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SenadiMell

@senadimell / senadimell.tumblr.com

Overly analytical and occasionally acerbic
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senadimell

Been catching up on Dracula Daily and wow. There is a whole lot of Christian biblical imagery going on, especially references to the Gospels.

To build on that, it’s especially obvious with Mina’s “unclean” speeches. There’s a few things going on with “uncleanness” (at least in the KJV, anyways). There’s ritual uncleanness* (e.g. eating certain animals, handling corpses, etc), as well as references to character faults or sins (this type of reference to uncleanness is primarily in the epistles and is much less common in the Gospels; it tends to deal with things like lust or greed). (There’s also a fair few references to unclean things in Revelation, but I’m not gonna get into that).

The most common reference to anything “unclean” in the Gospels** are verses that use “unclean” to specifically reference possession, e.g. “an unclean spirit.”  This can be seen in Matthew 10:1, Matthew 12:43, Mark 1:23, 26-27, Mark 3:11, Mark 5:2, 8, & 13, Mark 6:7, Mark 7:25, Luke 4:33 & 36, Luke 6:18, Luke 8:29, Luke 9:52, and Luke 11:24, all of which involve the casting out of “unclean” possessing spirits.

That Mina is calling herself unclean before being burned by the Host (and presumably “purified” by it) is almost certainly a biblical allusion, especially given the Count’s hypnotic and possessive abilities. In addition to possession scriptures, leprosy also comes up many times in the Gospels, and in this context lepers are healed and thus allowed to rejoin the community. The Count is usually written as an inversion of Jesus, and that’s what seems to be going on with Mina (instead of his touch purifying, it corrupts; instead of being able to rejoin the community, she needs to isolate herself because she is unclean).

*Without having an authoritative source to point to, I recognize that scriptures like Matthew 23 that chastise Jewish leaders for religious observance are antisemitic and have almost certainly been used to justify antisemitic abuse. I bring that up because the imagery used in that chapter in particular, especially about ‘whited sepulchres’ which ‘appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness’ with reference to Jewish leaders are unfortunately relevant to recent Dracula chapters and the count’s description, and whether or not the in-book description of Dracula was directly intended to be antisemitic abuse, or just straightforward horror/death imagery referenced during a wider antisemitic cultural zeitgeist, I think it’s definitely part of the general antisemitic nature of a lot of vampire literature. I don’t have the historical knowledge to say more than that or make commentary, but I didn’t want to ignore it.

**Unclean spirits are also referenced in Acts prior to Peter’s vision about eating animals, as seen in Acts 5:16, Acts 8:7. I don’t know enough about the historical context to speak more eloquently on the historical ramifications of this and recognize that this has almost certainly been used as a tool for antisemitism, so I’m gonna stop here but did want to bring it up. 

#obviously not an expert here so feel free to elaborate#dracula daily#antisemitism#christianity#anytime i say almost certainly it's because i know enough to say it confidently but lack specific sources to prove it#also; from a strictly historical standpoint it's my understanding that anti-jewish hatred tends to be a more historically accurate term#for most stuff throughout the middle ages and early modern period all the way up to the 19th century#because antisemitism was a specific movement starting in the late 19th century#and you literally have people calling themselves antisemites because they're claiming a scientific basis for their prejudice#instead of religious superstition or whatever.#anyways. it's hateful either way and i'm using the terminology probably most recognized?#anyways on a different note#the count's characterization is frankly a lot more demonic/satanic than most stuff involving pentagrams or whatever#because it's specifically referencing scripture and then inverting it#not just borrowing trappings associated with the catholic church like most modern popular stuff seems to#so christ walks on water? count can't cross running water#drink of my blood? if that one wasn't apparent the count-mina feeding scene should make it pretty obvious#resurrection and the life? Un-dead#and just to be clear. i would like to point out that there are historically antisemitic ways of portraying judaism that inaccurately claim#it's some kind of perverse christianity. it is extremely not and that is not what i'm saying here.#but. the way that that has been done is to claim jewish people are doing anti-christian rituals (see: blood libel)#which is similar to how the count is portrayed here. whether or not that is intentional or coincidental is beyond my sphere of knowledge#idk if stoker was an antisemite in addition to being a phrenologist. not my sphere of expertise#but: christian imagery seems to be fundamental to the count's horror and it happens to work by twisting christian symbols#which happens to be the way jews are historically persecuted.#so gonna put that out there as i talk about various biblical allusions that underpin this whole feeding drama
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