Dracula Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

This one is practically a no-brainer – of course blood is important in a vampire book. But what, exactly, do all the references to blood mean? Renfield is the only character to really explain...

As long as we're talking about drinking blood, we should pause to think about the Christian ritual of Holy Communion (a.k.a. the Lord's Supper or Holy Eucharist). Holy Communion is a kind of reenac...

At the time Bram Stoker was writing Dracula (1897), Great Britain's world-wide empire was starting to crumble. Other countries, like Germany and the US, were starting to gain power both economicall...

If Dracula's immigration to Britain can be read as an allegory about foreigners invading England, it seems reasonable that border-crossing in general will be important in Dracula. Individual homes...

In the world of Dracula, if you don't want to have your blood sucked, you better down a lot of Red Bull, because being asleep tends to get you bitten. When Jonathan Harker is staying at Castle Drac...

The only real mother we meet in this novel is Mrs. Westenra, Lucy's mother, and she dies pretty quickly. Mina takes over as everyone's mother, and boy is she good at it: not five minutes after she...

Bram Stoker, as you've probably noticed, is totally obsessed with trains. In the world of Dracula, trains are representative of Stoker's wider interest in the latest, most up-to-date technology. It...

Another effect of all the science and technology in Dracula is to create a contrast between modernity and history. Dracula is, after all, centuries old. He lives in a crumbling old medieval castle,...