Animals are essential to set the scene, as well as the tone of the novel, which blurs the lines between humans, animals, and the Devil.

The references, ‘serpentine’ path and the peasant’s cart with “its long, snakelike vertebrae”[i] , introduce the Devil, foreshadowing future events while reinforcing what Harker overhears before he leaves Bistritz: “Satan”, “Hell”, and “werewolf or vampire”[ii].  Serpent symbolism appears when the Count mentions, “I love the shade and the shadow,”[iii] (because [serpents] inhabit shady places[iv] ) and because Dracula moves about the castle unnoticed (“Serpens” refers to “creep[ing] by secret approaches”[v] ).

At the Pass, the coachman’s eyes gleam red, like a rat, which symbolizes death, decay, and destruction[vi], and is amplified when a passenger whispers, “For the dead travel fast.”[vii]

Wolves howl frequently and circle the caleche, symbolizing their cunning and cruel nature[viii], yet the coachman inexplicably controls them. The Count personifies them as “the children of the night”[ix] and notes that city dwellers couldn’t understand the “feelings of the hunter,”[x] foreshadowing Dracula as a hunter.

Dracula, with his long, fine, sharply pointed nails suggesting claws, hairs on his palms, the pointed tops of his ears, his “canine teeth”[xi], and his squat fingers suggesting paws (“Lupus, a wolf [comes] from ‘Lion-paws’”[xii] ), results in a wolf-like appearance. “The Devil bears the similitude of a wolf… looking… with his evil eye… darkly prowling… the faithful… that he may… ruin their souls”[xiii], and all companions Harker encounters cross themselves, present crucifixes, and ward off the ‘evil eye’.

It is noteworthy that at this time, werewolves and vampires seem almost interchangeable, as Stoker’s physical description of Dracula resembles a werewolf, and only his colorless pallor represents the classic vampire. Therefore, animalistic appearance or behavior symbolizes ever-increasing evil, which conversely puts the heroes in a virtuous state, despite their manic behavior.

[i] Bram Stoker, Dracula, published 1897, p.8

[ii] Dracula, p.6

[iii] Dracula, p.24

[iv] The Book of Beasts, Being a Translation from the Latin Bestiary of the Twelfth Century, Edited by T.H. White, p.165

[v] The Book of Beasts, p.165

[vi] Signs and Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings, DK Publishing, p. 53

[vii] Dracula, p.10

[viii] Signs and Symbols, p.32

[ix] Dracula, p.19

[x] Dracula, p.19

[xi] Dracula, p.22

[xii] The Book of Beasts, p.56

[xiii] The Book of Beasts, p.59