| |
|---|---|
| Jonathan Harker | |
| Biographical information | |
| Gender |
Male |
| Species |
Human |
| Status |
Alive |
| From |
England |
| Occupation |
Solicitor |
| Relations | |
| Spouse | |
| Friends |
Arthur Holmwood |
| Enemies |
Count Dracula (deceased) |
| Appearance | |
| Based on | |
| Portrayed By | |
| Source | |
Jonathan Harker is one of the main characters of Bram Stoker's Dracula. He is primarily based off the character from Bram Stoker's novel of the same name.
Biography[]
- Jonathan Harker is a young solicitor who is engaged to a young woman named Mina Murray. In 1897, Harker takes the Transylvanian Count Dracula as a client from his colleague Renfield who has gone insane. He travels to Transylvania to arrange the Count's real estate acquisitions in London.
After a long journey, Jonathan finally arrives to Transylvania and meets Count Dracula in the castle's gates. Dracula welcomes his new guest and invites him to have dinner with him. He, however, does not eat as he has already dined and claims that he never drinks wine. Jonathan then comments on how a painting in the wall resembles the Count, and Dracula explains that the ancestor in the painting belonged to the Order of the Dracul. As the Count comments that his forefathers' relationship with the church was not "entirely successful", Harker briefly chuckles and causes the Count to suddenly scream in rage, angrily pointing a sword towards his guest. Barely containing his wrath, Dracula states that it is not a laughing matter and claims that his family has a right to be proud; as they descend from Attila the Hun who was greater than any devil or witch. In shock of what just happened, Jonathan realizes his mistake in offending his host and promptly apologizes.
Sometime later, Dracula seals the papers necessary for his purchase of Carfax Abbey and Jonathan is making the arrangements as the Count comments on his desire to walk the streets of London. Suddenly, as Jonathan asks the Count about his purchase, Dracula is completely distracted by Jonathan's picture of the latter's fiancee, Mina Murray. Dracula continues to stare obsessively onto Mina's picture as he asks Jonathan if he believes in destiny. Jonathan replies that the picture is Mina's, and that they will marry soon. He then asks the Count is he is married, to which Dracula melancholically replies that he was a long time ago before she died, claiming that she was "fortunate". Dracula then proceeds to prompt Harker to continue to write to his sign and all of his loved ones that he would be pleased to stay in Castle Dracula for a month. Jonathan is confused by this and asks the Count if he wishes for him to stay for that long, to which Dracula simply replies by staring at him directly and stating that he won't take "no" for an answer before vanishing in the dark.
One night, Jonathan was looking at his hand-mirror in the guest's room while shaving. Suddenly, Dracula enters the room, scaring Jonathan and causing him to cut himself in the neck. The Count approaches him and warns Jonathan that cutting oneself can be dangerous. However, when Jonathan attempts to look himself in the mirror he notices that something is clearly wrong: he cannot see the Count in the mirror. When he attempts to confirm this by seeing into the mirror again, the mirror suddenly breaks and Dracula calls it a foul product of men's vanity. After checking on Jonathan's letters, the Count warns to not sleep in any other part of the castle, saying that being ancient, it has many bad memories. However, after Dracula gazes at the reflection of Jonathan's crucifix, he gives a bestial roar and gets away from it. As Dracula tries to excuse his strange behaviour with the cultural differences between Transylvania and England, Jonathan rants that he's seen too many strange things in Transylvania but before he can continue, wolves begin to howl. Dracula calls them the "children of the night" and leaves the room. A moment later, Jonathan opens the window and watches in utter disbelief as the Count crawls in the castle's walls while howling. Later, Jonathan decides to venture into the castle's catacombs, where three beautiful women appear before him, seduce him and begin to drink his blood. With a thunderous flash, Dracula appears and drives them away, stating that Jonathan belongs to him so they cannot touch him. They anguishly declare that he never loved and Dracula replies that he too can love and that he will love again. When they ask him if he has anything for them, Dracula brings a bag with a baby inside. As Jonathan screens in horror as the women kill the baby, the Count merely gazes at him and laughs maliciously.
Jonathan quickly realizes that the letters he has written had sealed his fate unless he finds a way out of Castle Dracula. He explores the castle and realizes that the Count has gypsies working for him day and night to fill boxes with decrepit earth from beneath the bowels of the castle to later transport them to Carfax Abbey. He spies on them, unsure why they are filling boxes with earth. When he reaches the castle's chapel, he comes across a coffin that opens and Dracula comes out of it. Horrified, Harker quickly escapes from the chapel. Sometime later, Dracula departs from his castle and leaves Jonathan's fate in the hands of the three women that live with him. From that point on, they constantly rape Jonathan and drink his blood to keep him weak so that he cannot escape the castle by any means.
However, one day he desperately tries to escape one last time and succeeds by falling to the upper side of the river. He swims safely ashore and finds a covenant nearby, where he is taken under the care of Sister Agatha. The Sister sends a letter to Mina to reassure her that her fiancee is safe, but that Jonathan thinks that she is in terrible danger, so she urges her to come so that they could marry as soon as possible. Mina travels to Rumania, encounters a grey-haired and severely traumatized Jonathan, and they marry.
