Mina Harker


Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.

In the novel

She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young school mistress who is engaged to Jonathan Harker, and best friends with Lucy Westenra. She visits Lucy in Whitby on July 24 of that year, when schools would have closed for the summer. Unlike her best friend, Mina is an orphan, who never knew her father or mother.
After her fiancé Jonathan escapes from Count Dracula's castle, Mina travels to Budapest and joins him there. Mina cares for him during his recovery from his traumatic encounter with the vampire and his brides, and the two return to England as husband and wife. Back home, they learn that Lucy has died from a mysterious illness stemming from severe blood loss as the result of repeated attacks by an unknown, blood-drinking animal. The animal, they learn, was none other than Dracula taking a different shape.
It is because of Mina that the party learn of the Count's plans, as she is the one who collects the journals, letters, and newspaper clippings. She assembles all of the relevant information regarding the Count, places it in chronological order, and types out multiple copies, giving them to each of the other protagonists. The end result is the epistolary novel itself. Mina and Jonathan then join the coalition around Abraham Van Helsing, and turn their attention toward destroying the Count. The party uses this information to discover clues about Dracula's plans and further investigate the locations of the various residences he purchases as a means to track him and destroy him. Each subsequent action the party takes is recorded by the various members and added to the collection of events surrounding Dracula.
After Dracula learns of this plot against him, he takes revenge by visiting — and biting — Mina at least three times. Dracula also feeds Mina his blood, dooming her to become a vampire should she die. Afterwards, he kills Renfield and destroys all of the copies of their except for one, which Dr. Seward kept in a safe. The rest of the novel deals with the group's efforts to spare Mina a vampiric fate by tracking and attempting to kill Dracula. When Van Helsing attempts to bless her by placing a wafer of sacramental bread against her forehead it burns her flesh, leaving a scar, thus proving that Dracula has made her unholy. Mina slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to one of semi-trance, during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. Mina then uses her inherent telepathic abilities to track Dracula's movements under the hypnotism of Van Helsing. Dracula later flees back to his castle in Transylvania, followed by the entire group who split up. As Van Helsing takes Mina with him on his journey to Dracula's castle to slay the brides of Dracula, the rest of the party attempt to locate and raid the ship Dracula is using, to ambush him. As time goes on, Helsing's ability to hypnotize Mina to obtain intelligence on the whereabouts of Count Dracula diminishes significantly. Her appearance and manner become more vampire-like, to the point where she even loses her appetite as well as her ability to stay awake during the day despite multiple attempts by Van Helsing to wake her.
While Mina and Van Helsing are at camp, Helsing crumbles sacramental bread in a circle around Mina as she sleeps during the daytime. Upon waking, she is unable to cross the circle at all. Van Helsing does this as a test; if Mina is unable to exit the circle, he reasons that vampires would be unable to enter, as well. This is confirmed when, later in the night, the brides come to the camp, but are unable to cross the ring around Mina and Van Helsing. The brides beckon her to join them but fail, and fly back to Dracula's castle before sunrise where they meet their demise at Van Helsing's hands.
When the party kills Dracula just before sunset, Dracula's vampiric spell is lifted and Mina is freed from the curse.
The book closes with a note written seven years after these events about Mina's and Jonathan's married life and the birth of their first-born son, whom they name Quincey in remembrance of their American friend Quincey Morris, who was killed by Dracula's Szgany minions during the final confrontation. The birth of Jonathan and Mina's son signifies hope and renewal of life as the close of the novel ushers in the 20th century.

In other media

Mina has appeared in most film adaptations of Stoker's novel.
In Stoker's original novel, Mina recovers from the vampire's curse upon Dracula's death and lives on to marry Jonathan. However, in some media, Mina is killed at some point in the story, while in others, she becomes a full vampire and keeps her powers after the death of Dracula.

Books

Film

Lupita Tovar played Eva in Drácula. Her portrayal was more sexual than in English-language version.
In the light novels Vampire Hunter D, the ancient vampire Count Magnus Lee refers to a "Mina the Fair" who was pursued by the "Sacred Ancestor". It is implied that she may be the mother of D.
In the 1997 manga series Hellsing, a character referred to only as "She" is eventually revealed to be Mina Harker's corpse. She died before Dracula could be defeated, but because he did not die, the curse was still active in her, which the Doctor exploited to create Millennium's vampires.
In the 2005 manga series Dance in the Vampire Bund, the central female vampire protagonist is named "Mina Țepeș", a reference to Vlad Țepeș, one of the inspirations for Dracula.

Miscellaneous