Dracula And Evil Essay, Research Paper

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. ? Romans. XII. 21 Evil

often triumphs, but never conquers. ? Joseph Roux The two quotations from

above explain that evil never conquers because good always overcomes it. A good

example of this is the book Dracula by Bram Stoker because the author expresses

the nature of good vs. evil. Dracula wants to come to London because he wants to

turn everyone into vampires. The basic background of the book Dracula is when

Jonathan Harker, a realtor who is sent to Transylvania to complete a transaction

with Dracula so he can come to England. What Harker does not know is that

Dracula has a plan for world domination. Well, while Harker is on a train to

Transylvania he enters ?the east, a section of Europe whose peoples and

customs will be for the most part, strange and unfamiliar? (Dracula, 20).

Harker arrives at Bistritz on the eve of St. George?s Day, ?a night when

evil things in the world have full sway? (Dracula, 21). When Harker first sees

this, he is unconcerned about these superstitions. Then he sees something that

is very peculiar. An old woman is very afraid of the word ?Dracula.? She

offers Harker a gift of rosary to protect him of evil spirits. After she gives

him the rosary, he starts to feel uncomfortable going to the Borgo pass on the

following day. The Borgo pass is very important because this is the place where

Dracula?s carriage will await Harker. Well on the next day, a crowd of

peasants gather around the carriage mumbling linguist words that seem to have

some kind of link to the word vampire. Then the ?whole crowd makes the sign of

the cross and point two fingers at Harker? (Dracula, 30), to wish him a safe

journey. When the carriage dashes by the country peasants, they knell and cross

themselves. Until this point Jonathan Harker does not know the ?Dracula

beckons Harker into his castle and into a horrifying adventure with the

supernatural? (Lidston 546). The only evil character in this book is Dracula,

?an old man and is clean shaven, except for a long white Victorian mustache

and he is clad all in black? (Dracula, 55). ?He speaks in perfect English

and welcomes Harker inside, shaking his hand with an ice-cold, vice-like grip?

(Dracula, 55). Dracula explains to him that he will no be able to make the trip

to London, but one of his trusted servants will be going along with Harker back

to London. After supper Jonathan analyzes Dracula and notices one very strange

feature, his mouth is thick and white; they cover sharp white teeth, which stick

out over his lip. What Jonathan does not know is that those teeth are canine

teeth only found in animals. There are exceptions, for instance, vampires have

these teeth so they can puncture the human?s carotid vessel in their neck and

suck their blood. The first time that Jonathan sees Dracula?s cannibal teeth

grow is when Harker starts shaving. He accidentally cuts himself and Dracula

leaps for his throat so he can suck his blood. Harker touches his crucifix and

Dracula?s ?demonic fury? vanishes. The strangest event that Harker notices

in Dracula?s castle is ?Dracula emerge from his room on the floor below,

slither out, head downward, in lizard fashion, with his cloak spread out around

him like great wings? (Dracula, 179). This shows that ?Dracula is not a

person. He is a presence, an absence that requires concealing? (Wolf, 368).

This tells Harker that something is very wrong with this man. He recalls how the

peasants behaved very strangely. Then he recalls how the woman acted when she

heard the word ?Dracula,? and after that Harker knows that this man is the

fearful demon known as Count Dracula. To make sure that this man is actually a

vampire who is known to be evil, he plans to encounter Dracula when it is

daytime. Harker goes to Dracula?s room and notices that his room is empty

except for a door that is partially opened. Harker goes downstairs into a

basement-like area and a stench of death makes Harker almost vomit. At the

bottom of the stairs, Harker finds fifty coffins filled with earth. In one of

the coffins he finds Dracula. Jonathan said that it looked as if Dracula?s

youth was renewed. Then Jonathan saw a very repulsive sight, Dracula had a blood

in his mouth and a trickle of blood on his lip. Harker then finds a shovel and

starts to slash at Dracula but after all those slashes he notices that it only

grazed his forehead. He gets so scared that he runs upstairs and while on the

first floor of the castle he starts to hear coffins start to open. Harker

realizes that he can no longer stay in this evil damned castle. This is the

beginning ?of the migration to England with the design of populating the

country with fellow vampires? (Lovecraft 458). The heroes who play a major

role in killing Dracula and ending his master plan to take over the world are

Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, Arthur Holmwood, Dr. John Seward, Quincey P. Morris

and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. Mina Murray is the fiancйe of Jonathan Harker;

Lucy Westenra is Mina?s best friend and later on becomes one of the un-dead,

and Arthur Holmwood is the son of Lord Godalming and later on becomes the king

after his father dies. John Seward is the supervisor of the lunatic asylum;

Quincey P. Morris pays for the tracking of Dracula and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing

is in charge of the strategy for tracking down Cont Dracula and he knows a lot

about vampirism. Mina gets a letter from Budapest saying, ?Jonathan is

recovering in our hospital from brain fever. Please come and pick him up?

