Mina Harker

Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker (née Murray) is a fictional character and the female protagonist in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. In the original novel, Mina is a young schoolmistress who is bitten three times by Dracula, who also feeds her with his own blood, dooming her to become a vampire should she die. She remains telepathically connected with Dracula for the rest of the novel. Mina uses her inherent telepathic abilities to track Dracula's movements under the hypnotism of Abraham Van Helsing. Following Dracula's death, Mina is freed from the vampiric curse.

Throughout the years, the character has been portrayed in numerous media, from film to theater. In some adaptations, she is romantically paired with Count Dracula, either as his soulmate or as the reincarnation of his deceased wife. Other versions are believed to blend aspects of the character with historical accounts surrounding Vlad the Impaler’s unnamed first wife, who reportedly committed suicide in 1462 by throwing herself from the tower of Poenari Castle into the Argeș River to avoid capture by an encroaching army.

She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young schoolmistress 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. Personality-wise, Mina is virtuous, intelligent and practical. She is praised as having a "man's brain" by her male counterparts, who are often surprised and impressed by her secretarial resourcefulness and insights, and becomes their moral mother figure who provides emotional support and religious ethical guidance.

After Mina's fiancé Jonathan escapes from Count Dracula's castle, she 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 all of the relevant information regarding the Count—including the various characters' journals, letters, and newspaper clippings—places it in chronological order, and types out multiple copies, giving them to each of the other protagonists. The 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 own blood, dooming her to become a vampire should she die. Afterwards, he kills Renfield and destroys all of the copies of their compiled records 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 host against her forehead it burns her flesh, leaving a scar, thus proving that Dracula has made her unholy. Mina slowly succumbs to Dracula's influence, 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, Van 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. But at night, is much more spry and active to the doctor's disturbance.

While Mina and Van Helsing are at camp, Van Helsing finely crumbles a sacred wafer 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 to do so (which Van Helsing is relieved at when he notices how Mina looks at them with fear and disgust, and he realizes she isn't like them yet); with that, they fly back to Dracula's castle before sunrise, where they meet their demise at Van Helsing's hands. Curiously, when Van Helsing is about to stake the first bride, he's stopped by her beauty and hesitates. But is snapped out of it by a "soul wail" from Mina though is unsure if he imagined it or she used some of her newfound power to help him.

When the party kills Dracula just before sunset, Dracula's vampiric spell is lifted and Mina is freed from the curse.