Dracula
Lucy Westenra
Dracula's first English victim
A bright, loving young woman in Whitby who is engaged to Arthur Holmwood. Her illness after a night on the cliffs sets the hunt in motion.
Lucy Westenra is twenty, with golden curls, green eyes and a laugh that fills a room. She is Mina's closest friend and she is gleeful on the day she receives three marriage proposals, choosing Arthur Holmwood. Lucy is affectionate, romantic and trusting, and she believes the best of everyone.
That sweetness is what makes her story so sad. Her restless sleepwalking in Whitby, her pale cheeks and her dreams of a great bat at the window are the first signs of something wrong. Everyone who loves her wants to protect her, and she is surrounded by people who would give anything to do it. She is also the kind of friend who teases Mina for brooding over her diary, and who fills the room with talk of weddings and suitors.
“It was Arthur. It has always been Arthur Holmwood!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Mina finds Lucy asleep on a cliffside bench with a dark shape bending over her, and later sees two small marks on her throat. Back in London Lucy weakens. Arthur gives blood and Van Helsing guards her room with garlic, but a wolf breaks the window, her mother dies of shock, and the garlic is scattered.
Lucy dies, then returns as the Un-Dead, luring children in Hampstead as the Bloofer Lady. Van Helsing shows Seward her empty tomb and drives her back with a crucifix. Finally Arthur drives a wooden stake through her heart, and her face settles into peace.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
