What Is Up With Renfield?

What is up with Renfield?

Pure speculation to follow, no spoilers (that I know of). So. We have Renfield having tantrums at noon and at 6pm, right? But not at dawn (correct me if I’m wrong). And he then becomes despondent and returns to his old ways with the flies and spiders. And then flips on that, throwing out the box of flies. 

First off, speculation about the timing of the tantrums. 6pm makes sense, if that’s when Dracula wakes up. But what’s going on at noon? Drac should be asleep? Unless he isn’t. Best guess: Drac doesn’t go to bed when the sun rises. He goes to bed at noon. Maybe the early morning sun isn’t enough to really make him uncomfortable. Not until it’s at its height. I think maybe Renfield is our window into Drac’s sleeping habits.

Renfield’s upset over his hopes being dashed implies that either Dracula got annoyed with him and told him to buzz* off (*flies, buzz hee hee, yes I know I’ll stop) or Drac didn’t speak to Renfield directly but simply left. Lucy is also improving, so I’m going with option B. Dracula had some business to attend to elsewhere for a day or two. But what? Why is he giving Lucy a break? So she can heal and produce more blood? But then, why would Renfield get upset? No, I think it’s more than Dracula playing with his food. I think he left. That’s what freaked Ren out; Drac left without telling Ren he’d come back. I wonder if we’ll ever find out what happened?

Of course, Dracula did come back, and either he does deign to reassure Ren (telepathically, I guess? Or does he visit him in some animal form?) or Ren just senses his return. This is not good news for Lucy.

What if I combined my interest in dark academia, gothic horror, 19th century settings, and writing about trauma? It sounds like it would fit, but it also sounds hella dark. The challenge would be to see how must beauty and comfort I could shoehorn into it.

Overall today has been a good day at work except it's been nonstop and I am WORN OUT

Okay so I *know* Mrs. Westenra is deathly ill. I still kinda resent that she was so quick to distance herself from her daughter.

For those of you who are confused about the “he has his madams to play with” line, here’s what my copy of the book reads:

Or, like mine, their muzzle gets in the middle of a job (tying shoelaces) and there's way too much licking and slobber.

I love it when dogs try to help but the task at hand requires zero dogs so they just kinda stand in front of you and look serious.