NovelGuide: Dracula: Novel Summary: Chapter 7

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Chapter 7

Summary
A cutting from Whitby's local newspaper reports one of the worst storms on record. Before the storm breaks, the strange Russian ship is seen with all sails set. The onlookers on the shore cannot understand this, as normally a ship's captain facing a storm would reduce sail. The storm drives the ship into the harbour. The people on shore are astonished to see that the ship is unmanned, except for a corpse whose hands are tied to the wheel, grasping a crucifix. The instant the ship touches shore, a huge dog springs onto the deck from below, jumps ashore and disappears in the direction of the cliffs and graveyard. A surgeon examines the corpse and says that the man has been dead for two days. In the dead man's pocket is an addendum to the ship's log. The coastguard says that the man must have tied his own hands to the wheel, tying the knots with his teeth. The corpse is taken to a mortuary to await the inquest.
It is confirmed that the ship is Russian, has sailed from the Russian port of Varna, and is called the Demeter. The cargo consists only of some great wooden boxes filled with earth, which are sent on to the consignee, a Whitby solicitor, Mr S F Billington. Though the mysterious dog from the ship has not turned up, a large mastiff belonging to a local resident has been found dead with its throat torn away and its belly slit open.
Extracts from the captain's log follow. The voyage begins normally, but within a few days, the Russian and Romanian crew seem afraid of something. One day, a crew member goes missing. Another crew member tells the captain that he thinks a strange man, of tall, thin appearance, is aboard the ship. The captain organizes a search, but nothing is found. In the following days, one crew member after another disappears, and the men become progressively more frightened. By the time they are approaching England, only the captain and the mate remain. The mate seems to have run mad, and tells the captain that he saw the strange man, and stabbed him with his knife, but the knife went straight through him. The mate goes into the hold to search the boxes. After some time, he rushes out on deck, terrified, saying, "He is here," and throws himself into the sea.
The captain has no choice but to stay at the wheel. After night falls, he sees the strange man and knows he is doomed. As the captain, he must stay with his ship. He says he will tie his hands and a crucifix to the wheel and await his fate. There the log ends.
The inquest returns an open verdict and the townspeople prepare to give the captain a hero's funeral.
An entry from Mina's journal tells how Lucy is still sleepwalking at night and restless during the day. Mina then describes the captain's funeral. The body is taken up the river in a procession of boats and carried to the churchyard by local sea-captains for burial. On the same morning, Swales is found dead on Lucy and Mina's favorite seat in the graveyard, with his neck broken and a look of terror on his face. A dog belonging to one of the townspeople refuses to approach the seat, but barks and howls at it from a distance. The owner becomes angry and throws the dog onto the seat, when it falls silent and trembles in fear.
Analysis
The captain's log is testament to the Count's power to destroy (the crew members who disappear and the captain who dies at the wheel) and to drive people from their senses (the mate, who prefers to drown himself than face the Count). Madness is a theme that runs through the novel and is linked with the Count's influence. There is the homicidal lunatic Renfield, who views the Count as his master; there is Lucy, whose mental imbalance manifests in her restlessness and sleepwalking as she comes under the influence of the Count; and there is Harker, who suffers so many assaults on his reason during his visit to the Count that he convinces himself he is dreaming.
Nineteenth-century Britain's identity was increasingly bound up with the progress of science and technology, and the pursuit of civilized respectability. Hence such regressions to a state of madness that cannot be reached or controlled by reason or science would have felt threatening to Stoker's readers. Various characters use scientific method (Seward) or modern technology (Seward and his phonograph diary, Mina and her typewriter) in an attempt to control the vast powers of the supernatural 'underworld'. But at best, all they can do is observe and record: Renfield is usually several steps ahead of Seward, and even the practical and virtuous Mina will become the helpless victim of the Count.