Themes in Dracula

Themes in Dracula

1. Religion, Science and the Occult

   • The three conflicting bodies merge together with the Occult combining with religion through science.
   • Van Helsing represents the solution to the rift in Victorian society
   • "We must sterilize this earth, so sacred of holy memories"
     • The paradox of the science term "sterilize" with the action of holy wafer and "sacred"
   • "records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples" (209)
   • "do not fear ever to think" 295

2. Life and death

   • Again Stoker merges the two to create the Un-dead, the almost dead, the dead, and the living.
   • The men kill but dress it as saving e.g Mina's example of "brave men have killed their wives [to keep them out of] the hands of the enemy"
   • "I am deeper in death at this moment than if the weight of an earthly grave lay heavy upon me"
   • "Life is all I want"
   • "more like the hand of a dead man than a living one"

3. Sexual purity and temptation

   • Extended metaphor for sexual impurity due to giving into temptation
     • "her white nightdress was smeared with blood"
   • "the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust
   • "devilish passion"
   • "Unclean!
   • "purity to voluptuous wantonness"

4. Imprisonment and isolation

   • Compare the use of locked doors in the texts
   • "the castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!"
   • Classic gothic tradition
   • "doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked"
     • tricolon of "doors"

5. Good vs Evil

   • Rats v Terrier Battle (222)
   • "barked merrily...at their prostrate foes"
   • "white-clad figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black"
   • "a charm against the evil eye"

6. Influence and manipulation

   • Compare how Dracula's influence changes people into vampires with LH influence on DG
   • "He began promising me things" 244
   • "horrid poison which has got into her veins beginning to work"
   • "The count sent her his spirit to read her soul" 294

7. Religion

   • "Faith is our only anchor"
   • This is what keeps them motivated and safe
   • "his hand touched..the crucifix. It made an instant change in him
     • the omnipotence of God (crucifix) prevents evil and saves one (literally!)
   • "the spiritual in the left..the mortal in the right"

8. Friendship

   • "We have on our side power of combination

9. Morality and sin

   • "the snow is not more stainless than her forehead"
   • "treat the Count's body" 290
     • "Treat" - cure medically
   • "burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal" 259
     • Compare with DG - "sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face"

10. Insanity

    • GOTHIC TRADITION: merging of dream and reality
    • Lucy/Mina/Renfield's change could be the physicalization of insanity.
    • Compare Harker's journey with Dorian's journey in c.16
    • Harker's use of "strange" (p.30-31)
    • "the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane"

11. Appearance vs reality

    • Dracula's courteous appearance vs his evil nature
      • The corruption of society
    • "Welcome to my house! Come freely, leave safely"
      • perfectly pleasant but later we realize his true intentions: "I am a prisoner"