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Religious Values In Dracula

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As modern advancements fail in the face of Dracula, Stoker demonstrates how Harker eventually turns to religion, highlighting the importance of religious values. Before Harker sets off to leave for Transylvania, he is stopped by a woman who warns him of the evil threats that await him and is given a crucifix. After the woman gives him the crucifix, Harker writes in his journal and describes the crucifix that he has been given as he waits to set off to Transylvania. Harker writes, “I have not been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind” (11). Before arriving to Transylvania, Harker doesn’t place any value on religious symbols nor does he acknowledge any of the signs that he is warned about by the woman who gives him the crucifix. …show more content…

Although Harker is terrified after he is cautioned by the woman, he doesn’t take her warnings seriously, demonstrating how modernity has influenced him to disregard superstitions despite the fact that he is warned about the evils that await him by those who recognize the superstitious forces of vampirism. Stoker highlights how modernity blinds Harker from the superstitious signs of vampires and the threats that await him in the castle because of the way in which modernity emphasizes reason over folks and supersitions. Stoker demonstrates how Dracula is able to imprison Harker and endanger him more insidiously because of his ignorance to superstitions. However, once Harker arrives at the Count’s Castle becomes a prisoner to the Count, he acknowledges the danger that he has put himself

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Another noteworthy example of the way Stoker’s lascivious thematic begins outside the immediate circle of ‘good’ characters and then worms its way within is Mina Harker’s decent into vampirism. After Dracula manages to get into Mina’s bedchamber her forces himself upon her, drinking of her blood and forcing her to drink of his. “I was bewildered and strangely enough, I did not want to hinder him” (305), Mina declares as she realizes that even while she had tried to fight against the Count’s urgings she found it difficult not to yield to his demands. This is an intense moment where a pure hearted, if not pious, character is defiled and forced to recognize their own very human, and lustful desires. It is the basis of these humanizing desires

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Everybody knows the classic tale of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It is most famous for its introduction of the character of Count Dracula into both deep-rooted and contemporary literature and media. One critic claimed,” Bram Stoker set the ground rules for what a vampire should be.” It follows the story of Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor who visits Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania – soon realising that he is being kept as a prisoner. Dracula forms a liking to the character of Lucy which ultimately leads to her death.

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as Dr. Seward quotes Renfield. Harker wakes up one day to find Dracula asleep but looks younger, sleeker, and blood trickling down the corners of his mouth. This signifies the beast has been released, whatever control there was left is now gone and now only his appearance of a blood sucking hound is illustrated. While Harker is told not to leave his room he does and falls asleep, in which the attack of three female vampires on

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Harker is creeped out to think that it's just the two of them in the castle. He's comforted by the crucifix that the innkeeper's wife gave him, even though he ordinarily doesn't think much of crucifixes since he's Protestant. That night, Harker has a long talk with the Count about Transylvanian history. Chapter 4- The chapter starts off with The Count has asked Harker to write three letters home—one saying that he's almost done, one saying that he's about to leave, and another saying that he has arrived at Bistritz.

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Van Helsing says,”We must, therefore, guard ourselves from his touch. Keep this near your heart”—as he spoke, he lifted a little silver crucifix and held it out to me”(Stoker 226). Being able to understand the reasoning behind the crucifix lets the characters be capable of change. This realization helps defeat Dracula because they use the crucifix to combat Count Dracula. When Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray are forced to confront reality, the use of religious superstitions shapes their views on their beliefs on the supernatural.

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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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Bram Stoker’s Dracula presents a tale of mystery and horror as heroes embark on a journey to save England from falling into darkness. While Count Dracula embodies the characterizations of darkness and death, he can hold a hypnotic influence over his victims personifying forbidden desire and temptation on all that fall under his curse. These qualities allow Stoker to criticize Victorian England’s views of desires and share how these unfulfilled desires will fall into temptation and lead to a darker path. Furthermore, he uses these qualities to criticize the male view of women, showing this by symbolizing the effects of not having crucial information with Mina Harker. Count Dracula is depicted as a charming and sinister man whose presence is magnetic and hypnotic to anyone who stands near him, allowing

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Truth and Progress: Reconciling Religion and Rationalism to Defeat Dracula Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula deals heavily with the theme of religion and faith, and, framed in the context of a fantastic struggle against an evil vampire, explores a controversy about religion which dominated its contemporary Victorian period—the debate between Christian religion and modern rationalism, an ideology fuelled by recent scientific advancements which provoked religious doubt. Literary critics tend to attempt to fit Dracula to one side or the other of this Victorian debate, but the novel’s position is difficult to discern, as instances of faith versus reason are not presented in binary opposition—neither side is marked as discernibly good or bad. What

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The topic I have chosen for my essay is how Dracula is meant to remind society of the importance of religion, specifically Christianity, in Stoker’s time. I intend to do this through analyzing symbols in Dracula, drawing connections between these symbols and Christianity, and analyzing the implications Stoker attempts to make. I chose this topic because vampires and their sacrilegious implications, such as burning when touching a cross, have always been of interest to me, hence why I chose to study Dracula in the first place. My thesis is: Stoker uses Count Dracula as symbol to represent what society may become if they abandon religious beliefs.

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