Dracula Chapters 16-20

Hooray! I finally finished the book! Now for all of the blogging...
Chapter 16: Yay for grave debauchery! This chapter is full of suspense and a sense of sadness for all of the men really, but especially for Arthur, who has to come to terms with the fact that his beloved is indeed a vampire and must be slain by him. At least Lucy is at peace now before her soul could get too plagued by evil. It would have been pretty terrifying to be one of those people in the graveyard when the vampire came back to her lair. It's a good thing they all had the necessary equipment!
Chapter 17: Mina arrives at Dr. Seward's home/lunatic asylum, and she and Dr. Seward decide to tell each other all that has been going on. I believe that this is the chapter in which Mina goes through and types up all of the diaries and documents and compiles them in a book in chronological order (much like the book we're reading!). I'd guess that this was Bram Stoker's intent to make the characters seem more real by having them 'write' the book. It's a really neat device and I really like it. But I digress. Not too much really happens in this chapter. Jonathan goes off to find out about the boxes of earth, and Mina meets Quincy Morris and Arthur Holmwood. She becomes good friends with them both.
Chapter 18: In this chapter Mina meets Renfield, and he seems more sane than he has ever been. She seems to have some sort of a positive effect on him. Everybody reads the compilation of the texts and diaries and then they all meet together to discuss a course of action to rid the world of Count Dracula. They talk about what his strengths and weaknesses are, and also vampire 'cures.' I suspect that Dracula was eavesdropping in bat form, however. At least Quicy got him to leave by shooting at him before he heard too much. Renfield later calls in Mina to talk with her and he begs everyone to let him go that night. The fact that he was denied this request is very important to the story later on.
Chapter 19: The men (Jonathan, Quincy, Arthur, Van Helsing, and Dr. Seward) go into Carfax to see what they can find while Dracula is away. Rats were called from every cranny in that old house and chapel. It is lucky that there were dogs at the command of the protagonists to chase out all of the rats. Later when the men come back to the asylum, Renfield is in distress. This is also extremely important, as is the fact that Mina is pale when Jonathan sees her later that night. What happens is Dracula is invited in, semi-unwillingly, by Renfield, who then regrets his decision. Dracula then proceeds to visit Mina for a while before the men notice. The men decide to leave Mina out of their counsels, since they think that the stress and worry of these is what is making her pale and lethargic. Mina dreams of Dracula coming to visit her in the night, and little does she know that this is more than a dream. The next night she makes the mistake of taking a sleeping drug.
Chapter 20: Jonathan goes about tracking the locations of the boxes that were moved from the house. The men decided that when they go to sterilize Dracula's living places, they should do them all at once. Some of the box-movers were helpful, but all of them required bribes. Renfield is acting reasonable again, and Dr. Seward tries to figure out what he means when he says various things about not being zoophogous anymore. Dr. Seward finally realizes that the Count probably recently visited Renfield. Everyone is off doing their own thing in order to get matters ready to kill Dracula. At the very end, Renfield is found all bloodied in his room. This is probably Dracula's work.