Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the most iconic works of Gothic literature, weaving together horror, faith, feminism, and religious symbolism in a tale of temptation and corruption. More than just a story about vampires, Dracula reflects Victorian anxieties about gender roles, morality, and godlessness while contrasting them with the power of faith and redemption. From the Count’s perverse parody of communion to Mina’s triumph through courage and purity, Dracula is both a terrifying Gothic novel and a profound meditation on sin, temptation, and the ultimate victory of God’s truth over evil.

Last Halloween, I cracked open a book of Victorian vampire stories. The similarities in the lore interested me, even though the setting and cultural backdrop differed between nations.

German vampires were more predatory-with-a-purpose than English vampires, inclined to surround a single house and feed off the occupants until the entire family became vampires. Their theme was a “family curse,” with one family member’s sin coming back to haunt them all as a moralizing tale. Their tales were creepy and straightforward, with the French and English authors tending toward poetry, imagery dripping with lush metaphors, praising innocence but warning against a dark world.

Crosses, Holy Icons, and the Power of Faith

The most famous vampire story, Dracula by Bram Stoker, is a symbolic tale warning against feminism and chauvinism in equal part; condemning women who strive to break free of their social roles as the “gentler sex,” and men who dominate and control them.

Played as a romantic anti-hero, a demented monster, and an empathetic but misguided devil on screen, audiences cannot get enough of Count Dracula. It is not difficult to fathom the why, for beneath the interesting tale of heroism pitted against an ancient and overwhelming evil runs a gamut of symbolism. Teeming with lurid and shocking revelations, seductive characters and temptations, Dracula embodies all we know to be evil but cannot resist.

The story is told from the perspective of the protagonists, who conspire to destroy Dracula before his corruption of Mina is complete. Woven into the novel is a strong message about perversion and godlessness contributing to the downfall of the individual and society. It is apparent in the villain, whose existence defies the nature of man’s mortality and stands in defiance of the Creator. Dracula survives off the blood of mortals and corrupts those who fall under his influence. His presence and continued sharing of blood alters his victims into seductive temptresses. No more startling depiction of this is when Dracula offers his brides an infant for sustenance and Jonathan sees them fall upon it with voracious bloodlust.

The novel emphasizes the importance of faith and an understanding of supernatural forces. Jonathan scorns these beliefs but comes to realize their value when Van Helsing employs a faith-based approach to defeat their foe. This is in direct contrast to the Darwin philosophies of the Victorian era by suggesting that evil exists whether or not we believe in it, and without understanding it, society will be powerless to prevent it. Dracula fears no power apart from God, whose emblems and icons are used to defeat him (crosses, holy wafers, and sunlight).

Even blood is symbolic, a perversion of the Christian practice of communion, in which believers partake of the “body and blood” of Christ, who gives them eternal life. Considered one of the holiest practices in the Church, Dracula takes this sacred act and perverts it by drinking the blood not of Christ but of humans. Because they are sinful and fallen, it is impure and tainted, condemning him to a half-life, eternally separated from God. He has gained immortality at a terrible price.

The Brides of Dracula and Feminist Fears

Feminism and its abuses are another theme in the story. We observe it in the carelessness with which the Brides treat the child they are given, brutally murdering it for their own benefit. Jonathan is transfixed by their “beauty” until this action reveals the horror of their souls. Dracula’s influence transforms several women in the story, by bringing out her base, sensual nature. It’s not a condemnation of liberation but godless feminism, addressing the author’s concerns that such sexual liberation removes woman’s gentler nature. His heroine, Mina, is a “modern” woman, literate and intelligent, capable of assisting her companions and demonstrating great courage and fortitude in the face of danger.

Dracula preys on women not because they are the weaker sex, but out of his abhorrence for their ability to create “life.” If one continues with the religious symbolism, a woman brought the savior into the world, so his animosity for the purity and innocence of women (a representation of the Virgin) is understandable. Dracula cannot create, only corrupt, so he undertakes a unique and sinister role in creating (infecting) “his children” (God’s children). His behavior can be interpreted as a condemnation of a male-dominated society in which women are regarded in a purely maternal light (using them only for male gratification).

Throughout, Dracula plays a role of temptation, perversion, and debauchery, furthering the message that evil corrupts, making those who participate in it “unclean” and separated from God. Only through complete abandonment of such evil, by embracing truth and reinstating religion, is godliness restored. In destroying Dracula, Mina is released from his influence and returned to her natural pure and untainted state.

Immortality as a Curse of Godlessness

The motivations for Dracula’s choice to remain distant from God are unclear. Dracula Untold suggested Dracula was Judas Iscariot, condemned to an immortal and eternal separation from God for the sin of betraying Christ. Bram Stoker’s Dracula depicts his separation as an act of resentment against God for the loss of a woman he loved. An actor depicting the Count on stage said he believed Dracula was afraid to face God and atone for his actions, so he sought alternative methods of eternal life that would avoid the judgment of his Creator.

Accompanying these different motives is a range of depictions of the Count, some that honor the source material and others that deviate in making Dracula an empathetic or romantic villain. Most of them end with his death but few retain the powerful impact of the novel’s conclusion.

Having hunted down the vampire and dispatched him just as the sun rises, Jonathan and the others see not a look of fear or anger on his face, but one of peace as he disintegrates into dust, an implication that his inner torment has ended and liberated him from darkness. It is not much different from the look of saintly innocence restored to Lucy when her soul is at peace, an implication that not even Dracula is immune to the power of redemption.

Bram Stoker created a character audiences would never forget. Dracula serves to remind us not only of our own mortality and the potential consequences of an eternity of chosen separation from God, but that evil comes in a beguiling form. Whether depicted as a monster or a romantic anti-hero, in the end it is always faith that defeats him.