Symbolism Of Blood In Dracula

Blood is the necessary cornerstone of all animate life on the planet Earth. As we know it is what keeps us alive and makes our bodies work, though, in the novel Dracula, author Bram Stoker puts a spin on what we know about blood and how it can be perceived. Blood is something that drives the story from beginning to end, with it being the source of food and driving force for Dracula, as well as something that keeps our group of protagonists, Jonathan, Mina, and Van Helsing alive. Without blood, Dracula ceases to exist if he does not take and consume it, and without keeping their blood the humans also cease to exist. Though the novel does stay true to these practical and realistic ideas of blood, there are also many literary and metaphorical

This was seen most evidently with the character Lucy Westenra, who was bit by Dracula secretly and had to receive blood transfusions from her male companions to stay alive. As seen in the text, these transfusions were described to be a very intimate sexual experience where both parties, giving and receiving, gave very exaggerated reactions which are not traditional for something like a blood transfusion. Dr. Sweard in his journal states, “As the transfusion went on, something like life seemed to come back to poor Lucy’s cheeks, and through Arthur’s growing pallor the joy of his face seemed absolutely to shine” (pg.115). When she was first introduced, Lucy was portrayed as a very conventional Victorian woman, with a desire to settle down, become a wife and start a family to care for. Rather than a portrayal of madness as seen with other characters throughout the book, it is shown to be more corrupted coming from her being bitten and transforming into a vampire, which causes her to stray away from these traditional Victorian ways. This is shown with the blood transfusions which were portrayed as a very sexual, sensual act done with these men who desired her. As these transfusions happen it represents Lucy losing her innocence and becoming more corrupt gaining more desire for the lustful feeling and sexual experience that

Through the book, Stoker makes it clear that to stay alive Dracula must drain the life of someone else through the act of consuming their blood, and without this, he has no means of survival. Dracula is not the only one who portrays this idea though and is also shown through the actions of Renfield. This was observed and documented by Dr. Seward in his diary where he says, “I shall have to invent a new classification for him, and call him a zoophagous (life-eating) maniac; what he desires is to absorb as many lives as he can, and he has laid himself out to achieve it in a cumulative way” (pg.70). The process of what Renfield did in the asylum was his idea of gaining more life by consuming other life. He did this by feeding flies to spiders, the spiders to birds, and plans to feed the birds to cats. By doing this he was representing the transfer of life by consuming it in multiple steps until it eventually led to him consuming it all for himself. Like Dracula, Renfeild taking those lives in a transfer to themselves is portrayed by consuming their bodies and their