Abraham Van Helsing

Dracula

In the novel, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. John Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing's friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound, and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realizes that Lucy is the victim of a vampire, and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy.

According to Leonard Wolf's annotations to the novel, Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness for Holmwood. Van Helsing's wife went insane after their son's death, but as a Catholic, he refuses to divorce her ("with my poor wife dead to me, but alive by Church's law, though no wits, all gone, even I, who am faithful husband to this now-no-wife").

Van Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina describes him as:

a man of medium height, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes me at once as indicative of thought and power. The head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart, such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods.

Van Helsing's personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus:

He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy.

In the novel Van Helsing is described with what is apparently a thick foreign accent, in that his English is broken, and he uses German phrases like, "Mein Gott" (My God).

Adaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing's role as the vampire professional-expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. The novel, however, gives no support for such interpretations. Dr. Seward requests Van Helsing's assistance simply because Lucy's affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing "knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world". Indeed, Van Helsing takes too much time (weeks and months) to recognise Lucy's illness, and seems to have no practical knowledge about vampires. Until her funeral, he tells no one his theory of Lucy's death.

Narrative

Count Dracula, having acquired ownership of England's Carfax estate through solicitor Jonathan Harker, moved to the estate and began menacing England. His victims included Lucy Westenra, who is on holiday in Whitby. The aristocratic girl has suitors such as John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and Quincey Morris, and has a best friend in Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker's fiancée. Seward, who worked as a doctor in an insane asylum – where one of the patients, the incurably mad Renfield, has a psychic connection to Dracula – contacts Van Helsing about Lucy Westenra's peculiar condition. Van Helsing, recognizing marks upon her neck, eventually deduces that she has been losing blood from a vampire bite. He administers blood transfusion multiple times to try to save her. Van Helsing, Seward, and even Arthur all donate their blood to her, but each night Van Helsing realizes that she continues to lose blood. He prescribes her garlic and makes a necklace of garlic flowers for her and then proceeds to hang garlic about the room. He also gave her a crucifix to wear around her neck. Lucy's demise was brought by her own mother who cleared the room of garlic and opened the window to give her fresh air; a home servant had stolen the gold crucifix from Lucy as well. Lucy dies and after the funeral returns as a vampire seeking out children. Eventually, Van Helsing and a heartbroken Arthur free the undead Lucy from her vampiric curse with Quincy Morris and Dr. Seward as these knew the ordeal. After Arthur uses a hammer to drive the stake through the heart, Van Helsing operates on Lucy by detaching her head then places garlic in her mouth.

Mina Harker becomes increasingly worried about her husband's brain fever asking Dr. Seward for assistance to which Van Helsing is referred. Unable to make sense of Jonathan Harker's journal, Mina gives it to Van Helsing to review. When Harker learns that his experiences in Transylvania were real, his health returns and both he and Mina join their friends at Seward's residence. Mina then discovers that the characters' journals, diaries, letters, and collections of newspapers provide further intelligence on Dracula's movements. She types out copies and provides them to each of the other party members including Van Helsing. From the copies of text Mina prepared, they learn that Dracula's residence in Carfax was near Sewards; from Van Helsing's research of ancient folklore, superstitions, and historical references, the party learns of Dracula's weaknesses and strengths. Seward and Van Helsing also write to an acquaintance from their university to aid in further research into Dracula's past. Staying at Seward's residence to better plan strategies in their efforts to deal with Dracula, they have frequent meetings and each member is assigned duties. It is later that a bat was seen at the window outside of one of these meetings as well.

