Pollution And Redemption In Dracula, By Anne Mcwhir

Vampire is "a bloodsucking ghost that come back from dead person believed to come from the place where a body is buried and wander about by night sucking the blood of people asleep and causing their death." Before vampires were seen as evil monsters and creatures humans must fear. However, now, vampires have become an "famous popular culture and fascination among teens around the world"  This art has increased vampire large groups of fans this way resulting to the creation of many fan clubs and social organizations, whether online or not.

Are there still connections between Bram Stokers famous novel Dracula and modern day society? In Dracula, Stoker expands on many themes that indeed exist today. Not only does he touch on the most obvious theme, sex. He expands on gender division and good versus evil. Some say since times have changed the themes I introduced have changed as well, leaving connections between then and now irrelevant. However, I feel that although times have changed they still have roots from the time of the novel to now. In this essay I will expand on the themes of this novel while connecting them to modern day society, the critical texts I have chosen and will mention later on in the essay are a good representation of the commonalities between the chill, dark Victorian days in which the era that Dracula was written in and modern day.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is highly acclaimed and has received many different interpretations which deal with complex symbolisms and metaphors. These interpretations often require a great deal of knowledge in psychology, political science, anthropology, and other non-literary disciplines. These interpretations may be valid, as they are related to the disciplines on which their arguments are based, but the true power of the novel is due to a very simple theme that lies beneath the other, more convoluted interpretations. This theme is the universal concept of identity: us versus them. This criticism sets aside outside disciplines and focuses on the literary motif of identity. John

Unremarkable though it may seem, to affirm the obvious truism that Bram Stoker’s Dracula originates from a century that historians often describe as the most significant in terms of revolutionary ideology, whilst wishing to avoid the clichéd view held, it is undeniable that the more one delves into the depths of this novel the greater wealth of meaning demonstrates significant correlation with Marxist ideology. The 19th Century saw the emergence of revolutionary socialist Karl Marx, who himself used the vampire metaphor to describe the capitalist system as ‘dead labour which, vampire like, lives only by sucking living labour’. Through Stoker’s opulent use of narrative structure, use of setting and imagery, this novel presents a multiple

The normal Victorian representation of a woman would be that of a weak character, who would faint at the sight of blood; a character who would only discuss weather and art. In this novel, the stereotype of an ideal Victorian woman is broken as it is contrasted with the modern woman. The two best friends, Lucy and Mina, are each a representation of each. While Lucy is shown as all weak and someone who gives in easily, Mina stays on the “good side” even after she has been bitten by a vampire and her conversion has started. She is presented a hero, who plays an important role in bringing Dracula down through her intelligence and resourcefulness. Hence, by representing Mina as such a powerful character, Stroker breaks the stereotypical idea of a

Stoker’s novel Dracula, presents the fear of female promiscuity, for which vampirism is a metaphor. Such fear can be related to the time in which Dracula was written, where strict Victorian gender norms and sexual mores stipulated

The play-script book “Dracula”, adapted by David Calcutt, is a captivating reword of the iconic epistolary horror novel of a same name which was written by Bram Stoker, The author outlines the power struggle between good and evil in the text through messages and symbols. The author focuses on Dracula and a group of friend’s actions and emotions in which he uses narrative conventions to convey key messages in the book. The messages I found that were prominent were “evilness is an infection”, “greed is consuming” and “good always prevail”.

    Perhaps no work of literature has ever been composed without being a product of its era, mainly because the human being responsible for writing it develops their worldview within a particular era.  Thus, with Bram Stoker's Dracula, though we have a vampire myth novel filled with terror, horror, and evil, the story is a thinly veiled disguise of the repressed sexual mores of the Victorian era.  If we look to critical interpretation and commentary to win support for such a thesis, we find it aplenty "For erotic Dracula certainly is.  'Quasi-pornography' one critic labels it.  Another describes it as a 'kind of incestuous, necrophilious, oral-anal-sadistic all-in-wrestling matching'.  A

