Dracula: Chapter 26 Summary & Analysis

Once again, the wolves symbolize not only Dracula's presence but his desire to do some harm, as they have throughout the rest of the novel.

Dracula's turn back to land means the final sequence in the novel can begin—the hunt for Dracula toward the Castle that bears his name. This Castle does seem to be an important location in the novel—the point where Dracula is discovered by Harker and the reader—and the point where he is to be truly killed.

Another brief logistical section, in the lead-up to the final showdown.

These workers, like the sailors on the ship Demeter, have heard terrible stories about Dracula, and about the cargo aboard the ship that landed at Galatz. Again, sailors and dockworkers have tended, in the novel, to be some of the more superstitious characters, perhaps because their work involves interaction with people from different lands and, therefore, the stories and legends of many different cultures.

Mina, despite her ailment, is nevertheless able to marshal her considerable powers of thought to find Dracula on one of two rivers approaching his castle. This makes the task of hunting Dracula down significantly easier, if still a challenge for the men of the group.

One gets the sense that Mina's trials, and Harker's efforts, have brought the couple closer together. This, in distinction to Arthur and Lucy, who from the beginning were separated both by Lucy's illness and by Arthur's father's illness, which required Arthur to be away for long periods of time.

One can only imagine the stress involved, for Harker, in going back to the scene of so much of his torment, before he knew anything about Dracula or the nature of his vampirism. Harker returns, in effect, to wrestle with some of his own demons.

The final journey to the Castle takes place over land and by sea, depending on which part of the group is traveling.

Mina was correct—and the river she chose, the Sereth, was the river on which both Dracula and Harker traveled. The final showdown with Dracula is approaching.

The Borgo Pass is another traumatic scene for Harker, and it can be described as the threshold between Dracula's castle and the normally settled lands beyond it. The pass, then, is a kind of point of no return. For Harker, the idea of going through the pass reminds him of his own previous journey, and he is in a sense returning to that same battle. His concerns about Mina highlight their love and domestic happiness, all of which are threatened by Dracula.

All members of the group, including Seward, appear somewhat relieved to have a set series of tasks to do in order to find Dracula. Seward relishes this part of the search.

Seward also guesses, correctly, that the other members of the group, traveling on the river, will meet with delays because of the terrible winter-like weather.

It is not clear whether Seward speaks some Romanian, or whether this language is translated to him. It could also simply be an omission on Stoker's part, that Seward in fact could not understand the language of the Romanian locals.

Again, the group's significant resources are very useful here, as they might be used to gain means of transportation to the castle. It is hard to imagine how this part of the search, in particular, would be possible without a significant cash outlay on the part of the group. Again, Stoker emphasizes the love between Mina and Harker, this time from Mina's point of view.

The final showdown is approaching from the perspective of each group member.

Mina can still be hypnotized, but as will be reported later, she becomes less and less willing to go into this trance as she approaches the Castle, perhaps because that is the ancestral seat of Dracula's power, and his hold over that region is strong—thus Dracula can more effectively control Mina's mind in this area.

A reminder of the group's other major purpose—to make sure that Mina is once again "clean" of soul.

Van Helsing is very quick to understand the power of the Castle in disrupting his hypnotisms of Mina. Van Helsing knows, now, that the group must be very close to finding, and hopefully to destroying, the Count.

This "holy circle" is a new development, a new tactic against evil spirits, but one that builds, too, off the tactics Van Helsing has already used to keep vampires and the undead in their place, or far away from a protected zone. This holy circle will be of great use to Van Helsing and Mina in the remainder of the novel.

The return of the Three Sisters, who, now, no longer lust after Harker but appear to sense that Mina is close to becoming undead. The Three Sisters hope to speed Mina along in that effort, which again correlates to the Victorian fear that sexual liberation among women was somehow contagious and uncontrollable if left loose, and must be rigidly constrained (just as Mina is constrained by the "holy circle").

Seward was correct, and Harker and Arthur are behind schedule on the river, on account of terrible weather. This means Dracula, however, is probably also behind schedule.

The wolves indicate Dracula's power in this wild region, a place where all the men from the city are unfamiliar and in danger.

In this somewhat anticlimactic and quick scene, Van Helsing takes care of the Three Sisters once and for all. In doing so, he eliminates a source of temptation for Mina, and his thoughts remind the reader that in killing the vampires he is in fact freeing them. That in killing them he is saving them.

Van Helsing continues to use his knowledge of the occult and religion against the vampires. But Mina's descent into vampire-hood is nearly complete.

The final confrontation begins. As might have been supposed, Dracula is entombed in his final box, which means that, if this box is opened and Dracula is stabbed, he will be truly dead—no other preparations will be necessary. Van Helsing and Mina, like the reader, have a front-row seat onto this final bit of action in the novel.

The men work together—using their strength and the occult knowledge about vampires they have learned from Van Helsing to kill Dracula. Dracula is truly killed, and there is a palpable sense of relief among the members of the group, except for Morris. From the beginning, Morris has been the most gung-ho of the group members, and it appears, here, that his energy in fighting Dracula has taken him too far—he didn't see the gypsy who attacked him, and his wounds are very serious.

A wonderful, brief scene, in which Mina notices that even Dracula himself appears happy to know that his soul has been freed to heaven, away from the putrid decay of his blood-desiring, undead body.

Harker survives, and he and Mina maintain their family unit, but Morris is unable to survive his wound, and his death near the castle Dracula forms a final, tragic scene at the novel's end.

But Morris also recognizes that the stain has been removed from Mina's forehead, and this seems like happiness enough for him—he knows that the group has done its job, not only in finding and truly killing the Count, but in removing the terrible stain from Mina's honor. Morris—an Englishman's stereotype of a Texan through and through—dies contented in this chivalrous knowledge.