Chapters 15-16

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Chapters 15-16: Summary and Analysis

Here's a summary and an analysis of Chapters 15-16:

Plot summary

Following rumours of ‘The Bloofer Lady’ attacking children, Seward accompanies Van Helsing as he breaks into the Westenra tomb and discovers - to Seward’s amazement - that Lucy’s coffin is empty.
Accepting Lucy is now a vampire, Arthur grants Van Helsing permission to save his love’s soul by staking her through the heart, removing her head and filling the neck with garlic.

Seward's theory - body-snatcher

Seward is appalled by Van Helsing’s claim that Lucy is the Bloofer Lady, yet agrees to accompany Van Helsing to the Westenra tomb at night.
Clinging to his rational, logical mindset, Seward suggests that the reason for the absence of Lucy’s body from her coffin is due to a body-snatcher.

Finding Lucy's body

Stoker presents Van Helsing’s frustration (perhaps mirroring that of the reader) of Seward’s obstinate refusal to suspend his disbelief as he realises that “we must have more proof.”
Glimpsing a white streak between the trees of the churchyard, the two men then return to the tomb during the day and, to Seward’s dismay, find Lucy’s body back in the coffin.

Lucy feeding

Dramatic irony plays a significant role as the reader discerns that vampire-Lucy has been feeding: just as Jonathan described the Count in Chapter 4, Lucy’s lips are “redder than before” and there is a subversive “radiant beauty” to her physical appearance, despite her monstrous actions of feeding off innocent children.

Van Helsing and Dracula parallel

The syntactic duality in Van Helsing's polite request to desecrate Lucy’s corpse (“May I cut off the head of dead Miss Lucy”) conveys that he is a figure of good, yet one who must also perform horrific deeds - this, Van Helsing considers, is his “duty” and yet the barbarity of the act highlights another parallel between Van Helsing and Dracula.

Chapters 15-16: Analysis (Cont.)

Here's an analysis of Chapters 15-16:

Blood-stain clothes motif

The encounter with vampire-Lucy is quintessentially Gothic. “Dressed in the cerements of the grave”, the motif of blood-stained clothes is exacerbated as in contrast to dropping of blood from Chapter 8, a “stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death-robe.”

Subverting maternal love

The subverting of a traditional image of maternal love shows just how far Lucy has fallen in her vampiric state. She is clutching a fair-haired (symbolic of innocence) child to her breast - a description that implies she is breastfeeding.
However, perversely, it is Lucy who is feeding on the child and, once finished, she callously discards it on the floor.

Semantic field of monstrosity

Zoomorphism and a semantic field of monstrosity are again employed to depict the vampire as Lucy both “snarls” and “growls”, looking at the men with eyes “unclean and full of hell-fire.”
Lucy’s evil metamorphosis is compounded as the “remnant of [Seward’s] love passed into hate and loathing; had she then to be killed, I could have done it with savage delight.”

Good and evil - non-binary

The oxymoronic way in which Seward talks of destroying Lucy implies that all humans are capable of violent urges and, certainly for a modern reader, good and evil are not necessary binary labels to be assigned to Stoker’s characters.
Van Helsing speaks of a higher purpose, of a duty to God to save Lucy’s soul. Yet, as Arthur stands over Lucy, striking with “all his might”, Seward is reminded of the Norse God, Thor.

Graphic violence

The graphic violence with which the vampire version of Lucy “twisted in wild contortions [...] the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam” again evokes Gothic ‘horror’ - something the initial reviews of the novel were critical of - and reflects a restoration of the patriarchal status quo.

Phallic symbol - stake

The stake that pierces Lucy’s heart could be seen as a phallic symbol.
They could not be together in life, but Arthur’s love for Lucy means that it is fitting that he should be the one to penetrate her body and save her soul, symbolically consummating their relationship.

1Context - Gothic Literature

1.1Origins & Conventions of Gothic Literature

1.1.1Origins of Gothic Literature

1.1.2Key Ideas in Gothic Literature

1.1.3Gothic Genre Conventions in Dracula

1.2Vampires in Gothic Literature

1.2.1Vampires

1.3'Terror' & 'Horror'

1.3.1Ann Radcliffe & Lewis' The Monk

1.3.2'Terror' & 'Horror' in Dracula

1.4Narrative Features

1.4.1First-Person Narration & Epistolary Format

2Context - The Victorian Era

2.1The Victorian Era

2.1.1Fin de Siecle

2.1.2The 'New Woman'

2.1.3The Contagious Diseases Act

3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

3.1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

3.1.1Chapters 1-2

3.1.2Chapters 3-4

3.1.3Chapters 5-7

3.1.4Chapters 8-10

3.1.5Chapters 11-12

3.1.6Chapters 13-14

3.1.7Chapters 15-16

3.1.8Chapters 17-18

3.1.9Chapters 19-20

3.1.10Chapters 21-23

3.1.11Chapters 24-25

3.1.12Chapters 26-27

4Character Profiles

4.1Archetypal Gothic Characters

4.1.1Stock & Proppian Gothic Characters

4.2Count Dracula

4.2.1Count Dracula: Character Profile

4.2.2Count Dracula: Different Literary Perspectives

4.3Other Main Characters

4.3.1Jonathan Harker

4.3.2Dr Abraham Van Helsing

4.3.3Dr Jack Seward

4.3.4Mina Harker

4.3.5Lucy Westenra

4.4Minor Characters

4.4.1Arthur Holmwood & Quincey Morris

4.4.2Renfield

5Key Ideas

5.1Key Ideas

5.1.1Transgression of Boundaries

5.1.2The Supernatural & Un-dead

5.1.3Masculinity & Femininity

5.1.4Science, Modernity & Superstition

5.1.5Madness, Illness & Confinement

6Writing Techniques

6.1Writing Techniques

6.1.1Epistolary Form & Narrative Voice

6.1.2Intertextuality & Cultural References

6.1.3Structure

7Critical Debates & Interpretations

7.1Initial Reception of Dracula

7.1.1Initial Reception of Dracula

7.2Modern Reception of Dracula

7.2.1Modern Reception of Dracula

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