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Note: the following article on memory and subjective reality in Dracula is a modified excerpt (pp. 155-158) from my doctoral dissertation, “Time is Everything with Him”: The Concept of the Eternal Now in Nineteenth-Century Gothic, which can be downloaded (for free) from the Tampere University Press pages. For a list of my other academic publications, see the related page of my website.

The importance of memory in Dracula is an issue receiving explicit attention. Mina mentions to Lucy that “with a little practice, one can remember all that goes on or that one hears said during the day” (D 62), an ability that is proven vital later on.

The occasions of memory loss begin early on for the characters. Jonathan, arriving at Dracula’s castle, suffers what appears to be a severe case of amnesia, as he claims “I must have been asleep, for certainly if I had been fully awake I must have noticed the approach to such a remarkable place” (D 21). Not only is Jonathan unsure of whether he noticed the approach or not, but his words imply that he is unsure of whether this was a result of dreaming or memory loss – hence his words “fully awake”.

This realization echoes the events of the approach itself when Jonathan conveniently explains the recurrence of the incident as a dream (D 19). Jonathan’s persistence on rationalizing his experiences as dreams continues later, as he refers to everything appearing like “a horrible nightmare” (D 22). One exception comes at a point when, for a fleeting moment, he wonders whether a dream would be worse than “the unnatural, horrible net of gloom and mystery” that has entrapped him (D 40).

Space as Intermediate Experience

To understand the importance of memory and subjective reality in Dracula, one should look into the ways spaces are rendered. Jonathan’s reference not to Count Dracula directly but to the space itself is interesting. Dracula himself claims that the castle “is old, and has many memories”, containing “bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely” (D 40), a suggestion connecting space with experience in a rather Bakhtinian fashion, as “[t]he unfinished and open body … is not separated from the world by clearly defined boundaries; it is blended with the world, with animals, with objects” (Bakhtin 1984, 26–27). Count Dracula’s warning about the castle’s memories implies that traumatic experiences can leave material residue. It is worth noting that the porosity between self and environment was well analyzed in the late Victorian period:

William James describes clothes, furniture, and collections of personal property as extensions of the body that form the “innermost part of the material Self ” (1: 292) … Samuel Butler also described clothes and possessions as components of human identity in his controversial 1878 speculation on memory and heredity entitled Life and Habit … Butler understands this interrelation [between individuals and the material world] as a testament to the permeable boundaries of individual personality. (Vrettos 2007, 200)

In essence, what Jonathan is subjected to is not necessarily merely the loss of his own memory, sense of reality, or perception of temporality, but also the projection of Dracula’s own understanding and experiencing of these elements, channeled through the spatial surroundings that are replete with the Count’s memories. Dracula goes as far as to claim that “to live in a new house would kill me. A house cannot be made habitable in a day” (D 30).

Memory and Subjective Reality in Dracula: the Importance of Dreams and Dream-like Experiences.

Descriptions of events and experiences appearing like dreams, half-dreams, or other reveries in-between reality and illusion pervade the text, particularly in close proximity to Count Dracula or somehow related to his actions or essence. When Mina chases Lucy in the night, she narrates in vivid terms what can be perceived as a dream, not only because of the gloomy images and the eerie stillness, but particularly because of her words “I must have gone fast, and yet, it seemed to me as if my feet were weighted with lead, and as though every joint in my body were rusty” (D 101), an accurate description of a dream.

In the days following that night, Mina continues to refer to Lucy’s state as “half-dreamy” (D 105), adding that Lucy was talking in “a half-dreaming kind of way”, with the noteworthy speculation that this was because she was attempting “to recall it to herself” (D 108).

Soon after Dracula’s attack on Lucy, Mina departs to meet Jonathan, mentioning later in her letter to Lucy “I can hardly recall anything of the journey”, not failing to add that Jonathan himself “does not remember anything that has happened to him for a long time past” (D 114). More importantly, Mina seems to suffer the same kind of amnesia after her own encounter with Count Dracula, as she admits she cannot remember how she fell asleep (D 274), repeating again later on “I do not remember anything until the morning, when Jonathan woke me” (D 275).

The Self-Referential Aspect of Memory and Subjective Reality in Dracula

In a novel like Dracula, presented as a collection of edited and adapted narrations, memory invariably acquires critical importance, as the flow of reliable information is essential for defeating Count Dracula. Consequently, any instance of memory loss in the text is viewed as a hindrance, and – particularly due to its association with Dracula’s actions – as something to be suspicious of.

Professor Van Helsing, however, complicates matters by telling Dr. Seward “[r]emember, my friend, knowledge is stronger than memory” (D 130). This paradoxical statement – as Van Helsing basically asks from Dr. Seward to remember that he should not trust the act of remembering – effectively connects memory, temporality, and qualitative assessments. The problem for Van Helsing is that, as knowledge and time are inseparable, when he attempts to disassociate knowledge from memory, he cannot do the same for knowledge and temporality. Books are a source but they do not suffice, and Van Helsing acknowledges that “the proof of our own unhappy experience” (D 252) is required, as Eleni Coundouriotis argues:

Consequently, time and experience license the revision of the written record. The same documentary operation that establishes knowledge erases memory … In contrast to Van Helsing’s obsession with controlling time, the Count has no control of time. Overwhelmed with the implications of long, historical time, the Count haunts the characters in the novel, subverting their effort to valorize only contemporaneity. (2000, 146)

Not only is Count Dracula living in an eternal present, essentially as a result of his timelessness, but as Dracula is a text which is presented as a multi-dimensional alloy of individual and hence subjective instances of knowledge and memory, the realization that these are dependent on temporality places an additional strain on the already weakened foundation of narrative authority and objective truth.

Works Cited

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Translated by H. Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.
Coundouriotis, Eleni. “Dracula and the Idea of Europe”. Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 9.2 (2000): 143–59. Web. Accessed on 29 May 2015. < http://www.connotations.uni-tuebingen.de/coundouriotis00902.htm >.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. London: Penguin, 2003. (Cited as D).
Vrettos, Athena. “Displaced Memories in Victorian Fiction and Psychology”. Victorian Studies. 49.2 (2007): 199–207.

Read more: Angelis, Christos. “Time is Everything with Him”: The Concept of the Eternal Now in Nineteenth-Century Gothic. Doctoral Dissertation. Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press, 2017. Available from the repository of the Tampere University Press.