Dracula · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Jonathan Harker
major
Also known as Mr. Harker, Harker, Jonathan
A young solicitor whose routine business trip to a Transylvanian castle becomes a harrowing education in terror, superstition, and his own unexpected reserves of nerve.
Mina Harker
major
Also known as Mina, Madam Mina, Mrs. Harker, Wilhelmina, Wilhelmina Harker, Mina Murray, Miss Mina Murray
Jonathan's resourceful wife, whose typist's discipline and quick mind turn scattered diaries and telegrams into the connective tissue of the whole hunt.
Count Dracula
major
Also known as Dracula, the Count, Count
An ancient Transylvanian nobleman whose courtly erudition and pride of bloodline barely mask a predatory will bent on crossing into England.
Abraham Van Helsing
major
Also known as Van Helsing, Professor Van Helsing, Dr. Van Helsing, the Professor
A Dutch physician of boundless learning and eccentric speech, who alone seems willing to name the supernatural plainly and act on it.
John Seward
major
Also known as Dr. Seward, Seward, Jack Seward, Jack, friend John
A cool-headed alienist who runs a private asylum, records everything in phonograph diaries, and finds his clinical certainties quietly dismantled.
Arthur Holmwood
major
Also known as Arthur, Lord Godalming, Godalming, Art, Hon. Arthur Holmwood
A genial English lord, newly engaged and newly bereaved, whose rank and fortune become instruments of a fight he never expected to join.
Quincey Morris
major
Also known as Mr. Morris, Quincey P. Morris, Quincey, Morris
Quincey is the American outsider in the circle around Lucy Westenra — a suitor who loses gracefully and stays loyal, and later the man whose plainspoken nerve steadies the vampire hunters. He is phlegmatic in the way of a man who accepts all things, chewing tobacco while Van Helsing seals a tomb with the Host, and he offers his blood for Lucy without hesitation when Seward and the Professor are spent. His willingness to stake everything, without Van Helsing's mysticism or Arthur's anguish, gives the early hunt its practical backbone.
Lucy Westenra
major
Also known as Miss Lucy Westenra, Lucy, Miss Lucy, poor Lucy
Lucy is Mina's closest friend and the object of proposals from Arthur Holmwood, Dr. Seward, and Quincey Morris — a social darling whose sweetness makes her vulnerability almost unbearable to watch. Her sleepwalking draws her out of the house at night, and the mysterious punctures on her throat, the pallor, and the transfusions she needs set Van Helsing's mind racing while her mother's well-meant interference closes off the very precautions that might save her. She is the story's first English casualty, and the hinge on which the hunters' disbelief turns to dread.
R. M. Renfield
supporting
Also known as Renfield, Mr. Renfield, poor Renfield
Renfield is Dr. Seward's prize lunatic at Carfax, a man who eats living things to absorb their life and who keeps meticulous notes on his own 'philosophy.' His sudden docility, his terror at nightfall, and his bursts of loyalty toward Mina hint that he answers to a power Seward cannot see. He is the asylum's human barometer for Dracula's arrival — a mind already broken open by the Count's proximity, and a warning the hunters only half understand.
Mrs. Westenra
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Westenra
Mrs. Westenra is a widowed society woman devoted to Lucy, but her own fragile heart and her refusal to be told the truth about her daughter's illness make her an unwitting obstacle to Van Helsing's defenses. She strips the garlic from Lucy's room as a kindness, and her death — from shock at the sight of the wolf — leaves Lucy alone on the very night she most needs guarding. Her love is genuine and her timing catastrophic, which is precisely what makes her so painful to read.
Mr. Swales
minor
Also known as old Mr. Swales, poor old Mr. Swales
An old sailor in Whitby who shares local legends.
Sister Agatha
minor
Also known as the good Sister
A nun who cares for Jonathan Harker in Budapest.
Mr. Hawkins
minor
Also known as Peter Hawkins, Hawkins, dear Mr. Hawkins
Jonathan Harker's employer and mentor.
Thomas Snelling
minor
Also known as Thomas Snelling
A coffin-maker who assists with Lucy's burial.
Sam Bloxam
minor
Also known as Bloxam, Sam Bloxam, Sam
A workman who helps move coffins for the vampire hunters.
Immanuel Hildesheim
minor
Also known as Hildesheim
A dealer who sells a property to Dracula in London.
Petrof Skinsky
minor
Also known as Skinsky
A Slovak contact of Dracula in London.
The Szgany
minor
Also known as Szgany, These Szgany
A group of gypsies who serve Dracula in his final journey.
The Captain
minor
Also known as the captain, the Captain
Captain of the Demeter, the ship that brings Dracula to England.
Bersicker
minor
Also known as old Bersicker
A wolf that escapes from the zoo, possibly controlled by Dracula.
