Now I don't personally believe that Dracula was for real terrified of Mina, however, he did flee after seeing this dainty girl (who saw him in the graveyard with his red eyes and immense figure) not faint or scream or freeze or flee despite her obvious fear but run straight at him.

Dracula is at his worst when something he wasn't anticipating happens. He wasn't expecting Jonathan to pick himself up and literally crawl up the castle walls and dare try to kill him. If he was expecting that, he'd not be having a scar now. He wasn't expecting the Captain of the Demeter to defy him by tying himself up on the wheel with a crucifix. If he did, the logs would have been gone now.

Mina woke up and ran into the night defying every fear, convention, risk, to save Lucy from man or beast. That wasn't on his Bingo card. He was forced to stop hurting Lucy and fled.

Then Mina wakes up again, sensing something wrong, and goes to the window and spots him. He flies closer a couple of times but she remains there. He's forced to flee again. Mina believes she scared the 'bat'.

To me, these two scenes establish a few things.

-Bravery as a core trait for Mina.

-Mina as the one who hunts Dracula down.

Jonathan wounded him in his box, the Captain denied him apotheosis, but Mina made him run.

It's really horror inducing how neither the Captain or the reader see, or have evidence of, the way that the men's disappearances happen.

The crew is in the dark completely, their imagination running wild. The reader though can infer what is going on. We know that Dracula is hidden on the ship, and we saw last month that he had drank man's blood at night before retiring in his dirt casket at dawn before his departure. We also know that he loves isolating and casting doubt. Throwing people into the sea after "being done with" them isn't out of the question, he hasn't promised his leftovers to anyone, after all.

But we still have no actual clear view. No blood stains, no bite marks, no witnesses, no evidence left behind. Just men disappearing into the sea without warning. That's all we read about.

We are left to fill in the blanks ourselves, using what we already know. And that's really effective horror.

Part 3 Time Traveling Quincey!

(Part 1 Here)

Part 2

Part 4

(Quick little sketch of Jonathan Harker as I try to settle on a design for him.)

I know Lucy compared herself to Ophelia and that this is worrying, given the fact that Ophelia drowned and Lucy has been having drowning dreams but...

Jonathan has compared himself to Hamlet and Renfield was indirectly compared to Hamlet by Jack.

Sure, both Jonathan and Renfield are now madmen, as Hamlet was perceived. But they're not dead!

And Jack quoted Polonius, but he hasn't been stabbed!

Jonathan taking refuge in the women's wing, feeling comfort and kinship with its previous inhabitants is soooo good.

The fondness and little laugh in Ben Galpin's voice, as he imagines the lady penning a letter to her lover, takes what could have been a very bitter line and instead, turns it into one of companionship.

This makes what happens later, with the ladies, all the more awful.

I don’t know if you’re still taking art requests but can you do one where Jonathan is possessed by Dracula?

Jonathan is having yet another Very Bad Day.

[ID in Alt]

(I'm still taking art requests— feel free to drop an ask or comment with suggestions!)

"The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, quite surrounded by the solid stone wall above mentioned. There are many trees on it, which make it in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pond or small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water is clear and flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and of all periods back, I should say, to mediæval times, for one part is of stone immensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavily barred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old chapel or church. I could not enter it, as I had not the key of the door leading to it from the house, but I have taken with my kodak views of it from various points. The house has been added to, but in a very straggling way, and I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers, which must be very great. There are but few houses close at hand, one being a very large house only recently added to and formed into a private lunatic asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds."

I know this is a very delayed reaction bc I'm not actively reading along in real time this year, but how did I miss that Seward's asylum makes an early appearance on May 7 in Jonathan's journal before Lucy mentions it in her letter on May 11 and long before anyone figures out that Seward and Dracula are next-door neighbours lol

Vampire Reference in a Minor Key but it’s Mina directed at Jonathan……….

