Dante and Dracula

The Count’s actions throughout the novel Dracula, would have placed him in the second level of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, lust. Jonathan had just entered the chapel in Castle Dracula for the second time. He then began to search for the Count’s body among the coffins. He found the Count in the same coffin as before, and he removed the lid. He found the Count lying there, with his mouth covered in blood. The Count looked as if his youthfulness has been partially restored.

Then I stopped to look at the Count. There was a mocking smile on the bloated face which seemed to drive me mad. This was the being I was helping transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless (52).

The Count has a desire for human blood. He lusts after it, and takes it from humans for his own use. The Count uses the blood that he craves from them to keep himself looking young and rejuvenated. In Dante’s Inferno the second level of Hell is for the lustful. Those that have a strong craving and desire for something. The Count has a desire for blood, therefor he would be placed in Dante’s second level of Hell with the lustful, where he would be blown about by violent winds for eternity. The Count would be placed in the second level of Hell for being a sinner, but Renfield would be placed in the third level for what Dante believed was a more severe sin.

The third level of Hell is for the gluttonous, which is where Renfield would have been placed. It was eleven o’clock at night, and Seward had just given Renfield an opiate to put him to sleep. Seward then proceeded to take Renfield’s journal and read it.

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..., with a suddenly distorted face, full of rage, dashed past him as if to enter the tomb (192).

Before Lucy died and became a vampire, she was supposed to be married to Arthur, however, that never happened, but Arthur said that after he gave her blood during one of her blood transfusions he felt as if they were married. Lucy and Arthur, were practically husband and wife, making them kin. Lucy betrayed Arthur when she was in her vampire form, and tried to draw him towards her, so she could drink his blood. Although the old Lucy was not in control of her body, she was responsible for her actions, and by betraying her kin she would have been placed in the ninth level in Hell. Unlike Renfield Lucy betrayed her kin and not her benefactor, so instead of being contorted and lodged in ice she would be lodged head first in a block of ice.

Works Cited

Dracula

Dante