Jonathan Harker
English Lit: OCR A Level Dracula, topic 4.3.1
Jonathan Harker
Jonathan is twice subject to Count Dracula’s villainy - first imprisoned in Castle Dracula and later suffering the gross indignity of failing to protect Mina from the Baptism of Blood.
Challenged masculinity
- Jonathan’s masculinity is challenged throughout this novel. Essentially his role in the opening phase is as the Gothic heroine - trapped in a foreign, isolated locale, subject to the whims and will of an imposing male aristocrat.
Contrast to Dracula
- Even during his sexually-charged encounter with the female vampires, Jonathan plays the role of a passive victim and has to be ‘saved’ from their advances by the Count.
- Dracula is presented in a hyper-masculine manner, as the hunter-gather: he satiates the female-vampires’ lust for blood in bringing them the ‘meal’ of the young baby and is shown to have “imperious” command over all three, warning them that “This man belongs to me!”
Deep mental scars
- The mental scars the Count inflicts upon Jonathan run deep. Mina lovingly nurses him back to health in Buda-Pesth.
- Symbolically, once they are married, he begins to become more like his old self “holding [Mina] by the arm, the way he used to in the old days” only to moments later encounter Dracula again.
Avenging husband
- Fittingly, it is Jonathan who deals one of the fatal blows to the Count in the final battle, fulfilling his role as avenging husband, and reasserting his masculinity with the “sweep and flash of [his] great knife” - a notable use of phallic imagery.
- Just as he began the narrative with his journal entries, his note - written seven years later - closes it, bringing it full-circle.
Hints of insecurity
- However, even with the harmonious resolution, there are still hints of insecurity - remnants of his mental scarring as Jonathan doubts whether anyone would really accept these documents as “proofs of so wild a story.”
Test yourself on Jonathan Harker
On what two occassions is Jonathan subjected to the Count's villainy?
What imagery is used in this quotation, showing Jonathan giving the final blow to Dracula?
“Sweep and flash of [his] great knife”