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Dracula: Chapter 10
Element

Notes

Plot summary The chapter starts with a letter from Dr Seward to Arthur
Holmwood, saying that Lucy has deteriorated and he is placing
her in Van Helsing's care
...
Dr Seward tells Mrs Westenra
that she should not be with Lucy, or think of her, more than is
necessary
...
Dr Seward nominates himself, but Arthur arrives just in time although he is very shaken up - and donates his blood
...
Van Helsing notices the red marks on Lucy’s throat and
appears very concerned
...
Van Helsing must return to Amsterdam and leaves Dr
Seward in charge of Lucy’s care, warning him not to sleep or
leave her side
...
The next
night, Dr Seward returns to Hillingham but Lucy insists that he
sleep on a sofa in the room next to hers - he is exhausted, but
Lucy is overjoyed to be well again
...
The procedure is carried out and Van Helsing tells
Seward never to speak of it to Arthur, for fear of making him
jealous
...
He puts them
up in her room and places a wreath of the flowers around her
neck
...

Key quotes

“She was ghastly, chalkily pale; the red seemed to have gone
even from her lips and gums, and the bones in her face stood out
prominently; her breathing was painful to see or hear” - ​repetition
of the colour imagery (white = death, illness whereas red =
vitality)
...
Her boney face also suggests a sickness
as she seems to have lost weight
...

“​[Van Helsing to Lucy] ​‘Now, little miss, here is your medicine
...
The

simile comparing Lucy to a child also shows her weakness and
inability to complete basic tasks for herself
...

“He is so young and strong and of blood so pure that we need not
defibrinate it” - ​this suggests that, as a young man of higher
status, Arthur’s blood is both cleaner and more valuable than
Seward or Van Helsing’s
...
This also suggests that the transfusion was very
urgent, or the men had no knowledge of blood types, as in reality
the procedure could have killed Lucy
...

“What terrible strain Lucy’s system must have undergone that
what weakened Arthur only partially restored her” - t​ his shows
that Dracula has removed a vast quantity of blood from Lucy,
portraying him as greedy and never satisfied
...

“She never stirred, but slept on and on in a deep, tranquil,
life-giving, health-giving sleep” - ​this long sentence reflects the
belief that sleep can cure ailments, contrasting Lucy’s
experiences of horrific nightmares which seemingly incapacitate
her
...
This is deeply ironic, as of course nothing can protect her
from the omnipresent Dracula
...
I seem to feel his
presence warm about me” - t​ his suggests that, although they are
not yet married, Arthur and Lucy have been bonded together for
eternity through the sharing of blood
...
This would have been taboo during the Victorian era,
as it is too intimate an act for a man to perform on someone who
he does not have a relationship with
...
This phrase also contrasts the common 19th century
beliefs that blood sharing is associated with impurity and
diseases like hepatitis (something which is still prevalent today
due to the HIV pandemic and sharing of needles amongst IV drug
users)
...
as we
sometimes see in a corpse after a prolonged illness” - ​this is
ironic as of course Lucy has been under Dracula’s influence for a
long while before Van Helsing comes over to treat her
...

Themes and
features (e
...

Gothic)

“All men are mad in some way or the other” - c​ ontextual link to
Sigmund Freud’s ideas about the dark inner-thoughts that every
man possesses
...
g
...
Also reflects Victorian beliefs about mental
illness and the stigma surrounding it
...


Links to rest
of novel



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