathan faints.
Read on? What kind of creatures suck blood? What do they want with the child?

(We meet the allies of the Count, aside from the local people he employs, who fear him. Our hero suffers his first defeat after deciding that he must try to escape.)

Scene: 11
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Reaction
Summary: Jonathan awakes in his room and finds that his diary is still safe in his jacket pocket. Were Dracula to read it, he would know that Jonathan will try to escape.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

Scene: 12
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan tries to enter the ladies room again, but finds it has been locked, from the inside.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

Scene: 13
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: The count asks Jonathan to write three letters saying that he’s left the castle, journeying home, and future date them. Jonathan now knows he won’t be leaving.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

(A ticking clock begins, building suspense.)

Scene: 14
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: A band of gypsies camps below his window. He writes a letter to Mina, his fiancé, and his employer and throws them down with money. The gypsy seems to understand, but the count intercepts the letters and gives them back to Jonathan.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

(Although we haven’t met them, we know that Jonathan’s allies are Mina and Mr. Hawkins, but they are in England.  We hold out the remote hope that they may yet be able to help.)

Scene: 15
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: All of his personal effects have been taken from his room.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

Scene: 16
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan sees workmen delivering large empty crates below in the courtyard. He tries to leave his room but the door is locked. He calls down to the men, but they ignore him.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

Scene: 17
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan sees Dracula leaving in his own (Jonathan’s) clothes, probably to fake his leaving. The three women accost Jonathan in the form of sparkling dust that almost hypnotizes him. The count returns and Jonathan hears a scream from the count’s room. A woman shows up in the courtyard below, screaming for her child. Dracula calls the wolves and they kill her.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

(We had suspected that Dracula was linked with the “children of the night” but now we see his web of allies includes animals.)

Scene: 18
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Jonathan climbs down in daylight to the count’s window, enters, and eventually finds him sleeping in one of the boxes.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

Scene: 19
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Dracula assures Jonathan that he’ll be leaving the next day. He hears Dracula beyond his door telling the three women that Jonathan is his now, but theirs the next day.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

Scene: 20
Setting: Dracula’s castle
POV: Jonathan
Scene type: Action
Summary: Dracula is taken away in his box and Jonathan decides to brave leaving through his window, rather than be left with the three women.
Read on? Will he escape before they kill him?

(Not only is this Bell’s Doorway 1 and the end of Act 1, it is also the climax of the first sequence. Jonathan is committed now to escaping, wouldn’t go back if he could, and would likely die if he went back anyway. We are propelled into the middle part of the novel and wonder where Dracula has gone and if Jonathan will make good his escape.)

In the next part of this plot analysis of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we look at scenes 21 through 40 and meet our hero’s love interest.