Mina Harker

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Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker (née Murray) is the main protagonist, and heroine in Bram Stoker's horror novel Dracula.

[edit] In the novel

She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young school mistress (teaching etiquette and decorum) who is engaged to Jonathan Harker, and friends with Lucy Westenra. She visits Lucy in Whitby on July 24 of that year when schools would have closed for the summer.

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 and the two return to England as husband and wife. Back home, they learn that Lucy has died from a mysterious illness steming from severe bloodloss as the result of repeated visits from some unknown blood-drinking animal, — the animal, they learn, was none other than Dracula taking a different shape.

Mina and Jonathan join the coalition around Abraham Van Helsing, who now turn their attentions to destroying the Count. 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, destining her to become a vampire at her death. The rest of the novel deals with the group's efforts to spare her this fate by killing Dracula. Mina slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to a state of semi-trance during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. Mina then uses her inherent telepathic abilities to track Dracula's movements.

Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania, followed by Van Helsing's gang, who kill him just before sundown. As a result, Dracula's spell is lifted and Mina freed from the curse.

The book closes with a note 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 life of the new as the novel heads into the 20th century.^{[1][Full citation needed]}

[edit] Portrayal

Like her friend Lucy, Mina is highly idealized: she is described by Stoker as a pure, angelic wife and (symbolic) mother.

[edit] In other media

Mina (or a similar character) has appeared in most film adaptations of Stoker's novel.

Though in Stoker's original novel, Mina Harker is shown to have been recovered from the vampires curse, in many other movies, books, plays and songs, she is shown to have never fully lost her vampiric abilities.

In F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, the character is renamed Ellen, due to the copyright issues surrounding this film. In a significant deviation from the original novel, she sacrifices herself to Count Orlok (the film's version of Dracula) so he will be destroyed by the rising sun.

Helen Chandler played her in Universal Pictures' 1931 film adaptation, directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the count. In this adaptation, Mina was Dr. Seward's daughter and so it is implied that her name was Mina Seward. This connection was incorporated into Mel Brooks' parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It, in which she is portrayed by Amy Yasbeck.

Mina was portrayed by American actress Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola film adaptation of the book.

The character also appears in Alan Moore's comic book series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In the 2003 film adaptation of the book, Mina was portrayed by actress Peta Wilson.

In the manga Hellsing, "She" was revealed to be Mina Harker's corpse. She died before Dracula (later Alucard) 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.

Mina was again seen in the television series Demons as a half-vampire, where her full powers came out when she ingested some of Dracula's blood that still flows in her veins.

[edit] References

1. ^ Experts Milhousen and Frytopen.