Susan 1

Susan Xu

Dr. Joel Brown

ENGLISH 3

Jan. 2nd, 2020

The Symbolism of Dracula: a evolutionary view

According to the evolutionary theory, species adapt to their environments by natural

selection. “One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply,

vary, let the strongest life and the weakest die.” (Darwin, 109) This theory affects people’s

thoughts about how creatures would be——they need to be fit in their environment. Therefore,

we can infer that the creations in gothic novels, often considered as monsters, reflects people’s

imagination of “what would the creation be like to best fit the environment.” In the

book Dracula by Bram Stocker, the depict of Count Dracula is influenced by Darwin’s

evolutionary theory.

When Dracula was published, the year of 1897, arguments about Darwin’s evolutionary

theory mostly generated by religious leaders. They seriously consider this theory as a

contradicted belief that denies the all-power God. Thus, it is unacceptable. Although the book,

The Origin of Species, didn’t draw much attention when published, the theory of evolution has

been widely discussed since the 1890s.

At the same time, some scientists started to introduce the concept of “degeneration” into

the evolutionary theory, which is also revealed in the book of Dracula. They described mad

person and genius as identical features that “madness was a form of “biological compensation”

for excessive intellectual development.” People believe that when species develops to a certain

threshold, they would appear attributes that are similar to their ancestors. This idea was adopted
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by people, and they further inferred that “criminals” can be identified by their “animal-like”

features. Clues can be found in the book Dracula that the Count Dracula was described as an

“animal-like” appearance like sharp teeth and red eyes. Also, Jonathan wrote about the way

Dracula moves that “just as a lizard moves along a wall.” [Stoker, 36] Moreover, Dracula was

described that he can “control” animals such as wolves and bats and send orders to the animals.

This implies the different states existed between vampires and other species. Vampires can even

control human’s mind after drinking their blood, which suggests that vampires indeed lays on the

top of the chain of species. 

Vampires also play a rule in human predators in the book Dracula. As the evolutionary

theory published and the all-power God seems to be the nature, some people doubted that there

might be species that are more “high-leveled” than human beings. Among these, vampire might

be one of the imaginations. As described in the book, the Count Dracula kills people and suck

their blood as “life supplies.” The blood is the symbol of life that can bring Dracula younger and

more energetic. If this process as considered as energy transformation, then the vampires can be

considered as the predator of human beings. Accordingly, the reason why people feel scared

when reading this book might be human being’s nature of escaping from predators. People

always think that they are the superior species in the world, and they are chosen by the GodGod,

and since God doesn’t exist and human beings are no more than a high-leveled monkey, than

there may be other species that superior than human. Other evidence appears like Dracula turning

into other species may suggest that vampires “evolve” from those species.

Vampires can also be regarded as a natural selection of human beings. Nearly all

characters killed by Dracula are not “likable.” Nobody on the ship believed in what the sailor

says about Dracula, and they are all killed. The person who found that Dracula was killed by
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himself, not Dracula. Lucy was beautiful, but three young men were in love with her, which the

public opinion will consider Lucy as “dissipated” at that period of time. Instead, Mina was

always described as a good girl that is nice to everyone, and she was protected from killing by

Dracula. Mina and her husband Jonathan, are brave and intelligent enough to escape from the

danger, and that’s why they survived.

Dracula is indeed a supernatural creature, and the author of the power gave him reflects

what people think is the best way to fit the environment. Living a second life seems to be

human’s ultimate goal, and the desire for a living is constructed by the fear of death. Turning

others into vampires is a delightful setting because most readers would associate this ability into a

virus or disease. The discovery of the virus was constructed in 1892, 5 years before Dracula was

published. We are not sure if Bram Stoker was affected by this theory, however, turning other

species into our “pets” or “puppets” is an appreciated way to survive. Other powers include

transform, walking on the walls, and disappear at once are also essential abilities to live in

dangerous conditions.

However, at the end of the story, Dracula died in a dramatic way. “It was like a miracle,

but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into

dust and passed from our sight.” (Stoker, 410)The two doctors in this book, Van Helsing and

Seaward, are different people. Van Helsing believes in supernatural and religious folktales, while

Dr. Seaward treated his patients by experiment, which seems more scientific. In the book, once

Van Helsing shouted to Mr.Harker that “Can you tell me why the tortoise lives longer than

generations of men, why the elephant goes on and on till he has sees dynasties, and why the

parrot never die only of bite of cat of dog or other complaint? Can you tell me why men believe

in all ages and places that there are men and women who cannot die?” (Stocker, 205) The words
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said by Van Helsing reflects the public opinion questioning the capability of science. At last, it is

a religious approach instead of science that killed Dracula. This shows that people still tend to

believe in the power of religions at that time.

In conclusion, in the book Dracula by Bram Stoker, the author——even the society at that

time——is influenced by the idea of evolutionary theory, but people are still criticized for

science, especially when it is contradicted to religious stories.

Bibliography

1. Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. D. Appleton.

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2. Stoker, Bram, and George Slade. Dracula. Bantam Books, 2004.