Dracula: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Jonathan Harker's Journal, May 16. (continued). Harker awakens in the morning in his own room. He fears, at first, that the events of the previous night were a terrible dream, but sees that his clothes have been folded in a fashion not his own; Harker believes that Dracula has carried him back to his room after the episode with the three women. Harker is glad to know, however, that Dracula has not found Harker's journal hidden in the pocket of his pants.

May 18. Harker sneaks out to see if he can get back into the women's room, to find out of the events of that night were real—but the room has been re-bolted shut, and Harker believes that Dracula has done this. Thus Harker believes, more deeply now, that the three women were no dream or vision, but real.

May 19. Dracula instructs Harker to write three letters: one saying he (Harker) will leave the castle in a few days; one saying Harker is leaving the next morning (from the date of the letter); and one saying Harker had left Dracula and arrived in Bistritz. Dracula orders that the letters be dated June 12, June 19, and June 29, respectively, and Harker fears that, after that final date passes, Dracula will kill Harker in the castle.

May 28. Harker notices that a band of gypsies has encamped in the courtyard of Dracula's castle—gypsies frequently do this in Romania—they attach themselves to the court of a nobleman and use his castle walls for protection. But Harker believes he can use the gypsies as a means of carrying messages from inside the castle to the outside world. Harker writes a letter to Mina, in shorthand, explaining that he is a prisoner (but leaving out his supernatural experiences). He writes a letter to Hawkins saying only that Hawkins should speak with Mina.

Harker throws the letters outside to the gypsies, along with gold, and motions to them that the letters should be sent via post. But Dracula comes into Harker's room soon after with the two letters; he opens both, and seeing that the Hawkins letter is innocuous, says that Harker might post it. Dracula burns the encoded letter to Mina, however, sensing that Harker has put in it information about his imprisonment. Dracula leaves, and Harker is dejected at the failure of his plan.

May 31. Harker awakes this morning to see if he cannot find his own paper and envelopes, but looks through his belongings and sees that all the documents he arrived with, along with his traveling clothes, have disappeared—presumably taken away by Dracula.

June 17. Harker notices two Slovaks, each driving wagons, arrive at the castle and deposit a large quantity of empty wooden boxes outside the castle. Harker attempts to hail the Slovaks through the window, and also the gypsies, still encamped there, but the men ignore him. Harker puzzles as to what will be placed in the empty boxes.

June 24. Before morning. Harker peers out his window and sees Dracula leaving the castle in his lizard-like fashion, dressed in Harker's clothes—Harker believes that Dracula is pretending to be Harker in the nearby village, so as not to arouse suspicion at Harker's imprisonment.

Harker begins staring out his window in the moonlight, which is flecked with dust—as he does so, he is overcome by the beauty of the scene and landscape, but he slowly realizes that the moonlight and dust are beginning to hypnotize him, but he awaken, quickly, regains his senses, and flees to his bedroom.

Later, in his bedroom, Harker hears a sound in Dracula's room—a muffled cry, then silence. A gypsy woman outside cries that her child has disappeared, and Harker surmises that Dracula has taken the child and done something violent to it. He then hears Dracula let out a harsh noise from atop the tower, and his call is answered by howling wolves. A few minutes later, Harker sees a pack of wolves run into the courtyard where the gypsy woman is. Though he doesn't hear the woman cry out, a short time later he sees the wolves licking their lips as they walk away. Harker doesn't pity the woman because, knowing what's happened to her baby, he thinks she's better off dead. He wonders what he should do, and how he'll escape from Dracula.

June 25. Morning. The sun delights Harker as he wakes—Harker realizes, in a flash of inspiration, that he has not seen Dracula in the daylight, meaning that, perhaps, the monstrous Count cannot operate during those hours. Harker resolves to put a plan into action during one of the ensuing days, in order to find a way to escape. Harker ends this journal entry by praying to God, and sending his love to Mina and to Hawkins, whom he calls a "second father" to him.

Same day, later. Harker writes of his efforts this day. After deciding to take action, Harker crawls out of his window, and crawls down the side of the castle, carefully on the large, rough blocks of stone, until he reaches Dracula's window, which he enters. Dracula's room is barely furnished, though there are heaps of gold from many countries in the corners.

Harker continues through Dracula's rooms, a series of them in a special "apartment" in the castle, and eventually emerges into a small chapel, filled with old earth, broken tombs, and other indicators of death and decay. Harker finds fifty of the wooden boxes dropped off by the Slovaks, all filled with earth—and in one of them, Dracula is lying.

Dracula appears either to be dead or sleeping, but his cheeks are rosy and warm, and he looks peaceful, almost happy. Harker wants to look for the keys to the castle on Dracula's body, but worries about waking him—he becomes spooked and crawls back out Dracula's window, returning to his own chamber, to think on what he has seen.

June 29. Dracula comes to Harker and tells him that, the following morning, Harker shall leave the castle. Harker does not believe Dracula, and thinks the Count might try to kill him in the night. Harker asks whether he can leave that very night, and Dracula invites Harker to do so. Dracula pulls back the main door of the castle, showing a large number of wolves licking their lips just outside. Harker is horrified, and sees he cannot truly leave. He returns to his bedroom, defeated.

In the night, Harker hears Dracula talking to the three women, telling them that "tonight is his time," and that tomorrow night is theirs. Harker worries that, in the night-time or the next day, Dracula will murder him.

June 30. Morning. Harker awakes at dawn, hearing the crow of the cock, and believes he has lived through the night. But when he goes downstairs to try the main door to the castle, he finds that Dracula has locked it again. Harker resolves to find the key, even if Dracula keeps it on his own body.

Harker crawls back into Dracula's crypt, and finds the Count "asleep" in his wooden box filled with earth. Dracula's mouth has been smeared with blood—Harker does not know whose, but seems dimly aware that it might be his—but Harker cannot find the key on Dracula's body. Harker is disgusted by the sight of the Count, and, finding a shovel nearby, strikes the Count hard on the forehead, gashing his head but not waking him, nor harming him in any serious way. Harker then rushes back out to the main area of the castle.

There, Harker hears that Slovaks and gypsies have arrived, and they open the main door, but a strong gust of wind blows it closed, and Harker worries that he will never be able to escape the castle. He hears the Slovaks and gypsies dragging the wooden boxes, filled with earth, away, on some kind of business for the Count.

Back in his room, Harker decides, finally, to crawl out onto the steep battlements, and down the rocky slope of the castle walls, as a way of escape from the castle, to Bistritz, and eventually back west. He resolves to take with him some of Dracula's gold for his journey. Harker ends his journal by hoping that, if he does not survive, somehow the journal might make it back to Mina, as proof of how much Harker loves her, and has loved her throughout his ordeal at the castle.