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Essay / in Dracula is the concept of Christian salvation. This theme begins at the beginning as Harker goes to Dracula's castle. The locals cross themselves, make the sign of the cross and a rosary is placed around Jonathan Harker's neck. We see Stoker using the theme that if a person follows Christ, salvation will be found in heaven and evil will be kept at bay. Another example where Stoker uses the theme of Christian salvation is when Van Helsing is brought in to save Lucy Westenra from the vampire hold. After the Earl arrives in London, he begins his affair with Lucy, but not in the usual sense. The Count chooses beautiful women, then seduces and converts her while she sleeps. As Mina and Dr. Seward work to keep Lucy alive, Professor Van Helsing arrives to help Seward save Lucy. After realizing that Lucy is a vampire, a cross is kept at all times. Even though Lucy became a vampire, it was thanks to Christian Salvation that Van Helsing tried to save her. Stoker presents a particularly liberal view of salvation by implying that the saved need not be believers. In Dracula, all the dead enjoy the unprecedented peace of salvation – only the “undead” are excluded. In the novel, several characters follow roles and actions usually reserved for the opposite sex, these situations allow the Victorian reader to understand that this is a special situation and that something is wrong. In clearer terms, the shift and blurring of gender roles allows for a greater sense of strangeness and injustice for the novel to continue successfully as horror fiction. Jonathan Harker is the first character we see allowing himself to be feminized, first when he is captured by the Brides of Dracula and his reactions are entirely passive and feminine: "I remain still, looking under my eyelashes in agony of delicious anticipation. » (Stoker, 32 years old). Finally, he manages to escape them, only to find himself in a bed, sick, not only physically because of the blood of the brides, but also mentally because his reality is altered and he thinks he is going crazy. : “. . . In his delirium, his delusions were terrible; wolves, poison and blood; of ghosts and demons. Jonathan's hallucinations and symptoms match what doctors would attribute to hysteria, which is usually a female illness. His six weeks in bed allow him to find himself and therefore bring him back within the normal limits of virility, this rehabilitation is fully achieved and sealed by his marriage to Mina. However, the character who challenges traditional gender roles the most is Mina. She uses a typewriter and is alone economically stable. She is also able to act as one of the men, helping to plan situations and make sense of the chaos that Dracula brings to London. It is his notes and work that ultimately lead to Dracula's death. Her actions reflect that of a modern woman, compared to a traditional Victorian woman; but she remains linked to her culture: “Ah, this wonderful Madame Mina! She has the brain of a man – a brain that a man should have had if he was very talented – and the heart of a woman. The good Lord fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when he made such a good combination” (Stoker, 201). In this case, Mina's masculinity is acceptable because she is still a woman who follows the rules she is expected to follow, i.e. she gets married and is, unlike Lucy, controllable by her husband . Dracula, on the other hand, cannot be controlled by anyone, and his own sexuality and gender roles are even more questionable than Jonathan's or Minae's. When Jonathan finds himself a victim of the wives, it is the Count, a.
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