Dracula Chapter 12 Summary

Dr. Seward's Diary, September 18

Dr. Seward arrives at the same time as Van Helsing—Seward quickly tells Van Helsing that he didn't get the telegram until a day late, and the two of them rush inside to see what was going on.
No one answers the door, so they break in.
The servants are all unconscious on the floor and the room smells like laudanum (as doctors, Van Helsing and Seward recognize the smell immediately).
They go to Lucy's room and find Lucy and her mother. Mrs. Westenra is dead, but Lucy is still alive.
They rub Lucy's lips and wrists with brandy to revive her.
Van Helsing tells Seward to go and wake up the servants and tell them to prepare a warm bath for Lucy.
Van Helsing knows that Lucy needs another transfusion, but who's going to give it to her?
Just then, Quincey Morris shows up with a message from Arthur. Hurray, another man who can give Lucy a blood transfusion! And he was in love with her too, so he's gung-ho about it.
After the transfusion, Seward and Quincey discuss Lucy's condition.
Seward admits that he doesn't understand Lucy's condition, and that Van Helsing hasn't explained it to him.
They watch Lucy as she sleeps—she is behaving very strangely.
While asleep, she pulls a piece of paper out of her nightdress and tears it in half.
They take it from her, but she continues the motion of tearing it up even though she's not holding it anymore (it's the note that she wrote the night before, describing what happened with the wolf and her mother's death).

Lucy's sleep is still weird: She looks stronger while she's asleep, but also harder and creepier. When she's awake, she looks weak, but more like herself.

Mina and Jonathan are back in England, and Jonathan's boss and their longtime friend, Mr. Hawkins, welcomes them back very sweetly and calls them his children.
Mina asks after Lucy's mother—clearly, she hasn't heard the sad news.
She also asks about Lucy's wedding plans with Arthur.

The next letter is from a doctor we haven't met yet, Dr. Hennessey, to Dr. Seward that reports on how Renfield is doing (after all, Seward has been away taking care of Lucy for a while now).
Dr. Hennessey reports that Renfield broke out again, and this time he attacked some people who were picking up boxes from the house next door.
Fortunately, Dr. Hennessey and two of the asylum attendants got there in time, but Renfield smashed one of the delivery guy's head into the ground.
At first, they threatened to sue, but after a while (and a couple glasses of booze) they calmed down and said they wouldn't press charges after all.

Mina writes to tell Lucy that Mr. Hawkins has died.
They're very sad about it, because Mr. Hawkins was like a father to them.
The good news is that Mr. Hawkins left his entire business and all his money to Jonathan and Mina. They're rich now!

Arthur's father is dead now, too, so Arthur is now Lord Godalming. To save confusion, though, we'll continue just to call him Arthur.
Dr. Seward is watching over Lucy, and he notices that her canine teeth look longer and sharper than usual—but he assumes it's just a trick of the light.
When she wakes up a bit, she pulls the garlic flowers tightly around her neck. When she is in a deep sleep, she pushes them away.
When Van Helsing comes in to check her out, he looks under the bandage on her neck and sees that the wound there has disappeared entirely.
Van Helsing says that Lucy is dying, so they should call Arthur.
Arthur comes in, and Lucy calls to him in a sexy voice to give her a kiss.
Van Helsing takes one look at her pointy teeth and holds Arthur back.
Then the vampire-ish moment passes, and she looks like herself again, only very weak.
So Van Helsing lets Arthur kiss her, and she asks Van Helsing to "guard [Arthur] and give me peace."
Van Helsing swears he will.
Seward says something to Van Helsing about everything being over, and Van Helsing responds, ominously, that it's only the beginning.
He still doesn't tell Seward what's up, though.

READ THE BOOK: Chapter 12