Analyzing the Greatest Horror Novel - Dracula by Bram Stoker's Intro Scene
Analyzing one of the best written intro scenes in horror history
Strangely this scene has rarely ever been depicted in cinema and television history. Yet it is a great one. The first few scenes of the novel by Bram Stoker is one that inspires such chills and plants so many seeds tonally for later in the book that to neglect it is a criminal act.
Sorry did I say scenes? Oh yes I did. Because while it is not exactly the first scene, it basically is but there’s some minor build up to it also. As Jonathan Harker the lead of the story advances along the Eastern European countryside, he soon finds his way via a series of trains, to the Transylvanian country.
It is there that he stays in the hotel known as the Golden Krone Hotel that is owned by a fairly superstitious couple. Or so it seems, as the superstitious couple are of a warm nature and seem to have welcomed Jonathan Harker into their home without almost any questions. They feed him well and treat him fairly well.
Given that the local couple take the feeding of the man fairly seriously, one can assume that they are from a fairly old society. This is because of how in societies like the French, the Irish, Romania and Hungary among many others, food isn’t something you give away lightly. It comes from having had a great many famines over the course of the Medieval period among others.
Food is never shared lightly save with children, and it is held as sacred almost. It is also interesting how many Catholic and Orthodox societies are the same way. The Irish’s obsession dates back likely to the 1310s and the famine that wiped out thousands back then, the French to the Hundred Years War, which saw thousands starve to death due to English plundering and looting and burning of crops. The Romanians likely to the Ottoman period when the Ottoman would raid their countryside ruthlessly.
Certainly his stay is paid for but they seem quite eager to treat him well out of genuine fondness, something that speaks to the charisma but also the innate purity and goodness that surrounds him.
Jonathan is someone who seems to attract people. He might be somewhat reserved or at least shy and humble at the outset of the story, but there is a charm about him. Something within that draws those around him to him, notably men and the elderly. Men wish to be his friend and seem to feel some innate strength from within him, and so wish to be his brother while the elderly seek to make a son of him throughout the novel.
It is fascinating how often they dote upon him. Likely there is a boyish quality about Jonathan Harker, so that he must be in his twenties, probably in his early ones or he looks young for his age and has a great deal of energy even as he carries himself like a wise old man.
That said the old couple let him into their hotel with the interesting name; Golden is something that speaks to wealth, while Krone…. well Crone. It is an interesting choice on the part of Stoker, who portrays most crones in the book as positive figures. Old women who wish to protect young men and women from the monsters that lay within the dark and deeps of the night.
Lucy’s mother is the one semi-negative character, a woman who doesn’t listen to others, is foolish and seems trapped by modernity. But most others like the Nuns, and the crones of Transylvania are wise old women who seek to protect young men.
In the case of the old woman at the hotel, when she finds out that Jonathan has plans to continue on to the castle she becomes hysterical. Figuratively she plays the role of a kind of mother to Jonathan, seeking to shield him from harm yet unable to protect him from the world.
It is at this time that she speaks of the date.
“Oh, yes! I know that! I know that, but do you know what day it is?” On my saying that I did not understand, she went on: “It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?”
This is the exact quote, and what is so interesting is that Bram has stuck in a reference to St-George. How very English of him (haha). But at the same time it is an interesting tradition.
Looking it up on google and wikipedia here’s what they had to say about this quote of sorts or at least St-George’s Eve/Day; “George's Day as observed by the Eastern Orthodox churches of that era. The belief is that moroi (living vampires), witches, and other dark creatures must gather all the evil power they can between midnight and the dawn of the saint's holy day, so it is unsafe to go outside on that night.”
Interesting isn’t it? So the belief is that the monsters of the night are released shortly after the start of the St-Georges, they may wreak havoc throughout the early morning hours before the sun comes up, but once it does they must flee else the hallowed day will hunt them down and they’ll likely suffer. This assumption can be made given what St-George is famous for (the slaying of a dragon, a symbol of evil and the devil).
