Throughout Dracula people are getting bitten and turning into Vampires. It is a constant unending chain, that seemingly can’t be stopped. Then, at the end of the novel the chain is broken when they kill Dracula. In the process Morris is killed, in turn, he is remembered through Mina and Johnathan’s’ baby whom they named Quincey, who also happened to be born on the same day Morris was killed. This represents the theme of rebirth in the novel. This can be most clearly seen in Jonathan Harker’s final note at the end of the novel.
Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured. It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy’s birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friend’s spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together; but we call him Quincey. In the summer of this year we made a journey to Transylvania, and went over the old ground which was, and is, to us so full of vivid and terrible memories. It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out(Stoker 402).
The passage starts off with the line, “Seven years ago we all went through the flames.” This is already the first representation of the theme of rebirth in this passage. Flames are often associated with rebirth because of the Phoenix, who at the end of its life sets itself on fire so a young Phoenix can rise from its ashes. For them to have this child they all needed to go through the flames, meaning they needed to suffer. The next line shows how this suffering gave them a rebirth, “and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured.” This shows that through the suffering or ‘flames’ they were able to gain rebirth which is a new life that is free of Dracula. The next line states that Mina and Jonathan’s child was born on the same day as the day Morris died. Suggesting that Quincy, their kid, might even be a reincarnation of Morris, this is the most literal example of rebirth in this quote. The end of the quote goes like this, “In the summer of this year we made a journey to Transylvania, and went over the old ground which was, and is, to us so full of vivid and terrible memories. It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out. The castle stood as before, reared high above a waste of desolation.” Jonathan and Mina went back to Transylvania and revisited all the places they had been. Why would they go back and be reminded of such terrible memories? The answer probably lies in the human desire to see a place they associate with chaos and evil rebirth as a place set free from that evil, or rebirth. In the next sentence Jonathan writes, “It was almost impossible to believe that the things which we had seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears were living truths. Every trace of all that had been was blotted out.” Even though this place is associated in their minds with the place their best friend had been murdered, he acknowledges that despite that experience it felt as if nothing had happened there, “Every trace of all that had been was blotted out.” This shows us that even the most terrible things can experience a rebirth.
It is also important to take note of what Bram Stoker is saying about rebirth. For most of the novel rebirth is shown in an evil light, vampires live long past regular humans and they spread their misfortune to others who then are rebirthed as vampires. Yet, at the end rebirth is portrayed in a positive light through Jonathan and Mina’s child, Quincey. This could be a comment by Stoker on the obsession with death in the Victorian era and the desire to live longer, which caused some people to seek out unnatural methods to elongate their life. By showing that when you allow life to take its course there is rebirth but in a much more metaphorical and spiritual way, and that is the next generation.