Seward is the administrator of an insane asylum not far from Count Dracula's first English home, Carfax. Throughout the novel, Seward conducts ambitious interviews with one of his patients, R. M. Renfield, in order to understand better the nature of life-consuming psychosis, or as he calls it, zoophagous. As a psychiatrist, Seward enjoys using the most up-to-date equipment, including using a recording phonograph to record his interviews with his patients and his own notes. Several chapters of the novel consist of transcriptions of Seward's phonograph recordings. One of the main contributions made by Dr. Seward is his recordings of the events depicted from his personal perspective as a doctor; allowing the reader to gain a scientific understanding of the behaviour of vampirism through his behavioural analysis of Renfield. He is best friends with Quincey Morris and Arthur Holmwood. All three propose to Lucy Westenra on the same day. Although Lucy turns down Seward's marriage proposal, his love for her remains, and he dedicates himself to her care when she is suddenly taken ill. He calls in his mentor, Abraham Van Helsing, to help him with her illness, and he helps Seward to realise that Lucy has been bitten by a vampire and is doomed to become one herself. After she is officially destroyed and her soul can go to heaven, Seward is determined to destroy Dracula. The novel's epilogue mentions that Seward is now happily married.
In adaptations
On screen
Seward often appears in different screen adaptations of Dracula but in a wide variety of different roles. He is often referred to as "Jack" Seward. The most common change is to portray him not as Lucy's suitor, but as Mina Harker's father. This was almost certainly based on the Hamilton Deane - John L. Balderston stage adaptation. Sometimes he is portrayed as just doctor with no familial or romantic connections to other characters. Such portrayals include:
Dr. Seward was portrayed by Joseph Taylor in 2019 Northern Ballet's production of Dracula by David Nixon. The production was recorded and showed in UK cinemas on Halloween and then broadcast on BBC4 in 2020.
Radio
In the 1938 Mercury Theatre on the Air radio production of Dracula, Seward's character was combined with Arthur Holmwood's and renamed Arthur Seward. He was voiced by Orson Welles, who also voiced Dracula in the adaptation.
In other media
In the alternate history novelAnno Dracula, where Van Helsing fails and Dracula becomes the ruler of Britain, Seward becomes the murderer well known as "Jack the Ripper", whose targets are vampire prostitutes who remind him of Lucy. Seward is finally killed after suffering a complete mental breakdown.
In novel Dracula the Un-Dead, a sequel to Dracula, Seward has become a morphine-addict obsessed with killing the undead.
In season 3 of TV series Penny Dreadful, which combines elements from several works of Victorian literature, Patti LuPone portrays Dr. Florence Seward, a female version of the character.
