Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Dracula pt. 1

When I think of Dracula I think of him as the “poster child” for Vampires. While reading the first half of Dracula I wanted to show the different points that show the classic vampire look. On page 13 when a woman from the village finds out that Jonathan is headed to Dracula’s castle she, “taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me…I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary around my neck, and said, ‘For your mother’s sake,’…Whether it is the old lady’s fear, or the many ghostly traditions of this place, or the crucifix itself.” This shows the superstition that vampires cannot look at or touch crucifixes which go along with the idea that vampires cannot go inside a church. When Jonathan meets Dracula for the first time on page 22 there are more vampire qualities. “Holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed as cold as ice.” Vampires having super-strength and being ice-cold are still very common in modern vampire stories. Also Dracula then goes on to lie and say, “but I have dined already, and I do not sup (pg 23).” And also, “he did not smoke (pg 23).” So not eating/smoking is a sure sign of a vampire even a modern one. Then on page 24 when Dracula and Jonathan are going to bed Dracula says, “I have to be away till the afternoon.” And as people know vampires sleep all day and walk at night. However some modern vampires are defying it, it still, for the most part, is true. What I think that was really creepy was when Dracula came up behind Jonathan and, “There was no reflection of him in the mirror (pg 31)!” And then after Jonathan was startled, “I drew away, and his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for thre fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there (pg 31).” This goes back to at the beginning of the blog where I talk about the myth that crucifixes are poison to vampires and this here proves that to be true in Dracula.  The on page 42 Jonathan realizes, “they threw no shadow on the floor.” Again another myth very similar to the idea that the  cast no reflection in mirrors. Then after Jonathan becomes suspicious of Dracula and begins to wander the castle he finds, “There, in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count (pg 50)!” Again another myth that vampires sleep in the ground or coffins which in most modern vampire stories is still true. And the last superstition that I want to discuss is the idea that vampires also turn into bats. This was first brought up on page 90 in Mina’s journal and continued on in Lucy’s life. So do you think that Dracula is the “poster child” of vampires? Or do you think that everything in Dracula, all the ideas about vampires, comes from a collection of stories prior to this one?

1 comment:

  1. I really like this post because I was thinking the same thing. The only vampire books I've read are the Twilight series and the books in class but i first found out about vampires when people talked about Dracula. With the Twilight books, they weren't really true to how the vampire was first created with the idea of not being able to touch a crucifix or sleeping in coffins. It's been nice reading the original and hearing about the first vampire and what Bram Stoker wanted this creature to be.

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