The battle between good and evil is conceivably the longest continuing battle since the existence of mankind. In Bram Stoker’s gothic novel Dracula, Stoker introduces a line of characters that are fighting the everlasting conflict. The novel begins with the introduction of Jonathan Harker, a businessman travelling to meet with the eccentric Count Dracula. This seemingly innocent interaction quickly leads to an extraordinarily strange chain of events. The epistolary novel then switches to accounts by Jonathan’s fiancée, Mina who is discussing the odd occurrences affecting her friend Lucy. Despite the best efforts of reasonable Dr. Seward and his colleague Van Helsing, Lucy dies. The characters soon discover that Lucy was under the spell of the …show more content…
The scientific and factual Dr. Seward and Jonathan Harker must work with superstitious and religious Van Helsing to carry out the plan. The combined forces of religion, science, and superstition were paramount to the ultimate defeat of Dracula, which is represented by sacred symbols of Catholicism, advanced technology, and a vast knowledge of vampirism.
In the fight against evil, the group uses traditional holy, Catholic symbols to overpower Dracula. Dracula is often seen as a character parallel to the devil. Thus, the traditional “good” Catholic symbols of the holy host, bible, and crucifix are used as weapons against the evil vampire. The Count’s clear aversions to these symbols perpetuate the notion that good will always overcome evil. The group exploits Dracula’s aversions by using the Catholic symbols
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The characters in the novel must abandon these ideas to fully embrace superstition and immerse themselves in the mythical realm of vampirism. Advanced communication technology like phonographs, telegraphs, and typewriters are used through the novel in order to share important information about Dracula and his weaknesses. As a man of scientific reasoning, Dr. Seward fails to properly diagnose Lucy’s anomalous symptoms and uses the medical technology of blood transfusions to aid in her recovery. While science alone only postpones Dracula’s mission as opposed to thwarting it, the science and technology held a major role in the vampire’s demise. The open-minded outsider, Van Helsing eventually exposed the group to the wonders of superstition and religious intervention, which held precedence over Dr. Seward’s sole logical thinking. As explained by Van Helsing, the danger of this mindset is that “it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then is says there is nothing to explain” (Stoker 188). In other words, if the group did not extend their forces to superstition and religion, they would have lost the battle to evil, as science cannot deliver all the
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has plentiful examples of key concepts we have examined in class including: Purity and impurity, magical thinking, strong emotions such as disgust and shame, , formalization, and myth. In this essay I will summarize events that take place within the novel when the protagonists deal with Dracula and then relate these events to the key concepts to demonstrate why the characters view him as dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided completely.
Religion was a big part of people’s lives back in Stoker’s time. A belief against religion was evil; therefore one who was not devout would be deemed bad or wicked. Dracula, was as evil as a creature gets and a nightmare for the pious; he was a symbol of an Anti-Christ and could even be called Satan. “I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe it was ever there.” (Stoker 24-25). Because Dracula was harmed by holy items, it could mean that he was pure evil, which would be true in Stoker’s time. As a result the main weapons the men had to fight against Dracula with was sacred matter; their struggle was like a fight was like a battle between the holy and satanic. The Count was invading Lond...
The crucifix and the empty cross are symbols of fear, loathing and danger to Dracula. There is a certain irony here as the cross is the ultimate symbol of redemption to all Christians. Sin or rather the dark side of humanity's turning from God is recognized and can be redeemed by coming to the cross. The cross is also a symbol of resurrection. The resurrection is the gift of eternal life through Christ to which all Christians can aspire. This is opposed to the Un-Dead nature of Dracula. He is immortal but it is not an eternal joyful thing. Indeed the eternity is always under threat by the very normalcy and goodness of people like the Harkers.
The story of Dracula has many components of it used in the film The Lost Boys. The comparison’s begin with the vampire. Dracula is centered around the main vampire, Dracula. Dracula has many powers and ways he can alter reality. In the novel Bram Stoker's Dracula we see that there is a power struggle. In all of the universe, no one being has complete control over another. In Dracula God, Dracula, Nature, and Humanity have some form of dominance over another, whether it be direct control or as the instrument through which another must exert its power. In this paper we will examine the different ways that control and power are used.
Life is a cruel. It, will attempt to take one down; it will humble one; it will attempt to break many down. In moments one may not know what to do, instead he/she must a find a way to use what they have around them as an advantage to defeat the problems that stands their way. Throughout dark fiction, authors utilise different elements as a tool to defeating the antagonist. the story Dracula uses completely different approaches in taking down the mighty Dracula. In the novel Dracula, Bram Stoker effectively employs the different elements that are used to defeat Dracula. Stoker effectively demonstrates the elements that are used to destroy Dracula through act of Religion, the aspect of Science and the setting.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula includes themes of death, love, and sex. Stoker’s use of empiricism utilizes the idea that everything is happening “now”. The book offers clear insight into who is evil without explicitly saying it. Stoker’s interest in empiricism uses British womanhood as a way to distinguish between good and evil.
