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Faith And Biblical Allegory In Bram Stoker's Dracula

1524 Words7 Pages

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a timeless gothic horror novel that has fascinated readers for over 125 years. Using an epistolary format, Stoker creates a first-hand look at a world full of complex characters troubled in one way or another by the influence of the vampire, Count Dracula. Throughout the book, Stoker creates a sense of terror and unease by portraying the vampire as a dark and evil force threatening society's very fabric. This fear of the unknown and the supernatural is a common theme in horror literature, but Stoker takes it one step further to highlight the importance of faith and belief in a higher power. Stoker uses gothic imagery, an array of complex characters, and biblical allegory to encapsulate the fear of living a non-religious lifestyle.
GOTHIC IMAGERY
Dracula follows an English lawyer, Jonathan Harker, as he embarks on a journey to finalize a property transaction with the reclusive and mysterious client in Transylvania, Count Dracula. Count Dracula’s estate is nestled in the Carpathian Mountains and borders three states: Bukovina, Moldavia, and Transylvania. Stoker sets the tone for the evil that Dracula represents by describing Dracula’s home as “One of the wildest and least known portions of Europe” (pg. 5) and “An imaginative whirlpool of every known …show more content…

This is similar to the modern Christian belief that the Devil uses humans as vessels to spread evil across the world. It is implied that the townsfolk Jonathan meets on his way to Dracula’s estate are barbaric, unpunctual, and unkempt. Jonathan immediately divides the populations into their respective groups, noting that their clothes are dirty and some women’s outfits are ‘too tight for modesty’ (pg. 64). This feeds into the narrative that London, which Christianity dominated at the time of Dracula’s publishing, is “the best” and the most civilized way of

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