"...not by any chance go to sleep in any other part of the castle"

And here we have Dracula paralleling Bluebeard once more. Why has he been forbidding entrance to certain rooms since early May? What sort of morbid thing is he hiding that must not be found?

Both Arabian Nights -which Jonathan has referenced- and Bluebeard feature a powerful noble with a brand new bride he intends to kill, like his previous ones. The new bride in both stories delays her fate by being diplomatic and/or playing along for survival.

It's likely that before the Picadilly incident, Mina had her mind swirling with possibilities about what caused Jonathan's trauma. Did Jonathan's rich client hurt him? Someone else there? A local illness, even if the nurses say it's not? Maybe strangers on his way back? She did read the (forced) letter saying that he was leaving the castle the next day, and then radio silence. And Mina did have an encounter (and a close one) with dangerous strangers in the night, with Lucy directly pleading Mina to never tell... Fear of assault is fresh in her mind.

So she could do nothing about it but focus on what's important, making sure Jonathan gets well. But now that Jonathan said that the count is here (but looks younger??), Mina has a person narrowed down. Even if the stalker they saw there wasn't his noble client, maybe his predatory staring reminded Jonathan of him. And therefore, he may be behind his pain.

So off she goes to break the seal.

Jonathan Harker consuming something that he knows makes him incredibly thirsty and gives him disturbing nights, and then coming back for more of it because it was his favorite thing may be a small character thesis. Maybe this funny incident shows a guy who you wonder, upon him fully experiencing the consequences of something, will he let those consequences stop him from going after what he desires?

Old sketch of Jonathan in "Blood of My Blood" putting up with having some unwanted attention after meals :s (which I had even before @see-arcane wrote "Domestic" but darn it it doesn't work well with it) Anyway realized I had never posted it, so here's the Horrible No Good Very Bad Time for ya'll to once more stake Dracula over

I believe the "I too can love" was genuine.

Yet we saw how wrathful, violent, and full of hellfire he is when the Sisters he once loved defied him.

And that was just a small taste of his anger when he feels spurned or defied. And Jonathan can already tell.

This episode. Hoooooooeeeeeeeeeey.

The service was very simple and very solemn. There were only ourselves and the servants there, one or two old friends of his from Exeter, his London agent, and a gentleman representing Sir John Paxton, the President of the Incorporated Law Society. 

Much like Lucy's funeral in a way, but not sparse for lack of inviting but a lack of people to invite. After all, Hawkins had no family left to him to leave anything to.

Jonathan was holding me by the arm, the way he used to in old days before I went to school. I felt it very improper, for you can't go on for some years teaching etiquette and decorum to other girls without the pedantry of it biting into yourself a bit; but it was Jonathan, and he was my husband, and we didn't know anybody who saw us—and we didn't care if they did—so on we walked.

Mina sounds a bit flustered at the faux pas they're engaging in but still overjoyed at the knowledge that Jonathan is her husband! However, she still needs to justify it: "well, no one will gossip because no one here knows us, so it is fine". Come now, dear, it's fine because it doesn't matter. But oh well, she's getting used to it.

Mina: *detailing Dracula's appearance* "You see, he did not pass the vibe check. His vibes were absolutely rancid."

She really describes Dracula as though she were describing an animal. It's kind of unsettling.

"I believe it is the Count, but he has grown young. My God, if this be so! Oh, my God! my God! If I only knew! if I only knew!"

Youuuu bastards, having Jonathan repeat the lines as Mina continues narrating aghgh.

"Why, Mina, have I been asleep! Oh, do forgive me for being so rude. Come, and we'll have a cup of tea somewhere." 

He's so cute!!! AAAA he is SO CUTE!!! My precious baby, I just want to hold him in my hands. He's so soft and cute and sounds so sweet and unsure, so bashful.