“Vampire Religion” is an article written about Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” The article is one that was found very useful in reading and understanding the story. Christopher Herbert, the author, argues of the importance that religion and events of the world played on the writing of “Dracula.” There are two parts to the article, one is “Religion/Superstition” and the second part is “The Vampire in the Church.” Both parts are vital to the article.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a story of horror, suspense, and repulsion. The main antagonist, Count Dracula, is depicted as an evil, repulsive creature that ends and perverts life to keep himself alive and youthful. To most onlookers that may be the case, but most people fail to see one crucial element to this character. Dracula is a character that, though it may be long gone, was once human, and thus has many human emotions and motives still within him. Let us delve into these emotions of a historically based monster.

Dracula is a novel composed of letters, diary entries, and journal entries. There are also occasionally newspaper clippings in this novel as well. The novel reads as a vampire story in Transylvania. Though Dracula can be read that way, the novel has a “strong religious thrust of this novel has correspondingly been ignored, not to say suppressed…” (Herbert 100). While Dracula often reads as a horror novel and has been interpreted by some readers as anti-religious, it nevertheless contains religious symbols, and Christian themes. This paper argues that Dracula can be read as a salvation narrative.

Many scenes in ‘Frankenstein’ are pastoral, thus creating a non-threatening atmosphere, however, it is circumstances and ignorance which result in the creature becoming despised and hunted which in return change his nature and character when he seeks revenge for the injustices done against him. Dracula, from the beginning, is the embodiment of evil - he plots and schemes. One could make excuses for him and say he needs blood or he becomes extinct and it is a form of self-preservation. This is so, however, throughout the novel we are faced time and again with examples of gratuitous malevolence he makes no distinction between man or woman, child or baby. Many scenes in ‘Dracula’ are set in the dark and ominous Castle Dracula, this results in a pervading atmosphere of apprehension.

After Lucy’s death, Van Helsing tried to convinced Quincey Morris, Seward and Arthur Holmwood that Lucy has turned into “Un-dead” by bringing them to her tomb. They eventually find a solution by plunging a stake into Lucy’s heart. They chop off her head and stuff her mouth with garlic. After Jonathan and Mina’s returning to England, they joined forces with the others. Mina helps Van Helsing by collecting various journals and dairies to retype them. Their efforts were useless went one of Seward’s patient has let Dracula into the asylum to prey upon Mina. These men divided forces among them tracks Dracula across land and sea. Van Helsing takes Mina with him and he killed three female vampires by using sacred objects. Quincey and Jonathan use knives to destroy Dracula went Dracula is about to reached his castle. In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola has released a Dracula movie based on Bram Stoker’s novel. I would prefer watching a Dracula movie rather than reading a book because Coppola evokes the origins of Dracula before he turn into a vampire, twisted the subplot where Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula’s greatest love and the movie ends with Dracula’s soul

In everyday life, as in literature, there will always be an opposing force to evil. In the novel “Dracula,” by Bram Stoker, Professor Van Helsing acts as Dracula’s main antagonist. An antagonist is the character who acts against the main character, which increases the conflict of the story and intensifies the plot. Through the use of theme, characterization and specific events, the author shows readers how Dr. Van Helsing effectively fits the role of Dracula’s most threatening adversary.

A creature of disturbing wickedness, Dracula is not fulfilled by merely controlling the body of humans, but he also yearns for the domination over the soul of mortal beings. This calls to mind the image of a distinctly anti-Christian vision. The first image of Dracula reinforces the idea that he is not a simple villain but a complex one. As Jonathon Harker ventures to meet Dracula, he witnesses Dracula’s control and mastery of beasts: “How he came there, I know not, but I heard his voice raised in a tone of imperious command, and looking towards the sound, saw him stand in the roadway. As he swept his long arms, as though brushing aside some impalpable obstacle, the wolves fell back and back further still” (pg.11). While we are to believe that Christ gained his power over the environment and its inhabitants through His divinity, we are left to ponder where Dracula may have accumulated his power. While Jesus chose to use his power for good, Dracula’s accumulated power acts as a dark mirror being used for evil.