Popular Culture Review 30.1
fear openly until the end of the second chapter , precisely after he realizes that count Dracula has no reflection in his shaving mirror :
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder , and heard the Count ’ s voice saying to me , “ Good-morning .” I started , for it amazed me that I had not seen him , since the reflection of the glass covered the whole room behind me . [ ... ] Having answered the Count ’ s salutation , I turned to the glass again to see how I had been mistaken . This time there could be no error , for the man was close to me , and I could see him over my shoulder . But there was no reflection of him in the mirror ! The whole room behind me was displayed ; but there was no sign of a man in it , except myself . ( 30-31 )
Jonathan Harker searches then for a way to escape the castle and concludes that it is “ a veritable prison , and I am a prisoner !” ( 32 ).
This particular episode is the first supernatural occurrence in the novel , a truly fantastic moment , for the unexplainable is presented in a most mundane context�Jonathan Harker is shaving . It also introduces what has become one of the most distinctive and exploited features of the vampire , his absence of reflection , which he shares with the Horla in all three versions of the story . However , whereas the moment when the narrator is unable to see himself in the mirror is the last , most extreme iteration of the supernatural in “ The Horla ” �and the only one in “ Letter of a Madman ” �it is on the contrary its first real irruption in Dracula , as if Dracula started precisely where the Horla ends .
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