What are some of the themes in Dracula?

Well, first I would point you . That eNote covers the main themes of salvation vs damnation, the role of women, and the rest. In addition to those, I would include the following:

• Reason vs Superstition: To what extent do Van Helsing and the rest deploy reason to defeat Dracula? Or is it that to defeat Dracula means they must acknowledge the truth of his supernatural power? Another angle on this pairing might include...

Well, first I would point you . That eNote covers the main themes of salvation vs damnation, the role of women, and the rest. In addition to those, I would include the following:

• Reason vs Superstition: To what extent do Van Helsing and the rest deploy reason to defeat Dracula? Or is it that to defeat Dracula means they must acknowledge the truth of his supernatural power? Another angle on this pairing might include looking at the use of technology in the story.


• Xenophobism: Dracula is an exotic foreigner who "invades" or "infests" England with his eastern ways; it is up to the "civilized" English (led, tellingly, by someone from the continent!) to literally root him out. Or you could look at the book as a form of racism, pure and simple, with Dracula as the demonized minority, the whole book a celebration of a kind of "lynching."


• Desire: Dracula can be seen as a form of repressed desire, definitely sexual, that Van Helsing and the rest must kill in order to preserve their "rationality." A related theme is the book's attitude towards sex, Mina saying she is "unclean" after her visit from Dracula, or Harker's experience with the lady vampires in Dracula's castle.


• Language: another fascinating thing about the book is how it is made up of artifacts -- extracts from journals, newspaper articles, and the rest -- in an attempt to make the story seem more "real." Mina is valuable in part because she knows shorthand. An early phonograph is used to take oral notes. There is a feeling that documentation will make Dracula less powerful, somehow.

That's only a few. Dracula is a fascinating book!