Mina Murray

Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker ( née Murray) 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 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.

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 puts Mina under his hypnotic spell, 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, 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 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.

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; who they name Quincey in remembrance of their friend, Quincey Morris; who was killed by Dracula's Roma 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 with her husband, 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

*Mina is one of the main characters in 1975 novel '' Dracula Tape'' by Fred Saberhagen, which is the retelling of Bram Stoker's ''Dracula'' from Dracula's point of view. This is actually book one of a ten part book series of which Mina is a major recurring character.
*In ''Anno Dracula'', a 1992 novel by Kim Newman, the first in the Anno Dracula series, Mina Harker became a vampire and Dracula's bride. The novel tells an alternate history in which Dracula marries Queen Victoria and rules England as her consort, and vampirism is widespread.
*Mina is the central character in the 1994 book ''Mina ... The Dracula Story Continues'', and the 2000 sequel ''Blood to Blood: The Dracula Story Continues'', by Marie Kiraly.
*Mina Murray (returning to her maiden name after having divorced her husband) is one of the lead characters of Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's comic book series ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (1999-2019). She is a bisexual suffragist and leader of the titular team, and is involved in a romantic relationship with Allan Quatermain. She and Allan are the only remaining members of the initial League after a Martian invasion. She subsequently becomes immortal, remaining young even in the year 2009. She is in a polyamorous relationship with the gender-changing omnisexual Orlando. It is implied that she still feels trauma over her encounter with Dracula and has disfiguring scars on her neck, which she covers with a red scarf.
*In '' Dracula the Un-dead,'' (2009) co-written by Dacre Stoker, a great-nephew of the original author, Mina's son, Quincey, is claimed to be a product of rape and Dracula's biologically human son, conceived at some point when Dracula was attacking Mina.
*In ''From the Pages of Bram Stoker's Dracula: Harker'' (2009), written by Tony Lee and endorsed by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, Mina becomes bound to Dracula's spirit as his remaining allies attempt to use her unborn child as his new body.
*Mina Murray appears in the novel ''European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman'' (2018)(the second novel in ''The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club'' series) by Theodora Goss. In the novel she is former governess of Mary Jekyll, daughter of the infamous Dr. Jekyll. Mary receives a letter from Mina, asking for her help, and sets on a mission to help Mina, discovering later that Mina Murray isn't all that she seems.

