Dr Jack Seward

An ambitious and successful member of the medical profession, 29-year-old Seward is introduced as one of Lucy’s potential suitors.

Unaffected friendship

Seward's friendship with both Arthur and Quincey is unaffected despite her choosing Arthur over the other men and Seward agrees to treat Lucy when she falls ill.

Shaken knowledge

In learning of the true nature of Lucy's ailment and of the supernatural forces behind it, Seward’s foundation of the rational, the logical and the scientific is shaken to its core.

The sceptic

Spared the same hubristic character that precipitates the downfall of other scientists in Gothic literature such as Victor Frankenstein and Henry Jekyll, Seward functions as the sceptic.
He finds solace in the rational and likes to keep his mind occupied through his work.

Effeminate character

Rather like Jonathan in the first phase of the novel, Seward is initially introduced in somewhat of an effeminate way.
Rejected by Lucy, he elects to wallow in self-pity “Cannot eat, cannot rest”.

Dr Jack Seward (Cont.)

An ambitious and successful member of the medical profession, 29-year-old Seward is introduced as one of Lucy’s potential suitors.

Administrator at the asylum

Fortunately, Seward's position as administrator of an insane asylum close to the Carfax estate - the purchase of which brings Jonathan to Transylvania - allows him to busy himself with his work and his study of Renfield.

Limitations of science

Despite his scientific-mindset, Seward is already aware of the limitations of his field as his unrequited love causes him a ”little difficulty which not even medical science or custom can bridge over”.
This foreshadows later events of the novel in which science, at the forefront of the modern world at the end the 19th century, is forced to play a secondary role to the field of metaphysics and superstition.

Difficulty suspending disbelief

Seward’s role in the narrative appears to embody the willful suspension of disbelief - a concept that the poet and writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge thinks is essential for the enjoyment of Gothic literature.
Seward struggles to do so, despite the lack of logical evidence to the contrary, following Lucy’s metamorphosis into the vampire.
He is the sceptic; the one who needs absolute proof before he is willing and able to believe.

Seward's metamorphosis

Seward’s turning point arises when confronting the true horror of what Lucy has become in the churchyard.
After witnessing her callous disregard for the fair-haired child, Seward undergoes a form of metamorphosis: “his love passed into hate and loathing” and he fully accepts that this hellish “nightmare” version of Lucy must be destroyed.

No longer doubts Van Helsing

He no longer doubts the sanity of his old mentor Van Helsing, acknowledging and respecting his superior arcane knowledge, and pliantly accepts his secondary role in the battle against Dracula.

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

Jump to other topics