Dracula Chapter 11

Lucy writes in her diary how safe she feels with the garlic and the protection of her new friends.

Dr. Seward writes that he and Professor Van Helsing arrived at Hillingham on the morning of the thirteenth. Mrs. Westenra, who has been kept in the dark about the treatment/prevention in order to protect her weak heart, tells them that she took the garlic out of Lucy's room and opened the window during the night to air it out. When she leaves them, the usually-strong Van Helsing actually begins to sob, frustrated at their continual bad luck in a game of such important stakes. He pulls himself together, saying they will continue their fight. This time, Van Helsing provides the needed blood for the transfusion.

Topic Tracking: Friendship 7

Lucy writes about her newfound peace with Dr. Van Helsing by her side at night. She does note, though, that she hears a flapping at the window whenever he dozes off.

The next piece of writing is an article from the Pall Mall Gazette, in which the interviewer speaks with Thomas Bilder, a zookeeper, about an escaped wolf. The working-class man tells of a gaunt man, with a slightly gray beard and red eyes, who was hanging around the wolf cage earlier. The wolves did not like the man at first, but he managed to quickly tame them to his touch. Later in the day, a mild-but-large gray wolf escaped. As luck would have it, the wolf shows up at the zookeeper's residence during the interview. He is calm and fine except for some wounds on his head with some glass in them.

Seward writes in his diary that, while he is catching up on his backlog of work, Renfield bursts in and cuts him on the wrist with a dinner knife. The patient then begins to lick the resulting blood off of the floor. As the attendants drag him away, he is screaming, "The blood is the life!" Chapter 11, pg. 156

Van Helsing orders Seward by way of a telegram to return to Lucy. The telegram arrives twenty-two hours late. Seward writes that he has just caught a train to London, distraught, and will continue his diary by phonograph.

The next section is a memorandum by Lucy, written in dying weakness. Alone, she is afraid to sleep. When she hears a fierce howl and sees a big bat outside, she becomes worried; her mother comes in to stay with her. After a while, they hear the flapping of wings and a large gray wolf breaks through the window head-first. Mrs. Westenra, in panic, grabs the garlic from around Lucy's neck, then dies of a heart attack. The maids, awakened by the commotion, rush in, but are so nervous that Lucy tells them to get a glass of wine. After some time, Lucy checks on them and finds they have been drugged, leaving her alone in the night. Lucy writes that the "air seems full of specks, floating and circling in the draught from the window." She writes that she will hide the memorandum in her breast, and she sends a desperate goodbye to Arthur.