So it can be viewed as a favourite day and a most hated day of evil things.
“She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort her, but without effect. Finally she went down on her knees and implored me not to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting.”
This is the next quote, and what is interesting is the amount of distress this woman feels for Harker. He’s a stranger, and yet she feels such concern for him? It shows not simply her kindness, but that her concern might be more than just for his life. It might well be for his very soul.
It is interesting that in the old Hammer films some of the concern expressed by older members in society were brushed off as over-bearing and mere superstitious nonsense by the young. Many of whom brought about untold evil or tragedy upon themselves. In Harker’s case he doesn’t seem to brush it off, but seems discomfited by it even as he struggles to understand and comfort her.
In this way Stoker is showing us the innate goodness in both of them, even as he is showing that Harker truly doesn’t understand the old woman’s concerns. He is trying to grasp the reason and depth of her consternation for him even as he is failing to. On her part she is driven to near madness by her concern for him. One could also propose that it might be the more classical version of Christianity than that which England enjoys by that time, as traditional Christianity in its Catholic and Orthodox strains tend to be very much concerned for the souls of others and with the appearance in any form of the devil.
Modernized and urbanized, Stoker seems to make a variety of commentaries about how Protestantism developed, and how it has lost in modernity some measure of its strength against the most ancient of evils. Or so it would seem, as the heroes are without defences until the arrival of Van Helsing, a modern scientist true but also a traditional Catholic.
That said, don’t take it as an attack on Protestantism, as this is just an observation within Stoker’s work. He seems to make a lot of implications with little page-time so to speak.
What is more is that he suggests that the nosiest and most concerned for others in society are old women. Old men get troubled for others but it is the old women who interfere in the lives of others.
Is this a good thing? It can be. But when take to an extreme as all know, we can get those like Lucy’s mother who actually damages the lives and what not of others around her, by virtue of her nosiness and interference in things she doesn’t understand.
The clinging to Harker’s legs and abjuration of her own dignity and sense of self-worth should be taken as a sign that this isn’t just an ordinary level of concern. This is a woman fearing that a good man might soon be lost to the perils of the night. She doesn’t wish his death on her soul and seeks to protect him from that which seeks to do him the most harm; Dracula.
What she does next once she’s calmed down is the most rationale and most important gesture she does in the whole of the book: “She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round my neck, and said, “For your mother’s sake,””
Why is this important? Because it hints at the power of the Crucifix in warding off evil. It also begins the process of Harker’s conversion (an event that won’t be complete until later in the book) and something that has indeed some measure of importance as it enables Harker to reach deep into the core of his own being to counter Dracula in ways the old Vampire cannot even imagine.
That said, the fact that she sees the doubt on his face, and realizes she’s only making him think she’s batty, and decides okay fine I’ll give you the Cross anyways, is a fairly rationale move. It is rationale in that she knows what he’s about to face, and swallowing her fear and her hysteria manages to think things through enough to offer up that which she treasures most and that which is her own protection.
This is a selfless act, one that is an attempt to shield him. And Harker will wear the Crucifix throughout a portion of his time with Dracula.
Indeed the Cross plays an important role in the novel and is the ultimate blade and shield against the darkness as embodied by Dracula.
On the train Harker wonders about why he feels so uncomfortable and uneasy. But it is the seed planted by the old woman, and it is with a growing realization that something is off, that he at last ventures forth towards Dracula’s foreboding, dark and terrible castle in the mountains.
Great article. I was at the library last week and found a series of Dracula books written by Bram Stoker's descendant, Dacre Stoker. Checked out the first book, Dracula the Undead, but haven't started it yet, premise is 25 years after the events of Dracula the survivors are being hunted one by one so they start to wonder, had Dracula survived? Think there are a couple more books in the series as well.
The only novel to have given me a nightmare.