Vampirism In Dracula

Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” (“Edgar Allan Poe Quotes”). One can see an example of characters stuck between life and death in Dracula by Bram Stoker. In the novel, Jonathan Harker unknowingly assists Count Dracula, an undead vampire, in traveling to England. Upon arrival, Dracula starts spreading his circle of vampiric control. Harker and his allies initiate a vampire hunt to stop Dracula before his spread of vampirism goes too far. In Dracula, Stoker uses the spread of vampirism as a symbol of disease, conveying his fears of a looming pandemic as a result of his society’s continuously corrupting morals.

For example, Dr. Seward states in his diary, “We then waited whilst Lucy made her toilet for the night, and when she was in bed he came and himself fixed the wreath of garlic round her neck” (Stoker 113). Later, Dr. Seward states, “Then we cut off the head and filled the mouth with garlic. We soldered up the leaden coffin, screwed on the coffin-lid, and gathering up our belongings, came away” (Stoker 186). Garlic is a potent natural antiseptic; it was a widespread treatment for infections and ailments around the time Stoker wrote Dracula. Because of its real properties, garlic is a symbol of protection. When sealed, lead coffins prevent anything from getting in or out of it. This prevents bacteria and other toxins from escaping the coffin, making it a great way to bury a person who dies of any contagious disease. Van Helsing uses garlic to protect Lucy from further harm from Dracula and buries her fully dead body in a lead coffin. The characters use methods usually associated with disease to ward off and protect against vampires. The use of both of these objects as preventive and defensive measures against vampirism contributes to vampirism serving as a symbol of

For example, Dr. Seward writes in his diary, “He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We threw ourselves against it; with a crash it burst open…” (Stoker 241). Later, Dr. Seward records Mina’s recounting of her encounter with Dracula: “With a mocking smile, he placed one hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight, bared my throat with the other…. I was bewildered, and, strangely enough, I did not want to hinder him. I suppose it is a part of the horrible curse that such is, when his touch is on his victim” (Stoker 246). Without any knowledge of a vampire’s presence, the remaining symptoms of an attack appear just like those of a sickness. Mainly during medieval times, people believed that disease was a punishment for sin. Stoker asserts this belief. Behind closed doors, Mina has symbolically sexual relations with another man. Without the men barging in while this is happening, they would think that she has some sickness. At the turn of the century when Stoker was writing Dracula, the overall morals of society were starting to change. People were moving on from strict Christian and traditional morals to more liberating ones. At the same time, TB was a plague on his society. Through his protagonists with traditional Christian beliefs fighting the spread of vampirism, Stoker communicates that his society’s changing morals are the cause of the TB epidemic, and any further moral compromise will