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What Does Religion Symbolize In Dracula

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Bram Stoker's Dracula is filled with interesting symbology and religious comparisons. Dracula is a gothic novel set in late 1800s Britain and Transylvania. Dracula is an epistolary, meaning it is told through a series of journal entries, news clippings, etc. It’s like the written version of found film. Dracula draws from many old myths for its villain and is the basis for the modern vampire. Bram Stoker uses the symbolism in Dracula to compare Dracula to an Anti-Christ or Demonic figure.

Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland 1847. Bram Stoker graduated from Dublin Trinity College with a law degree. He worked as a civil servant for several years before moving to London in 1876. Stoker wrote 18 novels over his career including Dracula, which …show more content…

Dracula is repulsed by Harker’s rosary (Stoker 24). Almost like the symbol of the rosary has a physical power over Dracula it prevents him from attacking Harker. Dracula says “Your girls that you all love are mine already. And through them you and others shall yet be mine, my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed” (Stoker 287). This quote from Dracula feels very comparable to Eve’s temptation and Adam’s subsequent temptation like Dracula is a demon that uses temptation to ensnare his victims. Blood is life given to God freely that is released through death (Stibbs 7). The natural order of things from a Christian point of view is that when someone dies their life, soul, and flesh should leave the earth, and be offered to god. Dracula drinks Lucy’s blood such that when she dies she becomes UnDead and seems like a nightmare version of herself (Stoker 189, 201). Dracula perverts the natural order because when he takes life the victim does not truly die. His taking of life and subsequent UnDeath are comparable to theft from god. Her life has left her to Dracula, her soul is assumed trapped, and her flesh remains the same. The process even corrupts Lucy into a nightmarish version of herself. In her UnDeath Lucy specifically feeds on the blood of children (Stoker 198). It’s almost like Dracula corrupted Lucy into a dark version of motherhood. Instead of protecting children, she predates

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