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Jonathan Harker

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Character
Name: Jonathan Harker
Occupation: Solicitor/Lawyer
Relationships: Mina Harker - Wife
Quincey Harker - Son
Fandom: Dracula
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Jonathan Harker is a character from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

Canon

Jonathan Harker is a solicitor who at the beginning of the novel goes to the Dracula's castle on a working trip to finish Dracula's purchase of the housing in England. Eventually he discovers that he's held prisoner in the castle (under the pretext that Dracula wants him to stay there longer so that he could improve his English through conversations with Jonathan) and that Dracula is a vampire. During Jonathan's two month stay in the castle, Dracula slowly diminishes his autonomy while covering for his future murder/vampirization, and makes his sanity unravel; after Dracula leaves for England, Jonathan manages to escape.

When Mina reunites with Jonathan, his physical and mental health is affected by his experiences: he doesn't remember what happened in the castle and show signs of PTSD. He recovers his memory after seeing Dracula at the streets of London and rereading the diary he wrote during his time in the castle. United with other hunters, Jonathan actively participates in tracking Dracula's houses and destroying his boxes full of earth Dracula needs to sleep in. After Dracula attacks Mina, Jonathan experiences such a shock that his hair turns grey overnight, and becomes particularly determined to destroy him and to prevent her from turning into a vampire. At the end of the novel, he, together with Quincey Morris, is the person who kills Dracula, slitting his throat with a knife.

Fandom

Memes and Interpretations

  • My good friend Jonathan - during the Dracula Daily influenced resurgence of the novel on Tumblr in 2022, Jonathan began to be referred to as 'our good friend' or 'our dear friend' and similiar such nicknames.
  • Himbo Jonathan/Clueless Jonathan - it is common for readers to make fun of how oblivious Jonathan is at first to all the signs of supernatural surrounding him; however, after DD the opinion that he isn't as much oblivious as helpless to avoid his fate has also become widespread
  • Paprika - at the beginning of the novel, Jonathan eats paprika hendl (chicken paprikash) which he considers too spicy but likes so much he eats it again later; all this led to many jokes about Jonathan's love of spices and his inability to handle them, and also discussions about whether the paprika used in his meal was of the spicy variety or not[1]; paprika and paprikash have later become a sort of iconic symbols of the novel in the Dracula fandom
  • Jonathan as a Gothic heroine/Jonathan's identification with femininity - readers drew attention to how Jonathan's captivity in the castle and his initial dynamics with Dracula had more similarities with portrayals of Gothic heroines than of male characters of the era
  • Shovel scene - the scene where Jonathan hits the sleeping Dracula in the face with a shovel strong enough to leave a scar was widely celebrated and memed about on Tumblr as an example of Jonathan's bravery and his first act of revenge against his tormentor
  • Jonathan as trauma survivor - fans were impressed by Stoker's sensitive portrayal of Jonathan's PTSD
  • Wife guy - Jonathan's devotion to his wife Mina was considered one of the highest points of the character and the whole book by the fandom
  • White-haired anime boy - people were strongly impressed by Jonathan's trasformation from a mild-mannered character to a more violent, vengeful one after Mina gets attacked by Dracula, and were comparing the Jonathan from the later part of the book with an anime character
  • Jonathan's kukri knife - Jonathan's knife received a lot of attention as a symbol of this transformation and his determination to end Dracula; there were discussions and meta about how this knife might imply Jonathan's Indian descent, and about its possible mystical blood-related characteristics
  • Cryptid!Jonathan - some specifics of Jonathan's behaviour later in the book led to speculation that he was acquiring supernatural traits, because of being bitten by Dracula or for some other reason
  • Shortchanged in adaptations - the tendency to downplay in adaptations the aspects of Jonathan's character that made him so loved by the fandom attracted a lot of hostility from the book fans, not least because they think it's caused by creators' discomfort with his trauma and non-traditional masculinity
  • Jonathan and class - the fandom discussed how Jonathan and Mina were the poorest characters in the novel, especially at the beginning, and how being the lower middle class orphans shaped them

Shipping

Fanworks

Fanfic

Fanart

Meta

Other

Resources

References

  1. ^ meme by penny-anna encapsulating the discussion, May 16, 2022
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