Dracula
Renfield
The asylum patient
A restless patient in Dr. Seward's asylum who eats insects and birds to take in their life, and who is tied by mind to Dracula.
Renfield is a middle-aged inmate at Dr. Seward's asylum, with wild gray hair and a twitchy, hunted look. His mania is that he eats flies, spiders and sparrows to gain their life, and he repeats that the blood is the life. Dr. Seward finds him baffling but notes that he talks of a Master who will soon arrive in England.
Renfield is tormented rather than simply mad. He serves Dracula through a mental link, yet he also keeps a spark of conscience. Around Mina he becomes calm and lucid, and he sees her as someone good and kind who does not belong in a place like the asylum.
“You shall not pass! I won't let you hurt her!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Renfield serves as the link between Dracula's arrival and his hold on those around him. He warns Mina and begs Dr. Seward to let him out before it is too late. Dracula comes to his cell as mist, and Renfield tells him he was lied to and that the Count only wanted souls.
He attacks Dracula to protect Mina and says that Dracula shall not pass. The Count crushes him against the floor. When the hunters return, Renfield uses his last breaths to tell them that Dracula has gone upstairs to Mrs. Harker.
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