Corruption In Dracula

In the beginning of time, in a paradisal world of sustained perpetual bliss, man was unflawed, an “infallible” construct, created and contrived by and in the image of an omnipotent being. However, a malevolent serpent—an embodiment of mankind’s insatiable gravitation to depravity—tempted man into partaking the forbidden fruit, considered to be a manifestation of corruption’s scarlet allure. As soon as the first man and woman of creation partook in the fruit, the souls of humanity were mauled, defaced by new evil desires: avarice, lust, and self-servitude, for humanity was now plagued with “original sin”, a brand to mankind that doomed man to perish by the inexorable evils of corruption and sin. However, God made a covenant with man, …show more content…
Stoker highlights the thematic struggle of human nature: between the inborn instincts of man’s intrinsic depravity and his self-fabricated grasp on extrinsic rectitude through the symbolism of religious allusions, evident in the novel’s parallels to the Garden of Eden, the correlation of vampiric blood and Christ’s blood, and the connection between the crucifix and wafer to Christ’s death on the cross and the Eucharistic bread, meant to represent the body of Christ. In combination, these parallels highlight that evil is not inferior to good, but rather, that man’s depraved evil is equally probable to prevail over man’s self-contrived righteousness as man’s self-contrived righteousness is equal in likelihood to prevail over man’s depraved …show more content…
In Catholic practice, Christ says, “Take this all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood: the blood of the new and eternal covenant.” The liturgy of the Eucharist offers a more definitive means to salvation than attempting to suppress one’s evil nature. In practice, if one is to drink the transubstantiated blood of Christ, he or she may be marked as a child of God and receive salvation—a promise for everlasting life. On the stark contrary, blood symbolizes damnation—a cursed fate in which one’s essence is engulfed by an undead being. Just as God promises everlasting life to his followers, Dracula forces everlasting “life” to his victims in the form of vampirism. As a vampire, Lucy loses her innocence and lilac temperance; she becomes the embodiment of blood-thirsty blasphemy. In Lucy’s case, Dracula feeds on Lucy, and thus, metaphorically drains her of her pure innocent human blood, symbolic of a battle between Lucy’s innate depravity and socially imposed morality—to which, depravity emerges victorious. In addition to this, vampire blood itself parallels to the blood of Christ. Just as one may be gravitated to the prospect of salvation, Mina cannot withhold her insatiable magnetism to depravity. In the novel, Mina drinks directly from Dracula, and in doing so, accelerates her transformation. She allows her inner sin to take hold, and partakes