- "I know where the bastard sleeps! For I have seen him... at the Carfax Abbey!"
- ―Jonathan Harker
| Carfax Abbey | |
| Continuity: | Dracula |
| Category: | Residence |
| Continent: | Europe |
| Country: | England |
| County: | Essex |
| Locale: | Purfleet |
| Residents: | Dracula; Dracula's brides; Renfield |
| 1st appearance: | Dracula |
Carfax Abbey is a fictional residence that features prominently in the Dracula multimedia franchise. It was a key setting utilized in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and has appeared in several film adaptations of Stoker's book, beginning with the 1931 Universal Pictures film classic, Dracula. Carfax has also appeared in Universal's Spanish release of Drácula by director George Melford as well as making a brief appearance in the beginning of the 1936 sequel, Dracula's Daughter. Carfax Abbey has also appeared in the 1979 adaptation of Dracula by director John Badham as well as Francis Ford Coppola's stylish Gothic interpretation in 1992, which is aptly named, Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Description & History[]
Carfax Abbey was a large estate located in the town of Purfleet in the county of Essex, adjacent to the Seward Sanitarium. In the novel, Carfax Abbey was described by the character of Jonathan Harker in a journal entry as:
The estate is called Carfax, no doubt a corruption of the old Quatre Face, as the house is four-sided, agreeing with the cardinal points of the compass. It contains in all some twenty acres, quite surrounded by the solid stone wall above mentioned. There are many trees on it, which make it in places gloomy, and there is a deep, dark-looking pond or small lake, evidently fed by some springs, as the water is clear and flows away in a fair-sized stream. The house is very large and of all periods back, I should say, to mediæval times, for one part is of stone immensely thick, with only a few windows high up and heavily barred with iron. It looks like part of a keep, and is close to an old chapel or church. I could not enter it, as I had not the key of the door leading to it from the house, but I have taken with my kodak views of it from various points. The house has been added to, but in a very straggling way, and I can only guess at the amount of ground it covers, which must be very great. There are but few houses close at hand, one being a very large house only recently added to and formed into a private lunatic asylum. It is not, however, visible from the grounds. [1]
In the novel, the protagonists of the book learned about Dracula's true nature as a vampire and routed him out of Carfax, driving him all the way back to his homeland in Transylvania. In Tod Browning's film version, Carfax played a somewhat larger role. Dracula brought Mina Seward here after seducing her, but his bumbling servant Renfield alerted Professor Van Helsing and John Harker, so Dracula killed him by throttling him as throwing his down the steps.
Preparing to take Mina as his vampire bride, Dracula took her down below in the catacombs beneath the abbey. As dawn approached, his hid inside of his coffin. Van Helsing and Harker followed them and while Harker dispatched Dracula's three vampire brides, Van Helsing drove a wooden stake into Dracula's heart. [2][3][4]
Films that feature Carfax Abbey[]
Residents of Carfax Abbey[]
| Character | Film/Series |
|---|---|
| Dracula | Dracula (1931) |
| Dracula | Dracula (1992) |
| Eva Seward | Drácula (1931) |
| Mina Seward | Dracula (1931) |
| Renfield | Dracula (1931) |
See also[]
Media
The World of Dracula
References[]
- ↑ Dracula (1897); Bram Stoker; Project Gutenberg
- ↑ Dracula (1931)
- ↑ Drácula (1931)
- ↑ Dracula's Daughter (1936)