(Dracula, 230). Immediately after Mina receives the letter she gets ready to go

to Budapest. When Mina is on her trip to pick up Jonathan, a vampire bites Lucy

and her mother dies of a heart attack. Dr. Helsing is called in to check Lucy

and her bite marks. He tries to give her blood transfusions but they do not help

the situation. In order for the vampire, also known as Count Dracula, not to

return to Lucy, her friends put garlic all over her room. When Mina and Jonathan

return to London, they decide to have a walk in the park. Jonathan notices a

figure that is very familiar to him, ?a figure that gave him the brain fever

and that gave him all the nightmares,? (Summers 567) that figure is Dracula.

As time progresses Lucy?s condition worsens and soon enough they had to put

her in her final resting place. Dr. Helsing notices something strange occurring

to Lucy, she is turning un-dead. Arthur Holmwood and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing

decide to go to Lucy?s grave and release her spirit. Holmwood feels like he is

doing something wrong by letting her spirit be released. Dr. Helsing tells him

that he is the only one that can release her spirit because he was the only one

that actually knew her real well. Holmwood decides that he must do this and he

drives a stake through his lover?s heart, cuts off her head and stuffs garlic

in her mouth. The end of Dracula came soon after Mina was bitten. Dr. Helsing

puts a cross on Mina?s forehead to see if she was borderline and it burned a

crucifix right into her forehead. This proved that the only way that Mina could

be returned to he normal self is by killing Dracula. Now Harker, Holmwood, Mina,

Quincey, and Dr. Helsing go out to find the fifty coffins of earth. The group

found forty-one of the original fifty coffins that Dracula scattered all over

London so he can complete step one of his world domination. They found the

coffins by hypnosis. Dr. Helsing hypnotized Mina and she was able to

telepathically talk to Dracula. On October 2nd a few days after they found the

forty-one coffins, Jonathan receives a letter telling him that the final nine

coffins are located at Carfax. They go to Piccadilly, Dracula?s house in

Carfax and they only find eight coffins. Dr. Helsing discovers the grave of the

three female vampires Jonathan met in Dracula?s castle and he performs the

purification ritual which puts an end to the female vampires. He then finds ?a

large tomb more lordly than all the rest upon which is one word: Dracula?

(Dracula 400). Dr. Helsing crushes a holy wafer and places it in the coffin.

When he leaves the castle, he places a holy material around the castle entrance

so the Count can never return to it. On November 6th Dr. Helsing notices a group

of gypsies around a cart. Dr. Helsing some how knows that the cart is carrying

the final coffin which has Dracula inside. Arthur, Seward, Jonathan and Quincey

fight the gypsies until they reach the coffin. When Quincey finally reaches the

coffin, he gets stabbed by one of the gypsies. Jonathan and Quincey rip off the

lid and inside they find Dracula, covered by un-holy dirt. As the sun rises,

Jonathan cuts off Dracula?s head and Quincey drives a knife through

Dracula?s heart. Everyone stands there to ?see how the body of an evil

man? (Maurice 758) disintegrates. Before Quincey dies, he notes that the

crucifix on Mina?s head has disappeared meaning that the vampire curse has

been lifted off of her. Mina and Jonathan got married and they named their child

Quincey. Both Lord Godalming (Arthur Holmwood) got married and so did Dr.

Seward. As a science fiction writer, Bram Stoker expresses that evil is always

overcome by good in his masterpiece Dracula. The evil character Count Dracula is

a vampire who wants to move to London and turn everyone into vampires. To

demolish his plan Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Arthur Holmwood, Dr. Seward,

Quincey P. Morris and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing come out and put an end to his

world domination. ?Is that the end of Dracula? We will never know? (Har-el).

Lidston, Robert. ?Bram Stoker.? World Literature Criticism. Detroit:

Gale, 1992. Vol.6 Lovecraft, H.P. ?Bram Stoker.? World Literature Criticism.

Detroit: Gale, 1992. Vol.6 Richardson, Maurice. ?Bram Stoker.? Contemporary

Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale, 1982. Vol.8 Stoker, Bram. Dracula. London:

Dent, J.M., 1993 Wolf, Leonard. ?Bram Stoker.? World Literature Criticism.

Detroit: Gale, 1992.Vol.6