Dracula December Part 3: I Love Lucy

Exploring different interpretations of one of the unsung stars of the Dracula mythos

Ask people to name characters they associate with Dracula, and you’re bound to get plenty of different responses. Aside from the undead bloodsucker himself, you’re likely to hear names like Abraham Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray/Harker, or Renfield. You might even hear people name Marvel’s Blade or Simon Belmont from the Castlevania video game series. For me, the answer is easy: Lucy Westenra. It isn’t a name you hear too often, but I truly believe that she is the character who makes Stoker’s novel work. With that in mind, let’s examine some of the interpretations of Lucy in various books and films

Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker

Lucy in Stoker’s original novel is a teenage girl from an aristocratic family who is being courted by three different men (Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, and John Seward) hoping to win her hand in marriage. She is also the best friend of Mina Murray (essentially the co-protagonist of the novel). She is portrayed as having a tender and empathetic soul who genuinely cares for all three suitors as well as her dear friend Mina. She is clearly meant to be a character that readers will sympathize with, and that is what makes her fate so tragic.

Lucy’s friendship with Mina ultimately dooms her as it puts her in Dracula’s sights when he finally arrives in London. He begins feeding on her on a nightly basis that leaves her weakened and in a hypnotic state. Unable to figure out what is wrong with her, John Seward (one of her suitors and also a physician) summons Abraham Van Helsing to come to London and lend his medical expertise to try and diagnose her ailments. He’s the who ultimately deduces that she is the victim of a vampire. Despite his best efforts to protect her, she is ultimately killed by Dracula when he finally drains her completely of her blood. Sadly, that is not the end of Lucy’s story.

Dracula has turned Lucy into one of his vampire brides, and she begins leaving her tomb every night to hunt for prey. She becomes known as the “Bloofer Lady” (derived from young children who see her trying to say “beautiful lady”) as she begins feeding on children on a nightly basis. No longer the innocent girl she was in life, this undead version of Lucy is now a child murderer who has been utterly corrupted by Dracula. She’s eventually tracked down and killed by a posse composed of Van Helsing and her three former suitors. She is staked through the heart by Arthur (the man whom she ended up choosing of the three), and then her head is cut off and the mouth stuffed with garlic. It’s brutal ending to her story.

Dracula killing Lucy and turning her into a vampire might not be the most evil act he perpetrates in the novel (RIP Bag Baby), but it’s certainly the most emotionally resonant. She’s a character that readers come to love over the course of the story, and seeing her utterly destroyed and turned into something sadistic and cruel is a devastating loss. It’s the galvanizing event that motivates our heroes to put an end to his evil.

Horror of Dracula (1958) directed by Terence Fisher

For as important a character Lucy is in the novel, most film adaptations of Dracula that followed tended to minimize the character or write her out of the story altogether. The two most famous film adaptations prior to 1958 (Nosferatu and Universal’s Dracula) did little to nothing with the Lucy character. As great as those films are, it’s disappointing that Lucy (or Ruth in the case of Nosferatu) is given short shrift. Then along came Horror of Dracula courtesy of Hammer.

The version of Lucy (played by Carol Marsh) in Horror of Dracula is quite a bit different from the one appearing in the novel. Instead of being courted by Arthur Holmwood, she is his sister. She is also Jonathan Harker’s fiancée instead of Mina. Meanwhile, Mina is married to Arthur. Got all of that? There are many other changes to the story, but let’s keep the focus on Lucy for now.

Much like the novel, Lucy becomes Dracula’s victim upon his arrival to London. Also like the novel, Van Helsing is brought in to help diagnose Lucy’s ailment as she is fed upon. She even dies and rises from her grave as a vampire as she does in the novel before ultimately being staked by Van Helsing. Marsh’s portrayal of Lucy isn’t an entirely faithful adaptation of the novel, but she is still a tragic figure whose death helps galvanize the heroes of the story. Horror of Dracula is also the first film to have Lucy preyed upon by Dracula and turned into one of his vampire brides.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is my personal favorite film adaptation of Dracula, and its portrayal of Lucy (played by Sadie Frost) is a big reason why.

Lucy in this film is paradoxically very faithful to the source material and radically different. The story beats themselves are all there from the novel. She’s a teenage girl from an aristocratic family. She’s being pursued by the same three suitors (Holmwood, Seward, and Morris). She’s Mina’s best friend. Dracula feeds on her over the course of several nights before killing her and turning her into a vampire. She preys on children once she becomes a vampire. She’s ultimately staked by Holmwood and has her head cut off. It’s all there.

Where this version of Lucy differs is in her personality. She’s very flirtatious and seductive. She embraces her sexuality in a way that never takes place in Stoker’s novel (or any film adaptations up to this point). This could have been easily played as the stereotypical promiscuous teenager in the kinds of slasher films that had ruled the horror box office in the decade leading up to this film’s release. Dracula could have punished her for her transgressions like Jason Vorhees in a Friday the 13th movie, but that’s not how this is handled. She’s a much more fleshed out character than that, and she is treated sympathetically. At no point is the audience meant to view her as unsympathetic. It’s a different portrayal than the one from the novel, but it’s just as effective.

Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel (2024) by Kiersten White

This novel is very new (it was just published this past September), so I will avoid discussing any major spoilers. Written by Kiersten White (I previously wrote about her novel Mister Magic), Lucy Undying is a novel set within the world of Stoker’s Dracula that views the events of that story from Lucy’s point of view while also tying it into a story taking place in modern day.

I loved this book. That probably shouldn’t be that surprising considering it’s about my favorite character from Dracula and written by the author of one of my favorite novels of 2023. I’m practically the target audience. That said, this was an excellent novel regardless of whether or not you have any history with the character. White explores the struggles faced by queer women in both the present and the nineteenth century through the lens of Lucy and a kindred spirit named Iris as they deal with societal pressures, overbearing mothers, patriarchal social structures, and undead vampires from Romania who bring pestilence and death with them wherever they go. That last one is a little less common than the others, but it’s an important issue nonetheless.

Nosferatu (2024) directed by Robbert Eggers

Okay. I haven’t seen this one yet, though I will be seeing it the day this piece is released. I might be watching it at this very second depending on when you’re reading it! How exciting. While there technically isn’t a character named Lucy in this adaptation, there does appear to be an analogous character named Anna Harding being played by Emma Corrin. I thought they were delightful as Cassandra Nova earlier this year in Deadpool & Wolverine, so I’m excited to see what they bring to the role. Hopefully it’s another great portrayal of the character.

That wraps things up for Dracula December. Next week I’ll be doing my annual end of the year piece where I talk about my favorite movies, television series, comic books, and novels from the year. Hopefully Nosferatu will be good enough to make an appearance.