The Plot
Jonathan Harker is a young lawyer. He is engaged to be married to Mina, a sweet, intelligent and good woman who is sometimes a bit bossy. Jonathan is sent to Transylvania to finalise the contracts for the sale of a house in England to a Transylvanian called Count Dracula. Jonathan travels by boat and train and when he tells people along the way that he is going to visit Count Dracula in Castle Dracula, everyone is filled with fear. They try to persuade him not to go and one person gives him a crucifix to wear.
Eventually Jonathan arrives at Castle Dracula. Count Dracula greets him and asks many questions about England and English people but he seems in no hurry to sign the contract. Count Dracula is extremely polite but Jonathan realises that he never eats and that he is often absent during the day.
Jonathan also observes a team of workmen who come to collect many heavy boxes. Jonathan starts to suspect that there is something strange about Count Dracula.
Time goes on and Jonathan comes to understand that he is a prisoner in Castle Dracula. One night he is visited by some Female Vampires, but Count Dracula appears suddenly and sends them away.
Meanwhile, back in England, Mina Murray goes to visit her friend Lucy Westenra in Whitby, Yorkshire. Whitby is a town by the sea. It has a port. Lucy is a very beautiful young woman but she is also a little emotionally unstable and extremely flirtatious. She is in love with Dr John Seward a good man who runs a lunatic asylum.
We also meet Renfield, one of the lunatics in Dr Seward's care. Renfield is obsessed with eating live creatures. Flies, spiders, even a bird. Renfield is excited because he says his master is coming closer and closer to him. We imagine that maybe Renfield’s master is Count Dracula.
During Mina's visit to Whitby Lucy becomes increasingly ill. She eats very little and goes out in the night to wander along the cliff top path by the sea. It seems that she is sleepwalking. She is getting weaker and weaker. Two tiny holes appear on her neck.
Then one night there is a terrible storm and a strange ship carrying a cargo of heavy boxes arrives at the port at Whitby. As the ship reaches the port a huge black dog jumps ashore and runs off into the countryside.
Lucy gets weaker and weaker. She leaves her bed in the middle of the night and walks towards the church yard. Mina finds her there and takes her home. She calls Dr Seward. Dr Seward cannot understand what is wrong with Lucy and he contacts his old university teacher, Professor Van Helsing.
Van Helsing knows about vampires and he realises that Lucy is under the power of a vampire. He advises Dr Seward to put garlic flowers around Lucy's bed to protect her. But Lucy doesn't like the smell of the flowers and she moves them. In the morning Mina finds her “dead”.
Lucy becomes a vampire. She roams London at night. Van Helsing gets his vampire slaying kit and goes with Dr Seward to her tomb. They have to drive a stake through her heart, it is the only way to kill a vampire but Dr Seward finds it very hard because he is not brave.
Jonathan finally manages to escape from Castle Dracula and finds his way back to England. Jonathan tells Mina that while he was in Castle Dracula he wrote a diary. Mina decides to type the diary out.
Jonathan tells Van Helsing about his experiences at Castle Dracula and Van Helsing understands that there is a connection between Count Dracula and what has happened to Lucy. Together the men decide to go and hunt for Count Dracula. They believe that he came to England on the ship with the boxes and that he changed his shape into the black dog to come ashore. They find out where the boxes have been sent. Van Helsing tells the others that the boxes are full of sacred earth from the chapel in Castle Dracula. He says that Dracula has sent the boxes to various houses around London so that he can go to these places and be safe. The sacred earth in the boxes will keep him safe.
The enthusiastic but very inefficient vampire hunting team of Professor Van Helsing, Jonathan and Dr Seward leave Mina at home alone and go to search for Dracula. Of course Count Dracula comes to Mina and bites her while they are away. Mina is turning into a vampire too!
And finally … well you’ll find out what happens when you watch the show.
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