Blog Post #6
Cite: Starrs, D. Bruno. “Keeping the faith: Catholicism in ‘Dracula’ and its adaptations”. Journal of Dracula Studies, vol 6, 2004.
Define: One of the most obvious Catholic allegories within Dracula, is that Count Dracula is the figurative antichrist. This is evident from Dracula’s promise of everlasting life through blood, similar to Christ’s promise of everlasting life through his own blood.
Stoker doesn’t clearly write out the words “Catholic” nor “Christian”, but he heavily integrates Christian/Catholic themes within main characters and plot elements
Throughout the novel, many characters transition from a position of non-faith to being tolerant or religious beliefs or even believing in a higher power.
Stoker’s wife Florence converted into a Catholic shortly after the novel’s publication. This implies that Stoker’s efforts heavily influenced the people around him; I definitely want to research more about the influence Dracula had on the statistics of Catholic conversions and Stoker’s personal life and family.
I don’t quite understand the meaning of “Alison Milbank does come close when she seems to suggest that the novel is merely a clumsy Hibernian attempt to syncretically amalgamate the warring Irish Catholics and Anglo-Protestants” (Starrs 1). I will be rereading the article and define complex terms like this to better understand the article.
Understand: 1. It is possible that Bram Stoker, a self-claimed Irish Protestant, cloaked his Catholic beliefs through the novel Dracula as a form of pro-Catholic propaganda. 2. Bram Stoker does not outright state the word “Catholic” or “Christian”, but he includes religious themes such as crucifixes, Sacred Wafers, and Catholic allegories in most of the novel. Starrs includes long quotes focusing on individual moments within the novel where characters come across these themes or embody a Christian allegory. Another piece of supporting evidence to Starr’s argument is that characters who were skeptical or nonreligious slowly transitioned into believers, including Seward and Harker.
Evaluate: Starr backs his argument with many quotes from the novel followed by literary analysis. His examination of the text is logical and well thought out. Starr even goes on to analyze other researcher’s takes on the role of Catholicism within Dracula. Although Starr is obviously not the first and only person to have discussed the Catholic themes within Dracula, his specific evidence and literary analysis is certainly his original work. In addition, this article is the only one that I have seen which mentions modern film adaptation’s inclusion of Stoker’s pro-Catholic themes.
Distinguish: I definitely agree with many of Starr’s points on the evidence that Dracula can function as pro-Catholic propaganda. However, I do think there is a lot more to the novel than he provides, such as the sanctity of marriage and purity. The article also suddenly brings up the fact that Stoker’s wife converted into the Catholic Church after Dracula’s publication, but Starr does not explain any further. Because of this intriguing piece of information, I want to include Stoker’s personal life into my research essay and possibly the influence Dracula had on religion in Victorian England. Starr also mentions film adaptations’ integration of Stoker’s pro-Catholic themes, which is something I definitely want to build on.
Create: This article actually inspired me to begin thinking about Stoker’s pro-Catholic message in modern non-literary works, specifically films. However, I want to analyze the films on my own, focusing on cinematography and the use of religious symbols, to form my own argument on society’s influence on the role of religion in all forms of Dracula.
