Dracula: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

Although the reader suspects, at this point, that something terrible has happened to Lucy, the reader does not know whether she is dead or severely weakened—this combination of surety (that Lucy is in trouble) and anxiety (the nature of her distress) is what makes the novel, and Stoker's description of Dracula in general, so persuasive and suspenseful.

Again, the scientific and medical usefulness of the procedure here described—putting Lucy in a warm bath—might be debated. Even during Victorian times, medicine was fairly well advanced, and doctors were beginning to realize the root causes of many diseases. Nevertheless, some of Van Helsing's "treatments" might be considered old wives' tales today.

Morris is the fourth strong young man to provide Lucy with fresh blood. Remember that Stoker was not aware of the existence of different blood types. A modern writer might have wanted to account for the ease of these blood transfusions by either making Lucy a universal recipient (type AB), or establishing that all the men of the group are universal donors. Regardless, the bigger thematic point is that now another of the men who courted Lucy has shared sustaining blood with her, while Dracula assaults her and takes that blood.

Morris appears to understand, at this juncture in the novel, that Lucy is not taken by any typical or normal illness. Because the large amounts of blood that have been put into her veins must have gone somewhere, and since she is not normally anemic, someone must actually be taking the blood out of Lucy. Having the blood of "four strong men" in her veins again ascribes a kind of sexual intimacy to the transfusion.

Van Helsing does not yet want Lucy to know that the rest of the group—Seward, himself, Morris, and Arthur—are aware of the terrible events involving Lucy's previous night, and her mother's demise.

It should be noted, here, that Seward's diary "entries" are really dictations. They appear quite fluid and well-written to be dictations, however—here is another instance where Stoker appears to suspend belief, unless Mina, in her later edits of Seward's journal, has "smoothed out" his prose.

As Lucy's life continues in a downward spiral, Mina's, on the other hand, is only trending upward, and it seems that her and Harker's good luck cannot be stopped. Hawkins exists primarily in the novel as a means to provide for Harker (professionally) and Mina (as bequeather of an enormous amount of money to the two). For his part, Harker is said to love Hawkins like a father.

Renfield is aware of the power of the wooden boxes that are being placed in the Carfax estate. One wonders again if Renfield has total knowledge of vampiric custom because he has read up on the subject, or because he has somehow been communing with Dracula, perhaps by secret messages or by meetings at night. Or, as a third option, Renfield might, in his madness, sense the importance of the boxes without actually knowing what they are.

Just after Hawkins has left his estate to Mina and Harker, he dies, thus meaning that Mina and Harker never again have to worry about money, and their social, as well as financial, position in London society is secure. Again, Mina and Harker seem to have a good deal of economic luck in the novel.

The disappearance of the marks on Lucy's neck is a terrible sign, for Van Helsing, and later on, the reader will understand why. At this point, Lucy's body has been given over fully to its vampiric form, meaning Dracula no longer needs to draw blood from it, and Lucy is on her way to becoming undead herself.

Van Helsing has never been more forceful in his injunction, and Arthur and Seward are shocked, but of course the reader can guess what is happening—that Lucy is now in an undead state, and that, if Arthur were to kiss her, she might try to bite him and draw his blood.

The characters, other than Van Helsing, begin to comment on how "lifelike" Lucy appears, once she has died. Of course, they will soon realize that Lucy has not truly died at all, and that, now, her body hovers between life and death in a condition of undeadness that is part of the condition of being a vampire. Soon the group will have to effect the "true death" of Lucy.