In Bram Stroker’s infamous novel, Dracula, he tries to explain the life of the undead, then continues to explain how to kill these creatures of the night. We find out that you must stab a vampire in the heart with a wooden stake, and then slash off their head. This is the only way that we are led to believe that you may be able to kill these undead. We learn this through Stoker’s vampire expert Van Helsing, he seems to be the most educated on the subject of the undead and creatures of the night, otherwise known as vampires.
He explains to the rest of the posse, which consists of; Harker, Quincy, Dr. Seaward, and the Van Helsing, on how this feat must be done. But later, in one of the most mysterious parts of the novel, Dracula’s “death”, you are supposed to see another way to kill a creature if the night. Did Stoker make a mistake, or was this intentional? Due to these details I believe that Dracula merely shape shifted his way out of this predicament. This elite group is now searching to destroy Dracula. They first start with one of Dracula’s minions, Lucy.
She had been introduced to Dracula’s dark side and was now a vampire. They went to her catacomb, when they found her they drove a wooden stake into her heart and soon followed it up with cutting her head off and filling their mouths with garlic. According to Van Helsing, this was the only known way to free Lucy’s soul into heaven. Dracula was not stabbed with a wooden stake, nor was he decapitated.
These were all the ways that we were led to believe that was the way you were to kill a vampire. Dracula’s “death” left many questions unanswered. He turned into a pile of dust, which he could have merely shape shifted into. Mina’s marks had disappeared, Dracula was the head vampire he is sure to have special powers like; being able to turn into mist, fog, etc.
, and Mina seemed to return to normal, just another power. As we went through the novel, Lucy needed to be decapitated and stabbed, and three female vampires at Dracula’s castle needed to be decapitated, to be killed. If all of these vampires, who were far less powerful than Dracula, had to be killed in this way, then why would it only take a simple Bowie knife to kill the lead vampire? This is the true mystery of the novel. I believe he Dracula has all these powers, why would it take much less to kill him? We have seen him turn into fog and what not, so how he could not turn into dust to escape is not unreasonable. He used his shape shifting powers to get out of another life threatening situation, and therefore is still alive when the novel ends. The novel is informative parts on how to kill a vampire.
As the story progresses we see four vampires killed, and are left to question the fifth. The fifth being Dracula, which seems to merely shape shift his way out of the situation. Dracula being the most powerful vampire, being the head vampire dies in the weakest way. None of the previous approved methods were used for killing vampires, on how to kill a vampire. The principal vampire is killed in the simplest way: a single Bowie knife plunged into his heart.
This is how you kill a common man, not the most powerful, head vampire. This is another reason why I believe Dracula is still alive.Bibliography:
