Monday Musings: The Tragedy of Renfield

I've been listening to the Audible full cast production of Dracula (each narrator in the novel has a different reader, with Tim Curry as Van Helsing and Alan Cumming as Dr. Seward) on my commute lately, and I'm noticing things I haven't caught in previous readings.

Why do modern versions never keep the mustaches?

For instance, there's a bench in Jonathan Harker's early entries that the locals call "word bearer." I assume that's where visitors would stop to share the news. But the loftiness of that phrase started my wheels turning. I know Stoker isn't always the most careful with his details in this book (for example, Lucy's hair changing color after she dies) but this seems like an odd bit of trivia to be throwing in with all of Jonathan's other exotic travel experiences. The very phrase "word bearer" conjures up something grand, important, and even imposing in its own way.

If you move out from the obvious meaning I mentioned above and consider how spiritual the battle becomes later in the book, the next obvious connotation is Word-bearer, that is, someone who carries the Word (or Christ) with them. Van Helsing is obviously a Word-bearer and (like the bench) often sits at the threshold (a place of power in vampire lore) as both guard and informant (that is, he brings news of vampires and such to the other heroes). He also (given his priestly nature and his Catholic beliefs) is a literal Word-bearer; he is a Christian (a little Christ, but also connoting a Christopher or Christ-bearer) and he carries with him the blessed elements of the Eucharist (which, going back to the Catholic angle, are the literal blood and body of Christ once blessed). Van Helsing's also the most religious of the characters (though I had forgotten how much Jonathan's prayers and experience as an Anglican vs. a Catholic influenced the early chapters). Jonathan's prayers aside, both Mina and Dr. Seward demonstrate some belief in the Almighty but, for a book with such religious imagery waving about, the main characters seem far less concerned with matters of faith than one might expect.

Add to all this the fact the novel is told via letters, journals, and diaries -- all of which become the word-bearers of the protagonists -- and I begin to wonder if there isn't more there.

But that was just something that came up in the early chapters (and those of you who are friends with me on Facebook have probably some vague memory of me posting an earlier version of this when I started listening to the book). What I really want to talk about today is Renfield -- specifically, how he is a tragic character.

Renfield, for those of you who haven't read the novel, is a mental patient of Dr. Jack Seward, one of the main narrators and suitor to Lucy Westenra, whose death and undeath form the center of the book. Renfield's particular disorder involves the mania of zoophagy -- consuming other lives in order to prolong his own. If that sounds similar to vampirism, it should. Renfield's disorder becomes a secular/mundane counterpoint to the threat of Dracula, and even makes him susceptible to the Count's influence. No sooner does Dracula move into the abandoned house next to Dr. Seward's asylum than he begins to make Renfield his servant. The Count promises endless lives to Renfield and, at his weakest moments, Renfield assents to whatever the Count should need, calling him Master.

However, when Renfield meets Mina Harker, Jonathan's new bride and friend to the doubly late Lucy, he seems to turn around. He tells Seward to move him away from the asylum in order to prevent great sorrow. He appears to regain his sanity, speaking more calmly and eloquently than on any previous occasion we're privy to. Dr. Seward, of course, doubts this change and is seemingly justified when Renfield begs and grows manic again in his efforts to be sent away. In another characteristically brilliant move on his part (/sarcasm), Seward thinks it best to keep Renfield nearby so he can't aid Dracula from outside. Never mind the fact that Van Helsing has only just told Seward and the other heroes (Mina aside; again, such brilliance) that vampires must be invited in and that Mina is staying in the house connected to the asylum.

Why does this make Renfield tragic? Because he is never treated as a person by anyone except, perhaps, Mina, who addresses him rationally and sees the pitiable in him. At the best of times, Seward treats Renfield as simply another madman; at the worst, he views Renfield as a pet project that will make him famous in his field or as a potential traitor on the outside. Of course, Renfield's betrayal comes not from without, but within. When Dracula returns, he attempts to withstand the vampire's commands, but yields in the end. He attempts to stop Dracula from entering the house and harming Mina (Dracula's intentions being made clear to Renfield in this moment of intimacy), and is beaten within an inch of his life for his efforts. Even when it is clear that something is wrong, Van Helsing and Seward only treat Renfield as a source of information (valuable information, yes, but less valuable than, say, the man's soul). They perform surgery on Renfield, but only as much as will allow them to question him. When he dies, it doesn't seem to have any effect on them. He is already gone from their minds anyway.

If Seward had considered the implications of having one of Dracula's agents within his household, he might have prevented multiple tragedies. If he had considered the spiritual torture Renfield endured, wishing to leave behind his mania and the sway of the vampire, but knowing he hadn't the strength to do so, Seward might have kept Renfield from betraying them to Dracula. If anyone had shown concern for Renfield as a person, he might have been more than "the madman who helped the Count".

This is not, by the way, the only incident where information isn't presented to all concerned or where Seward and Van Helsing make questionable judgments. They both keep vital information from the Westenra household when Lucy is being preyed upon by Dracula -- a fact Van Helsing even keeps from Seward until she's become undead. Then, as if they needed to learn the lesson again, they keep Mina from their counsels -- including the information on Dracula's abilities and weaknesses -- despite knowing that she is in just as much danger either way by proximity to Dracula and their group of heroes. It isn't until Mina is marked by Dracula as his own that they consider including her in all their counsels. The more I re-read this book, the more I begin to consider Jonathan and Mina the real heroes, and Lucy and Renfield (as well as Mina) the victims as much of the other supposed heroes as they are of Dracula.

What do you think? Is Renfield a tragic figure? Who are the heroes? Do you think there's any significance in the thread of word-bearers in the novel?