Dracula

“He that Believeth on Him is not Condemned”

Throughout the Bible, an array of passages are found instructing us that faith, not good works, is the key to Christian salvation.   Faith gives us courage in the face of adversity, gives us hope when confronted with abysmal circumstances, and it provides the comforting idea of an afterlife when the hour comes for the angel of death to grasp and envelop us.   Faith of an eternal life in Heaven is what allowed 17th century poet John Donne to challenge death when he penned, “Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for ,thou art not so.”   (Holy Sonnet X)   Ephesians 2, verses 8-9 says that “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and not that of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”   Salvation from death is a prevalent idea in the Christian religion and one that is heavily emphasized in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.   Just as the Bible deflects emphasis of human works onto the importance of faith alone, when depths of evil go beyond the grasp of human understanding, characters in Stoker’s story turn only to faith in God   to seek safe haven.   The importance of Christian salvation as promised by God is an underlying theme throughout Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and is the key component in victory for forces of good conquering the unfathomable devilishness of Count Dracula.
From the earliest pages of Stoker’s novel, the reader comes in contact with Christian salvation and its’ believed importance.   Jonathan Harker is set to embark on business to Castle Dracula in Transylvania when he is implored by an elderly lady not to go.   “Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?” (Stoker)   Because Harker is in a hurry to conduct business, he disregards the warnings of the locals, but finds everything “very mysterious and not by any means comforting.”   (Stoker)   Before departing from the old...