Analysis of Dracula

Analysis of Dracula

At the end of Chapter XIV, Van Helsing is informing Dr. Seward that the creature terrorizing the young children was Miss Lucy. Seward didn’t take it very well, and called Van Helsing mad. Van Helsing was going to have to prove it to Seward then, and he took him to Lucy’s tomb late at night. Once they were there, Van Helsing opened the coffin to reveal that Lucy was not in there. Instead of believing Van Helsing at that point, Seward proposed the idea that it could have possibly been a body-snatcher. Van Helsing tries a few more times to convince Seward of what Lucy is, but he remains stubborn and refuses to believe a fact that is becoming more and more obvious. Finally, once Van Helsing revealed to Seward that   Lucy was sleeping in the coffin, looking even more radiantly beautiful than ever, with her lips red and her cheeks blushed, I felt this was the point in which Seward believed. After that Seward goes on to say that he started to loathe the Un-Dead nature of Lucy, and shuddered when he thought about it. Seward had somewhat changed from when he was told that the “bloofer lady” was Lucy, to now, when he is going to assist Van Helsing in putting an end to the Un-Dead. I will discuss how Seward goes through stages of doubt and belief, love and hate, in the time when they are deciding to end the evil of Lucy.
Throughout Chapter XV, Seward is constantly doubting and finding different reasons for why the circumstances dealing with Lucy seem so strange. For example, when Van Helsing and Seward first went to Lucy’s tomb and Van Helsing opened it to reveal that Lucy was not in there, Seward immediately thought of a logical reason behind this strange finding. He said that her body being gone only proved that she wasn’t in there, and that it could have been the work of a body snatcher (Stoker, 211). Even when they saw Lucy in the grave yard, holding the small child, Seward still didn’t believe. I feel like his doubt was in reason because he still did love...