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Examples Of Christianity In Dracula

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In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Christianity is portrayed in a positive light throughout the novel. The protagonists pray, quote Scripture, seek God’s guidance, and eventually prevail. If Count Dracula is meant to symbolize the devil, then it seems Stoker’s intent might be to show that the evil one is resisted through the power of God. “Take heart afresh, dear husband of Madam Mina. This battle is but begun and in the end we shall win. So sure as that God sits on high to watch over His children. Therefore be of much comfort till we return. (Stoker)” The protagonists display use of many Christian “weapons” as in, crucifixes, holy water and communion wafer in the fight against the evil and vile Dracula.“As he placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it …show more content…

The “good” being Jonathan, Mina, Van Helsing, Quincey, Arthur and Dr. Seward. The “bad” are Dracula, his wives and to some degree Renfield since he is doing Dracula’s bidding. Lucy Westenra is a undecided character because in the beginning she was good, but after becoming a vampire she is obviously bad and voluptuous. “In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips:—“Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!” (Stoker 172)” The good characters seek to destroy the main antagonist, Dracula before he does to the rest of the world what he has done to Lucy. This is a recounting of a “Holy War” because it has sort of a redemptive resolution. As Mina plummets toward darkness/sin, her husband Jonathan vows to kill the Vampire/Satan, staking it through the heart/crucifixion and sending it to Hell. Although, Mina pleads with Jonathan to, if possible, slay the vampire itself first so that the Count may find redemption and be accepted into Heaven. Although ultimately they can’t kill the vampire without killing the count “Now God be thanked that all has not been in vain! See! the snow is not more stainless than her forehead! The curse has passed away! (Stoker

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Throughout the Victorian era, probably one of the biggest worries was the role of women in society. In “Dracula”, Bram Stoker makes most of the women in his story as very sexual and some as pure. The pure women in society were liked and the impure were considered evil and tempting. Throughout the story, Mina is the perfect fit for the “angel of the house” by remaining smart and loyal and she is seen as heroic and strong in the end because of it. Mina’s relationship with Harker represents the traditional part in society that women should play in the Victorian age.

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In Bram Stoker’s, “Dracula”, the novel shows many examples of its characters both subverting and reinforcing the traditional gender roles of the victorian age. During this time period, a very cliched version of gender roles is portrayed. The subversions shown throughout the novel were very scary in a way to the audience of the Victorian time. This was due to the very uptight culture of people during this time and the very unconventional actions performed during the novel. Many characters show these subversions through their personality, but also through their actions.

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But, Harker’s courage of killing Dracula is his redemption and elixir. For instance, Mina writes in her journal “On the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife… It was like a miracle; but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust” (Stocker, 324).

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Blood is life given to God freely that is released through death (Stibbs 7). The natural order of things from a Christian point of view is that when someone dies their life, soul, and flesh should leave the earth, and be offered to god. Dracula drinks Lucy’s blood such that when she dies she becomes UnDead and seems like a nightmare version of herself (Stoker 189, 201). Dracula perverts the natural order because when he takes life the victim does not truly die. His taking of life and subsequent UnDeath are comparable to theft from god.

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889 Words | 4 Pages

Dracula gets to Mina, which is Jonathans wife. Dracula is going after everyone that is close to each other. The Szgany also has a few conflicts with the good characters of the story. He doesn’t deliver Jonathans letters to Mina and they help Dracula. The Szgany also killed Quincey P. Morris.

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Also, when traveling to Transylvania, Van Helsing creates defenses for Mina Harker by forming a “Holy circle” consisting of the men in the novel, which he believes will “[ward] away Dracula’s [followers]” (Gray). Van Helsing is also described to rely heavily on Christian ritual when he places the “piece of Sacred Wafer” upon Mina Harker’s forehead, a method believed to protect her from Dracula’s attacks (Stoker

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In Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, Dracula, the overall and fundamental theme of the book is given away the further you read, expressing Stoker’s view of religion. The novel is an account of the paths taken by many different characters such as Count Dracula, Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra. Since this poem was written with ideas focused primarily on the concepts of evil, as it was viewed during an appearingly-conservative nineteenth and twentieth century society, the book can be seen as a parallel to Eliot’s and others’ own religious quests. While Bram Stoker attempts to acquaint the reader with a frightening tale on the accounts of a dreadful vampire named Count Dracula, he also expresses the goal of strengthening

