Who runs the lunatic asylum in the novel 'Dracula'?

Dr. John Seward runs the lunatic asylum in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. He is the asylum’s administrator and a physician who studies the behavior of his patient R. M. Renfield.

Seward’s asylum is located near Carfax, the English estate purchased by Count Dracula. His professional connection to Renfield becomes crucial because Renfield’s strange behavior seems to echo Dracula’s influence. Seward records their conversations using a phonograph, giving the novel one of its most distinctive documentary-style viewpoints.

Seward is also central to Lucy Westenra’s storyline. He is one of her three suitors and calls on his former teacher, Abraham Van Helsing, when Lucy’s illness becomes inexplicable. Together, they recognize that her condition is connected to vampirism.

A common mix-up is to identify Renfield as the asylum’s operator because he is its most memorable patient. Van Helsing is the expert who helps solve the mystery, but Seward is the doctor who administers the institution.