Vampires and Redemption

A few years ago, I bought a copy of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” at a garage sale. I was not prompted by the trendiness of vampires, the Goth culture or the popularity of the “Twilight” books and movies. I am not even a horror fan. The closest I ever get to watching a horror movie is maybe an Alfred Hitchcock flick or a suspense/thriller that turns out to be a bit more thrilling than I expected. I will admit that, as an English major, I enjoyed reading some Edgar Allan Poe, but that’s about the extent of it. But I do like classic 19th century literature, and here was an opportunity to read a classic for only $.25.

I was surprised at the respect for Christianity that was present in this novel about a blood-sucking vampire. It’s true that Dracula was repulsed by garlic, but it’s also true that he was repulsed by a crucifix and the host, the round wafer used in Catholic mass. As a Protestant, I have a different interpretation of the bread. To me, it is representative of Christ’s body. To the Catholic, in the doctrine of transubstantiation, the host is Christ. That shows to me two things, that in the writer’s philosophy, Christ is the opposite of evil and has the power to repel evil.

Other things in the story disturbed me. What I found most disturbing was Mina Harker’s transformation into a vampire. Mina is depicted as a loving wife and friend before her vampirization. Mina is bitten by Dracula, and at one point, compelled to drink his blood which transforms her into a vampire herself. What bothers me is that her path to becoming this despicable creature seems to be through no willful choice of her own.

In Dracula, Mina describes her experience in these words.

“With that he pulled open his shirt, and with his long sharp nails opened a vein in his breast. When the blood began to spurt out, he took my hands in one of his, holding them tight, and with the other seized my neck and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that I must either suffocate or swallow some to the … Oh, my God! My God! What have I done? What have I done to deserve such a fate, I who have tried to walk in meekness and righteousness all my days. God pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril. And in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!”

The same incident is described in the narrating voice of Dr. Seward.

“The attitude of the two had the terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink.”

Even more bothersome is a scene with Mina that follows soon afterwards. Van Helsing takes some precautions to protect Mina from Dracula. Mina’s husband, Jonathan Harker, is the narrator in this section.

“‘Now let me guard yourself. On your forehead, I touch this piece of Sacred Wafer in the name of the Father, the Son and…’ [in the words of Van Helsing] There was a terrible scream that almost froze our hearts to hear. As he had placed the Wafer on Mina’s forehead, it had seared it…had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal. My poor darling’s brain had told her the significance of the fact as quickly as her nerves received the pain of it, and the two so overwhelmed her that her overwrought nature had its voice in that dreadful scream. But the words to her thought came quickly. The echo of the scream had not ceased to ring on the air when there came the reaction, and she sank on her knees on the floor in an agony of abasement. Pulling her beautiful hair over her face, as the leper of old his mantle, she walked out. ‘Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I must bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgement Day.’”

To me, this is mixed-up Christian imagery. The whole message of the gospel is grace, and here is a woman who is unhappy in her condition and seems rejected by God and beyond redemption. There is some discussion among the characters afterwards that God will make things right for Mina at Judgement Day, but that is little consolation to me as a reader that she must suffer until then.

In one sense, I can see that we are all “infected” in our blood as humans, not because of personal actions, but because we are all descendants of Adam and Eve.

In Romans 5:12…
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam,] and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—“

And later in verse 15…
“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”

The condition that we’ve inherited through Adam does not place us beyond God’s grace. My God is a God of grace. There are no irredeemable people, certainly not someone like Mina who is unhappy in her condition and wants to change. Faith, however, is a requirement for redemption.

Blood is actually a theme throughout the entire Bible. If you do a search on the Amazon site for “blood,” you will find a lot of titles for vampire fiction and a lot of books on Christian theology.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were told not to eat blood.

Leviticus 17: 13-14 NKJV
“Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust; For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood sustains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.”

The idea of the life being in the blood is in Dracula also. This is most seen in the psychiatric patient Renfield, the zoophagous “life-eating” patient, who keeps pets that progress along the food chain, and seems obsessed with consuming life. In fact, Renfield even makes a reference to the Old Testament Scripture.

"I tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by the assimilation with my own body of his life through the medium of his blood – relying, of course, upon the Scriptural phrase, 'For the blood is the life.'"

Also, in Old Testament times, a system of animal sacrifices was set up to atone for sins.

Dracula drinks blood to take life to himself and give himself life and power. Christ shed His blood to give life to others.

Ephesians 1:7 “In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

Strangely enough, Jesus commands his disciples to drink His blood at the Last Supper. That sounds very close to vampirism. It must have seemed strange to these men that followed the law of avoiding animal blood in their diets.

John 6:54-56 “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

It’s explained this way in “Hard Sayings of the Bible” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Peter H. Davids, F.F. Bruce, and Manfred T. Brauch.

“What could He mean? Plainly His language was not to be taken literally: He was not advocating cannibalism. But how was it to be taken? It was not only obscure, they thought: it was offensive. For Jews the drinking of any blood, even the eating of flesh from which the blood had not been completely drained, was taboo. But drinking the blood of a human being was an idea which ought not even to be mentioned. This was a hard saying in more senses than one.

Jesus answered their protest by pointing out that His words were to be understood spiritually. ‘It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail’ (John 6:63 RSV) The physical or literal meaning of the words was plainly ruled out. But what was the spiritual meaning?

Again the reader of this Gospel, viewing these words in the context of the whole work, has an advantage over the first hearers, who had no such explanatory context. What we have in Jesus’ strange language is a powerful metaphor stating that a share in the life of God, eternal life, is granted to those who in faith come to Jesus, appropriate Him, enter into union with Him.”

Again, Jesus gives His life through His blood rather than taking life, ala Dracula, through our blood. Because Dracula’s action is kind of a sinister twist on the Christian communion, perhaps that is why the Sacred Wafer acts as a repellent.

Christ also acted as our final sacrifice for sins.

Hebrews 10:11-12 NKJV
“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”

Hebrews 9:13-14 NKJV
“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Christ appears to John in Revelation as the Lamb, symbolizing the ultimate sacrifice. In Revelation 5:9 the twenty-four elders worship Him saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals, For you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”