Dracula's Pitiful Servant & Betrayer Renfield - A Tale of Redemption

Why he merits pity

Few characters have it as bad in the novel of Dracula by Bram Stoker than Renfield, with the man one who in another life was educated, cultivated and respectable. The key word is ‘was’, as he has since become a pitiable figure, one who at some point in time fell into the thrall of Dracula.

Renfield once put away in Siward’s asylum begins to eat spiders, bugs and otherwise living out the dream-diet of many a socialists but where another might have lost all of his wits (such as they were), he does not.

Renfield is slavishly devoted to Dracula, in such a way and to such an extent that he shows himself to be comparable to to-day’s fanboys of certain pop bands and pop-culture groups, however there is something more to him beneath the surface.

Archetypally he is a shadow archetype, a shadow of sorts of Siward. Where Siward resists and seeks to defy Dracula Renfield does not, in a lot of ways he is his disciple just as Siward is one to Helsing.

Stronger than Siward at times, it is noteworthy that Renfield is never quite able to bring himself to harm his doctor, which suggests a special bond of sorts between them. This could be interpreted in one of two ways; one is that they are the same character in a way the shadow and the positive form of the other. Both men are also interestingly enough to have unrequited love for a lady, in the case of Siward it was for Lucy and Renfield it was for Mina.

Another version is to interpret Siward as the good side of Renfield, that is to say that he is drawn to him in a way that he also is towards Dracula. This is because, Siward seeks to as his doctor redeem him and pull him out from the shadows that he might become all that he can be. In this way Siward fulfils the same role that a priest might for a lost member of his flock, whereas Dracula represents quite naturally the ‘devil’ on the shoulder who seeks to corrupt a man.

Lost and afraid as he is, Renfield has no wish to destroy the only man who seemingly has tried to genuinely help him and who exhibits constant support and compassion for him. It also follows that he allows Renfield visitors (mostly Siward’s own friends), books and is constantly trying to pull him away from his bug-fetish even as he strives to understand him.

In a way, Renfield is the modern man who is fed false foods and false promises, and Siward by enabling him is akin to his mother or father, even as Dracula is the darkness within that corrupts and weakens Renfield into what he presently is. Both Siward and Renfield are in the wrong under this interpretation however the doctor at least towards the end strives to offer up far more permanent curatives than just enabling the current vice.

In this way Siward seeks to break the spell that modernity holds over Renfield, who for his part considers himself too far gone. This is untrue as depiste the spell that his master has over him, the patient turns into a veritable berserker when he discovers that the man who has enslaved him intends to poison Mina, he then rebels against the monster.

This is Renfield seeking to break his chains, chains that are spiritual in nature and that have kept him down and enslaved. Love quite simply is the greatest liberating force imaginable in Christian philosophy and it is love that pushes the broken man to surpass himself and reach beyond his limits to attempt to wrestle with and destroy Dracula. This after only one meeting with her, which speaks a great deal to the effect that the noble Mina had upon him.

Should we regard with scorn Renfield’s failure to defeat Dracula? Should we highlight his defeat and death?

I think not. Because Renfield DID win. He conquered the darkness within himself that Dracula had preyed upon. He tore it asunder and tore it from his own body, and cast it out. He also sought to defeat Dracula failed, and then proceeded to offer counsel in his last minutes to the heroes, aiding them at the most crucial hour to defeat Dracula.

Int his way it is his courage, his redemption we ought to appreciate and ought to admire. One could almost compare Dracula’s hold over him as a form of possession and the breaking of his hold over him, as an act of self-purification.

In a lot of ways, poor Renfield is one of the unsung heroes of the tale written by Bram Stoker.