In Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire the vampires are also rationalised. While Lestat is still the murderous vampires of the stories, Louis is still inflicted with human emotions and morals. The struggle throughout the book has been the struggle inside Louis to reject his vampiric instincts, instead following the morals of a human. This struggle is very important for the modern audience as it allows us to connect and empathise with the main character. This blurring between good and evil is important an important value of the vampiric genre as it questions the nature of the monster and reflects the changing views of the modern audience to that of the Victorian era.
The nature of religion and science play an important role in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. As Jonathan Harker travels further into the ‘Old World’ he comes into contact with the superstitions of vampires. Here we see the first sanctity in religious icons, where Harker is given a crucifix to ward against the vampires seen in the line “his hand touched…the crucifix. It had an instant change in him”. In addition, Van Helsing and company believe that it is their “high duty” to destroy the creature that is Dracula. The use of religious objects, such as garlic and holy wafer, which creates a sense of protection in religion that reflected the time of the 19th century and the emphasis on religion as the saviour of men from this evil is summed up as “God bless you that you have given my dear one her soul again” showing the saviour that is religion. Yet there is also an integration of the scientific world with the religious superstitions. This is seen clearly in the use of the blood infusions (a scientific marvel of the 19th century) to help save the life of Lucy. Van Helsing notes that one of the strengths of mankind is their “resources of science” showing that science along with religion helps mankind.
In Coppola’s ‘Dracula’, religion and science still play an important part in fighting Dracula, but at the same time, religion is no longer portrayed as good. The first three shots of the opening are all of religious icons, and one in particular is the cross falling to the ground a possible sign of the weakness of religion. This is followed by the shot of Dracula kneeling with a cross saying “God be praised, I am victorious”. This though is juxtaposed with the killings of the shots before, hinting towards the negative aspects of religion. Religion is also seen in the opening scene as the reason for the creation of Dracula, being both as a way to create sympathy for the character as well addressing the point of view of modern audiences, that religion has been the cause of atrocities as well as miracles. Apart from the opening scene, religion is portrayed similarly to that of Bram Stoker, yet science plays a bigger role in Coppola’s ‘Dracula’. The modern audience has a deeper understanding and trusting in science and this is shown by Coppola when Van Helsing gives a more detailed description of blood transfusion. Coppola also uses shots of blood cells to try to explain the disease of a vampire, adapting to this view of modern audiences. Van Helsing also portrays the combination of science with religion the Stoker emphasised. This is shown by the fact the Van Helsing is the scientist, yet he also is mysterious and supernatural, and the actor playing Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) also played a priest in the opening scene, suggesting that Van Helsing is a reincarnation of a priest.
Religion and science do not play a major role in Interview with a Vampire. Vampires are not affected by the crucifixes or other religious icons. Louis still has to come to terms that they are not servants of the devil, rather that there is no God at all. This reflects the attitudes of the audience that they no longer believe solely in religion. In fact, religion once again is seen for the reason for the creation of the vampire, where it was the erratic behaviour of his Christian-devoted brother and the accusations of the priest that his brother was possessed by the devil that leads Louis to become a vampire. These appropriations of the themes reflect the change in the attitudes of modern day audiences.
The role of women in Victorian society is portrayed strongly in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. During the 19th century, the new woman was emerging. Stoker displays mixed views towards the new woman. The three female vampires show Stoker’s fear of the unchecked female, and their adverse sexuality along with their cruelty to baby show the negative aspects of the new woman – their lose of motherhood and increased sexuality. Yet, at the same time there is Mina, who displays numerous qualities of the traditional woman, and who throughout the book is held as divine (“She is one of God’s woman”). But she is not exactly the traditional woman as she has been educated and found employment, aspects of the new woman. Stoker sees this as acceptable; seen in the line “she has man’s brain and women’s heart”. This combination is seen as the perfect woman for Stoker, and the power of the perfect woman is emphasised by the fact that Mina helped bring the downfall of Dracula and resisted the temptations to join the three female vampires. This all emphasises the 19th century view of woman.
Coppola’s view of the role of woman is very different to that of Stoker, yet he still tries to capture the 19th century view of woman the Stoker had. This is portrayed by the fact that Mina is still that perfect woman, a combination of both education and maternal roles, yet like all the characters she is more sexual. During the scene with the female vampires, Stoker invokes a sexual tension in his audience. Coppola does the same, yet as the audience of modern society are more accepting of the open sexuality of women, Coppola’s changes this scene so the sexuality is clearer and less repressed. Also, the change in Lucy is scene in her sexual actions. Lucy starts by being an innocent damsel, yet after she has been infected, she becomes more sexual, appeasing Dracula’s sexual urges as seen in the seen where Lucy has sex with the werewolf Dracula. The ultimate change in the view of woman comes from Mina. She is no longer the innocent and divine, as she consciously goes out with Dracula while she was engaged to Harker. She also is no longer forced to become a vampire, but pleads with Dracula to turn her into one, and instead of helping in the destruction of Dracula, she helps save Dracula. This shows the independent nature of women in the late 20th century along with the changed views of the divinity of woman that the Victorian had of women.
In Interview with a Vampire many of the women that Louis meets are whores who become victims of Lestat, yet there is one woman who shows a clear picture of Anne Rice’s attitude to the role of women. After the death of the boy who ran the plantation next to Louis’ plantation, Louis urges the boy’s sister to go against society’s attitudes and run the plantation herself. Even without an education, Louis believes that she is smart and can run the plantation by herself. This reflects the attitude that the new woman of Stoker’s time is very much the perfect woman, as the sister forsakes marriage and motherhood for fortune. This shows how society has become more accepting of the role of woman during the 20th century than that of the 19th century.
In concluding, through the role of women, the nature of religion and the conflict between good and evil, it can be seen that there are many major values that appear in all vampiric texts, yet they have all changed due to the context. Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire and Coppola’s ‘Dracula’ are just two examples of texts that have been appropriated from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.