NovelGuide: Dracula: Novel Summary: Chapter 14

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Chapter 14

Summary
Mina records in her journal that Harker is feeling better. She reads his Transylvanian journal and is shocked by its contents, though she dares not discuss them with him as she fears it would damage his health. She is not certain whether it is a true account or delusions prompted by his brain fever. Mina is, however, very concerned by Harker's comment that the Count is coming to London, "with its teeming millions." Sensing that it may become her "solemn duty" to reveal the contents of the journal, she begins to transcribe it on her typewriter.
Van Helsing has read Lucy's papers, including letters that Mina has written to her about Harker's illness. He visits Mina to try to glean information about the events leading up to Lucy's death. Mina is struck by his kindness and intelligence, and gives him Harker's journal to read. Later that day, he writes a note to Mina saying that he has read the journal and is convinced that it is true.
When Mina tells Harker of Van Helsing's verdict, Harker feels restored: "It was the doubt as to the reality of the whole thing that knocked me over." He realizes that the man he saw in London was the Count. Harker's memories of what happened in Transylvania come back to him.
Van Helsing meets Harker, and praises Mina to him as "one of God's women." Van Helsing asks Harker to help him in opposing the Count, which Harker solemnly promises to do.
Seward records in his diary that Renfield has gone back to eating flies. Van Helsing shows Seward a newspaper with a report about the child abductions at Hampstead, pointing out that the children return with wounds on their throats similar to Lucy's. Van Helsing asks Seward what he makes of this, but Seward, having "no data," will only say that there may be some common cause. When Van Helsing asks him the cause of Lucy's death, he says it was loss of blood. Van Helsing presses Seward as to what could have caused this loss, but Seward cannot say. Van Helsing rebukes Seward for being "prejudiced": "Ah, it is the fault of science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain." He points out that science has failed to explain many phenomena that are known to be true, such as how an Indian holy man can be buried alive for many months and emerge none the worse for the experience. Van Helsing challenges Seward "To believe in things you cannot." He then asks Seward if he believes that Lucy and the children were injured by the same agent. Seward says he does. Van Helsing tells him he is wrong: the wounds on the children were made by Lucy.
Analysis
This chapter shows how the rationalist viewpoint prevents people from recognizing the reality of the Count's evil; what they cannot see, they cannot effectively oppose. Before Mina meets Van Helsing, she suspects that the contents of Harker's journal may be deluded ravings prompted by his brain fever - even Harker himself shared her suspicions. Van Helsing is able to confirm the reality of his experiences, and this moment marks Harker's coming-into-manhood: he accepts the truth of what has happened to him and instantly regains his strength.
The handicap placed upon the mind by the narrow scientific view is also the theme of the conversation between Van Helsing and the "prejudiced" Seward. If Seward lacks data on a phenomenon, he assumes it does not exist. But Seward at least tries to rise to Van Helsing's challenge to believe in things he cannot, though he has huge resistance, as we shall see in the next chapter.
There is another purpose to the skeptical rationalist characters. They embody the reader's own rationalist prejudices and anticipate our objections to the more implausible elements of the plot. We do not have to feel contemptuous or skeptical of the idea of vampires because Seward, Harker and Mina fulfil this role for us. Van Helsing, the wisest character in the book and the one who has the largest overview of events, must work hard to persuade each rationalist character that the problem they are facing is of the supernatural world. In the process, he carries the reader along with him, and we change our viewpoint along with the rationalists.
Indeed, many readers will be ahead of the rationalists and will share Van Helsing's impatience with their leaden thought processes. We identify with Van Helsing because we share, to some extent, his wider view of events and because when it comes to intelligence, he stands head and shoulders over all the other characters. This is another factor that enables us to suspend our disbelief and accept the reality of the world of vampires.
Van Helsing's praise of Mina, "one of God's women," as "So true, so sweet, so noble, so little an egoist," portrays the Victorian ideal of womanhood - an ideal that most women would surely have failed to attain. This is also the ideal that the Count has the power to shatter. What gives him power is the existence of female sexual desire, such as we saw in Lucy. The Count can only enter where he is first invited, and a woman such as Lucy only invites him because she desires what he represents - sexual power.
The demonizing of female sexual desire in Dracula echoes the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve disobeyed God by acting on her desire for the forbidden fruit, a desire that the devil implanted in her. Eve in turn tempted Adam, and both fell from God's grace and were ejected from the garden. In the process, they lost the capacity for eternal life and became mortal. Dracula shows the lurking potential for a second fall of man: the women, whose weak point is sexual desire, are tempted and become corrupted by the Count's sexual prowess. 'Fallen' women in turn 'infect' men with their corruption by sucking their lifeblood, a theme reflected in the Victorian preoccupation with the debilitating effects of sexual excess.