Fear, Spirituality, and Vampirism in Victorian Europe

The story of Dracula is a direct reflection of Euro-Victorian society in the midst of up and coming modalities that were shaping the ways that knowledge could be shared. In a world ruled by modesty and adherence to religion and cultural norms, there is a clear distinction of good versus evil, and the good, in this case, is represented by faith in God and Christianity. Bram Stoker’s Dracula utilizes this dynamic which is heavily influenced by religious ideals; depicting vampiric desire and urges as sinful and unnatural while juxtaposing purity and the Christian faith as the answer and weapon against the satanic vampires. The vampires in the novel are not alive nor dead, forced to remain on Earth without being granted the salvation of complete death or a ticket to heaven. They must remain in this condition of eternal suffering, unable to break the cycle with an unquenchable thirst for blood. The imagery of pain and blood work to depict these creatures as unclean and impure, and therefore ungodly. As they are not a natural part of this earth, there is little the people can do for protection against these satanic beings without relying on God to protect and watch over the innocent. This manifests as extremely frequent prayer and Christian symbolism in the novel, highlighting the demonic nature of these incidents. As religion impacted almost every life at the time, there is a lot to analyze surrounding faith and disbelief.

I can go in many different directions with my research, and I plan to cover multiple topics in relation to each other. I think this would work particularly well for the podcast because it can flow and cover a lot of ground. I am very interested in the effects of Christianity on Victorian Europe, and what this can reveal about society’s fears and ideals. In other words, I want to take a look at the ways in which Victorian Europe was influenced by the Christian theocracy, and perhaps how that continued to progress.