Dracula: Allusions 7 key examples

Judas was one of Jesus's original 12 apostles—men who lived, traveled, and worked with Jesus, spreading his teachings. These 12 men were also close friends with Jesus, akin to brothers. On the eve of the crucifixion, Judas committed the ultimate betrayal by selling Jesus to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver. When the Romans arrived to take Jesus away for execution, Judas identified him by giving him a kiss—hence Jonathan's reference to Dracula "kissing his hand." This allusion, equating Dracula to Judas, occurs immediately after Dracula refuses to let Jonathan Harker leave. Jonathan sees this as a betrayal; Dracula, after all, had promised that Jonathan could leave when he pleased. For Christians, Judas's betrayal is the gravest offense imaginable. Equating Dracula's actions to Judas's demonstrates the severity of Jonathan's disappointment.

Mina's description of the physical landscape of Kettleness - its menacing ambience - creates a mysterious and unsettling image. Like the "dark figures" obscured by mist, the dark events of the future are obscured from both Mina and the reader, though the ominous mood created by this natural imagery foreshadows some series of menacing supernatural events.

Furthermore, the simile/image of "men like trees walking" reinforces the fact that supernatural forces are at work, conjuring up the image of enchanted trees walking up and down the beach. The statement "men like trees walking" is also an allusion to a Biblical passage in the Gospel of Mark, wherein Jesus heals a blind man. This biblical allusion contributes to the foreshadowing in this passage, implying that something that's unclear will soon be revealed.

In Greek mythology, the Lethe is a river in the underworld, the waters of which cause forgetfulness when drunk. This allusion makes an interesting connection between the work the characters are engaged in and superstitions regarding the afterlife. In order to vanquish Dracula, Van Helsing must fight him using not modern science but techniques derived from ancient superstitions. In likening his medicine (garlic) to the river Lethe, Van Helsing acknowledges that he has had to stray from modern science to find the tools to cure Lucy.

Van Helsing's reference to Lethe takes on a more paternalistic, infantilizing tone when one considers his assertion that the garlic will "make [Lucy's] trouble forgotten." Throughout Lucy's illness up until the moment of her death, Van Helsing does not trust her enough to share with her the particulars of her affliction, nor any important information about vampires. He instead leaves her in the dark, treating her as a little child who would do better to forget and be absolved of responsibility instead of remembering. This infantilization of female protagonists continues throughout the novel.

Considering Ophelia's untimely demise via drowning, it is curious that Lucy should compare herself to that character. Indeed, towards the end of her life, Ophelia goes mad; Lucy's own situation will eventually parallel Ophelia's, as she is stricken with the curse of being a vampire—tantamount to a kind of madness. Both young women die "before their time," subject to the whims of men who exert an excess of power and control over their lives.

As with Renfield's character, it is important to note the association Stoker forms between madness, mental illness, and immorality. Ophelia "goes mad" at the end of her life and drowns herself; Renfield worships Dracula as his master until he is murdered, in the meantime facilitating Mina's injury; and Lucy becomes a vampire, preying on innocent children throughout the English countryside. All three characters exhibit a kind of "madness" and are consequently either dehumanized or killed.

In the Bible, people are often described as "dust" or "clay"; having been made from dust by God, humans' bodies will someday return to dust, while their souls pass on to the heavenly realm. Stoker references this biblical assumption, describing Lucy's remains as the "poor clay" from whence her soul is lately departed. This allusion is important in establishing a distinction between the soul and the physical body. Though the latter may be corrupted, may wither and decay, the soul can remain pure and untarnished. Given that Lucy later turns into a vampire, a process which corrupts her earthly body, it is all the more important that Stoker maintain this religious distinction between spiritual and physical. Allowing for such separation, Lucy's soul remains pure, permitting a narrative wherein four of the male protagonists rescue her soul from the supernatural evil inhabiting her earthly body.

Just as Eve was forbidden by God to eat an apple from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Mina is prevented by social, cultural, and institutional forces from asserting her intellectual agency at a man's expense. Mina is a heroine with surprising agency and intellect, given the four male protagonists she must share the narrative with, as well as the fact that she is written by a man (Stoker) at the turn of the twentieth century. This biblical allusion places said agency in a morally grey area, demonstrating that Mina doubts her own right to assert herself. The temptation to claim her own intelligence in a male-dominated space is highlighted as mischievous, yet necessary; just as the position of women was broadly contentious at the turn of the twentieth century (when Stoker wrote this novel, in 1897), so is Mina's power and intelligence contentious throughout Dracula.

Seward describes the furrows on Lucy's brow as the "coils of Medusa's snakes," alluding to the Greek myth of the monstrous Medusa. This simile/allusion also plays off of the overt sexuality and impurity of the female vampire Lucy (as well as the other female vampires): in the myth, Athena turns Medusa's hair into snakes because she slept with Poseidon in Athena's temple. In other versions of the tale, Medusa was raped by Poseidon and Athena turned her hair into snakes as a form of protection. Medusa's snakes are, in either case, associated with sexuality—not only that, but impurity. Undoubtedly Seward intended the comparison as negative, dismissing the immoral vampire in tandem with Medusa (regardless of her circumstances).