Essay/Term paper: Dracula

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Critical Essays

1.)
There are many ways that Bram Stoker"s Dracula can be considered Anti-Christian by
showing of Anti-Christian values and perversions of the Christian religion. In chapter one as
Jonathan Harker is traveling to Castle Dracula he is met by several people. When he meets these people and
tells them where he is going they cross themselves along with doing several other superstiscious
actions. One of the women he meets gives him a crucifix to protect him on his journey. This
crucifix protects him when Jonathan cuts himself shaving and Dracula lunges for his throat he stops when he
sees the crucifix around Jon"s neck. Later in the book it discusses how you can defend yourself from
Dracula and other vampires by the possession of a crucifix or practically any consecrated item from
the Christian religion can be used to save you from the attack or presence of a vampire. For example, in the latter of the
book Van Helsing uses a Host to prevent Dracula to enter his coffin. Another time, during the night
Van Helsing and Lucy stay out near the courtyard of Castle Dracula, Van Helsing makes a (Holy circle) with the Host to keep vampires out and to keep Mina safe in the (Holy circle).
Another time when the Host is used as a deterrence of vampires is at the time Van Helsing and the other men are going
to leave Mina alone in the house. Van Helsing touches a Host to Mina"s forehead and it burns into
her head since she, herself, was unclean. Another abstruction of the Christian religion would be the
fact that Dracula sleeps in a coffin and especially because the dirt in his coffin is consecrated and
Dracula, being evil, uses this ground to rest in. Dracula has several of the powers that Christians
believe no one but God could control. For instance, Dracula can control the weather, wild or
unclean animals and, he can change form and disappear into the air. Christians believe that
consuming God"s body and blood will give them everlasting life with God in heaven. Dracula
getting life after death or living an afterlife on earth by consuming the blood of the living to survive,
build his strength, and create more followers of him in his evil ways. By this, Dracula is relying
on humans to renew his life after death and thus not concentrating on God as the source of life. As
Dracula feeds on the blood of the living he creates followers as Jesus had disciples. Dracula has evil
ways and spreads his evil not by sexual reproduction as God meant it to be but he takes the living
and makes their lives evil destroying their souls. As it can be said that you must let God into your
heart Dracula may only enter someone"s home unless they let him in. Throughout the book, several
times, normally while Renfield is speaking whenever he refers to God he capitalizes his pronouns as
Christians would do when referring to God. When Lucy is brought in to the Un-Dead she rises from
the dead three days after she dies as Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. God has no
beginning and no one can explain how he came about ; there is the same idea with Dracula that he
(has been) and no one knows his beginning. God is looked at and referred to in the Bible as being the light which
symbolizes happiness or life. Dracula"s powers are limited in the daytime, during the light, and his
powers are stronger in the night, during darkness, which symbolizes evil. In the book, Dracula
moves to an old abandoned Church not used anymore which can show that God is no longer present which
would fulfill Dracula"s purpose of spreading evil. For those reasons I think that the book Dracula is
itself Anti-Christian and that the person Dracula could be easily considered the Anti-Christ.
2.)
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker uses sexuality as an important part of vampirism.
The first major encounter of this is when Jonathan Harker sees the three vampire ladies at Castle
Dracula. As they walk about the room Jonathan notices one of them and spots her lips as being "voluptuous", a word that
can be used to mean something that is desired. Jonathan desires these vampire women and as she
bends down to kiss him he does not suppress her from what she wants to do, as though he is longing
for her kiss. Another time in which similar to this is during the end of the book when Van Helsing
encounters the three vampire ladies. The ladies appear the nigh Mina and Van Helsing are staying
the night outside of Castle Dracula. As they appear Van Helsing matches them to Jonathan"s
description of them, noticing their face, lips, and hair. The next day when Van Helsing goes into the
castle he is reluctant to carry out his plans of getting rid of the vampire ladies. He is restrained from his terrifying task by the beauty of the women, though he knows they are a curse on the world. Another seen which depicts the
sexual desires of vampirism is when Lucy is Un-Dead. While Van Helsing, Arthur, and Dr. Seward are
spending a vigil outside Lucy"s tomb she appears and while standing there in amazement she tries
to lure Arthur to her. Vampires reproduce through the biting and sucking of blood from someone"s
neck. This is an abstruction of how reproduction of humans is ment to come forth from sexual
reproduction. Throughout the book the Un-Dead attack the opposite of their sex. This somewhat
proves that vampires can be sexually aroused constantly which allows them to attract their victims.
These events and aspects of vampirism, therefore prove how sexuality is important to vampirism.
Part of the sexuality comes from sybolism, the laguage (words) the book uses, and the mind of the
reader or how you read the book. So, though the book, through vampirism, can revolve around
sexuality, I wouldn"t consider it "smutty" or "dirty". But, if you were reading the book to find all
the presence of sexuality in it you could possibly consider differently.
A.)
In the book Dracula by Bram Stoker, Stoker chose a person who really existed to base his
character Dracula on. This person Vlad the Impaler ( also known as: Vlad Tepes and Dracula) gave
Stoker many of the ideas on which to base his character, Dracula. Vlad Tepes grew up in a time of
war and corruption. Vlad Tepes like his father developed a ferocious and merciless warlike personality.
The resemblence of Vlad Tepes personality to that of Dracula"s is very much similar. Dracula has
an evil personality like that which Vlad Tepes grew into.Vlad Tepes began to rule Transylvania
through a time of bloody massacreing and war. He started to torture people in his ruthless ways.
Vlad Tepes once impaled his own army on stakes. This shows the true evil and ruthlessness Vlad
Tepes practiced. It was said that he would drink blood while watching people which he impaled on
stakes die. Vlad Tepes began to be known for this impaling and he performed it more often with
enemies and thieves. This brings another similarity of Vlad Tepes and Dracula. Dracula tortures
people when he sucks thier blood thus destroying their soul and taking it over with evil spirits.
Dracula also drinks the blood of people with a bite of the neck like Vlad Tepes did. The monks of
that time thought that Vlad Tepes was performing God"s will in his massacres. Vlad Tepes had built
several monestsries for the Orthodox religion throughout hid life. Later though, to marry the women
he loved, he had to convert to the Catholic religion. When he did, the people he ruled concidered
him an Anti-Christ because he deserted them as though he didn"t care of his religiln. Dracula,
having so many Anti-Christian qualities could also be considered an Anti-Christ like Vlad Tepes
was to his people. Stoker got the idea for Dracula"s death, where he disappears into dust, directly
from the mysterious death of Vlad Tepes. Vlad Tepes was buried in a monestary near the front of
the altar. About 450 years later people were curious if his tomb had been raided by theives so when
the people checked his tomb there were no remains of him left. Later, they found an unidentified
skeleton burried near the entrance of the monestary. The skeleton was then sent to a museum where
it vanished misteryously. Those are the reasons why I think Stoker decided to chose Vlad the
Impaler for his character Dracula. I, myself, think Stoker chose a good person (not litterally, for his
uses in the book) to base the book Dracula for several reasons. First of all, they both were called by
the same name Dracula which means "devil". Also, they both have had some of the same life
expirences, such as, drinking blood, their deaths, and especially their attitudes are almost identical.