When they arrive at London, the new couple hear the news about Lucy Westenra's death, Mina's best friend. Because of Jonathan's fragile condition, Mina decides it is best for him to walk the streets of London, feeling it would be reinvigorating. On one such walk, Jonathan suddenly begins to panic as he catches a glimpse of Count Dracula, noting that he has somehow rejuvenated himself. Sometime later, Professor Abraham Van Helsing invites the pair to have dinner. There he asks Jonathan if he drank the blood from the three demonic women that he encountered in Castle Dracula. When Jonathan replies by denying it and by saying that, during his stay in Transylvania, he felt he was going insane but that he know where Dracula sleeps: Carfax Abbey, Van Helsing reveals what kind of a creature Dracula truly is: a vampire. He then explains that this particular vampire has the strength of 20 men, he can control bats, rodents and wolves, he can turn into mist and vanish at will. However, Van Helsing states that, despite being able of doing all of this, Dracula is not free: he must rest in his birthplace's soil to recover his evil power.
The vampire hunters, Van Helsing, Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris, Dr. John Seward and Jonathan himself head to Carfax Abbey while Mina is left behind in John Seward's Asylum. Once inside Carfax, Van Helsing orders everyone to destroy the boxes and to sterilize the soil within to leave the vampire without refuge. After destroying the boxes, Van Helsing chants a ritual to exorcize the soil. However, once they return to the Asylum they discover that Dracula has entered Mina's room. Van Helsing tries to repel the vampire by holding a crucifix, but Dracula mockingly states that he cannot be destroyed by their "idols", causing the crucifix to burst into flames. Dracula then rants on that he commanded nations hundreds of years before they were born, to which Van Helsing counters by saying that his armies were long defeated and that he tortured and impaled thousands of people. Dracula continues his rant by blaming God for turning him into a vampire but Van Helsing counters by stating that his war with God is over and that he must now pay for his crimes before spilling holy water at him. Enraged, Dracula states that they are too late, for he has fed Mina with his own blood so she will become his bride. This causes Jonathan to despair and attempts to shoot at the Count (with Mina trying to stop him) but to no avail; Dracula turns into a swarm of rats and escapes.
After burning Carfax Abbey to the ground, the vampire hunters learn that Dracula has established a psychic link with Mina as a result of her drinking his blood and she is now turning into a vampire. Intending to use this link, Van Helsing hypnotizes her to know the Count's location. Now in trance, Mina explains that her "Prince" is returning to Transylvania where he will be strong again and that she intends to go with him to share his strength. With their new-found information, the vampire hunters and Mina waste no time and leave London by train, crossing the English Channel in a stormy seas influenced by Dracula, for he governs the winds. From Paris, they traveled through the Alps to Budapest. The Count's ship has to pass though Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. The plan is to go to the Romanian port of Varna by train in the span of three days (the Count's ship will take at least a week to get there). Once there they will expect the ship and burn it down. During the trip, Van Helsing notes that the vampire has baptized Mina with his own blood so time is running out. Devastated by seeing his wife like this, Jonathan tries to comfort her, but she only seems to pity him, blaming herself for what she did to him, to which Jonathan replies that it is his own fault; that he did this to both of them. Once in Varna, they realized that Dracula tricked them; by reading Mina's mind he went to the port of Galatz instead of Varna. However Jonathan notes that Varna is only a few miles from Galatz and that with horses they can intercept Dracula before he reaches the castle. Jonathan then sends Van Helsing with Mina to the Borgo Pass near Castle Dracula by carriage and he along with the others, go to Galatz by train.
However, when Harker and the others reach Galatz, the vampire's box has already been taken by Dracula's gypsies and are now on their way to the Borgo Pass. Eventually, the vampire hunters catch up to them and a race against time ensures, as the sun is dropping quickly and (unknown to Harker or the hunters) Mina is using a spell to make the sun go down faster so that Dracula can defeat them all. After a fierce fight with the gypsies, they all reach Castle Dracula, where Quincey is stabbed in the back by a gypsy, but manages to defeat the latter. After all the gypsies lie defeated, the sun is almost down, so Jonathan rushes to open the vampire's box so they can kill the evil Count once and for all. However, they are to late and the box explodes revealing an awakened Count Dracula. When the beast grabs Harker, he furiously slashes the Count's throat. Distracted by the pain in his throat, Quincey takes full advantage and stabs his bowie knife through the vampire's heart before being tossed away. However, when Jonathan tried to give Dracula the finishing blow, Mina came to the Count's aid and pointed a winchester rifle at her husband, asking him if when her time comes, he would do the same to her, to which he simply replies "no", heartbroken.
As Dracula and Mina enter the chapel, the hunters try to stop them, only to be stopped in turn by Jonathan, stating that their work was finished here and Mina's has just began. As Van Helsing calls for Quincey, the hunters notice that he dies of blood loss from the stab in the back. Mina then kills Dracula inside the chapel and it is unknown what happened with her and Jonathan afterwards.