Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Anti-Christian Essay, Research Paper
Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Anti-Christian
1.)
There are many ways that Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be considered Anti-
Christian by showing of Anti-Christian values and perversions of the Christian
religion. In chapter one as Jonathan Harker is traveling to Castle Dracula he
is met by several people. When he meets these people and tells them where he is
going they cross themselves along with doing several other superstiscious
actions. One of the women he meets gives him a crucifix to protect him on his
journey. This crucifix protects him when Jonathan cuts himself shaving and
Dracula lunges for his throat he stops when he sees the crucifix around Jon’s
neck. Later in the book it discusses how you can defend yourself from Dracula
and other vampires by the possession of a crucifix or practically any
consecrated item from the Christian religion can be used to save you from the
attack or presence of a vampire. For example, in the latter of the book Van
Helsing uses a Host to prevent Dracula to enter his coffin. Another time,
during the night Van Helsing and Lucy stay out near the courtyard of Castle
Dracula, Van Helsing makes a (Holy circle) with the Host to keep vampires out
and to keep Mina safe in the (Holy circle). Another time when the Host is used
as a deterrence of vampires is at the time Van Helsing and the other men are
going to leave Mina alone in the house. Van Helsing touches a Host to Mina’s
forehead and it burns into her head since she, herself, was unclean. Another
abstruction of the Christian religion would be the fact that Dracula sleeps in
a coffin and especially because the dirt in his coffin is consecrated and
Dracula, being evil, uses this ground to rest in. Dracula has several of the
powers that Christians believe no one but God could control. For instance,
Dracula can control the weather, wild or unclean animals and, he can change
form and disappear into the air. Christians believe that consuming God’s body
and blood will give them everlasting life with God in heaven. Dracula getting
life after death or living an afterlife on earth by consuming the blood of the
living to survive, build his strength, and create more followers of him in his
evil ways. By this, Dracula is relying on humans to renew his life after death
and thus not concentrating on God as the source of life. As Dracula feeds on
the blood of the living he creates followers as Jesus had disciples. Dracula
has evil ways and spreads his evil not by sexual reproduction as God meant it
to be but he takes the living and makes their lives evil destroying their souls.
As it can be said that you must let God into your heart Dracula may only enter
someone’s home unless they let him in. Throughout the book, several times,
normally while Renfield is speaking whenever he refers to God he capitalizes his
pronouns as Christians would do when referring to God. When Lucy is brought in
to the Un-Dead she rises from the dead three days after she dies as Jesus rose
from the dead on Easter Sunday. God has no beginning and no one can explain how
he came about ; there is the same idea with Dracula that he (has been) and no
one knows his beginning. God is looked at and referred to in the Bible as being
the light which symbolizes happiness or life. Dracula’s powers are limited in
the daytime, during the light, and his powers are stronger in the night, during
darkness, which symbolizes evil. In the book, Dracula moves to an old abandoned
Church not used anymore which can show that God is no longer present which
would fulfill Dracula’s purpose of spreading evil. For those reasons I think
that the book Dracula is itself Anti-Christian and that the person Dracula could
be easily considered the Anti-Christ.
2.)
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker uses sexuality as an important part of
vampirism. The first major encounter of this is when Jonathan Harker sees the
three vampire ladies at Castle Dracula. As they walk about the room Jonathan
notices one of them and spots her lips as being ?voluptuous?, a word that can
be used to mean something that is desired. Jonathan desires these vampire women
and as she bends down to kiss him he does not suppress her from what she wants
to do, as though he is longing for her kiss. Another time in which similar to
this is during the end of the book when Van Helsing encounters the three
vampire ladies. The ladies appear the nigh Mina and Van Helsing are staying
the night outside of Castle Dracula. As they appear Van Helsing matches them
to Jonathan’s description of them, noticing their face, lips, and hair. The
next day when Van Helsing goes into the castle he is reluctant to carry out his
plans of getting rid of the vampire ladies. He is restrained from his
terrifying task by the beauty of the women, though he knows they are a curse on
the world. Another seen which depicts the sexual desires of vampirism is when
Lucy is Un-Dead. While Van Helsing, Arthur, and Dr. Seward are spending a
vigil outside Lucy’s tomb she appears and while standing there in amazement she
tries to lure Arthur to her. Vampires reproduce through the biting and sucking
of blood from someone’s neck. This is an abstruction of how reproduction of
humans is ment to come forth from sexual reproduction. Throughout the book the
Un-Dead attack the opposite of their sex. This somewhat proves that vampires
can be sexually aroused constantly which allows them to attract their victims.
These events and aspects of vampirism, therefore prove how sexuality is
important to vampirism. Part of the sexuality comes from sybolism, the laguage
(words) the book uses, and the mind of the reader or how you read the book. So,
though the book, through vampirism, can revolve around sexuality, I wouldn’t
consider it ?smutty? or ?dirty?. But, if you were reading the book to find all
the presence of sexuality in it you could possibly consider differently.
A.)
In the book Dracula by Bram Stoker, Stoker chose a person who really existed
to base his character Dracula on. This person Vlad the Impaler ( also known
as: Vlad Tepes and Dracula) gave Stoker many of the ideas on which to base
his character, Dracula. Vlad Tepes grew up in a time of war and corruption.
Vlad Tepes like his father developed a ferocious and merciless warlike
personality. The resemblence of Vlad Tepes personality to that of Dracula’s
is very much similar. Dracula has an evil personality like that which Vlad
Tepes grew into.Vlad Tepes began to rule Transylvania through a time of bloody
massacreing and war. He started to torture people in his ruthless ways. Vlad
Tepes once impaled his own army on stakes. This shows the true evil and
ruthlessness Vlad Tepes practiced. It was said that he would drink blood
while watching people which he impaled on stakes die. Vlad Tepes began to be
known for this impaling and he performed it more often with enemies and thieves.
This brings another similarity of Vlad Tepes and Dracula. Dracula tortures
people when he sucks thier blood thus destroying their soul and taking it over
with evil spirits. Dracula also drinks the blood of people with a bite of the
neck like Vlad Tepes did. The monks of that time thought that Vlad Tepes was
performing God’s will in his massacres. Vlad Tepes had built several
monestsries for the Orthodox religion throughout hid life. Later though, to
marry the women he loved, he had to convert to the Catholic religion. When he
did, the people he ruled concidered him an Anti-Christ because he deserted them
as though he didn’t care of his religiln. Dracula, having so many Anti-
Christian qualities could also be considered an Anti-Christ like Vlad Tepes was
to his people. Stoker got the idea for Dracula’s death, where he disappears
into dust, directly from the mysterious death of Vlad Tepes. Vlad Tepes was
buried in a monestary near the front of the altar. About 450 years later people
were curious if his tomb had been raided by theives so when the people checked
his tomb there were no remains of him left. Later, they found an unidentified
skeleton burried near the entrance of the monestary. The skeleton was then sent
to a museum where it vanished misteryously. Those are the reasons why I think
Stoker decided to chose Vlad the Impaler for his character Dracula. I, myself,
think Stoker chose a good person (not litterally, for his uses in the book) to
base the book Dracula for several reasons. First of all, they both were called
by the same name Dracula which means ?devil?. Also, they both have had some of
the same life expirences, such as, drinking blood, their deaths, and especially
their attitudes are almost identical.