On screen

Film

*In F. W. Murnau's ''Nosferatu'' (1922), the character is renamed Ellen, due to the copyright issues surrounding this film, and is portrayed by Greta Schröder. 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' '' Dracula'' (1931), directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the Count. In this adaptation, Mina was Dr. John Seward's daughter and so it is implied that her name was Mina Seward.
Lupita Tovar played Eva (Mina in this version) in '' Drácula'' (Spanish version, 1931). Her portrayal was more sexual than in English-language version.
*In 1953 Turkish film '' Drakula İstanbul'da (Dracula in Istanbul)'' Güzin (Mina in this version) is played by Annie Ball. The events of the novel are updated to 1950s and Dracula here moves to Turkey from his castle in Transylvania. Güzin is the cabaret dancer. At one point Dracula places Güzin under his hypnotic control and has her dance for him on the stage (to the accompaniment of a supernaturally played piano) as he sits alone in the audience. As she finishes this command performance, Dracula applauds, and then tells her "Tonight you danced better than any other night. I won't harm you. You are a beautiful being. I will drink you bit by bit".
*In Hammer Horror's '' Dracula'' (1958), Mina was portrayed by Melissa Stribling and was married to Arthur Holmwood instead of Jonathan Harker.
*In a 1970 Spanish-Italian-German horror film ''Count Dracula'', Mina was portrayed by Maria Rohm and Christopher Lee played the title role, though it was not a Hammer production like his other Dracula films. This adaptation tried to stay faithful to the novel.
*In the 1978 adult horror film '' Dracula Sucks'', Mina is portrayed by Annette Haven and it is implied that she becomes a vampire by the end of the movie.
*In 1979 romantic horror comedy ''Love At First Bite'' Dracula moves to New York in 1970s and pursues there fashion model Cindy Sondheim (played by Susan Saint James), who Dracula recognizes as a reincarnation of Mina. Cindy does retain some of the memories from her past life.
*In the 1979 film ''Nosferatu the Vampyre'', remake of Murnau's classic, the names of female characters were swapped. What was Lucy's character in the novel is now named Mina (played by Martje Grohmann), here she is the first one to be killed by vampire, and what was Mina's character in the novel is now named Lucy (played by Isabelle Adjani) - who here is wife of Jonathan Harker - vampire's primary victim.
*Mina was played by Jan Francis in the 1979 film '' Dracula'' directed by John Badham, in which she is Van Helsing's daughter. This adaptation also switches Mina's role and makes Lucy (played by Kate Nelligan) - who here is the daughter of Dr. Seward — Jonathan Harker's fiancée and Dracula's primary victim.
*Mina was portrayed by American actress Winona Ryder in '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'', the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola film adaptation of the book, in which she is believed to be the reincarnation of Dracula's centuries-dead wife, Elisabeta.
*In Mel Brooks' parody '' Dracula: Dead and Loving It'' (1995), Mina is portrayed by Amy Yasbeck. Here she is Dr. John Seward's daughter.
*In the 2003 film ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', Mina Harker was portrayed by Peta Wilson. In a deviation from the comic the film was based on, the film has Mina remain a partially-turned vampire (a Dhampir) after Dracula's death, and she keeps the surname Harker, having outlived her husband Jonathan rather than divorced him. Unlike the comic, there is no relationship between her and Allan Quatermain, but she attracts some interest from both Doctor Henry Jekyll and Special Agent Tom Sawyer, and a past relationship with Dorian Gray is hinted at before he is revealed to be a double agent working for their enemy.
*In 2012 vampire horror film ''Dracula 3D'' by Dario Argento Mina Harker was portrayed by Marta Gastini. In this version she comes to Dracula's castle in search of her husband Jonathan Harker and turns out to look exactly like Dracula's wife, Dolingen de Gratz, who died some centuries ago.
*In 2013, Monal Gajjar portrayed Meena (Mina in this version) in the Indian Malayalam-language horror film ''Dracula 2012''. In this film Dracula moves from Romania to India in 2010s.
*A woman named Mina appears at the end of ''Dracula Untold'' (2014), portrayed by Sarah Gadon. Following the film's climax, the movie (which mostly takes place in the 15th century) flashes forward to the present day, when a woman named Mina, who strongly resembles Dracula's long-dead wife Mirena, is approached by Dracula himself. After Dracula compliments Mina and recites Mirena's favourite piece of poetry, which turns out to be Mina's favourite poem as well, the movie ends with the two departing together.
*In 2021 film ''Bram Stoker's Van Helsing'' Mina Harker (portrayed by Helen Crevel) briefly appears at the end of the film in order to give information to Professor Van Helsing.
*Mina is portrayed by India Lillie Davies in ''Dracula: The Original Living Vampire'' (2022) by The Asylum. Here, she is a real estate agent instead of Jonathan Harker, helping Dracula move into his new home. She is now in a same-sex relationship with detective Amelia Van Helsing. She is believed to be the reincarnation of Dracula's long lost bride who died on the day they were meant to be wed.
*Lily-Rose Depp is going to play Ellen Hutter (Mina in this version) in Robert Eggers 's remake of 1922 film ''Nosferatu'', a reimagening as gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Ellen) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire ( Bill Skarsgard) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.

Television

*In 1968 British TV film '' Dracula'' Mina Harker was played by Suzanne Neve. It's implied that she becomes a vampire by the end of the film.
*In 1971 Czechoslovakian TV film '' Hrabě Drakula'' Mina Harker was played by Klára Jerneková. It was a fairly faithful adaptation of the novel. It was the first screen adaptation to show Mina drinking Dracula's blood from the cut on his chest.
*In the 1973 television film '' Bram Stoker's Dracula'' Mina is portrayed by Penelope Horner.
*Blair Brown portrayed Mina Harker in the Dracula (Purple Playhouse).
*The BBC
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