Dracula is a text that presents several definitions for what it means to be insane. We find traces of unsettling behaviors from the Count himself and early character Jon Harker. What seems to be a case unique to the novel is how in order to be exposed to insanity, it is impossible to use our primary sense of eyesight.
Early in the novel, Jonathan Harker experiences many strange phenomena that lead him to eventually be admitted to the hospital in Budapest. After arriving at the foreboding Transylvanian castle, Harker notices that the Count has no reflection in a mirror. “It amazed me that I had not seen him, since the glass covered the whole room behind me” (p32). Immediately an association of the unnatural and the senses is created, and Jonathan, to reader’s chagrin, continues to play the fool under his eyesight for quite some time. “At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow” (p 41). Though at this point in the novel we are not certain of the cause of Harker’s madness, it is safe to assume his visual experiences at the Count’s manor play a large role, particularly the “dream”.
“I thought at the time I must be dreaming when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them, they had no shadow on the floor” (p 44). This dream presents a time in which Harker is disconnected from his conscious, and therefore his eyesight holds much more reliability than it does when he is fully aware of himself, or how we would typically define “sane”. However, Jonathan remains adamant that he is losing his mind, or asleep, because how could his eyesight, a sense that has never given him cause to feel he cannot rely on it, be mistaken?
Because of how brief yet descriptive Jonathan Harker’s time in the Counts castle is, it is both difficult and simple to unpack how his senses affect his perception of the truth in the novel. However, it is safe to say that in order to be in touch with the insane or unnatural, Jonathan has to step away from what he understands consciousness or sanity to be.