As Van Helsing and the party investigate the location of Dracula in efforts to destroy and stop him from spreading any further evil, they have their first encounter as a group with Dracula at the residence in Carfax. They eventually discover that Dracula has been purchasing multiple properties throughout and around the perimeter of London; planning to transport each of his 50 boxes of Transylvanian earth to them; learning the boxes are used as graves and each property would be used as his lairs. As they discover each of his lairs and track down the location of the boxes of earth, they place sacramental bread within them to "sterilize" them. This repels Dracula from being able to use or transport them further. Dracula learns that the group are plotting against him and entices Renfield to invite him in to Dr. Seward's residence. After hearing a loud noise coming from Renfield's room, Dr Seward and Helsing enter to find him critically injured on the floor with a broken back and severe damages to his head and limbs. Helsing operates on his head to keep him alive long enough for Renfield to tell them his testimony. Learning from this that Dracula went to see Mina, the group goes into Mina's room to see Harker in a hypnotic state, and Dracula giving Mina the 'Vampire's Baptism of Blood', cursing her and the group for plotting against him. When Van Helsing and the party hold out their sacred items to repel Dracula away, causing him to become a vapor and flee into a different room. Dracula then destroys all their copies of text which Mina had produced except one that was hidden and then breaks Renfield' neck before leaving the residence.

Helsing places a wafer of sacramental bread upon the forehead of Mina to bless her but it burns her flesh as it touches her, leaving a scar. Mina, feeling that she is now connected with Dracula, asks Van Helsing to hypnotize her before Dawn as that would be the only time she feels could freely speak. Van Helsing learns through conducting hypnotism on Mina that she has a telepathic link with Dracula; could tell everything he hears and feels and use this gift to track his movements in the future. Mina also agrees that none of the group should tell her any plans they have in the future for fear that Dracula could easily read her thoughts and counter their plans. As the group continues to search for each of the boxes and residences of Dracula throughout London they have encounters with Dracula and continue to sterilize his graves. They manage to find each of his residences and locate all of his boxes except for one; learning that the final grave is located on a boat, Van Helsing determines that Dracula is fleeing back to his Castle.

When the party pursues Dracula back to Transylvania, they split up into separate groups of two. While Mina and Van Helsing team up to travel straight to Dracula's castle, the others attempt to track down and ambush the boat on which Dracula is a passenger. Van Helsing continues to hypnotize Mina but his ability to have influence over her diminishes each day. He notices Mina's behavior beginning to change as she starts sleeping more during the day, losing her appetite for food, and ceasing to write in her journal. One night he crumbles sacramental bread in a circle around her and asks her to come sit by him. As she was unable to, he learned that this could be a way to protect their camp from any vampires in the area. Later, he sees the Brides of Dracula approach his camp but they too are unable to cross into the circle of bread. Failing at their attempts to lure Helsing and Mina out of the circle, they flee just before sunrise back to Dracula's Castle. Helsing binds Mina at a small cave to keep her from danger as he goes into Dracula's Castle to kill any vampires he finds.

As Helsing runs throughout the castle searching its various rooms, he finds Dracula's empty tomb as well as the three female vampires he saw earlier. He begins to do his operation on the first vampire but finds himself entranced by her beauty and unable to bring himself to harm her. In his feelings of enchantment he even contemplates love for her. He is however broken out of this enchantment when he hears a 'soul wail' from Mina, awakening him. he proceeds to strike stakes into their hearts and sever their heads, one by one.

Upon the arrival of Van Helsing back to Mina's location from the Castle, they see the rest of their group as they chase a group of gypsies down Borgo Pass and corner them. Armed with knives and firearms they overtake the gypsies and open the final casket box of Dracula; Jonathan Harker brings his Kukri down on Dracula's throat as the bowie knife of Quincey Morris simultaneously impales Dracula's heart in the final moments of daylight. At this very moment, Dracula's body then crumbles to dust. After the struggle, Quincy is seen fatally wounded from the struggle.

6 years later, Van Helsing takes a grandfatherly role in regard to the young Quincey Harker, Jonathan and Mina's son.

