| Maintaining Sanity
Jonathan Harker is an ambitious, young lawyer working for Count Dracula. He is first introduced in Dracula by Bram Stoker when he is journeying to Transylvania. As he steps into this strange land, he finds himself bursting with curiosity because of the mysterious conversations he has with the people he meets, as he hears “a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd,” (Stoker 7). During his traveling, he mentions his fiancée, Mina Murray, numerous times in his diary, which shows his devotion to her. His outward demeanor shows that he is a man of courage and action. Jonathan always seems to be full of energy and bursting with intelligence. Jonathan has little faith in himself, and is believed to be a coward, but he later proves to be a man of courageous qualities that surfaces only in times of need.
Upon meeting the count, Harker remains his outgoing and enthusiastic self. However, when he discovers that he is a prisoner in Dracula’s castle, curiosity and fear run through his thoughts. Though he is uncertain of what is to become of him, he still has the strength to defy Dracula’s rules, commands, and warnings. His strength soon wears out as he “feels the dread of this place overpowering” (Stoker 35) him, but soon escapes from Transylvania. He finds himself in the care of Sister Agatha in the Hospital of St. Joseph and Ste. Mary because his stay in the count’s castle had traumatized him. Harker thinks that he is insane and is diagnosed to be struck with brain fever. He has lost all confidence in himself and questions his own judgment.
Jonathan, “who is himself not strong enough to write” (Stoker 97) tells Sister Agatha to inform Mina of his stay in the sanatorium by sending a letter. As soon as Mina receives the letter, she immediately goes to see him. He soon recovers from his illness and before long Mina and Jonathan wed. They are happily married and while strolling around the city, Jonathan recognizes Dracula walking in the streets of London, and he thinks that he has not yet recovered from his brain fever. Feeling scared and confused with his thoughts, Harker doubts his own sanity once more. As he goes into denial, he tries to forget about the events he had gone though and struggles to live life normally by keeping himself busy. Ignoring his problems instead of facing them causes him to be unhappy and depressed because he doubts himself and cannot even trust his own senses and thoughts.
Shortly after this had occurred, Mina is contacted by Van Helsing, the doctor of her best friend Lucy, and tells her of Lucy’s death. Van Helsing, believing that Lucy’s death had not originated from a regular disease but was caused by a vampire, arranges a meeting with Mina, as she was a trusted friend of Lucy, in hopes of finding more information about the creature who took Lucy’s life. Their meeting was very unusual, especially when the doctor tells Mina of the connection between Lucy’s death and Jonathan’s mysterious encounters in Transylvania, whereas both events included Dracula. The doctor writes to Mina a letter of assurance of the reality of Jonathan’s stay in Transylvania, where Helsing claims, as “strange and terrible as it is, it is true” (Stoker 179). Mina shares the letter with Jonathan and “now that [he] know[s], [he] is not afraid, even of the Count” (Stoker 180-181). Realizing, at last, that he was not insane, Harker’s self-confidence returns and his faith in his own intelligence restores.
Jonathan is hopeful, energetic and full of life again, so he helps Van Helsing and some other men to find and destroy the count’s lairs. As he knows first hand about Dracula’s cruelty and strength, he becomes protective of Mina in their search for Dracula’s coffins. He has no fear for himself, but begins to fear for Mina because he does not want her to endure the suffering that he had gone through a few months before. Harker writes “it was a dread to me that she was in this fearful business at all” (Stoker 238). The joy and happiness in knowing that he wasn’t alone in knowing the powers of Dracula had overwhelmed him, and only now does he realize the real danger he has gotten his wife into.
Knowing that Mina is to be left out of the search for Dracula and his earth boxes, Jonathan feels at ease for Mina’s safety. Unfortunately, Dracula has known about their plans to destroy him and has been feeding on Mina’s blood as revenge towards the men. The count gets even angrier when the men become more consistent, and shares his blood with Mina. When the search party learns that Mina has taken the blood of a vampire into her body, Jonathan’s involvement becomes very personal. His worries over Mina is shown as “the flesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair” (Stoker 275), and he grows anxious to find and kill the count.
Harker’s aggressiveness towards the destruction of the count slowly disappears. Mina convinces him to stop talking the way he does with such violence, and she has very great persuasive power. Jonathan’s love for Mina proves to be stronger than his hate towards Dracula. His devotion and loyalty to Mina overcomes all and he becomes the romantic protagonist. Jonathan starts to have more faith in God and believes that they “must keep trusting” (Stoker 276) in Him. He calms down and thinks about the safety of Mina instead of his impatience to kill Dracula.
As Jonathan tries to trust in God and most definitely in Van Helsing, he has a hard time accepting Helsing’s plans of separating the group, and leading Mina towards danger. As strong and fearless as he seems, he is very weak when it comes to being away from his wife. He finds that Mina won’t be safe in London and instead she will be where all the trouble started - in Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. Harker becomes deeply agitated with Van Helsing but soon agrees to the plan “with a sob that shook him all over” (Stoker 341). Jonathan shows his sensitive side and is neither angry nor scared, but sad because this is the first time that they will be apart since they had gotten married.
Jonathan and the men have finally found Dracula in his box only minutes before sunset. Dr. Seward, Mr. Morris, Lord Godalming and Harker must fight off the gypsies, whom serve the count, before the Dracula gains full power, and escapes them once again. Surprisingly, Harker emerges from a delicate, fragile man into a warrior who kills Dracula, simultaneously with another man. Mina observes the fight between the men and the gypsies and records in her journal that the sun had almost completely gone done, “but, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife… [as] it sheared through the throat [of Dracula],” (Stoker 362). Jonathan emerges into one of the fiercest and strongest fighter of all the men, which was much unexpected considering all he’s gone through.
Jonathan Harker changes a great deal throughout the course of the story. In the beginning, he was a thinker, an intelligent man of sophistication, eagerness, optimism and had the most confidence in himself and his career. He later transforms into a self-doubting man who loses faith and belief in himself because of the tragic days he had spent with Dracula. His fear soon disappears, and an unfortunate incident with the sharing of his wife’s blood with that of a vampire’s had turned him into a dangerous man who always seemed to be sharpening his knife. In the end of the book, Jonathan makes the last entry of all the other diaries where he makes a note to the reader telling them that “seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured” (Stoker 364). His words show that he has become a serious and somber man, living a life filled with love, friendship and family which presents the strength Jonathan had to have possessed to endure the pain and sorrows of the past. |
