Power and Control in Dracula

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Power and Control in Dracula

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.

One of the main challenges to God's power is Dracula. God does nothing to help the character of Lucy. Why? She has not committed any great sin. Yet she still fall’s prey to Dracula. There are two possible explanations for this: First that God does not have the power to save her from Dracula. Dracula is almost outside of God’s power. Since Dracula has renounced God he (God) no longer has domain over Dracula. Or second, God feels that she is being justly punished for her sins (sins which the reader is never informed of). Lucy is very flirtatious, and possibly she is more promiscuous than we are led to believe. In Francis Ford Coppola’s film version when Lucy and Mina look at the book that shows sexual acts, Lucy states that "people can do that (sexual acts)". Mina then asks Lucy how she knows that people do those sexual acts, and Lucy replies "because I did that last night…..in my dreams." We assume that she did actually have a dream about the sexual acts, but what if she was not telling the truth? Lucy knew that no respectable woman would ever admit to have sexual relations out of wedlock in her time period. She may have been attempting to cover her reputation.

It would appear that the most likely of these choices stated before is that God is unable to save the innocent. However, this is not to say that God is powerless. God maintains power over Dracula in several ways: Holy items, such as the crucifix, holy water, and holy wafers repel Dracula. The first time we see Dracula’s reaction is when Jonathan Harker is shaving. Dracula walks up behind Jonathan Harker and sees the crucifix. He is forced to stop looking at the crucifix and he (Dracula) say’s that "our ways are different than that of your England" and "you should not put your faith in such objects of deceit". We see, as Harker does that Dracula has a hatred of God.

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