Initially, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr Ömer ŞEKERCİ for his endless support in the whole process of the thesis with philosophical aspects. A successful study is accomplished thanks to my advisor’s careful observations, wise decisions and personal experiences.
It has been the most important encouragement thanks to my father, Mehmet ATIŞ, my mother, Neşe ATIŞ, my brother Baturay ATIŞ to overcome all the difficulties in my life. Without their endless support, love and motivation, I wouldn’t have completed the thesis.
The following thanks goes to Ass. Prof. Dr. Lukasz MARZCAK for his guidance and support during the process of the thesis including Klaudia MICHALAK that I am indebted to her valuable love, lasting faith in me and patience in the production of this study.
Last wish to thank Andrzej JAN RUBİK, showed his kind interest for this study, gave me friendly support during the process.
Abstract
Lots of stories have been told about wretched vampires like Dracula. The publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was in 1987 then religious myth evolved in that field.
The aim of this study is to search religious perspective by referring Anti-Christian values, biblical images and Evangelical term happens in the Victorian period. This study highlights and seeks the ambiguousness of religious perspective illustrated in Dracula. Van Helsing and his abettors primarily reveals a homiletic idea against vampirism in the consideration of Christian religion. However, Dracula exposes to superstitious mentality.
Moral thought portrays “uncleanness” thanks to religious materials like Communion Wafer or Crucifix in the novel. This study enlightens the purification of the society objected to religion like unclean women and Jews circuitously. Dracula is irresolvably contradictory in terms of religious perspective. On the other hand, Stoker centers contradictory opinions both vampirism and Christian religion in the light of evangelicalism. Stoker also explores sadism of vampirism from the point of Christian piety. Some dominant motifs of Wesleyan hymnal can be visible in the novel as well.
1.1. Introduction
Throughout the nineteenth century, Dracula struggles with the confidence happening in the Victorian period. Dracula challenges with some elements like faith, power of science, religious beliefs including dedication. Protagonist character in Dracula comes against to Count Dracula with these items mentioned above. However, if Dracula dies, he will be eternal by taking away other’s life. On the other hand, Dracula was killed but no one knew that his fear was the darkness side of the religion.
This study explores that Dracula encounters with the effects of Victorian values by the way of religion. We will explore how the novel reflects Anti-christian values and biblical images thanks to religious way.
1.2. The Scope of the Study
This study demonstrates how religious perspectives reveal in Dracula. Because of that reason, all religious norms reveals in the light of Christianity values. With the treatment of religion, some religious norms will be named like “Evangelicalism” and “Church of England”.
We can observe the influences of gothic melodrama thanks to Stoker’s consciousness in religion. In fact, Stoker wants to demonstrate the image of Jesus Christ according to Bible and theology.
1.3. The Aim of the Study
The aim of this study is to analyze the religious aspects in Dracula. Some literary critics approach to religion with the diversified ways. Our aim is to discover these religious items in the novel how they are appeared. Stoker determined the power of religion in England and also revealed major religious figures. The author initiates the hypocrisy of religious thought by referring to Bible. Both Count Dracula and Van Helsing have the same features in the novel analyzed in terms of Anti-Christian values.
Religious symbolism in Dracula is nearly ignored by the literary critics. Dracula’s religiosity is neither arbibrary nor simple plot to give social messages. Religious images are going to be discussed.
1.4. The Limitations of the Study
Dracula is a multi-directional novel analyzed in terms of psychoanalytic approach and female sexuality in Victorian period. This study is limited with the analysis of religious perspectives thanks to evangelicalism. The previous studies approached to Dracula from different point of views like gender roles, faith and cult novel. Therewithal, both the role of religion and the power of science will be discussed.
1.5. Literature Survey
Throughout the publication of Dracula, it has been numerous studies and films. Elizabeth Miller contributed to Dracula with different perspectives. She is known as one of the leading critics in Dracula. Miller has written lots of articles like Reflections on Dracula; A Dracula handbook, Dracula and The Shade and The Shadow about the origin myth of Vlad Dracula. According to our research, Robert Eighteen’s study is Miller’s Noted For Dracula includes Bram Stoker’s diary and autobiography. Another article is about Count Dracula vs. Vlad Tepes. Miller gives some information about Vald and Count as historical characters in the text.
