NovelGuide: Dracula: Novel Summary: Chapter 16

Select a Chapter:

Chapter 16

Summary
Seward's diary records how that night, Van Helsing, Seward, Morris and Holmwood go to the churchyard. Van Helsing opens Lucy's coffin, and finds it empty. Van Helsing tells the others that when they came before at night, the coffin was empty, yet when they came in the day, the body was there. He says that he removed the garlic before sundown, and that at sundown, the Un-dead can move around. Van Helsing seals the tomb entrance with crumbled communion wafers to prevent the Un-dead Lucy from entering.
The men conceal themselves near the tomb and wait. A white figure appears, holding a child, which cries out. As the figure approaches, the men recognize the features of Lucy. However, whereas she had appeared sweet, now she appears cruel; what was purity has turned to "voluptuous wantonness." Blood is dripping from her lips. When Lucy sees them she gives an angry snarl, like an animal. Seward's love turns to loathing and he feels that he could kill her. She flings to the ground the child she is carrying and approaches Holmwood seductively, with "a wanton smile." Holmwood opens his arms to receive her, but Van Helsing leaps forward and holds his crucifix between them. Lucy recoils and rushes for the tomb, but is repulsed by the communion wafers. Her face becomes terrifying with fury. Van Helsing takes the opportunity to ask Holmwood for permission to proceed in his work, and Holmwood, horrified by what he has seen, agrees. Van Helsing removes some of the communion wafers from the chinks around the door and Lucy slips through into the tomb.
The next day, the men return to the churchyard and enter Lucy's tomb. This time, Lucy is lying in her coffin, her mouth bloodstained, looking "carnal and unspiritual." Van Helsing explains that the Un-dead cannot die, but create new victims, which in turn create more victims. Though Lucy has not killed any children yet, if she continues, they will lose so much blood that they will themselves become Un-dead. But if someone kills her in the traditional way, by driving a stake through her heart and cutting off her head, she will die properly and "take her place with the other Angels." Van Helsing asks who will do this blessed act. Holmwood sees that the task falls to him, as Lucy's fianc�. Guided by Van Helsing, he drives a stake through Lucy's heart. Lucy gives a blood-curdling scream and contorts wildly before lying still. The men all see that Lucy has miraculously regained her previous purity and beauty. Holmwood thanks Van Helsing for restoring Lucy's soul and his peace of mind. Van Helsing tells Holmwood that he can now kiss her, which he does. Holmwood and Morris leave the tomb, and Van Helsing and Seward cut off Lucy's head and fill the mouth with garlic. Then they seal up the coffin.
As they leave the scene, Van Helsing tells the others that the next stage of their work is to find "the author of all this our sorrow and to stamp him out." They promise to help him, and he arranges that they will meet at Seward's house in two nights' time. He warns them that a "terrible task" is before them.
Analysis
The incident in which Arthur Holmwood kills the Un-dead vampire Lucy by driving a stake through her heart is one of the most-discussed scenes in the novel. Holmwood is the right person for the job because he was Lucy's fianc�. His former role as bridegroom-to-be, and the heavy sexual symbolism of the scene combine to give it the flavor of a violent sexual 'deflowering' - some critics have dubbed it a gang rape. The stake is a phallic symbol, and Holmwood drives it "deeper and deeper." Lucy's body contorts wildly. Bodily fluids flow in the form of blood from Lucy's heart. Just as the sexual act would end in the fulfillment of a climax or 'little death,' this act ends in the fulfillment of Lucy's real death, and release from the Un-dead state. Just as vigorous sex would satiate the living Lucy's voracious sexual appetite, Holmwood's act of "mercy" will put an end to the Un-dead Lucy's voracious appetite for blood. After he has driven the stake through her heart, she regains her previous pure beauty and a "holy calm" spreads over her face, a sign that her soul is redeemed. Even nature joins in the rejoicing: the sun shines and birds sing. Symbolically, she has been sexually satisfied by her husband-to-be and returned to the pure state of monogamy.
Lucy's horrific appearance before she is destroyed gives a moral justification to the men's actions. She is no longer human, but a "foul Thing," an enraged animal. She snarls like a cat, and growls like a dog; her eyes are no longer the "pure, gentle orbs we knew," but "unclean and full of hell-fire." Following the symbolic thread of the novel, Lucy embodies the terrible consequences of surrender to untrammeled sexual appetites. The descriptions of her voluptuous appearance are accompanied by references to the desire of the men to kill her: Seward is overwhelmed by hate and loathing when he sees her animal-like expression, and his response is presented as morally responsible and wholesome.