Dracula characters

Appears from the start

A young English solicitor sent from London to Transylvania to conclude a property purchase for a foreign nobleman, Count Dracula. Diligent, practical, and newly engaged to be married, he keeps a careful journal of his journey. Arriving at the Count's remote castle in the Carpathians, he slowly realizes that he is not a guest but a prisoner.

Also known as the Count

First appears in chapter 2

An ancient Transylvanian nobleman who receives Jonathan Harker at his crumbling castle. Tall, pale, and gaunt, with an iron grip, sharp teeth, and hair on his palms, he is a courteous but deeply unsettling host whose strange traits mount: he keeps no servants, appears only after dark, and casts no reflection in a mirror. He questions Harker minutely about England and holds him captive within the castle walls.

Also known as Mina Harker

First appears in chapter 5

A capable, warm-hearted young Englishwoman engaged to Jonathan Harker and working as an assistant schoolmistress. Devoted to her fiance and to her close friend Lucy Westenra, she is methodical and resourceful, skilled in shorthand and typewriting, and grows anxious as Jonathan's letters from abroad turn scarce and strange.

First appears in chapter 5

Mina's beautiful, good-natured friend, a lighthearted young woman who in a single day receives three marriage proposals. She accepts one suitor while remaining fond of all three. Prone to sleepwalking as she was in childhood, she becomes the object of a mysterious nocturnal menace during a stay at the seaside town of Whitby.

Also known as Jack Seward

First appears in chapter 5

A young doctor who runs a private lunatic asylum and is one of Lucy Westenra's three suitors. Dedicated and scientific, he records his diary on a phonograph and takes a professional interest in a peculiar patient at his asylum. When Lucy accepts another man, he throws himself into his work.

First appears in chapter 5

A wealthy young gentleman, heir to a title, who is the suitor Lucy Westenra accepts and to whom she becomes engaged. Steady, generous, and devoted to Lucy, he is a close friend of her two other suitors.

First appears in chapter 5

A good-humored, adventurous American from Texas, another of Lucy Westenra's three suitors. Frank and brave, he takes his rejection gracefully and remains a loyal friend both to Lucy's chosen fiance and to her circle.

Also known as R. M. Renfield

First appears in chapter 6

A patient in Dr Seward's asylum, a powerfully built man of unstable mind who keeps and devours living creatures, first flies, then spiders and birds, believing he absorbs their life force. His moods swing between violence and lucidity, and his agitation seems to rise and fall with events he could not ordinarily know.

Also known as Van Helsing

First appears in chapter 9

A brilliant Dutch physician, philosopher, and former teacher of Dr Seward, summoned from Amsterdam when Lucy falls gravely and inexplicably ill. Learned, energetic, and open-minded, he brings both up-to-date medicine and a knowledge of old and obscure lore to a case that baffles conventional doctors.

First appears in chapter 8

Lucy Westenra's widowed mother, an ailing woman with a weak heart who is kept ignorant of the true danger to her daughter for fear the shock would kill her. Gentle and well-meaning, she remains close to Lucy through her mysterious illness.

First appears in chapter 3

Three seductive female figures who confront Jonathan Harker in a forbidden part of Dracula's castle. Fair and alluring but with gleaming teeth and cold, predatory intent, they close in on the trapped Harker as prey until the Count violently drives them off, declaring that Harker belongs to him.