Science And Religion In Bram Stoker's Dracula

To begin with, I will be explaining how the scientific revolution is represented in Bram Stoker’s classical, gothic horror novel about a blood sucking vampire, Dracula. In the first place, there were many change of thoughts in the characters minds on their thoughts and beliefs of “spirits”. As of the beginning of the book, none of the characters believed in ghosts, spirits, demons, vampires or anything of that kind. Everyone had believed it was all just myths that were made up. In the first event of the book,

The supernatural effect plays a huge role in Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula is an Immortal being which means he cannot die, which we all know

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

In Dracula written by Bram Stoker there is a constant battle between reason using superstition and rationality. Jonathan and Seward are both British men and subsequently express a more rational mindset. As the text continues and Dracula plays a larger role, the characters are forced to use a superstition to describe his role. By the end of the text, Jonathan and Seward use spiritual reasoning to defeat Dracula. Yet these characters use spiritual reasoning, scientific reason becomes the successor because throughout England, rationality is the more adopted method. Stoker uses these characters suggest that even though rationality is the greater successor, the spiritual ideas are still maintained. Rationality and superstition maintain

“Despite the claimed reverence for puritan ideals, the Victorian era brought numerous challenges to Christianity, including the growing trends of materialism, rationalism, communism, and "higher criticism" of the Bible.” (WEB). There was a lot of controversy going on at that time so people were beginning to doubt their religion and the church, these people who were against God were seen as immoral just as Dracula seen as. Just like Mina and Lucy were infected by sinful blood, the people in that time were also brainwashed by scientists to believe that religion was not true. However Bram Stoker reinforced his universal truth to show that in this context, religion was the good and that scientists were the bad of that time. “A great number of people were habitual church-goers, at least once and probably twice, every Sunday. The Bible was frequently and widely read by people of every class; so too were religious stories and allegories.” (WEB). Although some people went astray of their religion, a large part of the population was still true to their roots and followed religious practices. The church’s main goal was to increase its followers, usually the ones off track were brought back only when the doubt was destroyed; Mina’s process of conversion was stopped the same when Dracula was destroyed. Being religious meant the god would keep you in health and if you were evil then you would have a terrible life. Stoker described

The setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is in the late nineteenth-century London, where the flourishing of technology is replacing people’s belief of the old superstitious ways. The characters in this novel experience contacts with the supernatural beings that is unable to be proven even by the most advanced technology at the time, which leads them to doubt their own sanity. However, the progression of the novel proves that peace is restored into the characters’ lives after their doubts and confusions about what is reality and who is really mad. Ultimately, the categorization of the sane against the mad is unnecessary since the distinguishing factors shown in the novel are ambiguous. Subsequently, no characters can

Because the Victorian Era was an age so heavily influenced by religion, it is hardly surprising, that Bram Stoker’s Dracula contains many religious references. The Victorian Era was a time period from 1837 to 1901, during which Queen Victoria reigned in the United Kingdom. During this time, women were expected to be quiet, proper, and pure. All people were expected to attend church, and sexuality was incredibly censored. Religion played an influencing role in Victorian art including visual and literary. Likewise, the fear of being sinful, or not following the Bible was still a fear from the under educated members of society. The prominent branches of Christianity in this era, Protestants and Catholics, dominated the popular culture of western societies. Given the religious context of the Victorian Era, Vampires in Bram Stoker’s Dracula represent sin and have inherently sinful behavior, whereas the humans represents goodness and religion, no matter which kind of religion.

Similar to how people abandoned religion in pursuit of Science and advancement, Count Dracula perverts the Christian faith to further himself. The very basis of vampirism includes the same elements of Christianity, such as immortality, blood, and the soul, but they are incorporated in stark contrast to how they are incorporated in Christianity. Count Dracula is an immortal and soulless being who consumes the blood of others to become stronger and “as a vampire, [he] inverts one of the principal Catholic sacraments: holy Communion” (“Dracula”). Christians drink the symbolic blood of Christ to be granted spiritual life, while “Dracula prolongs and revitalizes his physical life by drinking the real blood of humans” (“Dracula”). Moreover, Christians believe that the flesh is transient and their spiritual life to be more important while for Count Dracula, “blood is […] life” (Stoker 152). Additionally, Christians believe in life after death seeking an everlasting spiritual life while Count Dracula can not die of natural causes and is a man “who has centuries before him” (Stoker 322). Count Dracula’s perversion of the Christian faith to further himself symbolizes those who abandon their faith in the pursuit of power. This symbolism is continued in the

As we all know Dracula not only has to do with the horror, blood and vampires, but religion, christianity and the Victorian society that play a huge role in the story. These topics all have a reasonable amount of influence on how Dracula was written, and how the various themes in Dracula were developed. The input of religion is seen from the start all the way to the ending no doubt about it. In addition, there are also various examples of how the Victorian society also mixed in with religion, like the ideas of people back then and what they thought was wrong and right due to society’s beliefs . The exploration of thoughts and ideas by all the characters regarding what is wrong and right due to society and religion is also easily seen throughout the story. In the novel Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, the Victorian society influenced overall in the way it was written, and how their beliefs at this time of Christianity are being explored to these new ideas.

     Throughout many types of literature, violence exists to enhance the readers interest in order to add a sense of excitement or conflict to a novel. This statement withholds much truthfulness due to the fact that without violence in a piece of literature such as Dracula by Bram Stoker, the plot would not have the same impact if it was lacking violence. Dracula's power and evilness led to the violent happenings which began with the conflict of Jonathan's inner struggle, as compared to the conflict which blossomed later on with good versus evil.

Throughout the Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, one is presented with the presence of many Christian ideals and symbols throughout the text. Count Dracula’s appearance and actions seem to display the perversion of various Christian ideals and symbols and Dr. Van Helsing uses various Christian symbols to defeat Count Dracula. Given that Van Helsing and his posse are able to use the Christian imagery to drive Dracula back to Castle Dracula and eventually defeat him, Stoker might be suggesting that the power of the Christianity and the Christian God will always prevail in a match against evil and the devil.

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.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula magnificently portrays Anti-Christian values and beliefs through one of its central characters, Dracula. Dracula himself, a demonic figure, both in appearance and in behavior, could be considered the Anti-Christ. This idea of Dracula as a gothic Anti-Christ is a major element in the novel. Stoker displays numerous Anti-Christian values, superstitious beliefs, and compares and contrasts the powers of God with those of Dracula.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is a true Gothic novel that belongs on any gothic literature course. Focusing in on the recurring themes, characters and settings used throughout the novel one sees how Dracula has set the standard for Gothic literature today.