East Cliff Churchyard

the old churchyard · the churchyard · St. Mary's churchyard

Whitby's cliff-top graveyard is Mina and Lucy's favorite lookout, Swales's skeptical classroom, and the exposed seat toward which Lucy sleepwalks.

Story so far

The old churchyard on East Cliff overlooks Whitby harbor beneath ruined abbey walls. Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra favor a seat above the town, where Mr. Swales explains that many epitaphs lie and some graves beneath them are empty.

The place gathers both intimacy and warning: Lucy speaks of Arthur, Mina waits for Jonathan, and Swales senses death approaching on the sea-wind. Lucy's inherited sleepwalking makes the open, elevated graveyard a dangerous nocturnal destination.

Appearance

An old cliff-top churchyard around St. Mary's, crowded with weathered gravestones and a favorite bench, with ruined abbey arches behind it and broad views over harbor and sea.

Role

The churchyard is Whitby's meeting place of romance, death, local skepticism, and Lucy's unconscious attraction toward the arriving predator.

Relationships

Mina Murray — Mina Murray records the view, listens to Swales, and uses the seat as a place to wait and think.

Lucy Westenra — Lucy Westenra loves the seat by day and unconsciously seeks it after dark.

Mr. Swales — Mr. Swales spends his last days there exposing false memorials and sensing the coming death.

Sources — 1 recorded facts, by chapter

Chapter 6

Whitby's cliff-top graveyard is Mina and Lucy's favorite lookout, Swales's skeptical classroom, and the exposed seat toward which Lucy sleepwalks.