Dracula is “a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and claid in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere.” (Harker also later notes his host’s “peculiarly sharp white teeth” and unusually pointed ears.) Related Characters: Jonathan Harker (speaker) Dracula's rank breath suggests this his insides are somehow corrupt, which they are, given that he is undead and drinks blood. The Count excuses himself and leaves the library for a few minutes, and when he comes back, he tells Harker that supper is ready. Dracula appears to apply this same rule to his intended prey.
When the first rooster crows, Dracula jumps up and leaves, apologizing for keeping Harker awake so long. Analysis: Although Stoker’s titular character has already appeared in the previous chapter (by all indicators—note, for instance, that the Count is said to share the same “prodigious strength,” p. 21, as the carriage driver; cf. (Dracula’s peculiar perspective on time is also, of course, another instance of Stoker’s fascination with the temporal theme.) The matter of the blue flames from chapter 1 is revisited in this chapter. Novelguide.com is the premier free source for literary analysis on the web. Characters. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. Dracula's manner, however, is formal to the point of strangeness. Harker notes that the castle is sumptuously furnished, but does mark one strange omission: “in none of the rooms is there a mirror.” Dracula, when he returns from unspecified business, engages in lengthy conversation with Harker; although he speaks fluent English, he wants to be able to present himself so well in England that he will not be identified and dismissed as a foreigner when he arrives. (In other words, Harker—although he surely sould have paid more heed to the whispered, “superstitious” warnings of chapter 1—may be excused for his ignorance in part because he has not had the benefit of reading Bram Stoker!)
How remiss I am to let you stay up so long. Dracula is ostensibly speaking of the blood spilled by patriots and invaders alike in war, but the words more generally apply to the fact that Dracula needs his native soil because, as a vampire, he relies on the blood of others. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our. The tradition is that the blue flames mark places where gold is buried, but that most common people are too scared to seek it out because they believe it is haunted or cursed.
What is perhaps a bit surprising is the nonchalance with which Harker treats this event in his journal—clearly, Dracula has attempted to drink his blood, but Harker has such a difficult time believing that Dracula could, in fact, have any interest in drinking someone's blood that he can't comprehend what has just happened. The old guy introduces himself as Count Dracula. Dracula, for his part, has a strong reaction to the sight of blood on Harker’s throat; as he reaches for it, his fingers touch the crucifix necklace given to Harker by the landlord’s wife in Bistritz, and Dracula’s fury instantly ceases. As Leonard Wolf points out, “No doubt a horrific irony is intended here” (p. 28 n. 13)—for Dracula indeed wants to drain London’s populace of its life to prolong his own; he has no desire to share its “change” and “death” at all! When he turns around with blood on his chin from the cut, he says that Dracula's "eyes blazed" and he suddenly lunges toward Harker's throat.
Dracula: Chapter 2. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1350 titles we cover. After a while, the Count joins him there and talks about all the English newspapers from London. Here, Harker cannot tell whether Dracula is merely recounting the superstitions of the Transylvanian peasants, or if he, too, believes that treasure might actually be found along the roadside. Harker is understandably annoyed that Dracula smashed his mirror—how's he supposed to shave, now? The strange driver's strength is perhaps the first real indication that he is more than he seems—that, in other words, the strange driver might actually be Dracula himself, since Dracula, too, is known for his immense strength. Van Helsing attributes this careful and obvious planning to Dracula's "child-brain," which has been left to molder during the hundreds of years Dracula has slept in his crypt and fed off the blood of his countrymen. After Harker eats (the Count, once again, says that he's already eaten), they stay up until almost dawn chatting. Perhaps, too, Harker is so willing and eager to be a good emissary for Hawkins, that Harker is unable to accept just how bizarre his interactions with the Count have been. He shows Harker to his room himself, rather than calling for a servant—he says that his servants are all in bed.
This is the last the blue flames are mentioned in the novel. More deeply, however, we hear of Dracula’s desire for domination: “I have been so long master that I would be master still—or at least that none other should be master of me” (p. 28).