Go beyond your initial impressions and define Dracula as a "man."
- Describe Dracula's weaknesses and his strengths. How do these weaknesses make him vulnerable? How do Van Helsing and his crew exploit these weaknesses?
- Conversely, what are his major powers and how does he use them to get exactly what he wants? Consider, can some of his powers be both weaknesses and strengths?
One more thing: when possible, use specific quotes and page numbers from the novel to back up your reading. And don't forget, use this blog to ask questions!!!!
15 comments:
Dracula as a man, now I assume you mean before he became a vampire, before he became evil. Because from what I gathered when I read the book was that Dracula, was in life honorable, noble, brave and driven to protect his countrymen from the Turks. As stated on page 39, "who was it, but one of my own race who as a Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turks on their own ground. This was a Dracula indeed!" and a little farther down the page "Was it not this Dracula, indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in later age, again and again though he had come alone from the bloody field where is troops were being slaughtered since he knew that he alone could ultimately triumph?". Then it also shows it again on page 285 "He must, indeed, have been that Voivde Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of the Turkey-land." But yet I think that was also his downfall, that he cared so much about trying to free his country from the Turks, that he increased his knowledge so that he could come up with a way to finally beat them, that he, in the end, became worse then the Turks. That he studied everything he could to gain and advantage over the Turks, that he slowly corrupted himself. He twisted his once noble ideas into things that are shallow and evil. He went from being brave and noble, to being a coward and evil. He sacrificed everything, his values, his ideas, all that was once good, just to achieve his goal of ridding his country of the Turks. How he sold his soul to the Devil and learned his arts at Scholomance so that when he did die, he rose again as a vampire.
To sum it all up of my impression of Dracula as a man. He was once honorable, noble, and brave, but he was so driven to achieve his goal, he sacrificed everything. He sold himself to the Devil for that power to defeat the Turks, and so that started the path to him becoming a vampire.
I apologize if it is a bit long, I may have gotten a bit carried away there. I'm sorry if it just about my impressions of him as a man, but I wanted to at least get that done before I have to leave for work which is in just a few minutes.
Nolan,
Nice response. But I did mean Dracula as he is now - a vampire. But I do think you provide a very convincing portrait of Dracula pre-vampire and how his personality then led to his current identity. Excellent use of textual support - this is exactly what I like to see. Now consider, as you read, what his weaknesses and strengths are as a vampire.
Oops, I see where you got the man thing now, but I did put it in quotes "man."
Oh my bad lol. I interpreted as when he was alive as a man. I just got home from work so I won't post a big long one like my last one this time, but I'll ask a few questions.
In the book Van Helsing refers to Dracula as having a Child mind or brain. Here is a few references in the book, pages 400-401 "The Count's child thought sees nothing:". " Now this criminal of ours is predestinate to crime also: he too have a child brain".
It refers to him having this kind of brain throughtout the book.
Then it talks of Mina having a man brain in the book. (I'm a bit tired atm and can't seem to find any quotes/pages about it.)
But I would like to know what you think of that. Because I'm not to sure I understand the relationship so well between his child brain and her man brain.
How he who has lived for hundreds of years, fought countless battles, extremely smrar and cunning, compared to an average woman of the times.
Dracula has many strengths, so many that he is near invulnrable to anything. You could stab him anywhere, except the heart, and he'd live. You could shoot him and he'd still come after you. Not just being able to survive against many things, he also has the strength of 20 men I believe Van Helsing said in the book. That would mean no one person would ever be able to take dracula on, he would rip them to shreds. As we saw when the men tried to corner him in Piccadilly, he easily outmaneuvered the men and escaped. Dracula has also lived for centuries, he has seen countless acts, would know human nature inside and out. That isn't considering all the knowledge he gathered coupled with the fact that alive he was very intelligent, clever and resourceful. Many of his talents I'm sure carried over from when he was alive to his state now. He could morph into creatures, such as the bat we know of in the story. He could command creatures such as the wolves when he had them charge and eat that woman at the start of the book. He could create an army of slaves very quickly, just by sucking everyone's blood out in a small town, then have them do the same thing. It would became a snowball effect. And each vampire would have almost the same power as him, just not as strong or smart or clever. He could destroy the world within a few years if he had played it right.
