The titular character of Dracula<\/u> and his 3 vampire seductresses\u2019 use of blood to maintain their youth raises many questions about immortality. Thematically, blood has served countless roles throughout literary and religious history, whether symbolizing familial bonds or as an offering in the form of blood sacrifices to appease the gods. Consequently the role of blood as a symbol and functional aspect of biology has changed over time to reflect new understandings and shifts in thinking.<\/p>\n
Dracula<\/u> sits at the intersection between the use of blood as both a symbol of traditional superstition and modern medical practice. Early medical practices stemming from antiquity used a \u2018humors\u2019 system, whereby bodily fluids such as blood and bile were to be kept in balance, and when out of balance, led to sickness. A widespread practice that resulted from this way of thinking is known as bloodletting, whereby a vein or artery was punctured and blood was drained from the patient to restore the balance of their humors. Eventually bloodletting fell into disuse, however the practice lasted well into the 19th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n I believe on some level, Dracula<\/u> serves as a form of commentary on this antiquated practice by comparing the blood-draining tendencies of vampires to the outdated practice of bloodletting, all while commenting on the pursuit of immortality.<\/p>\n Dr. Seward takes on the patient Renfield, who is \u201cunlike the normal lunatic \u2026 [and is] determined to understand him as well as [he] can.\u201d (68) Renfield potentially serves as the embodiment of humanities attempts at finding immortality. Seeing it as an age old pursuit that he gets \u201cnearer than ever before to the heart of this mystery.\u201d (68) The secret of which lies in our understanding of blood, with humanities perception of it being backwards, maybe the vampires actually are on to something?<\/p>\n As the novel progresses and Lucy is fed on by a vampire, her blood is drained and her health deteriorates. Dr. Seward cannot determine what afflicts Lucy and so calls for the help of Dr. Van Helsing. When Van Helsing sees the ghostly pallor of Lucy\u2019s cheeks he notes \u201cshe will die for sheer want of blood to keep the heart\u2019s actions as it should be. There must be a transfusion of blood at once.\u201d (131) Following the blood transfusion, Lucy\u2019s health quickly improves, drawing the distinction between the effects of bloodletting, as symbolized by the affects of a vampire feeding, and the life-restoring effects of blood-transfusing. This connection is further supported by Dr. Seward\u2019s comments following a second transfusion using his own blood whereby he claims that \u201cno man knows till he experiences it, what it is to feel his own life-blood drawn away in the veins of the woman he loves.\u201d (138) Stoker quite literally defines the substance as \u201clife-blood,\u201d with them being one and the same.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The titular character of Dracula and his 3 vampire seductresses\u2019 use of blood to maintain their youth raises many questions about immortality. Thematically, blood has served countless roles throughout literary and religious history, whether symbolizing familial bonds or as an offering in the form of blood sacrifices to appease the gods. Consequently the role of … Continue reading Bloodletting and blood transfusions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1374,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}