#it's not like dracula has been biting lucy every day anyways. but the combo of her health improving while renfield gives up on dracula seem | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vickyvicarious · 9 months

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So, now that we know the context that Lucy was doing better on the 5th and is worse again on the 6th, I want to go back to take a look at Renfield's behavior on the 4th-5th and see if we can extrapolate what Dracula's been up to.

There haven't been any anti-vampire methods taken yet, and contrary to media adaptations, van Helsing isn't some elite vampire hunter that the Count would recognize. And yet Renfield's behavior changed on the day of his arrival (the entry on the 4th specifies Renfield's midday outburst was 'yesterday')*. That was at the stroke of noon for Renfield; we don't know when the doctors visited Lucy exactly, but it was approximately lunchtime, since Mrs. Westenra "lunching out" was the reason she wasn't around. So it's possible the timings overlap. (I know the concepts of "lunch" and "dinner" have changed over time/place, but from what I'm aware of, it would have been around noon to one or so in the late 1800s.)

I don't think that there is really any in-universe reason for this coincidental timing. As already stated, they didn't do anything that could deter a vampire, and it's not like Dracula would be likely to have even known about their visit if he usually rests during the day. However, it is still interesting to notice that while Seward, van Helsing, and Lucy are gathered together and trying to be open with one another/learn more, at the same time Renfield is extremely distressed about vampirism being denied him. Then he calms down the next day when van Helsing has gone. If you were to assign any meaning to those particular characters' movements, I'd say it reflects how Dracula's power is greater when people are divided, and how the sharing of knowledge weakens him. But that's only symbolic, and doesn't quite line up with Lucy's continued health the next couple of days, so I don't put a ton of stock in it. Just wanted to note it briefly.

Anyways, Renfield calms down the next day at about 5pm. Of course, he's not really calm so much as resigned here. He decides that Dracula has deserted him and he has to resume his efforts with flies, etc. Seward's next entry is written at midnight, a significant hour, but is talking about something that happened at sunset (the irony of him writing at midnight and musing about the possible significance/influence of certain hours... if only he knew). Renfield has a view of the sunset from his window, and he once again starts yelling, only to quiet as the sun sinks down, even to the point of collapsing on the floor briefly. Then he recovers and is done with his flies, fully ready to rely on Dracula once more.

Put all together, it looks something like this:

2 September - Seward visits Lucy, and she's very ill. He sends for van Helsing.

3 September - at lunchtime, van Helsing and Seward meet with Lucy. At noon on the dot, Renfield's outburst begins, lasts five minutes, then he sinks into a sullen silence.* That night, Lucy's health is good.

4 September - At 5pm, Renfield gives up on Dracula. At sunset, he begins to yell again, then calms down and resumes placing his hopes in Dracula. That night, Lucy's health is good.

5 September - Seward reports that Lucy is fine during the day. Nothing from Renfield. That night, Lucy's health abruptly gets much worse.

6 September - Seward learns about the change in Lucy's health in the morning and sends the news to van Helsing and Arthur.

*This is contradicted in the same day by Seward saying "there may be a clue after all, if we can find why to-day his paroxysms came on at high noon and at sunset." at the end of his final entry. If so, then the line at the beginning of the day's entries was mistaken, and all the Renfield mood changes happened on the 4th.

The reason I like to assume Renfield's noontime despair hit on the 3rd is because it makes everything work better with the Lucy and Dracula timelines. During the entire time Renfield is distressed about being abandoned, Lucy remains undisturbed by Dracula. It's only on the night after he settles down that Dracula comes back for her. That said, it could still work if his events all happened on the 4th, just a bit less neatly.

I've speculated before about Renfield being more aligned to the supernatural world/time with his reactions to the moon. And here the trend seems to continue with his greatest distress beginning at the height of the day, and eventually calming after the sun has set. But the question of what prompts it is still there. Just looking at these times, I've got a suggestion...

What if Dracula left for a couple of days? Say, he left on the night of the 2rd and returns on the 4th after the sun has gone down? This would mean he didn't visit Lucy, and Renfield freaked out when the daytime hit the hour when vampires are weakest and Dracula still wasn't back in his chapel. (If Renfield's distress was all on the 4th then it would just have taken him longer to panic about the Count's absence.) As the night went by with no return of his Master, he decided he had been abandoned and decided to resume his solitary efforts. But Dracula did return as/just after the sun set on the 4th, and so Renfield calms down again. Dracula stays in that night. Then, the next night he resumes his typical schedule with a visit to Lucy's window.

Renfield's distress at sunset after he's been quiet throughout the day is a little harder to explain. Maybe, by giving up on Dracula, he's become slightly more aligned with the daytime/mundane world, and the sunset marking the vampire's return pulls him back to the nighttime/supernatural side of things in a way that is initially distressing or almost painful? At least until the sun is gone and his transition is complete. ...I dunno, I'm kinda spitballing here.

Anyways, if we do go with this assumption that Renfield's actions and Lucy's health reflect Dracula's absence from Carfax, it begs the question of where he went. I admittedly don't have any real answer on that. Perhaps he went to go visit his other London correspondents:

One of the letters was directed to Samuel F. Billington, No. 7, The Crescent, Whitby, another to Herr Leutner, Varna; the third was to Coutts & Co., London, and the fourth to Herren Klopstock & Billreuth, bankers, Buda-Pesth.

That might explain why he had to remain out during the day, if he had to meet with some people. Doesn't quite explain why he would have been gone multiple days though, or where he spent his vulnerable hours. If he wasn't able to rest properly while gone though, it could explain the way Lucy wasn't bothered on the night he returns (instead of drinking her he just napped hard for a night) and then her health takes such an abrupt dive the night after (he drinks a lot to get his energy up again). I guess my best suggestion is that...

(spoilers below)

Dracula was seeing to something involving some of the other properties he's bought. He isn't moving any boxes yet, and doesn't seem to be in a rush to move, but maybe he's beginning to get things set up. Doing property walkthroughs, that sort of thing?

#dracula daily #renfield #count dracula #i'm just kind of speculating here... let me know if this makes sense to you #dracula daily spoilers #under the cut only #lucy westenra #it's not like dracula has been biting lucy every day anyways. but the combo of her health improving while renfield gives up on dracula seem #to fit together in a way just her health improving alone wouldn't #dracula moonlight

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