Dracula: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Mina's Journal. August 10. 11 p.m. Mina reports that Lucy appears to be doing somewhat better—and she wonders, in her diary, what the "new woman" (the socially-liberated woman becoming more prevalent during this time, especially in London) would do in her position: would a "new woman" wait for Jonathan? Give him up for dead? Would a "new woman" sleepwalk? Or is the "new woman" more powerful than these typically feminine, Victorian urges—fainting, fits of hysteria, and weakness?

Mina's Journal. August 11. Mina awakes to find that Lucy has sleepwalked out of the house—Mina follows her up to the cemetery, where she sees Lucy, in her nightgown, half-reclined over a tombstone, enshrouded by fog, with a shadowy figure bent over her. When Mina reaches Lucy, the figure and fog disappear—Lucy appears flushed and is breathing heavily.

Mina takes a pin and closes Lucy's nightgown at her throat, then half-carries, half-drags Lucy back to the house in Whitby, where they sleep for the remainder of the night. Mina is not sure what has happened to Lucy, but believes that she has simply sleepwalked again, and that she (Mina) has dreamt the vision in the cemetery, of the shadowy figure.

Later that day, at noon, Mina looks at Lucy, sleeping soundly, as sees that Lucy has a small cut and trickle of blood at her throat. Mina believes she has cut Lucy by pinning her nightgown, and so apologizes to Lucy.

Mina believes, that evening, that Lucy has somewhat recovered her strength, although Lucy has been quiet. Mina wonders, again, where Jonathan is—and she wishes he were close by, to provide comfort to her and to Lucy.

Mina's Journal. August 12. Mina is surprised to note that, in the night, Lucy tries, twice, to leave the locked bedchamber; but in the morning, Lucy appears healthy, and Mina is somewhat relieved.

Mina's Journal. August 13. Lucy, in her sleep (and without her knowledge), sits up and points to the window, where Mina, woken up, spies a bat trying to get in. Mina finds this odd, but Lucy goes back to sleep and does not wake till morning.

Mina's Journal. August 14. Mina notes that Lucy appears to be longing for someone or something with "red eyes" in her sleep. Mina believes this is simply nervous exhaustion from Lucy's strange night in the cemetery—about which Mina has not spoken to Lucy, nor has Mina mentioned this strange night to anyone else in the family or in Whitby.

Mina's Journal. August 15. Mrs. Westenra, Lucy's mother, confides in Mina this day that she (Mrs. Westenra) is quite ill, with only a few more months to live, and that any great shock could kill her. Mina believes it is right, then, that she has not told Lucy's mother about Lucy's strange night of sleepwalking all the way to the cemetery.

Mina's Journal. August 17. Lucy's condition has taken a turn for the worse. Although Lucy eats well and sleeps well, Lucy wakes in the morning feeling drained and tired, and Mina notices that the pricks on Lucy's neck, which she thought were from the pin, appear to be growing larger, rather than healing. This upsets Mina, who vows to see a doctor in a day or two, if the wounds do not heal.

Letter from Billington to Carter, Patterson and Co., London. This brief business letter, sent from the Whitby solicitor to a London property management company, announces that the 50 wooden boxes, filled with earth and taken from the Demeter, are to be deposited at the house Carfax, in Purfleet, as soon as possible.

Letter from Carter and Co. to Billington. Carter and Co. acknowledge the preceding telegram and promise to deliver the boxes to Carfax.

Mina's Journal. August 18. Seated once again at the cemetery with Lucy, Mina asks her friend if Lucy dreamt at all during the strange sleepwalking night earlier that summer—Lucy said she did in fact dream, of a shadowy figure with red eyes, and that she heard dogs barking loudly all around her, until Mina woke her up in the cemetery. Mina finds this dream terrifying, but Lucy laughs it off as a trifle.

Mina's Journal. August 19. Mina receives word from Hawkins that Jonathan is alive, though he is recovering from an illness "out east." Hawkins tells Mina that she ought to take the train and meet Harker "out there." Mina is thrilled to have news that Jonathan is not dead.

Letter from Sister Agatha, Nurse, in Budapest, to Mina. August 12. The presiding nurse, caring for Jonathan in Budapest, writes to Mina that Jonathan is suffering from brain fever there, but that his condition appears to be improving. The nurse says that Jonathan was found in Klausenbergh by a policeman—Jonathan was raving about blood, demons, and violence, and the policemen helped him onto the train to Budapest, where he was found by authorities and delivered to Nurse Agatha's hospital. The nurse asks that Mina come quickly to Budapest to see her fiancé.

Seward's Diary. August 19. Early on the 19th, Seward is called by orderlies to see Renfield, who appears to be in a kind of mania. Renfield has given up on his experiments with insects and birds, saying, now, that "the Master is at hand," and that he, Renfield, has no reason to deal with any other earthly authorities. Seward is shocked by this bizarre change in Renfield's behavior.

Later that night, Seward is woken up by guards to hear that Renfield has escaped from the asylum. Renfield runs into the neighboring estate at Carfax, which Seward does not know has been purchased recently by Dracula. There, as Seward approaches Renfield, he hears Renfield pledging allegiance to the Master, but does not see with whom Renfield might be speaking. Seward and the guards manage to get Renfield into a straight-jacket, but Renfield continues to promise that he will serve his master. Seward is shocked by Renfield's immense strength, as the guards restrain him.