Ah his weaknesses finally. His biggest weaknesses was sleeping during the day, when humans are most active. This lead to his downfall, cause how can he defend himself when he is asleep? You may argue at the start of the book what he did to Jonathan Harker, but I'm sure if someoen was prepared beforehand, they could easily bypass that and stab him in the heart, then chop his head off. A huge fallacy he had was his "child brain" as stated by Van Hellsing throughout the book. This lead to the men and Madam Mina finally catching and killing Dracula. He couldn't stand Garlic, like when the men stuffed Lucy's room full of it, he had to get the wolf to break the window for him since there was garlic around it. That would mean that if someone made a talismen of it, or even made it of wafers, he'd be unable to come near them. They would be protected from him unless it was taken off. Another weakness was how he could only sleep in those coffins filled with dirt from his castle. Helsing's plan to put wafers in each almost destroyed all of his hideouts and coffins in London, he'd have no where he could sleep, and would probably have died from the daylight. Water, how Dracula was unable to cross long sections of it. That would make him reliable on humans to take him over the oceans, and that is a risky thing to do. Imagine if they had discovered him, he would of been killed instantly by being dropped in the water.
Overall compared to his weaknesses, his strengths are amazing and all powerful, but his weaknesses open him up to so many attacks against which he cannot defend against.
And the child/man brain thing I posted above should of gone in the dying to know section above, I apologize.
Nolan,
By child brain, perhaps he means that absence of everything human. It seems that all the count really wants is to be human, I mean isn't that the whole purpose of moving to England? But the fact that he's no longer human, has no real human contact, emotions, love, and so on makes him a "child."
Hmm I never would of thought it like that. I guess you could say it because when they did die, it seemed like they were released from a painful existence. They welcomed the death it seemed. But I kinda thought his move to England was so he could start up a pattern where he'd dot major cities around the world with vampires. After all as a vampire he had no humanity left in him, just look at Lucy for example. She was the nicest, sweetest woman around, then when she turned, she became nasty and evil. I just can't seem to see him as a child. We are giving him human elements, when he is no longer human. He has forsaken his humanity, and became something else altogether. So I just view as calling him a child wrong, because even a child has human contact, emotions, and love.
But I do get what you are saying, how because he lacks the things that make up a man's brain, that love, courage, honor, and so much more, he is like a child in comparison to any man.
Dracula has a few very obvious weaknesses such as garlic, crucifixes, holy water, and other religious items; but Van Helsing points out some other weaknesses of his throughout chapter twenty-three of the book. He states how Dracula is young in his mind with his plan for London, proving it by going through the statements about how he first has people move his earth boxes, then he helps the people move his earth boxes, when finally he realizes he, alone, can move the boxes so that nobody, but him, know where they are. I believe this is his biggest weakness, because if he were more experienced in the mind and spread the boxes alone throughout London, or even the world, no one could have ever found each and every one of them.
One of his strengths, beyond his obvious inhuman power and shape-shifting ability, is his knowledge. He has been around throughout many generations, gathering knowledge that any normal man would have to study for a lifetime to achieve. He also has the upperhand by just being around so much longer than those trying to defeat him.
I believe his knowledge to be one of his strengths, but I also credit his lack of of to be his biggest downfall. He is a smart, studious alchemist, but his lack of knowledge and experience of spreading his species, which I believe we can all assum is what he is attempting, causes him to be discovered.
One final thought that really has not much to do with the topic, but I'd like to throw out anyway as a new idea; The count is lonely. There really isn't any solid proof of this thought throughout the book; but the fact that the count attacks Lucy, a very wonderful woman, made me come to the proposition of him wanting a wife. Then, once she was Un-dead, her attacking of children made me think that they, the count and Lucy, were almost trying to start a family. Finally, after loosing Lucy, instead of attacking another man, the count once again attacks an intelligent woman. It is a just a little thought that ran through my mind that I would like to see what you comment towards it.
Hmm, both Nolan and Joey raise some very interesting point. Was Dracula's major intent to spread breed vampires. Remember in the beginning that Jonathan really notices how much research Dracula has done about English society and law. But what he seems most interested in his learning how to fit in - at least that's the impression I got. Which ties in exactly to what Joey observed- he is undoubtedly very lonely. I don't know why he changes Lucy. Perhaps he is attracted to her and even more so, maybe he does want a companion. After all, he never does give up on her being a vampire. You would of thought he would have been a better "father." I just don't know what he wants more - to be more human or to populate.
Oops, I forget to say to both Nolan and Joey - excellent postings!! I'm very impressed!
I see where you come from with the wanting to be human and fit in, and it is very true. Maybe the fact that all of the people in Transylvania had discovered the truth about the count, (or so it at least seems because of the warnings they all gave John in the beggining of the book) and Dracula was just interested in moving to a new part of the world to "start over", or get a new chance where people are more unknowing so that he could, in fact, "fit in". And changing Lucy was more of just a need to feed and survive, then an actual attack because of who Lucy was. He may of just saw her as a helpless young lady living next door to one of his many mansions, and an easy attack.
