The Image of Religion and its Function in M. G. Lewis' 'The Monk' and B. Stoker's 'Dracula'

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature grade: 17 University of Heidelberg (Institut für Anglistik) course: Hauptseminar The Gothic language: English abstract: Undoubtedly religion plays an important role in early Gothicliterature. In most cases this does not seem a positive one ascan be seen at first glance in Matthew G. Lewis' The Monk(1796). Most likely this also reflects a tendency of the postenlightenmentperiod in which it was written. However it isinteresting to ask how the view on religion and its role inGothic texts developed in the 18th century. Therefore I willcompare The Monk to Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) writtenroughly a hundred years later which gives a moresophisticated view on religion.In order to structure the wide topic of religion I willpresent three different perspectives of religion: thesocietal the institutional and the theological. These threestrands will first be traced in The Monk and as a second stepin comparison to it in Dracula. The theological perspective onreligion in Stoker's novel will be allowed more room as thisis at the heart of the question whether religion receives apositive or a negative reputation in Dracula.I will argue that religion in The Monk but also in Draculais indispensable. Furthermore I will give evidence for thethesis that religion in Dracula is not merely reduced to anapotropaic device against vampires but has a high significancefor the whole of the characters' lives. This is furtheremphasised in the last part of the paper in which I willcompare the endings of both novels. As the different Christiandenominations have already been researched in depth I willonly briefly touch on this subject and mainly focus onChristian religion as such.