Renfield

Renfield
'Dracula' character
Dwight Frye as Renfield in Dracula (1931)
Created by	Bram Stoker
Portrayed by	Alexander Granach (Nosferatu (1922 film) Dwight Frye (Dracula (1931 film) Klaus Kinski (Count Dracula (1970 film)) Tom Waits (Bram Stoker's Dracula) Nonso Anozie (Dracula (TV series))
Information
Nickname(s)	The Fly Patient, The Fly Man
Gender	Male
Nationality	British

R. M. Renfield is a fictional character that appears in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.

A description of Renfield from the novel:

R. M. Renfield, aetat 59. Sanguine temperament, great physical strength, morbidly excitable, periods of gloom, ending in some fixed idea which I cannot make out. I presume that the sanguine temperament itself and the disturbing influence end in a mentally-accomplished finish, a possibly dangerous man, probably dangerous if unselfish. In selfish men, caution is as secure an armour for their foes as for themselves. What I think of on this point is, when self is the fixed point the centripetal force is balanced with the centrifugal. When duty, a cause, etc., is the fixed point, the latter force is paramount, and only accident or a series of accidents can balance it. — From Dr. John Seward's journal

Renfield is an inmate at the lunatic asylum overseen by Dr. John Seward. He suffers from delusions which compel him to eat living creatures in the hope of obtaining their life-force for himself. Later Renfield's own testimony reveals that Dracula would send him insects, which he begins consuming. He starts with flies, the Death's-head moth, then develops a scheme of feeding the flies to spiders, and the spiders to birds, in order to accumulate more and more life. When denied a cat to accommodate the birds, he eats the birds himself. He also changes his ideas to accommodate Mina Harker by quickly eating all flies and stating that it was an old habit. Doctor John Seward diagnoses him as a " maniac", or carnivorous madman. Later Renfield builds up his own courage to harm Dr. Seward, acquiring a knife and cutting his arm; as Seward's blood drips from his hand, Renfield licks it off the floor.