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Popular Culture Review
vampires. These immortals “must go on age after age adding new victims and
multiplying the evils of the world” (243).
Moreover, Dracula has cunningly distributed the many boxes of earth from
Transylvania that can serve as his lairs over several parts of the London area—
again, the motif of space or extension is used by Stoker. Once the pure Mina
drinks Dracula’s blood, he knows she will come to him when he calls her, even
over great distances.
Over hundreds of years, Dracula’s brain powers survived his physical death,
and he is “growing,” explains Van Helsing. If not stopped, Dracula may be “the
father. . . of a new order of beings, whose road must lead through Death, not
Life” (342). Dracula’s own words confirm this assessment: “My revenge is just
begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side” (347). Dracula can live
for centuries, but Mina, with his mark upon her throat, is mortal. Mina’s
protectors have chased Dracula from London. He can afford to wait, but Mina
will die unless her friends kill the vampire.
The Opposition to Evil in Stoker’s Dracula
The opposition to evil in Stoker’s Dracula falls into three main categories:
science, religion, and love. We have already mentioned the blood transfusions
that Drs. Seward and Van Helsing perform on Lucy. But even when using
science, Van Helsing praises one blood donor, saying that “God sends us men
when we want them,” to oppose the devil’s work (172). Nevertheless, science
has its limits, as Van Helsing realizes. He returns to Amsterdam, and now his
research centers on Christian religious artifacts and superstitions that may
oppose the evil they face.
In the religious category, the crucifix is offered to Jonathan before he enters
the Borgo Pass near Castle Dracula. Garlic, wild rose, and mountain ash are also
folk remedies that may oppose vampires. In a sense, Van Helsing is working a
spell with the garlic he places on Lucy and around her room. The method of
finally killing the undead Lucy is to open her tomb and then cut off her head, put
garlic in her mouth, and stake her through the heart. This procedure frees Lucy
and stops her nighttime prowling.
The plan to save Mina from the vampire’s disease is more complex, for
Mina, her husband, and her male protectors must chase Dracula who is heading
back to the Carpathians. Van Helsing uses the sacred wafer and a holy circle
near the Borgo Pass to ward off the three vampire women that Dracula created.
For the chase after Dracula, Van Helsing gives each man a silver crucifix, garlic
blossoms, the sacred wafer, a revolver, and a knife.
Yet in the end, it is love, faith in one’s fellow human, and goodness that
saves Mina. Once he has come to London, Mina and Jonathan recognize “a
solemn duty” to fight Dracula (205). Van Helsing characterizes Mina as “one of
God’s women” who shows us “that there is a heaven where we can enter, and
that its light can be here on earth” (214-215). The journey to the Carpathians is
a great quest to kill the author of so much pain and sorrow, “so that the world
may rest from [Dracula]” (231).