#this is very all ove rthe place I feel but I cannot sit any longer

[yallemagne]

"Oh my God! my God! what have I done? What have I done to deserve such a fate, I who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days. God pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril; and in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!"

Mina asks what she's done to deserve this perceived punishment. After all, she did everything she was expected to as a Good Christian Woman. She obediently acquiesced when the Patriarch told her to, and she suffered quietly and out of the way of the Men as they did their work.

Why is she punished if she did everything right? Mina assumes that this must mean that it is not her actions that earned her this fate, but instead, some awfulness that is inherent to her as a woman. She once compared herself to Eve, who is held to this day as the eternal example by Christians of the intrinsic sinfulness of women. After all, why was it Eve who ate the apple first and not Adam? Why was it Pandora who tipped over the vase or opened the box? Those in power reason that it is because they were women, and women are prone to disobey God, hence why they never let women be in power. Mina has no option but to believe that she somehow transgressed despite all her efforts not to because she is a woman. Eve and Pandora doomed humanity because of a pursuit of knowledge in disobedience against God, and by that logic, Mina doomed herself and the men by opening Jonathan's journal.

But who disobeys God today? Not Mina. Mina is fervent in her belief, even if now she doubts that she is worthy of God's mercy.

"I promise you, my dear friend, that if God will let me live, I shall strive to do so; till, if it may be in His good time, this horror may have passed away from me." 

If, if, if God will let her live, if God will let her suffering cease. These are ifs. She won't let herself say "when" because she fears to do so is too hubristic. And still, when Jonathan raises his voice to God, she scolds him.

"May God give him into my hand just for long enough to destroy that earthly life of him which we are aiming at. If beyond it I could send his soul for ever and ever to burning hell I would do it!" "Oh, hush! oh, hush! in the name of the good God. Don't say such things, Jonathan, my husband; or you will crush me with fear and horror. [...] but I pray that God may not have treasured your wild words, except as the heart-broken wail of a very loving and sorely stricken man. Oh, God, let these poor white hairs go in evidence of what he has suffered, who all his life has done no wrong, and on whom so many sorrows have come."

Jonathan prays God will be so merciful to them as to give him the opportunity to stop the Count once and for all. But Mina fears God. She wishes Jonathan would fear God as well. She fears that if they are too ungracious in their suffering, they'll be punished further. If Jonathan asks for too much from God, God will scorn his eagerness and smite them both.

But does God ever punish Jonathan? No, not unless you agree with Mina and think the whitening hair was done in retribution for something. Nor did God really punish Mina. They have not transgressed whatsoever. Mina is right that she did everything right, that Jonathan has done no wrong, but she comes to the conclusion that though they are good people, they have earned suffering by being too expectant of God's mercy, and so, they must humble themselves.

"Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I must bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgment Day."

Mina is wrong to assign any intent to God's actions. She does so because VH did as well. While he was rallying the team for their mission, he spoke of how reviled the Count and his ilk are in the eyes of God. That, if they fail their mission, they will be despised by God for their failure. He assumes this because holy objects hurt vampires. And now the wafer burns Mina, and she concludes that God hates her.

But it is not proof God hates her! She is not being punished, and that is the entire point! Bram writes a story where good people suffer awful hardships despite the ever-present belief that the good cannot suffer because they are good and that only the wicked suffer.

But what do we see here?! God does not inflict suffering upon the wicked! If God did that, wouldn't Dracula be in Hell being punished instead of on Earth and gloating?

But he's not because God is an entirely passive figure in this story. It is only when people take their symbols into their hands and use them that they harm anyone. The wafer that VH tried to use to bless Mina did not hurt her because God hates her, it hurt her because the wafer was being used as a ward against the Count, and she was forced to drink the Count's blood. VH cannot use the power of God to protect Mina from something already inside and killing her, it's too late for such protection. It is only she who can protect herself, now.