Dracula: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

Seward's Diary. September 29. (continued). Van Helsing returns to his hotel, with Seward, and finds a telegram from Mina saying that Jonathan is in Whitby, and that she (Mina) will be taking the train to London to meet with Van Helsing and Seward immediately. Van Helsing gives Seward Mina's and Jonathan's diaries to read, to learn more about their histories with Dracula and with Lucy's sleepwalking. Seward meets Mina at the train station and brings her to speak with Van Helsing and the remainder of the group.

Mina's Journal. September 29. Mina talks first with Seward in his study, where she sees his phonograph machine, on which he dictates his diary. Mina says that she would like to type up a transcript of Seward's diary and add it to the typed transcripts she has of her own letters with Lucy, and her diary and Jonathan's. Seward readily agrees to this, and Mina begins her work.

Seward's Diary. September 29. Seward sees Mina later that day, as she comes down for supper in his house. She appears distressed, and Seward worries that his diary has caused great sadness in her—but Mina says that, though the work can be unpleasant, it is important that they have a complete record of all that has gone on related to the Count and his powers—and that all the rest in the group should read it, such that they are convinced of Dracula's evil and better prepared to fight him. Seward agrees with this, too, and finds Mina, once again, to be an intelligent and courageous addition to the group.

Mina's Journal. September 29. Mina continues assembling the typed transcript of all Dracula-related materials—in effect "writing the book" which the reader is now reading. She swoons a bit, out of sadness and fear, in reading about Lucy's "first" and "true" deaths, but Seward comes in to give her brandy, which clears her mind. Mina continues with her work.

Seward's Diary. September 30. Seward meets Harker and immediately finds him "uncommonly clever." Later, Seward visits with Renfield, whom he finds to be incredibly "sane"-seeming—this, too, puzzles Seward, who expected Renfield to rave about "life forces," as he had done previously. Seward has learned, from reading Harker's and Mina's letters and journals, that the Count lives next door to the insane asylum—Seward now believes that Renfield's madness is linked to the presence or absence of the Count.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. September 29. On train to London. Harker, on his way back from Whitby, writes in his journal that, on his visit to the Whitby port, he met with Billington, who manages the Count's import and export in England—Billington reports, to Harker, that a delivery of fifty wooden boxes, filled with earth, was made to Whitby from Varna, near Romania. Harker resolves, to himself, to find out where these fifty wooden boxes are to be sent, since he fears they are somehow involved in Dracula's infernal business.

Jonathan Harker's Journal. September 30. Harker, in London, speaks with the office managing transport of the wooden boxes from Whitby to the estate Carfax, in London. Harker is convinced that the fifty boxes have been delivered to the chapel basement of Carfax—a man who moved them reported, as did the dockworkers in Whitby earlier, that the boxes were immensely heavy and filled with earth.

Mina's Journal. September 30. Mina, Van Helsing, Arthur, and Morris meet in London, along with Seward and Harker, at Seward's office in the asylum. Morris and Art express appreciation, gratitude, and a good deal more understanding about the vampire "problem" after having read the typed-up account of all the documents, assembled by Mina.

Later, Mina and Arthur sit together in the office, while the others are out of the room—Arthur begins to weep about Lucy's death, since he knows Lucy and Mina were close friends; Mina, somewhat surprised by the power of Arthur's outburst, nevertheless comforts him, and the two promise to be good friends, and to help in the defeat of the Count.