I wonder if maybe there is a pattern forming. Because if you remember at the start of the book Dracula had those 3 woman already as vampires, and went out to get little children and suck their blood out. I really remember it because John saw the woman come up to the door and bang on it yelling at Dracula to bring her child out, but he sent the wolves after her.
I wonder if that is what he does. He picks a few woman to be like his brides, then goes after the children in each new place he goes.
And I wonder what happened to all those children that were taken off, because when Lucy was doing it in London Van Helsing said the children would turn into vampires, but Dracula has been at his castle for such a long time. He surely must of bitten hundreds if not thousands of children/people.
I think Lucy and then Mina were bitten for more of a simple reason too besides that. The best way to like take over a town when you are able to infect them and turn them to your side/beliefs is quite simple. You turn one person, who helps turn another, who then turns another, while each one turns another, and so on, creating the snowball effect. Dracula may have thought that by starting out with Lucy, he could start to achieve it. Though in the start of the process you want to remain undetected because when your numbers are small with so few, they are easily overcome if the entire populace of the town rallies against you, then if you take over half of the town before the other half realize what is happening. This is just a thought to throw out there.
I think him studying England so he masters its ways so that he can fit in. After all if he was some outsider who everyone was able to pick out easily, his plans wouldn't go so well. He would have to fit in, he would have to know his enemy, so he knows their weaknesses. He'll be able to blend in with their society so that they would never know he was there.
Dracula obviously has many strengths as a vampire. He can assume the shape as bats, and wolves, and fog, and such. As well as control different creatures. And he also has many very obvious weaknesses, such as garlic, crucifixes, or other religious things. But i think you have to look past the ovbious things to see his biggest weekness. I think his biggest weekness is what they refer to as a "Child Brain." The way i took this is, he is like a child because he has no patience. And he does what he wants, without thinking of the consequences. What i mean is, I think his biggest mistake was continuing to attack Lucy. We saw later on when he attacked Mina, that if he just sucked her blood once, she would eventually change to a vampire. So the same rules would have applied with Lucy. He could have just waited till she transformed completely. But by his eagerness to keep going, and the inability to wait, he aroused more and more suspicion. He caused the men in Lucy's life to become aware of himself, which eventually led to his death. If he had just waited, they may have never started to investigate, and never stopped him.
Dracula's personality is as old as he is, which can make it hard for him to seem human like. I think that is one of the reasons he trapped Harker, so he could study him and make sure he's up with the times. Dracula is very intelligent person and he is also meticulous. Harker says that dracula spoke very good english and that he acted fine. But dracula, being so meticulous, had to be sure. He is obviously a coniving person, which he shows by completely masking his true identity, for a while, from harker. I see dracula as an evil egotistic dictator.
Dracula is a noble and with that comes an ego, which i think was his biggest weakness. I believe he was sick of the same old things in Transylvania, and that he thought he deserved more.
He wanted to go to london to expand his race and his ego. If he would have stayed in his castle he would have never had any troubles, but no... he greedily goes to london searching for lives to take. If I were him i would have worked with my strengths. He could have turned some people in transylvania, used his telepathy to control them, and sent them to london to spread the vampirism. He also believed he was untouchable which wasn't completely true.
Another weakness was his physical inability to look human, with the nightwalking, bloodsucking, and amazing strength. I also was wondering if he could eat food... cuz that would have helped create the illusion of him being human. The book never said he couldn't.
Dracula was severly affected by religous items and garlic which helped Van Helsing and the crew protect themselves.But the main thing they took advantage of was his hideouts. They new he could only hide in corrupted earth so they cleansed his hideouts. Dracula did not cover his tracks good enough which left him vulnerable to the crew.
continuing from before....
Dracula created the illusion of all those mice for renfield so he could gain entrance to the asylum. That was an intelligent use of his powers. He also intimidated Mina to be quiet so he could drain her and what not. He used his ability to shapeshift to either gain access as fog, escape as a bat, or ... for some reason he turned to a wolf... he could of used bat form to get away from the ship wreck.
I can name three powers that can work against him. His telepathy was one, they used mina's end of the link to track him down. His super strength made him look less human and hurt his illusion. ...? I had a third one.... but its gone now.
I was thinking how bad it would be to be lucy. Not only did she turn to a vampire but she got bit while she was sleepwalking so, according to Van Helsing, she will always be in a sort of trance.... or something like that.
I can think no more.... bye!
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