Arthur Holmwood Quotes

I am very, very happy, and I don’t know what I have done to deserve it. I must only try in the future to show that I am not ungrateful to God for all His goodness to me in sending to me such a lover, such a husband, such a friend.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 5. In her letter to Mina, Lucy is very explicit in describing her affections for Arthur Holmwood. Holmwood is one of three suitors who proposes marriage to her on the same day – along with Quincey Morris and Dr. John Seward. She chooses Holmwood as her fiancé.

I want you to do me a favour. Lucy is ill; that is, she has no special disease, but she looks awful…I told her I should ask you to see her…she finally consented.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 9. Arthur Holmwood requests help from Dr. Seward on behalf of his sick fiancée Lucy, whom he is worried about. She is falling into weakness and illness, with no known or obvious cause. The meeting between Arthur and Seward regarding Lucy is an example of how the men in the novel work to protect and defend the health and security of their women.

In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips, "Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!"

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 12. As Lucy is being transformed into a vampire, she becomes more sexualized and daring. In a sexy voice she asks Arthur for a kiss. As Arthur bends over to kiss her, Van Helsing saves him by dragging him away from Lucy.

She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, voluptuous grace, said "Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!"
There was something diabolically sweet in her tones, something of the tingling of glass when struck-which rang through the brains even of us who heard the words addressed to another.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 16. Lucy Westenra, in her undead form, appears to Arthur Holmwood and his friends when they visit her tomb to free her soul. They shudder with horror at the sight of the devilish vampire, that once was the pure and innocent Lucy. Dracula has now turned her into a predatory, highly sexual creature.

As for Arthur, he seemed under a spell; moving his hands from his face, he opened wide his arms. She was leaping for them, when Van Helsing sprang forward and held between them his little golden crucifix. She recoiled from it, and, with a suddenly distorted face, full of rage, dashed past him as if to enter the tomb.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 16. When Lucy appears as a voluptuous and sexy vampire to Arthur Holmwood and the others, Arthur is passively drawn to the creature who beckons him to come with her. That is until Van Helsing intervenes with his crucifix to repel her.

The thing in the coffin writhed, and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions. The sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthur never faltered. He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 16. In one of the most disconcerting scenes in the novel, Arthur Holmwood drives a stake through the undead vampire Lucy’s heart before she is beheaded and her mouth filled with garlic. Arthur was Lucy’s fiancé while she lived and the four men present agree that he is the right person for the job. There is a heavy sexual symbolism to this scene, with the stake representing a phallic symbol. Bodily fluids flow in the form of blood from Lucy’s heart. The beautiful and innocent Lucy Westenra was the evil Dracula’s first victim in England. The vampire hunters carry out their ritual on Lucy to save her soul.
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