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A battle between good and evil is a common plot to Dracula. The forces of evil, Count Dracula and other vampires (the un-dead), try to take over Britain. The novel heroes Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. John Seward, Johnathan Haker, Quincy Morris, and Arthur Holmwood are the first responders for this evil invasion of the British Empire. In the novel the characters Dracula and Van Helsing play a major role for being the leaders of their respective groups, therefore they controlled the actions of their groups. Dracula’s actions in the novel have the purpose to flourish the rise of the un-dead, while Van Helsing’s actions aim to preserve and protect the human race.

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Mina is unable to break that ring of holy wafer due to the superstition of holy objects against vampires. Van Helsing is applying his supernatural knowledge with the scientific ways, by testing Mina to learn weaknesses for vampires. Without testing his theories before using them against Dracula, he would have had no idea if they would actually work. The ability to understand Dracula’s powers is key when fighting him. If the group were to take on Dracula without the knowledge they have gathered from the mini experiments they have witnessed, they would end up fighting an immune monster.

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Gothic horror novel Dracula, the title character makes only several relatively short appearances, some of which are while in disguise. Throughout the novel, Stoker keeps Count Dracula in the shadows, both literally and figuratively. This essay will describe these appearances and analyze Stoker’s use of them to determine what effect they might have on the impression of the character and the novel overall. It will be claimed that by keeping his title character hidden for much of the novel, Stoker’s Dracula is made much more frightening to the reader. Human beings tend to fear the unknown, and by leaving Dracula to the imagination,

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858 Words | 4 Pages

Dracula is about vampires in general, the myth, the mystery and the horror. Even though Dracula wasn’t the first vampire story, it was the first really popular one. Throughout the novel, the author, Bram Stoker, portrays many different aspects of women's roles in the 19th century. With the use of imagery and symbolism, the theme of sexuality and gender roles has an enormous presence in the novel. Social gender roles of women and men during the Victorian Era were very strict and looked upon differently than any other time period.

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1263 Words | 6 Pages

In order to defeat Dracula, the protagonists use both religion and rationalism; as a result, arguments in favour of both sides of the debate are presented, which makes it impossible to reduce Dracula to one side or the other. The vampire hunters rely heavily on faith and religious objects, such as crucifixes and the eucharist, which presents an argument in favour of looking beyond rationalism and science to faith. As noted above, Dracula, by his fantastic nature, is something that defies reason, and thus religion is necessary to explain what rationalism cannot. Van Helsing makes a case for this when he urges “I want you to believe… in things you cannot.…I heard once of an American who so defined faith: ‘that which enables us to believe things

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1674 Words | 7 Pages

Go quick, dearest, the time is getting close.’” (Stoker, 265). Van Helsing believes that the count is scared since the group is coming in closed to his location. Van Helsing wants to hypnotize Mina to trace Dracula’s movements. Stated by Mark Perry in “Fear of the Unknown: How Can I Overcome It?”, “In some cases, the fear of the unknown would be based on specific factors that are beyond our control.

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

During the Victorian period in which Dracula was written, morals and ethics were often strictly enforced. Some of the morals that were upheld had to do with personal duty, hard work, honesty, as well as sexual proprietary. It was very important during this period that one was proper in their sexual behaviors and conventional in whom they had sexual relations with. However, during this period, many authors sought to challenge the ‘norm’ with ideas of reform and change and Bram Stoker was no exception to this. In his novel, Dracula, Stoker provides a critique of this rigidity in his portrayal of Dracula and Dracula’s relationship with Jonathan Harker.

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469 Words | 2 Pages

When you think of Dracula, you remember the fairy tale you were told as a child about vampires, but in reality how much of the story was a myth? The name Dracula reminds children and adults alike of the vampire they have so often heard of in movies and books. However, his story was quite different from what they may have heard. This story blurs the line between fiction and fact, when Bram Stoker gains inspiration from actual events and creates a legendary character Dracula is a vampire, hundreds of years old, with supernatural powers and weaknesses. He 's extremely physically strong and can shapeshift into several different forms.

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