...are depicted in many instances in order to draw upon a source of superstition for added affirmation. Finally, original narrative elements are conceived in order to bring together a central theme of unity, which stresses the teamwork by which the protagonists defeated the vampires. Bram Stoker applies these elements to create an enriching, compelling plot in the novel Dracula.
First off, in Stoker’s Dracula the reader’s suspension of disbelief is lower as compared to folklore tales. He is a tall creepy old person when first revealed, but later on in the novel he is shown to be more sinister. This creates a sense of mystery and confusion. Another reason is that he is a well developed antagonist. Often times he outsmarts the main characters creating a sense of suspense and irony because the readers know what is going to happen but the characters do not. But the most important reason of them all is the fact that Count Dracula takes elements from folklore and builds upon it. Stoker uses classic folklore to create a foundation for Dracula, for example; Dracula’s powers give him the ability to live forever, or shapeshift into other creatures as well. They also give him weaknesses such as: holy objects and daylight which mitigates his powers. These powers regularly add to the mysterious tone in the book. Count Dracula climbing down the castle wall upside down or moving slowly across a yard as a cloud of vapor makes the reader question what is happening. He has the ability to control the weather and animals as well. Stoker gives him powers from legend to make him a formidable force in the story. Although his appearance is unpleasant, he is quite the seductive character. He uses this to his advantage when trying to turn Mina and Lucy into vampires. Dracula preys on ‘weaker’ beings in a hierarchical system where he feasts on the women and once the women have turned to vampires, they feed on children. He can also use telepathy to tell where other vampires are, however, this works against him in the final chase of the book. In short his powers are unique and interesting and help to make the Count a powerful
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
In the universe, no one being has complete control over another. In Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, God, Dracula, Nature, and Humanity have some form of influence over each other, whether it be direct control or as the instrument through which another must exert its power. In this paper I will examine the ways that power and control are presented in Dracula.
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre; These factors include setting, actions of each vampire, the initial reactions to news of them, and how their presence affects the people who live within the region the vampires inhabit.
In the book, Dracula by Bram Stoker there are many characters that display qualities of good verse evil. The Count Dracula is a mysterious character who appears as an odd gentleman but the longer the story goes on Dracula shows his true self. Dracula started infiltrating the lives of anyone who crossed his path and he was not stopping his destruction of others’ lives. Many people were affect by Dracula’s actions but there were two people that Dracula caused an impact on during his rampage. Dracula is an evil, cunning, and selfish character who harms the life of a young man and ruins the future of an innocent woman.
it horrifies us and reinforces our sense of boundaries and normalcy” (Halberstam 13). Assuming that Bram Stoker’s Dracula sets the archetype of the vampire, it is clear that modern vampires have demonstrated a decrease in the Gothic horror despite similarities in the Gothic imagery and themes, and such a shift is attributed to a changing value of the limit within society and postmodernism. The Count is the benchmark of the vampire archetype as the monstrous Other that “announces itself as the place of corruption” (Anolik and Howard 1). Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits—a monstrosity of great evil that serves to guarantee the existence of good (Punter and Byron 231).
Firstly, good and evil was seen throughout the aspect of intuition versus logic of the book. Dr. Seward writes in his diary that, “Yesterday [he] was almost willing to accept Van Helsing’s monstrous ideas; but now they seem to start out lurid before me as outrages on common sense. I have no doubt that he believes it all. I wonder if his mind can have become in any way unhinged. Surely there must be some rational explanation of all these mysterious things.” (174). In the Victorian Era, logic was perceived as good, while intuition was evil and immoral. Dr. Seward writes how he was at first convinced that Lucy was, in fact, a vampire, but later thinks these ideas are outlandish. He is unwilling to accept Van Helsing’s intuition because his thoughts could not be justified by logic, but could be proven merely by beliefs. Similarly, Jonathan has initial feelings about Dracula that he was convinced were wrong as they were not rational thoughts. He writes that, “there is something so strange about this place and all in it that [he] cannot but feel uneasy.” (2...
...defeat the enemy. By avoiding an overly simplistic connection between natives and magic and Europeans and science, Stoker forces the reader to consider a difficult question: if rationality and information does not distinguish the British from the “other,” then what does? While we may not be able to definitively characterize Stoker as a pro- or anti-imperialist based on the role he gives these types of information in Dracula, his novel shows how information can blur the distinction between Europeans and the “other.”