Miller also focuses on Vampires and Count Dracula in his Getting Know The Undead text. While Miller is searching the background information of Count Dracula in detailed way, she reveals the historical vampires in Victorian period. In addition to these statements, From Demons to Dracula has been written by Matthew Beresford explored the historical and artistic feature of the vampires. In this text, Miller demonstrates some knowledges about vampires’ historical background. There are lots of studies written about Bible, Religion and confused relationship between religion and aesthetics.
Barb Kang, Arjean Spaite, and Rick Sutherland focuses on evolution of vampires in The Everything Vampire Book. The text includes the biography of Vlad and Count Dracula. Jane Doe also gives importance to Christian concepts by showing good and evil in Dracula.
Bruno Starrs mentions about Catholic allegory in Keeping the Faith as well. Stephenson Carter refers to God’s wish and collapse of Count Dracula. In Form & Faith in Victorian Poetry and Religion, Kirstie Blair talks about Christianity and biblical values. Justin Tadlock has lots of articles written about Religion in the Vampire Motif. Samuel J. Cliffs approaches to Christianity in Dracula. Ruth Kara studies about biblical images and progress of religion in Messianic Mother in Christian Traditions.
Ruth Kara touches biblical images and developing process of religion in Messianic Mother in Christian Traditions. Amanda Podonsky reflects and insults society in Victorian Term with religious aspects in Dracula.
Gordon Melton attempts to non-fiction vampire literature in his The Encyclopedia of The Undead. Some literary critics like Nina Auerbach, Lord Byron, Bram Stoker, Anne Rice focuses on variety of vampires in both literature and films. It has been numerous articles, books written about Dracula around the world. On the contrary, there are not so much studies related to Dracula in terms of religion too much.
In Turkey, there are only four studies written about Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The first one is that Corinne Stanton’s Ideology and gender in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (1999). The second one is The dichotomy of Apollon Dionysos at Francis Ford Coppala’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Eda Özlü (2004). The third one is the story of a terrorist against order (2006) by Ahmet Emre Körpe. The fourth one is Bram Stoker’s Dracula as cult-novel written by Birsen Bayan. This study focuses on gothic fiction. The last one is Ambivalent and Shifting Codes of Fear and Desire in Dracula Movies written by Kaya Özkaracalar (2004)
2.1. About Vampires and Count Dracula
Throughout the 19th century, vampires were defined like dead person that lives with power of blood to survive for their existence.
In The Encyclopedia of the Undead book, a vampire described as being “a peculiar kind of revenant, a dead person who [has] returned to life and [continues] a form of existence through drinking the blood of the living.”
In the Everything Vampire Book, vampires are described as wretched creatures who hypnotize others with their endless power. In fact, most vampires have similar features like feeding on blood to live longer. If they do not drink blood of others, they will be weaker at last.
Moreover, all vampires have extremely occult power that is described as malignant creatures. Vampires may endure the daylight named eternal myth for them. They should rejuvenate themselves in their coffins. As mentioned previously in this study, all vampires were described as a disgusting monsters but in the nineteenth century, they were so gentlemen and incredibly smart and beautiful. It has been lots of myths about vampires throughout the history. According to old folklore, vampires called like revenant. There are lots of statements how someone can turn into a vampire according to community rules. For instance, In Croatia, one would become a vampire, pijavica, if one committed an incestuous crime. In Romania, vampires were illegitimate children. In Macedonia, some taboos were broken by vampires. For instance, when an unbaptized child passed away, all taboos have been broken. In Poland, lots of people believe that ıf a child was born with teeth, it will become a vampire later according to their belief.
Bloodsuckers have been present in literature and films since 1897 with the publication of Dracula. Vampires have represented the society’s fear related to “other” concept by evolving from both immoral and inhuman monsters to undead ones. In some cases, most of the people become vampires after death. In addition to these statements, ıf someone who is drunk, thief, witch or murderer from the point of church can become a vampire after death.
The Victorian era was the mixture of science and religion in the perspective of public consciousness as it is given below:
As science education was expanded and formalized, a fundamental transformation occurred in beliefs about nature and the place ıf humans in universe. A revival of religious activity, largely unmatched since the days of the Puritans, swept England. This religious revival shaped that code of moral behavior which became known as Victorianism.
