Hades was feared and respected. The gypsies fear Dracula yet they simultaneously are subservient to him, as if damned to be under his control. In Hell, Hades has the three Fates who spin the string which determines fate. They can change it, but do not. Dracula has his own three personal vampires who can take Harker’s life in the castle of Dracula, yet they listen to their master. Hades was unlucky in the division of the universe, and became trapped. Stoker uses this idea of being trapped, in this purgatorial state. Ultimately, when Dracula is killed, he smiles, because his soul is finally liberated from eternity of being undead. Our innermost desires are silenced, and we are liberated from ourselves, being alive with subconscious evil wants.
Victorian England marked a turning point in which social and religious beliefs of the past were questioned. With advancements in science, there were many who began to believe less in superstition and more in rational thought. Stoker choice of the myth of the vampire as well as his use of the symbols of blood develop the necessity for both rational thought as well as superstitious belief.
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“Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain” (Stoker 272). Stoker was selective in his choice of mythical creature; the vampire, it's characteristics and weaknesses create the necessity for superstition hand in hand with science to be defeated. Stoker repeatedly refers to the head, or rational thought and the heart, or superstition and irrational thought. He also uses the symbol of blood countless times to represent “life-force” in contrast with “bloodless” and