Jonathan Harker

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Jonathan Harker is a fictional character and the protagonist in the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

In the novel

Harker is a recently certified solicitor from Exeter, who is sent by his employer to Transylvania in order to consult a client on a property transaction. This client is a mysterious count who lives in a castle in the Carpathian Mountains who is planning to move to London where he plans to reside at Carfax Abbey. Soon after Harker's arrival at the castle, he is made a prisoner by this Count Dracula, who is revealed as a vampire, and has a dangerous encounter with the seductive Brides of Dracula.

Later, he manages to escape, finding refuge at a convent. He has a mental breakdown upon arriving at the convent because of his encounters with Dracula; his fiancée, Mina Murray, comes to nurse him back to health and marries him there. He attempts to commit suicide,by impaling himself with his knife, but Dr. Seward and Van Helsing restrain him. One of the results of his imprisonment is his hair becoming prematurely gray, although this is not always in every version. His journals become an integral part of the quest to find and destroy Dracula. Later in the book, with the help of Van Helsing, Dr.Seward, and others, Harker manages to slice Dracula's throat with a kukri knife.

In a note following the end of the novel, it is revealed that he has had a child with Mina, and they had named the child Quincey after their mutual friend Quincey Morris, who was killed by gypsies trying to get Dracula to his castle before sunset. Dracula is incapable of transforming himself between sunrise and sunset, but once sunset has occurred, he can shapeshift and would have been almost impossible for the main characters to apprehend again.

In film

Harker was played by Bosco Hogan in the 1977 telefilm Count Dracula. In the 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, he was portrayed by Keanu Reeves. Other portrayers include Trevor Eve, Bruno Ganz, Corin Redgrave, David Manners, Steven Weber, John Van Eyssen and Rafe Spall.

Other

A video game for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii has been announced that will revolve around Jonathan Harker. The game is called Harker and is being developed by The Collective.

External links

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Last updated on Saturday March 01, 2008 at 08:47:02 PST (GMT -0800)
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