Equipment

Van Helsing is seen utilizing many tools to aid him and his party in fending off Dracula, warding off vampires and in general defeating the undead:

Film adaptations

Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922) was the first film version of Dracula. Although it followed the same basic plot as the novel, names were changed: Van Helsing is Professor Bulwer and appears only in a few scenes. Unlike the book, he is a friend of Thomas Hutter (the film's version of Jonathan Harker) before he meets Count Orlok (a renamed Count Dracula) and never meets the vampire face to face.

Peter Cushing's character in the Hammer movies does not have the first name "Abraham" as his case reads J. van Helsing, as seen in The Brides of Dracula. In the series of Hammer Dracula films set in the 1970s, Dracula battles Lorrimar van Helsing, a grandson of the original vampire hunter, who appears as Lawrence van Helsing in the prologue to Dracula AD 1972. In The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires Cushing plays the original Van Helsing from the Hammer series.

Anthony Hopkins portrays Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992. Already implied to be an experienced vampire hunter. He often comes across as insane, casually discussing how to kill the un-dead despite the brutal methods involved, as well as his ruthless methods when dispatching Dracula's brides, but he nevertheless leads the group to victory over Dracula's forces.

Christopher Plummer portrayed Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula 2000 (he had previously appeared as a vampire hunter, Professor Paris Catalano, in Vampire in Venice). After defeating Count Dracula (Gerard Butler), van Helsing finds that the vampire lord cannot die in the conventional means of destroying a vampire and he only succeeded in paralysing him in a deathlike state. Knowing that Dracula would inevitably rise again, Van Helsing imprisoned the vampire beneath his Carfax Abbey estate, using leeches to dilute Dracula's blood and transfuse it into himself as a means of preserving his own life until he can find a means of destroying Dracula. This has the unintentional side-effect of creating a link between Dracula and van Helsing's daughter. When Dracula escapes after his coffin is stolen, van Helsing's daughter and his assistant are able to use this connection to deduce Dracula's true identity and defeat him after the elder van Helsing's death.

Hugh Jackman played Gabriel Van Helsing, the eponymous hero of Van Helsing (2004), loosely based on Bram Stoker's character. Having been found on the steps of a church seven years ago with total amnesia, Gabriel hunts monsters for a secret organization made up of the world's religions (known as the Knights of the Holy Order) to rid the world of evil "that the rest of mankind has no idea exists", although he is the most wanted man in Europe for his conspicuous actions. In the movie he is sent to Transylvania to kill Count Dracula. When he arrives, Dracula tells Gabriel that they have already met and have quite a history together, with Dracula revealing over the course of the film that Van Helsing was the one who originally murdered him, as well as claiming ownership of a distinctive ring that Van Helsing has worn as long as he can remember. It is implied that Gabriel is actually the angel Gabriel, with vague references to Dracula's murderer as the "Left Hand of God".

Notable actors to have portrayed Van Helsing in film adaptations of Dracula include:

Novels

Comics

Abraham van Helsing was also portrayed in the The Tomb of Dracula Marvel Comics series, which was based on the characters of Bram Stoker's novel.

In the Marvel Comics miniseries X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula, van Helsing joins forces with the immortal mutant Apocalypse and his worshipers, Clan Akkaba, in order to destroy Dracula, their common enemy. It is noted that van Helsing had encountered Apocalypse before and previously believed him a vampire.

In the Italian comic book Martin Mystère and the spin-off series Storie di Altrove/Stories from Elsewhere Van Helsing's name is Richard. He was originally a knight in the service of the Holy Roman Emperors but he was captured in 1475 by the undead warriors of the Order of the Dragon and turned into a vampire by the Wallachian Prince Vlad Dracula. Four centuries later, Van Helsing killed Dracula, and later came to London to solve the case of Jack the Ripper, eventually discovering that the murderers were mentally controlled by demons from another world. In 1902 he worked together with the resurrected Dracula to prevent the assassination of King Edward VII.

Media involving descendants of Van Helsing

There have been numerous works of fiction depicting descendants of Van Helsing carrying on the family tradition.

Films

Television

Books and stories

Comics

Games