As it is seen, increased religious zeal appeared in the perspective of religion. After the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859, some scholars an critics convinced about the Genesis and biblical images that used in wrong ways. On the other hand, it has been an anxiety between science and religion until this time. Dracula novel shows the fears of Victorian society by means of religion.
Christianity is visible since the beginning of the novel thanks to journey of Jonathan Harker to Dracula’s castle. The old man gave a crucifix to Jonathan Harker to move off evil things on his journey. Even Harker is protestant, he believes that crucifix is idolatrous. Thanks to crucifix, Harker feels secure when he is restrained by Dracula. Church enlarges threatening parts of the vampire myth and provides remedies to avoid vampirism.
In addition to this, Church demonstrates all the vampires as a metaphysical monsters like witches or werewolves to guard Christian people from demonic thoughts. This study explores the similarities between myth and Christianity like power of blood. It has been lots of myths about how someone can become a vampire. For instance, in Albania, Romania and Russia, stabbing through the heart of a vampire is the only way to destroy them. In Bavaria, Croatia, Greece and Crete, head of a vampire must be cut off indeed.
According to Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, the creature’s soul as vampire died but had no peace. Some evidence of vampires were found in Babylon as female one named labartu. She was dreadful and feed on both humans and animals yet she preferred mostly young children. There was a similar creature like labartu in Judaic culture that also feeds on young children.
Philostratus mentions about vampires regarding to life of Apollonius. His vampires has supernatural powers. In Roman culture, vampires were like witches. They could transform into a crow and drink blood of humans. Horace also focuses on supernatural power of vampires by feeding on blood.
In Medieval times, in the Squire of Alnwick text, there was a man who was wicked life. The man was convinced by the devil to stuck in grave discomfortingly like happens in Dracula. An another story of Newburgh is about passion for hunting. One of the monks avert the cleric with an axe in the abbey. It was so strange that a fresh axe was found when the tomb was opened. It was so clear that vampires are not allowed to enter the church because of his sins. Christian theologian named Leo Allatius’s book was about the origin of vampires (1645). In the perspective of Church, vampires struggles to eliminate Paganism.
The Protestant theologian Louis Lavater studied on classical and historical sides of vampires. According to Lavater, some people can describe natural things as supernatural like Count Dracula. some people also believe that vampires were created when a demon does unholy activities. Another opinion is that someone who has sinful life, the one can not live in peace. Therefore, vampirism has been a divine punishment indeed.
Folk stories about vampires have existed in different forms. As David Keyworth mentioned in his book all vampires fed on blood to live eternally. In some stories, vampires have the ability to shape shifting into animal. In old times, people opened graves in order to retain dead corpses from coming back decapitation, cremation methods as Christian elements. In Northern Europe, kinds of vampires returned from their graves and people amputated their body.
In some pre-modern folklores, vampires were described as well fed and alive eternally. These corpses were called spectrums also they behaved like poltergeists or incubi, but at that point in the folklore they did not drink blood. Blood-sucking vampires appeared in Eastern Europe in eighteen century initially. These vampires attacked their prey to feed on their blood. It is believed that their bites were contagious and their victims can become a vampire after death. Some civilians invaded to graves to get rid of this demonic thought.
In fact, the cadavers were bloated with blood. Some people thought that nails and hair were growing, it would be the evidence that they were still alive including being heavy. As Keyworth explains, vampire bodies has been given to gypsies, then killing them was the ritual of both decapitation and cremation. Keyworth also gives importance to explanation of vampire bodies why they were given to gypsies. On the contrary to Russian and Polish vampires, Ukranian vampires dies in the sunlight. However, Romanian vampires appears only at nights. Vampires’ modern features are their fangs but they are not visible in folklore. It is interesting that these vampires cannot attack their preys’ neck directly.
According to folklore, these vampires has devil effect on them. Throughout the years, vampires transformed into animals or different shapes but now they are in human form and gains sympathy even they have lots of supernatural powers.
Vampires are sexual monsters even they have mental and supernatural powers that no one can resist them. The three association on vampires became witches, gypsies and devil. Tennant describes vampires in a modern way by demonstrating the faults of the society. Tennant explores vampire myth and religious symbolism in her novel by explaining gender roles in terms of folkloric aspects. Dracula has gained the reputation and arouse attention of readers despite having demonic features. Dracula was named as Vlad Tepes of Wallachia that is known as savage threat for the enemies.
