Dracula: Plot Summary (Edexcel A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes

Dracula: Plot Summary

1. Jonathan Harker, a solicitor's assistant, travels to Transylvania to visit Count Dracula, who recently purchased an estate in London called Carfax.
2. As he approaches Dracula's castle, Harker notices the superstitious locals' fear of the Count.
3. Harker is picked up by a strange driver and taken to the castle, where he meets Count Dracula.
4. Harker finds Dracula odd, as he is active only at night, never seems to eat, and appears to be the only person in the castle.

5. Harker realises Dracula was the driver who brought him and that he is being held prisoner.
6. Harker observes Dracula crawling on the castle walls and believes he sees Dracula turn into a bat.
7. Harker encounters three demonic women who want to drink his blood, but Dracula intervenes, claiming Harker is "his."

8. Harker discovers Dracula sleeping in a wooden box filled with earth and attempts to kill him, but only superficially harms him.
9. Harker escapes the castle and brings his journal to show his experiences to his fiancée, Mina.
10. Meanwhile, in England, Mina and her friend Lucy are on vacation in Whitby, where Lucy begins sleepwalking.
11. Mina finds Lucy in a cemetery with a ghastly figure above her and notices Lucy's condition worsening.

12. Mina calls in Lucy's fiancé Arthur, Dr. Seward, and their friend Morris to help Lucy.
13. Dr. Seward calls his former professor, Abraham Van Helsing, who suspects the cause of Lucy's illness.
14. Despite multiple blood transfusions, Lucy dies after a wolf crashes through her window, and her mother dies from the shock.
15. Mina cares for Harker, who has had a breakdown, and they return to England where Van Helsing confirms Harker's experiences were real.
16. Van Helsing tells the group that Lucy is an Un-Dead vampire, and they kill her by staking her heart and cutting off her head.
17. The group vows to track down and kill Dracula, whom they believe is responsible for Lucy's condition.
18. Mina becomes sick, and one night, Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood, forming a "blood link" with her.
19. The group discovers Dracula's plan to ship 50 boxes of sacred earth to England and begins sterilising them to weaken him.
20. They track Dracula to Transylvania and kill him by stabbing his heart and cutting off his head, but Morris dies in the process.

21. Seven years later, Harker and Mina have a child named after Morris, and the group reflects on their ordeal, hoping their story of Dracula will be believed.