Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula
centers on the Christian ideology. Stoker effectively uses devices such as
symbolism and imagery to portray Christian ideologies that provoke the reader.
My paper will discover what emotions Stoker wants the reader to feel through
the Christianity theme and what the significance of him doing so is.
Religious
practices are used to both promote and prevent the vampires in this novel. We first see this when John travels to The
Count’s castle. The passengers prayed
for John and John gave him several sacred gifts, including “the sign of the cross
and the guard against the evil eye , a crucifix (13). The travelers knew that
the holy gifts would protect John from Dracula’s evil doings. Also, the sacred wafer (which symbolizes the
body of Jesus Christ) and crosses are used against Dracula to defeat him. On the other hand, blood is what keeps Dracula
alive. The Blood of Jesus is what sanctifies believers in the Christian faith. Dracula
preys on the blood of unsuspecting humans and turns them into evil vampires just
like him. Here, Stoker lets us know that Dracula is a mockery of Jesus. Van
Helsing describes Dracula’s actions as “the vampire’s baptism of blood” (342).
Blood
is a reoccurring symbol used by Stoker throughout the novel. Vampires need
blood in order to survive, so Dracula takes the blood of humans. The idea of
blood being taken from a person makes the reader feel uneasy, which is the
reaction Stoker is seeking. Dracula is portrayed
as a brute devilish character; Stoker directly states Dracula’s “eyes blazed
with a sort of demonaic fury”(23). Stoker depicts Dracula as a mysteriously evil
creature who intentionally leaves the reader feeling uneasy and uncertain what
Dracula is capable of. Being the antagonist of the story, Dracula represents something
that directly opposes Christianity. Why would Stoker portray Dracula this way? Stoker
may be just expressing to the reader his Christian beliefs. Maybe he’s trying
to show how the Christian faith is mighty enough to defeat the devil, who
Dracula symbolizes.
Perhaps
Christian ideologies were used in this book because Christianity was the most
accepted religion during Stoker’s time. Once source I discovered stated that “During
the time Stoker wrote Dracula, Darwin's Origins of the Species had previously
been published. Origins of the Species lead to many people questioning
Christianity. Stoker uses Christian salvation as a form of survival and
protection in the story which lead the reader to consider their questioning of
the Christian faith.” By prominently displaying Christian beliefs as the very
items that save the characters in the story, Stoker relays to his readers that
perhaps they should keep their faith in the religion.” Religion is clearly seen
throughout the novel and Stoker’s use of imagery and symbolism reinforces the
theme. From here I plan to revise my thesis so that it’s more narrow and
specific. Instead of just imagery and symbolism I could tell how Stoker uses
literary devices like characterization to get a certain emotion from the reader
Stoker, Bram, and Tudor Humphries. Dracula. New York: DK
Pub., 1997. Print.
I enjoyed your post. Christianity is a huge part of Dracula. I looked into the idea that Dracula drinks the blood of humans. In the Bible , it reads: "For the life of a creature is in the blood...None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner among you eat blood" (Leviticus 17:13). Looking at this, drinking blood can be seen as something the devilish and evil would do. I find it humorous that the Lord said, "Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people" (Leviticus 7:27) I can't think of anyone more cut off than Dracula, so much so that he must move from his home to a new land. He is a walking abomination possessing longevity, superhuman abilities, and fiery eyes. With these unholy powers comes weaknesses based on holy items. I'd have to agree with you that Bram Stoker was promoting Christianity and the story does bridge on challenging a reader's faith. Good luck on composing your final thesis.
ReplyDeleteWow, these are great scriptures from the Bible that support my idea. "For the life of a creature is in the blood...None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner among you eat blood" directly shows how Stoker used Dracula to represent antt-christian beliefs based off (prior)knowledge of the Bible. Thanks for that.
DeleteAwesome post Jarrett. I really like the things that Erik point out as well. It is ver interesting that God said those things specifically. Maybe that is where the vampire stories originated from. Someone may have read that verse and created a creature that would be evil enough to go against the bible. But that creature is still weakened by holy items such as crucifixes. I think that these vampires are vulnerable to the religious items to show the reader that God is still above them. I think that religion is tested when reading this novel. Do you think Bram Stoker was a believer? Is that why he wrote the novel with such religious context?
ReplyDeleteYes I discovered that Bram Stoker was a protestant Christian so I believe that he definitely wrote this novel to promote the Christian religion. This can be seen through the vast amount of religious symbols and referneces he uses throughout Dracula.
DeleteGreat post, Jarrett! I would also like to know from a reliable cited source if Stoker was definitely a Christian himself or if he chose to use Christianity in his book because as you stated it was the prominent religion during his time. Your post got me thinking about an interesting part of the book where Renfield is concerned about taking lives versus taking souls. I believe that this brings up a prominent issue concerning vampires and religion. Do vampires retain their own souls after transformation? And are vampires like Dracula only taking their victim's lives, or are they also taking their souls? Why do you think Stoker makes a point of distinguishing between lives and souls and how it may relate to Christian ideology? I believe that you have a great start to your final paper and there is a lot you can do with what you have.
ReplyDeleteJarrett, I think you just blew my mind. How come I never made the connection of blood between Christianity and Vampires? I think that you did a fantastic job on this post. I see that you paper is headed in an awesome direction. I think that you have done your homework for this project. I really liked how you made the connections that you did. Seeing the blood of Jesus Christ as a tool for Vampires really is thought provoking. I think the only thing that might help make your paper stronger is what Erik suggested. I think that the use of Bible verses will really cement your ideas in the readers mind. Do you think that by doing more research on the topic of religion and vampire lore you will uncover anything else? I think that your paper will be really interesting.
ReplyDeleteCould Mina or Lucy be compared to the virgin Mary? I dunno just a random thought. It would be interesting to research. The virgin Mary was impregnated while still remaining a virgin. Were Lucy and Mina virgins? Do we even know this? Am I making no valid connection? Who knows! Great post!
ReplyDeleteGood post! i really enjoyed it, and you chose a super interesting topic to talk about. especially like how you pointed out that blood was used as a redurring symbol. The only thing that i would suggest would be maybe narrowing your thesis down abit more, and really focusing on one of these references instead of all of them throughout the book, it might be to broad of a topic, but thats just my opinion. overall though a really enjoyable post.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post. I am attempting to write my final paper regarding religious themes as well, except in reference to Beloved. I could always identify the different religious themes and symbolism that Stoker used throughout Dracula, but for the life of me I could not put it into a concrete thought process and I believe that you may have nailed it. Everything that I explored when reading Dracula you have been able to put into words. Not to beat a dead horse, but Erik's contribution of that scripture is perfect for the direction you are heading with your final paper. I know you said you would focus on the characterization rather than the imagery or symbolism, but I believe that symbolism can go a long way in helping to develop your paper regarding the characterization of Dracula or others. It seems that you may have answered the dreaded "So what?" question as well. If you focus on the religious characterization of Dracula you could tie into how Stoker might want his readers to be more actively aware of false god's in their life or whatever form the devil might be taking to attack them spiritually. I think Dracula could also be seen as an anti-Christ in the novel. Dracula deliberately goes against God's rules regarding blood and lives off of it. It might be interesting to do research regarding different leaders during this time that may have had an impact on Stoker. Stoker might be trying to put the light on a relatively popular leader during that time so people could see him in a different light.
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