Themes in Dracula

Themes in Dracula

Religion, Science and the Occult
1. The three conflicting bodies merge together with the Occult combining with religion through science.
2. Van Helsing represents the solution to the rift in Victorian society
3. "We must sterilize this earth, so sacred of holy memories"
  1. The paradox of the science term "sterilize" with the action of holy wafer and "sacred"
4. "records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples" (209)
5. "do not fear ever to think" 295
Life and death
1. Again Stoker merges the two to create the Un-dead, the almost dead, the dead, and the living.
2. The men kill but dress it as saving e.g Mina's example of "brave men have killed their wives [to keep them out of] the hands of the enemy"
3. "I am deeper in death at this moment than if the weight of an earthly grave lay heavy upon me"
4. "Life is all I want"
5. "more like the hand of a dead man than a living one"
Sexual purity and temptation
1. Extended metaphor for sexual impurity due to giving into temptation
  1. "her white nightdress was smeared with blood"
2. "the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust
3. "devilish passion"
4. "Unclean!
5. "purity to voluptuous wantonness"
Imprisonment and isolation
1. Compare the use of locked doors in the texts
2. "the castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!"
3. Classic gothic tradition
4. "doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked"
  1. tricolon of "doors"
Good vs Evil
1. Rats v Terrier Battle (222)
2. "barked merrily...at their prostrate foes"
3. "white-clad figure of his wife. By her side stood a tall, thin man, clad in black"
4. "a charm against the evil eye"
Influence and manipulation
1. Compare how Dracula's influence changes people into vampires with LH influence on DG
2. "He began promising me things" 244
3. "horrid poison which has got into her veins beginning to work"
4. "The count sent her his spirit to read her soul" 294
Religion
1. "Faith is our only anchor"
2. This is what keeps them motivated and safe
3. "his hand touched..the crucifix. It made an instant change in him
  1. the omnipotence of God (crucifix) prevents evil and saves one (literally!)
4. "the spiritual in the left..the mortal in the right"
Friendship
1. "We have on our side power of combination
Morality and sin
1. "the snow is not more stainless than her forehead"
2. "treat the Count's body" 290
  1. "Treat" - cure medically
3. "burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal" 259
  1. Compare with DG - "sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face"
Insanity
1. GOTHIC TRADITION: merging of dream and reality
2. Lucy/Mina/Renfield's change could be the physicalization of insanity.
3. Compare Harker's journey with Dorian's journey in c.16
4. Harker's use of "strange" (p.30-31)
5. "the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane"
Appearance vs reality
1. Dracula's courteous appearance vs his evil nature
  1. The corruption of society
2. "Welcome to my house! Come freely, leave safely"
  1. perfectly pleasant but later we realize his true intentions: "I am a prisoner"

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