Dracula
DraculaA Question of Religion
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is a mystifying horror story that occurred sometime in the late nineteenth century, where a young English lawyer takes an excursion to Count Dracula located in Transylvania, in hopes of finalizing a real estate transfer. The novel portrays a gross representation of Anti-Christian values and beliefs, through one of its characters. Dracula one of the main characters in the novel is used to take on the characteristics of the Anti-Christ. Stoker uses many beliefs from the Christian religion to refer to, in order to display numerous amounts of Anti-Christian values and perversions, superstitious beliefs of the protection towards evil, and to compare and contrast the powers of God with those of Dracula. It is a theme that is used throughout the entire book, as Stoker uses more and more beliefs from Christianity as the novel lengthens. There are many ways that Bram Stoker's character Dracula can be considered the Anti-Christ, mostly because of the showing of Anti-Christian values and perversions of the Christian religion. In chapter one as Jonathan Harker is traveling to Castle Dracula he is met by several people. When he meets these people he tells them where he is going. They cross themselves along with doing other superstitious actions. What Harker doesn't realize is that it was the eve of Saint George's Day, a night when "all the evil things in the world will have full sway"[12]. So, one of the women concerned for his safety gives him a rosary to protect him on his journey. A superstition of most is that a rosary will protect you from all evil, and in this novel the evil party is Dracula and his followers. This rosary protects him when Jonathan cuts himself shaving the next day and Dracula lunges for his throat, but stops when he sees the crucifix around Jonathan's neck. That night both Dracula and Jonathan observe a group of wolves howling off in the distance, and Dracula says, "listen to them-the children of the night. What music they make"[29]. This remark starts to make the reader like about Dracula's immortality, which is only supposed to be a strength of God. Jonathan Harker was left with an uncomfortable tingle throughout his body, and before he goes to bed he records in his journal, "I think strange things which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me"[29]. At this point Jonathan realizes that Dracula is what he is, an immortal being that can't be destroyed for now. He becomes very terrified at this point in the novel and isn't sure what to do. Later in the book it discusses how you can defend yourself from Dracula and other vampires by the possession of a crucifix or practically any consecrated item from the...
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