In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s”. However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. You may write your essay on one of the following novels or plays or on another of comparable quality. Do not write on short story.
The book that I am suggesting being added to the reading list is Dracula by Bram Stoker. The confidant in this novel is Van Helsing, a doctor that tries to help Lucy and Mina when they are being harmed by Dracula. We can say that Van Helsing is a confidant because when Mina is worried about her husband, Jonathan, afraid that he had lost his mind because of the supernatural experience he recorded down in his journal, it was Van Helsing who comforted her and told her Jonathan is not crazy.
The prompt asks me to explain what the other purpose of this confidant is, so I will be listing three purposes when I write the essay. Each purpose of the character Van Helsing will be one body paragraph. For the first paragraph I will explain how Van Helsing acts as a leader of the group of people fighting against the Dracula. He is always the one that knows what to do and leads the other who is helpless against Dracula. When Arthur, Lucy’s fiancée, faces the vampire Lucy he is helpless at what he should do; he turns to Van Helsing for help, saying “My true friend, from the bottom of my broken heart I thank you. Tell me what I am to do, and I shall not falter!”. People in the novel turns to Van Helsing for guidance and he provides it to them.
In my second paragraph I will explain how Van Helsing also acts as a wise man of the story. I will use the part where Mina goes to see Van Helsing and ask about her husband’s condition and telling him about Jonathan’s experience. Van Helsing listens to the incredible account of Jonathan’s experience, even though it is hard to believe, he readily accepts what Mina says. Telling her that “strange and terrible as it is, it is true!”. Then I will use Steward, another doctor that tries to help Lucy stay alive and his reaction to the idea of vampire existing even when the evidence is right before his eyes. His reaction even after he had seen an empty coffin at night and a coffin with Lucy’s body in it at day time is to say “I could not accept such an overwhelming idea as he suggested”. Comparing this two men’s reaction to the same thing I will be able to show why Van Helsing is a wise men.
In my third body paragraph I will explain how Van Helsing also acts as a father figure in the novel. When Mina goes to see him about her husband she “throws herself on to her knees and holds her hands to him and implores him to make her husband well again”. Van Helsing’s reaction to this outburst was to “hold her hand in his, and said, ‘I promise you that I will gladly do all for him that I can, all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy one’”. Using this conversation between Mina and Van Helsing I can show the reader how caring a like a father Van Helsing is.
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