Theme Of Corruption In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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. Dracula learns that the group are plotting against him and feeds Mina his own blood to control her. In the final fight, humanity wins over the creature as they can kill him and Mina’s mind from his “spell.” The premise

It is clear to any reader that he is a very sceptical man who dislikes the consumer way of living and believes that people no longer have any free will. There are many repeated phrases throughout Lullaby, one of which is “power corrupts.” The choice of word here is important with ‘corrupt’ suggesting that a person who holds power will be changed, whether this be positive or negative, they won’t be the same as before. Corruption could also be a reference to how he believes society or the government to be like. A character within the book who represents this is Nash, a paramedic turned necrophiliac who used the culling song to murder super models for his own pleasure showing that the whole system may be “corrupt.” In Palahniuk’s personal life he was asked whether the man who killed his father and his father’s girlfriend should be given the death sentence. Palahniuk worked in a hospital and as a crime reporter but always struggled with his opinion on capital punishment. It was whilst he was making his decision that he started to write Lullaby as a way of coping. A month after the book was finished, the murderer was sentenced to death. It is possible that Palahniuk believes he shouldn’t have been given the power of life and death and that this should have been left to either God or the courts. He was given more power than he wished for and if the final verdict on the man’s life was down to him, maybe he feels that it has changed him and that he regrets his