NovelGuide: Dracula: Novel Summary: Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

Summary
Chapter 2 continues Harker's journal. Harker arrives at the castle courtyard in darkness. As the carriage driver helps him to disembark, Harker notices that his grip is extremely strong. Left alone in the courtyard, Harker hears the sound of bolts being drawn back on a heavy door. The door opens, and there stands a tall old man dressed in black. It is Count Dracula. The Count welcomes Harker with such a strong handshake that Harker wonders if the Count and the carriage driver are the same person. The Count's hand is as cold as ice - "more like the hand of a dead than a living man." The Count shows Harker to a large and well-lit room with a log fire, which is to be his bedroom. The warmth of the room and the Count's welcome disperse Harker's fears.
The Count invites Harker to eat supper, though the Count does not eat, saying he has dined already. After supper, Harker notes the peculiarities of the Count's appearance. He has a fixed, cruel mouth and sharp white teeth, which protrude over the lips. His ears are pointed and his skin is pale. His hands have hair in the middle of the palm, and the nails are cut to a sharp point. Harker feels repulsed and afraid once again.
The two sit up until dawn. As Harker retires to bed, the Count tells him that he has to be away till afternoon. When Harker wakes, he finds breakfast laid out for him. When he has finished eating, he wants to ring for a servant, but there is no evidence of a bell or of any servants. Harker thinks that this is strange, given the richness of the furnishings. In addition, he cannot find a mirror anywhere.
Harker opens one of the doors in his room and finds that it leads to a library. The Count enters and the two men talk about the Count's enthusiasm for England and his desire to perfect his English intonation. The Count also gives Harker leave to go anywhere in the castle except where he finds locked doors.
Harker asks the Count about some of the strange things he has seen in Transylvania, including the blue flames he noticed on his journey. The Count explains that it is believed that on one night in the year - the previous night, in fact - blue flames appear wherever treasure has been buried. He says that the treasure has thus far escaped being dug up because the peasants are so frightened of that night that they do not stir outdoors.
They discuss the old house that the Count has purchased in London. The house is called Carfax, dates back to medieval times, and is surrounded by a high wall. Among the few nearby buildings are an old chapel and a lunatic asylum. While the Count is out of the room, Harker notices a map of England with rings marking three places: one on the east side of London, where the Count's new estate is situated; one on Exeter, where Harker's employer, Peter Hawkins, is based; and one on Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast.
Once again, the Count keeps Harker up until dawn, chatting. As dawn breaks, the Count hurriedly leaves. Harker begins to wish he were away from the place; he believes himself to be the only living soul there.
The next morning, the Count interrupts Harker while he is shaving, using his own mirror. Harker is startled by the Count's presence, since he did not see him approach in the mirror. He turns the glass on the Count deliberately, to try to see his reflection, but none appears. Harker cuts himself. The Count responds to the blood with a look of "demoniac fury," and tries to grab Harker's throat. His hand touches the rosary holding the crucifix, and he draws back, calmed. The Count warns Harker against cutting himself in this country, and throws his shaving mirror out of the window.
Harker is left to eat breakfast alone. Harker remarks that he has never seen the Count eat. He examines the view from the windows, noting that the castle sits on the edge of a precipice. Then he explores the castle, and finds locked doors everywhere. The only exit from the castle appears to be from the windows above the precipice. Harker realizes that he is a prisoner.
Analysis
Dracula follows the eighteenth-century narrative convention of telling the story in real time, as the events happen, through the narrator's journal. If the novel had been told in retrospect, we would know that the narrator survived, but as it is, we have no idea whether he did. This uncertainty adds to the horror and suspense, as do other elements in this chapter: the Count's "dead" handshake, his crazed response to the sight of blood from Harker's shaving cut, and the fact that the Count cannot be seen in a mirror. Harker's realization that he has lost his status as honored guest and has become the Count's prisoner intensifies the fear factor. The setting, too, with its ancient castle and dramatic and wild landscape, contributes to our sense of dread.
The 'antidotes' to the Count's evil are conventional Christian symbols: a rosary and crucifix. It could be argued that Dracula could only be written from within the traditions and conventions of Christianity. For example, Christianity has traditionally taken a disapproving attitude to sexuality, particularly in 'respectable' women. This attitude reached its apotheosis in the Victorian England of Bram Stoker's time. The imagery and symbolism of Dracula is rife with suppressed sexuality, as we shall see in future chapters.
Suppression in the more general sense is already a strong theme. The over-reliance on the rational faculty by the archetypal English gentleman, Harker, means that he is ill-equipped to deal with matters of the supernatural and the ancient culture of Transylvania. Also, the Count is presented as a model of courtesy and civilized behavior, with subtle hints of something terrifying and powerful being kept hidden underneath the smooth veneer. The veneer cracks momentarily when Harker cuts himself and bleeds: the Count reveals a demoniac rage which is, however, laid to rest by his touching the rosary and crucifix. The Count's determination to confine Harker to certain rooms and block off others is another sign of an attempt to preserve the all-important respectable appearance. But as the novel progresses, the bestial aspects of man that Victorian England suppressed will emerge, all the stronger for having been chained for so long.