Jonathan una vez se adentra en Europa oriental descubre un mundo totalmente distinto al suyo. Encuentra un gran mestizaje entre los diferentes grupos étnicos ( si se quiere tener mas´datos sobre éstos consultar el apartado de "otras sociedades", de todos ellos hay que ds¡estacar su gran cantidad de supesticiones y creeencias, veamos algunas:
    -En cuanto a la víspera de San Jorge( en el este europeo esta festividad caía el 5 de mayo. Hoy se clebra el 23 de abril. Existía la creencia de que San jorge ofrecía protección contra los vampiros

    "It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?"

    - La justificación del mal estado de las carreras gracias a la supestición:

    " ...for it is an old tradition that they are not to be kept in too good order. Of old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the Turk should think that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops, and so hasten the war which was always really at loading point. "

   - Los tesoros que se indican en la víspera de San Jorge:

    "Then as time went on, and I had got somewhat bolder, I asked him of some of the strange things of the preceding night, as for instance, why the coachman went to the places where he had seen the blue flames. He then explained to me that it was commonly believed that on a certain night of the year, last night, in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway, a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been concealed. "

    -Pero no debemos olvidar la creencia de la población en el vampirismo. A continuación, demos la palabra a Van Helsing quien nos habla sobre dicha creencia:

    "This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages, he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command, he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not, he can, within his range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder, he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, he can grow and become small, and he can at times vanish and come unknown. "

    También se nos dice la manera de deshacerse de un no-muerto:

    "Take this stake in your left hand, ready to place to the point over the heart, and the hammer in your right. Then when we begin our prayer for the dead, I shall read him, I have here the book, and the others shall follow, strike in God's name, that so all may be well with the dead that we love and that the Un-Dead pass away." Arthur took the stake and the hammer, and when once his mind was set on action his hands never trembled nor even quivered. Van Helsing opened his missal and began to read, and Quincey and I followed as well as we could.

Arthur placed the point over the heart, and as I looked I could see its dint in the white flesh. Then he struck with all his might.

The thing in the coffin writhed, and a hideous, bloodcurdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions. The sharp white champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthur never faltered. He looked like a figure of Thor as his untrembling arm rose and fell, driving deeper and deeper the mercybearing 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. The sight of it gave us courage so that our voices seemed to ring through the little vault.

And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less, and the teeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver."

    Además se relaciona el vampirismo con la zoofagia:

    "Why, I myself am an instance of a man who had a strange belief. Indeed, it was no wonder that my friends were alarmed, and insisted on my being put under control. I used to fancy that life was a positive and perpetual entity, and that by consuming a multitude of live things, no matter how low in the scale of creation, one might indefinitely prolong life. At times I held the belief so strongly that I actually tried to take human life. The doctor here will bear me out that on one occasion 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.' Though, indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has vulgarized the truism to the very point of contempt. "

    Veamos ahora las impresiones que causaba en los habitantes el sólo hecho de saber que están cerca de un vampiro, sus reacciones:

   "When it grew dark there seemed to be some excitement amongst the passengers, and they kept speaking to him, one after the other, as though urging him to further speed. He lashed the horses unmercifully with his long whip, and with wild cries of encouragement urged them on to further exertions. Then through the darkness I could see a sort of patch of grey light ahead of us, as though there were a cleft in the hills. The excitement of the passengers grew greater."

     "One by one several of the passengers offered me gifts, which they pressed upon me with an earnestness which would take no denial. These were certainly of an odd and varied kind, but each was given in simple good faith, with a kindly word, and a blessing, and that same strange mixture of fear-meaning movements which I had seen outside the hotel at Bistritz-- the sign of the cross and the guard against the evil eye."

    " Mate could not make out what was wrong. They only told him there was SOME- THING, and crossed themselves. "

    El cristianismo, como fuerza del bien era un enemigo natural de los vampiros. Cualquier símbolo cristiano podía convertirse en un arma eficaz (como los que a continuación citaré). La religión mayoritaria de Rumanía era la ortodoxa, similar a la católica.
    El crucifijo que es un símbolo sagrado de los cristianos. En Drácula se utilizó por  primera vez como una poderosa arma. Un crucifijo es una cruz con la imagen de Cristo. Además éste era muy eficaz proque era de plata, un metal puro y más disuasorio que ningún otro.
    Las velas que se usaban para ahuyentar cualquier tipo de malignidad. La llama de una candela representa el brillo del sol o la luz del Cristo. En Rumanía las velas eran un talismán esencial contra los vampiros.
 
 
 

      Todas las citas del libro de Drácula aparecidas en esta página han sido copiadas del la siguiente dirección:     www.literature.org/authors/stoker-bram/dracula

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                                        Academic year: 2000/2001
                                    Created:3/01/01  Updated:14/02/01
                                     © a.r.e.a/Dr. Vicente Fores López
                                    © Cristina Lagóstena Molina