Summary:
With religion, faith, one's will, and love, one can overcome adversity, even evil. One may question this statement, but love and religion will always show the path to purity, innocence, and happiness.
Struggle Between Good and Bad
In Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote, "The forces that tend for evil are great and terrible, but the forces of truth and love and courage and honesty and generosity and sympathy are stronger than any before." Bram Stoker's Dracula, it allegorizes the same idea of the eternal struggle between good and evil, in the example of the strength of the vampire, whose atrocities reflect the underbelly of evil. Dracula's nemeses fight him with love, guidance and faith from their religion, joined with their strong will to destroy evil. Throughout Dracula, the portrayal of religion creates the idea that truth redeems sins, a lesson in which only those who are strong overcome evil, and the fact that evil seduces people with illusions of grandeur. The victims of Dracula turn for guidance and protection from their religion. Van Helsing and his group use religion in order to enable them to resist and destroy evil. Their religion shows them what is right from wrong and what they are fighting for.
Mina is known as the soul of the five righteous warriors. She is an ideal Victorian woman who is able to overcome adversity because of her strong will and morals. She grasps onto her faith and does not allow Dracula to take that away from her. Through bravery and faith, she is able to resist Dracula, which demonstrates her integrity and uprightness. In contrast, Lucy is a seductive flirtatious woman. After the incident of Dracula biting her, she depicts many of the evil characteristics that Dracula possesses. Even though both women are bitten at almost identical times, only one is able to overcome evil. Lucy is an easy prey whose, "sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness" (231). Dracula bites Lucy and her emotions overwhelm her to a contrast of the Victorian idol female. She is illustrated as a pathetic, sex driven would-be seductress who uses beauty to prey on men. Her wickedness even seduces men like Arthur, whose morals are much greater than her own. In the graveyard Lucy tries to seduce Arthur with her voice, in hopes of escaping from the other men, but she does not succeed. Even after that miserable failure, she tries to seduce Van Helsing and her other suitors numerous times. Lucy's shady character is revealed into light after these shameful incidents, but using these examples, it can be seen that her ethics aren't strict at all. In this context, it shows an ideal example of people and their weakness to resist the dark side. All can be seduced by evil, but it takes someone of true character to withstand it. Unfortunately with Lucy's beauty and Dracula's control over her, she dooms evil to the people she loves.
The main characters demonstrate the idea of people being easy preys to evil but with redemption, they can always atone for their sins. The characters of Dracula continually allow evil to inhibit their bodies. Lucy invites Dracula to her room and Renfield allows Dracula to be his master, which shows evidence of weak-willed creatures' vulnerabilities to the sin of evil. Because of their weaknesses, they are able to convince themselves that Dracula's promises aren't empty, but in fact (in their belief) are or shall be reality. Even though they pay the ultimate price for their mistakes, their deaths show that redemption always allows evil to atone for their mistakes. Lucy is transformed by her second death into a vision of "unequalled sweetness and purity," but her soul is returned to her, as a "holy calm." After Renfield's death, he is freed from his insanity and finally dies with a relieved look on his face. Even Dracula seems to show a calm face, "a look of peace, such as [Mina] never could have imagined might have rested there" (341). During their deaths, they return to the pure and innocent form they were originally.
The one major aspect that allows Van Helsing and his group to destroy Dracula is the love for each other united with their determination to rid the world of evil. The main characters all share a love for something or someone, which allows them to fight against Dracula. Jonathan is able to escape Dracula because of his love for Mina, and he is also able to regain his sanity because of Mina's love for him. Lucy finally overcomes evil because of Arthur's love for her, and because of a love, he is able to drive the stake into Lucy's heart and destroy the evil that lies in her body. Through love, they are able to stand seeing their lovers hurt, but with hurt comes rejoicing, for hurt takes away sin. Because of this, they are able to keep on pushing themselves to do whatever it takes to destroy Dracula.
In order to fight evil, one must attain a powerful strength against evil. Dracula's symbolism of evil confirms the concept that religion is the strongest weapon against evil. Van Helsing and his soldiers use their faith in God and the objects that represent God to protect them. Van Helsing turns to the objects that best represent purity to shield him from badness. He proudly holds a crucifix against Dracula and it does guard him from evil. The evil forces are unable to penetrate the soul of the holder because of the holy crucifix, because represents God and all that is good and pure. Dracula both hates and fears it with a passion because of what it represents. Because of his terror of all virtuous things, he tries to remove all signs of it. At any dangerous situation, the protagonists arm themselves with a crucifix or wafers. Their religion not only helps them combat against evil, but it also represents all that they are fighting for, which is moral spirit and soul. If they ever lose it, they would never truly be with the people they love.
Dracula exposes the negative and positive qualities of human nature. Yes everyone may have a dark side, but it is when that dark side reveals itself that proves whether or not humankind has integrity, principles, and ethnics. It may show that people are easily preyed upon evil, but it may also show that there are many other qualities that people have that prove their strengths against such weaknesses. With religion, faith, one's will, and love, one can overcome adversity, even evil. One may question this statement, but love and religion will always show the path to purity, innocence, and happiness. Our great president Theodore Roosevelt is right; the forces of truth, love, and courage are stronger than those of evil.
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