In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.
For this prompt I will explain how the scenes of violence in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker contributes to the overall meaning of the book. There are three scenes of violence in this book, so I will be explaining each scene of violence in each body paragraph and what there meaning is. The first scene of violence we encounter is when Arthur has to stab Lucy, the undead that use to be his fiancée, in the heart to make Lucy die again. He was described as “a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercy-bearing stake, whilst the blood from the pierced heart welled and spurted up around it. His face was set, and high duty seemed to shine through it”. We can see from previous chapters that Arthur loves Lucy a lot but here he kills her because if he do not, then there will be a lot of people being harmed by her. This scene of violence is the author telling us that when we are confronted with a struggle between duty and love we should choose to do our duty.
In the second body paragraph I will explain the part when Van Helsing is trying to kill the three beautiful vampires and how this scene contributes to the overall meaning of the novel. When he saw the vampires he says that “she is so fair to look on, so radiantly beautiful, so exquisitely voluptuous, that the very instinct of man in me, which calls some of my sex to love and to protect one of hers, made my head whirl with new emotion”. From this quote I can explain that Van Helsing desires the vampires when he looks at their beautiful face. Then I will use the passage that says “Had I not been nerved by thought of other dead, and of the living over whom hung such a pall of fear, I could not have gone on” to explain how even though Van Helsing desires the beautiful vampires he still kills them dutifully. I will then explain that the author is trying to tell us we should not fall for our desires but we should always place our duty to others in the first place.
In the third body paragraph I will explain how the last scene of violence where Dracula was killed contributes to the overall meaning of the novel. In this scene of violence the gypsy group that is protecting Dracula’s coffin comes into conflict with Van Helsing’s group because one side wants to destroy the coffin and kill Dracula while the other side wants to protect it. During the fight Dracula lays in his coffin and looks at the sky and “the eyes saw the sinking sun, and the look of hate in them turned to triumph”. The author makes us fear that Dracula will wake and kill everyone at the scene, but the next passage immediately makes us lose our fear. In the next passage it says “on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan’s great knife. Whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris’s bowie knife plunged into the heart”. In this scene of violence Dracula almost won the battle but at the last moment he is killed. This scene contributes to the overall meaning by telling us evil will never be able to win the good.
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