Alexander Diaz
Dracula
DRAFT/ BRAINDUMP
ERH-205WX-02
Help Received: Dracula
The Humanity of A Beast
Since the dawn of time there has been a clash between those of holy nature and the demonic beasts that dredge themselves up from hell. The story of the fight between good and evil has always been one of the most intrinsic and interesting battle humans have ever told. But in Stoker’s Dracula this does not seem to be the case wholeheartedly. These monsters that Stoker describe that steal blood and command the creatures of the night also display glimpses of humanity within their actions. This raises the question; does Dracula and all who turn into vampires still posses some sort of humanity within their cold undead hearts? We, as readers, have the privilege to be able to see all angles of the story at once as it happens and we can see that there are many times that Dracula abstains from doing things a blackened demon of hell would have no remorse in doing. So now let us start at the source of the problem, the man himself, the ruler of the night, Count Dracula.

From the very beginning Dracula is described as this tall, strong man with a deathly cold touch and eyes that burn like the fires of hell. He has teeth that are long and sharp and his skin is pale white and his lips are always this velvety bright red. We see nothing of his human nature, only the fact that Dracula seems to be visually repulsive and give off an aura that makes Harker sick to his soul. Dracula has this maniacal smile that he always seems to use and the only real background we get on him is his recant of his family’s blood line. Stoker describes Dracula as a beast, a deadly predator only out for the kill, and not like the man Dracula used to be. But how could anyone side with a monster like Dracula? How could a person understand his need for such deceptions? Easily; there is a glimpse Dracula gives us, sort of like a crack in his dark armor, that lets us see into the past for just a moment to witness a man, a man who still had his humanity and who has loved. When Dracula saves Harker from the three wenches that try to feed on him they mock him for never being able to love. In return he gives us a short line, one that could easily be overlooked, saying “I too have loved once.. is this not so from my past?” (CITATION NEEDED). Right there, through this one line of love lost, we see Dracula’s vulnerability, his humanity that still lurks, and his reasons for the victims he chooses. This humanity he keeps locked away, not gone but suppressed. Clearly Dracula has some sort of humanity but its as if he hides it because he knows that he will never again live his normal human life again.

The next instance we see of this hidden humanity is in Lucy during her final hours. Once Van Helsing and the gang finally tracked her down, Stoker gives us yet another glimpse of this vampiric creatures hidden humanity. As she holds her latest victim, a young child no older than the age of 5, Stoker describes to us this scene where Lucy “holds the child that up to now she had clutched strenuously to her breast”. It is right here that we see it, the real Lucy, hidden behind her vampire body. There is no denying that Lucy deeply cared for kids. She may have even wanted some of her own in the near future. We know she was going to get married to Arthur and the thought of little ones of her own could’ve been on her mind the days leading up to her death. But all we know for certain is that, at that very moment, Lucy was not a vampire, she was a woman, a mother, feeling the warm embrace of a child, a child she probably wished was her own, sorrowed over the monster she knew she had become.

Finally we come to Dracula’s last victim, Mina. Although Mina never actually turned into a full vampire like Lucy or Dracula, we still saw a different perspective on these black hearted vampires we have come to know. Mina gives us this inside look from the other side that we have not seen before. Usually Dracula is described as this hell spawn with fiery eyes and an ugly complexion only feeding on the innocent for his evil ways, but Mina is the first to finally see the truth. Stoker explains how Mina, after knowing what she is, sympathizes with Dracula instead of hating him for what he has done. She says how Dracula is the saddest story of them all because of his situation. She knows he is nothing more than a victim, like her, and that he does what he needs to do to survive. He is a victim of his own circumstance and somewhere deep inside Mina knows that Dracula was once too a human just like everyone else. She feels his humanity somewhere deep inside and connects with him on a spiritual level. Mina is our conduit into what it is like to be a creature of the night. We see, through her, that humanity is not lost within the change into such a thing, it is just unseen by those who only see the blood sucking creatures they are.

The last question we must ask ourselves as readers is the what in this scenario. What is the reason Stoker had for writer his book and his characters in such a way? For me I think it was that during those times we saw an influx of immigrants into England. Obviously these immigrants came to prosper, expand, and make families of their own. I could easily see a problem with someone of a foreign nature falling in love or wanting to be with an English woman. Dracula could depict the foreigner who continuously tries to steal peoples women but is only a victim of his own circumstance. He cannot help being a foreigner but he still searches for love. Lucy could depict a pure bread English woman who has fallen in love with a foreigner so now people view her as dirty or loose when all she really wants is love and her children. Mina could represent a more progressive viewpoint on the matter giving a reflection on the people of England who thought it was not so bad for the two to mix.