A Catholic Reading of Dracula

 

Whitby Abbey

In my early-20s I went through an Anne Rice phase and read all of her Vampire novels and honestly I’m not sure why they did not lead to my reading the OG vampire story, Dracula by Bram Stoker. In my mid-20s I converted to Catholicism and set aside dark fantasy for better things. Between personal reading goals, community reading challenges, and book clubs I’ve been working my way through as much classic literature as I can which lead me to finally pick up Dracula, a novel recently read and evaluated by the Literary Life Podcast.

The Ignatius Critical Edition was recommended to me, for which I am very grateful. The notes, introduction, and literary critique essays offered interpretations faithful to the author’s intent and looked at the novel through a very Catholic lens. Thus proving the edition of a novel actually matters.

Stoker’s Dracula intrigued me very much. It is definitely a departure from the Rice vampire novels, and I’m fairly certain an even bigger departure from Meyer’s romantic Twilight vampires, although I’ve never read them. In Dracula, evil is evil. There isn’t a tragic backstory for the villian to garner sympathy from the reader. His very name translates as “dragon” and is equated to the beast of Revelation who is Satan. Dracula is far from romantic or handsome. His visage is crooked, sharp, malicious, and foreboding. Within his dilapidated castle he lives in filth and stench among refuse, dust, and decay and with no remorse. Dracula is an anti-Christ who brings spiritual death with his anti-sacrament. Exsanguinating his victims and then resurrecting them in body only. Immortal, their only release from their monstrous world is to have a stake driven into their hearts and their heads severed from their bodies as they “sleep” during the day in dark sanctuaries. The existence of the undead in Dracula is not at all glamorous.
The heroes of the novel are truly virtuous. Unlike the trend to make heroes more “relatable”, Stoker creates a fellowship in which absolute good triumphs over absolute evil without compromising ethics or values. Mina, Jonathan, Seward, Quincy, Lord Godalming, and Van Helsing embody courage, perseverance, selflessness and faith throughout the narrative. Contemporary entertainment and media is so full of darkness and dubiousness creating confused distinctions between good and evil. In Dracula, light is unambiguously victorious over dark. 

Light’s triumph is especially illustrated by the bonds of friendship between the characters and how they courageously and selflessly unite in their mission to save Mina and in a broader way humanity. In order to destroy a vampire, a wood stake must be driven into its heart. A gruesome work undertaken by the heroes of the novel. Once the vampiric nature is annihilated, the ravaged human is mercifully returned to peace and purity in death. Even Dracula’s countenance undergoes a change, illustrating that God’s mercy might extend to anyone, even the worst villain among us.

Written during a time in which spiritualism and the occult were popular, especially in artistic circles, an overarching theme in Dracula is the apparent disparity between science and belief. In the character of Dr. Seward the contrast between what science and reason can explain and what they cannot is particularly prominent. Dracula’s very existence defies science. To defeat the evil unleashed by Dracula, belief in preternatural and supernatural forces must be accepted and is crucial to the mission of the heroes and heroine. 

What most intrigued me about this novel is its flaws. Inconsistencies in story as well as aspects at variance with a Catholic worldview caused me to really evaluate the story critically. Stoker’s depiction of Dracula’s abilities was often muddy and contradictory. At times I felt the book needed just one more good edit to clear up some of the details. As one example, Dracula’s ability to exert power over others seemed ambiguous. In some instances, he required a tacit invitation in order to exercise his nefarious designs on characters, at others it seemed he had carte blanche ability to overcome anyone he chose. 

As Catholics, it is a good exercise to evaluate what we consume via books, film, and other media through the lens of Faith. The Supernatural aspects of Dracula lend themselves well to this examination. Stoker was an Irish protestant who had an imperfect knowledge of Catholicism made apparent in his treatment of some of the very Catholic elements throughout the novel. Dr. Van Helsing’s treatment of the Eucharist felt particularly jarring. He claims to have a “dispensation” to possess consecrated hosts which he uses to repel Dracula in various methods, including at one point crumbling the Eucharist and creating a sort of seal around a tomb to confine a newly made vampire bride. The Eucharist is also thrown into caskets filled with “deconsecrated consecrated earth” in order to prevent Dracula from returning to them to pass daylight hours as he needs. Catholic dogma maintains that the host, once consecrated, becomes the Holy Body of Jesus Christ and should be treated with supreme reverence. It is quite obviously intended that the reason these consecrated hosts work as they do is because they are truly the Body of Christ but are treated in a sacrilegious manner. As frustrating as the treatment of the Eucharist is in the story, as a Catholic the acknowledgement of the truth of such an important dogma by a non-Catholic was pretty fascinating.

In an essential element of the story, Mina, who has been claimed by Dracula as his newest victim, has a strange psychic connection to the monster. While under hypnosis, performed by Dr. Van Helsing, she can hear, see, and feel what Dracula hears, sees, and feels at any given moment. Although not strictly forbidden in Catholicism (this was actually news to me--thank you Dracula)  the utilization of the practice in the plot certainly brought up some interesting considerations worth wrangling with. Is the use of hypnotism in this case justifiable? While there isn’t definitive teaching on hypnotism, Catholics are admonished to use prudential judgment in its regard as the practice requires that one give over the control of one’s reason and free-will to the hypnotist, a reality that cannot be taken lightly. The employment of hypnosis must be for a sufficiently grave reason and not for frivolity or for harm to another person. In the case of Dracula, Mina’s connection to him reveals his location to the group of friends and ultimately to his demise, freeing the world from his reign of terror and bloodlust.

Had I been Stoker’s editor, I might have put his work through a bit more polishing. Dracula’s preternatural abilities and shortcomings would have been spelled out more clearly. The Eucharist would have been treated with proper understanding and reverence. Finally, I would have made Van Helsing a hero priest.

Catholics and Christians have nothing to fear in reading this work. There is much good to be gleaned from the characters and the narrative. Christian themes and virtues are woven throughout and there is much material worthy of critical evaluation and discussion. Dracula is a truly worthy read.

*As a fun aside, I handed this work to our 17 year old and he devoured it, no pun intended. He picked up on much of the Catholic imagery and discovered many of the same flaws as I mention here. He has recently been accepted as an incoming freshman to Wyoming Catholic College, which is known as a Great Books school. During his interview with a faculty member he was asked what he’d been reading most recently. The professor was delighted when he mentioned Dracula and they had a lovely conversation about it.