NovelGuide: Dracula: Novel Summary: Chapter 22

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Chapter 22

Summary
Harker's diary tells the outcome of Renfield's story. Seward finds out from the attendant that he thought he heard two voices in Renfield's room before he was attacked. Then, Renfield cried out, "God! God! God!" and there came the sound of Renfield falling. The attendant rushed into Renfield's room and found him bloodstained and lying face down on the floor, but found no one else there and concluded that he had fallen from his bed.
The men decide that they will no longer conceal anything from Mina. Mina says that she will stay alert to the slightest sign that she may harm anyone that she loves, and choose to die, by her own hand if no friend will kill her out of mercy. Van Helsing says he could reconcile such an act with his conscience, but Mina must not die while the Count is still Un-dead, as she would become Un-dead too.
The men decide to visit all the Count's houses in London to place a Communion wafer in each box of earth, so as to render them uninhabitable by any vampire. Before they leave, Van Helsing seals Mina's room with Communion wafers and other protective items, and touches her forehead with one of the wafers to protect her person. The wafer burns into her flesh. She realizes the significance of this, crying that she is "Unclean! Unclean!" Van Helsing warns her that she may bear the scar until Judgment Day, when God redresses all wrongs.
The men first go to Carfax and 'sterilize' each box of earth by placing a Communion wafer inside. Then they go to the Count's house in Piccadilly. Holmwood goes to find a locksmith to let them in, confident that his noble title will reassure the locksmith and any policeman who challenges him that he has a legitimate reason to enter the house. Once in the house, they find only eight boxes: one is missing. They sterilize them and find a bunch of keys and title deeds to all of the Count's London houses. Morris and Holmwood take the keys and go in search of the other houses, to sterilize the rest of the boxes.
Analysis
Mina is elevated in this chapter to the status of martyr, since she is prepared to die rather than harm any of those she loves. The incident where the Communion wafer burns the flesh of her forehead shows that she has become corrupted by the Count - as she puts it, she is unclean. The resulting scar on her forehead recalls the brands that were traditionally burned into the flesh of criminals and others who had offended against society's mores, as well as the ancient belief that people who were possessed by the devil bore 'the devil's mark.' The men's crusade takes on a more personal and urgent aspect: their task is not only to rid the world of the evil Count, but to restore Mina to her original state of purity.
It may strike the modern reader as odd that the height of achievement for a woman in this novel is to radiate purity and innocence, even to the extent of giving her life in order to uphold these values. But in this respect, Stoker is reflecting the values of the respectable society of his time, which placed strict limits on the role of women.