And then Mina begins the next section sounding like she has been crying. She mentions Arthur immediately, which is worth noting because she parallels him. She's lost a father figure and though she hasn't lost a lover, her lover is struggling to keep himself together while Arthur's lost the fight for her life already.

and then Jack comes in egregiously horny, and I just. What do you even have to say for yourself, sir? I think perhaps the way that he describes Quincey hints that he may not know Quincey as intimately as he knows Arthur? Nor as intimately as Arthur knows Quincey. Of course, part of this is just Bram fawning over American men because of his giant man crush on Walt Whitman. Jack's hero worship gives the impression that he's not close enough with Quincey to know his human flaws, at least. He sees him as a moral viking!!

Arthur was saying that he felt since then as if they two had been really married and that she was his wife in the sight of God. None of us said a word of the other operations, and none of us ever shall. 

Jack, are you really so stupid as to think that he doesn't know? Skipping ahead--

"Just so. Said he not that the transfusion of his blood to her veins had made her truly his bride?" "Yes, and it was a sweet and comforting idea for him." "Quite so. But there was a difficulty, friend John. If so that, then what about the others? Ho, ho! Then this so sweet maid is a polyandrist, and me, with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone—even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife, am bigamist." "I don't see where the joke comes in there either!" I said; and I did not feel particularly pleased with him for saying such things. 

Everyone raved over these lines before ("he confirmed the polycule!! they're all fucking!!"), and they probably still are raving tbh, so I appreciate Re: Dracula properly communicating VH's disdain for the idea and Jack's disdain for VH's disdain. It's more than an offensive joke, VH is bitter at Arthur's words because it would ironically make them all husbands of Lucy, and he morally objects to the idea of polyandry and betraying his wife though he considers her dead to him (comatose? out of her mind? either way, he can't/won't divorce her but still values the virtue of his faithfulness). Likewise, Jack doesn't appreciate VH's apparent derision towards Arthur and the insulting way he refers to Lucy as a polyandrist. But VH assures Jack that he's simply venting to Jack because Jack is his friend, and he dares not to express these harsh feelings to Arthur, who reminds him of his son.

"Friend John, forgive me if I pain. I showed not my feeling to others when it would wound, but only to you, my old friend, whom I can trust. If you could have looked into my very heart then when I want to laugh; if you could have done so when the laugh arrived; if you could do so now, when King Laugh have pack up his crown, and all that is to him—for he go far, far away from me, and for a long, long time—maybe you would perhaps pity me the most of all." I was touched by the tenderness of his tone, and asked why. "Because I know!"

See, this is why he will not tell Jack. Not because he's scared of him. Because he knows that to know is to suffer. He does not wish any suffering upon Jack, though he should realize that keeping secrets has been the cause of much suffering already.

DRACULA SPOILERS

Today I noticed something with Mina's intro. Mina, who loves, Jonathan, is starting a diary for when she'll travel to Whitby, in response to Jonathan starting a diary for his Eurotour. Lucy, who loves Mina, later says she's starting a diary to mimic Mina's. Then Jack starts a diary despite hating writing because Van Helsing tells him to.

I've always thought it was genius that the novel isn't just a series of found evidence, but that it was intentionally compiled together by Mina for everyone to read. And also, that everyone's diaries at one point become something their loved one can remember them by. But as you've pointed out, the reason they're writing in the first place is out of love as well.

Jack writing by hand for Van Helsing's sake despite hating it, is very cute because he could have simply argued back, that's the thing about love, you will find yourself doing the most frustratingly tedious tasks for the sake of it. I just realized that in addition, Jack's entries change over the course of the story. He begins his phonograph in order to forget about Lucy and focus on Renfield. And then later, after [redacted], he restarts his phonograph for Van Helsing:

Until this afternoon I had no cause to think of what is done.[...]To-day [Van Helsing] came back, and almost bounded into the room at about half-past five o'clock, and thrust last night's "Westminster Gazette" into my hand.

And of course there is Van Helsing's memorandum, the only time he actually keeps a diary. As @animate-mush says, "love is stored in the documents".