When readers think about the Dracula from a religious perspective, they figure out their own conclusion about religious thought. For instance, in The Bad Sister novel, all characters have different characteristics about religion. Dracula is female and wants to reveal feminism. Jane’s journal has not been written to read anyone else, on the contrary, both of them were written for therapy aim. There is no doubt that any female vampires appears on Dracula except for Lucy after she was bitten by Vlad. In the middle of the novel, Lucy was an innocent lady then turned into a vampire killed savagely. To quote Carol Senf: “If it were not for Mina Harker, the reader might conclude that Stoker is a repressed Victorian man with intense hatred of women or at least a pathological aversion to them”.
On the contrary to Stoker, Tennant was protesting female roles in the society like happens about religious ideas in the text. As Tennant herself says: “The important split which makes this wild person is only there because of the necessity to conform; if that necessity wasn’t there, the wildness would have transformed into a proper sense of self-expression, without so many barriers”
While analyzing Lucy, some critics aware of her kindness besides her subconscious mind affected by demonic feelings. This statements indicates the reason why Lucy becomes the next victim of Count Dracula. Stoker goes further by killing his victims like small children. As similar to The Bad Sister, Tennant also explores the radical feminism in the society.
Consequently, Dracula becomes a woman, preys other females. Count Dracula took superstition thanks to Stoker. Investigations of vampires was in the authority of Church before. But now the responsibility of vampires is under the control of civil authorities. It is believed that ıf someone wants to desecrate the grave, it must be a legal proof. Dracula has supernatural powers so he does not have any reflection in the mirror, any shadow either. As Van Helsing notices that Dracula has inhuman power. He can control wolves or any other types of animals like God that it is visible in the novel when Jonathan Harker was trying to escape.
Dracula’s other supernatural powers are conjuring with the mist used for travelling and controlling mind that is called common vampire abilities. For instance, in one passage, Mina Harker notices how “the mist was spreading, and was now close up to the house, so that [Mina] could see it lying thick against the wall, as though it were stealing up to the windows.” After she wakes up at night, she sees a blurred white face coming through the mist, then she loses her consciousness. Lucy Westenra’s victim is Whitby can be given as an example of mind control.
As we mentioned before in this study, Dracula feeds on his victims’ blood by leaving them nearly bloodless to leave a mark on their necks. However, it takes too so many days to turn into a vampire but during these times, all victims are connected to the vampires mentally. Mina Harker was hypnotized by Dracula can be given as an example of mind control. After she was bitten by Dracula, she told what Dracula was thinking about her. Holy items such as crucifixes and holy water repels Dracula according to old vampire folklore. For instance, garlic is one of the significant religious symbol that protects Lucy against devil. After Lucy Westenra bitten by Count Dracula, the mark on her neck disappeared while her teeth had become more pointed.
Neither human Lucy nor vampire Lucy have the same characteristics besides their physical appearance. Dr Seward describes her as “the sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and purity to voluptuous wantonness.”
The antagonist character of The Bad Sister is Margaret who is the leader of the radical female group. Margaret plays an important character in Jane’s transformation into a vampire. Margaret and Dracula are demonstrated as leaders in the novel that makes victims vampire.
Another significant thing is that Margaret is a female version of Dracula. She creates her own vampires by leaving mark on them.
Both Dracula and Margaret has telepathy power, but Margaret removes Christian protection from her bites. They have the same association with the devil. We would like to explain that they do not like Christian structures. Jane has to sacrifice herself then Margaret is evil and antichrist like Dracula. The devil cannot sacrifice himself as Jesus Christ did. But she could choose someone else to sacrifice himself indeed as he mentions in the journal: “my salvation would be paid for in blood, but never hers. She was anti-Christ, she would take where he gave, the wooden cross on which he hung, a passive victim, she would plunge into the hearth of her prey”.
In Dracula and The Bad Sister, christian symbol of evil and devil reveals with Catholic images of Tophet. Another vampire character named Louis questions God whether exists or not. However, he believes that God does exist. On the contrary, Dracula cannot take shelter around holy items as mentioned before according to old folklores.