NovelGuide: Dracula: Novel Summary: Chapter 13

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Chapter 13

Summary
Seward records in his diary the arrangements for Lucy's funeral. She looks as lovely as she ever did in life. Van Helsing places garlic flowers around her body and a crucifix on her mouth. He asks Seward to bring him a set of post-mortem knives the next day. Seward asks if he wants to perform an autopsy, but Van Helsing replies that he wants to cut off her head and take out her heart. Seward is shocked, but Van Helsing says he must have faith that his reasons are good.
Next morning, Van Helsing tells Seward that there is no point in operating on Lucy, as it is too late: someone has stolen the crucifix in the night. He will wait.
Holmwood - known as Lord Godalming since his father's death - is grief-stricken. He cannot believe that Lucy is dead, since she looks so beautiful. Hoping to find clues as to who or what was responsible for Lucy's death, Van Helsing asks Holmwood for permission to read her papers, which Holmwood grants.
Mina's diary records that in London, she and Harker have seen a tall thin man with a cruel face. The man was looking at a beautiful girl. Harker believes that the man is the Count, and is appalled to see that he looks much younger. Harker becomes upset and then falls asleep. When he awakes, he seems to have forgotten about what he saw. Mina decides that for her husband's sake, she must read his Transylvanian journal and learn the facts of what happened to him.
Mina and Harker receive a telegram from Van Helsing telling them of the deaths of Mrs Westenra and Lucy.
Seward records in his diary that Van Helsing is about to leave for Amsterdam. Holmwood tells Seward that since he gave blood to Lucy, he has felt that they were married in the sight of God. Seward, Morris and Van Helsing take care not to mention that they also gave blood to Lucy.
Two newspaper cuttings reveal that children are being abducted on Hampstead Heath, near where Lucy was buried. When the children reappear, they describe a "bloofer lady" (beautiful lady) who lures them into going for a walk with her. They also have wounds in their throats.
Analysis
Holmwood's comment that he feels that he was Lucy's husband in the sight of God since he gave her his blood underlines the sexual symbolism of the blood transfusions in the novel. This is reinforced by the other men's determination not to mention that they also gave her their blood. The symbolic implication is that Lucy tended towards the promiscuous. We know that Count Dracula can only go where he has once been invited, so at the beginning of her adventure, Lucy must have invited him.
The unnatural beauty of Lucy's corpse, which almost persuades Holmwood that she still lives, is ambiguous. On one hand, it is suggestive of Lucy's inherent purity before her corruption by the Count. But on the other hand, it foreshadows her true status as one of the "Un-dead." This is rapidly confirmed by the newspaper reports of the "bloofer lady" of Hampstead Heath, who lures children away and inflicts wounds on their throats. These incidents recall the act of the vampire women in Chapter 3 in devouring a child thrown to them by the Count. They would have been especially horrific to a Victorian readership brought up with the ideal of the self-sacrificing, nurturing mother.
Mina, the only female character in the novel to transcend the Victorian passive stereotype, shows an assertive nature when she decides to read Harker's journal, which has thus far been kept sealed. Her courageous determination to keep abreast of the facts is maintained for a large part of the novel, before she is 'rescued' and sidelined by Van Helsing - for her own and the men's safety, naturally.