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Personal Identity

Dracula

(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. Count Dracula is only a Fiction², but the vicissitudes he is supposed to be able to survive may be worth some brief considerations to determine whether they are metaphysically possible – or even make logical sense.
  2. I have no great interest in what supposedly causes vampirism – whether it’s a virus or whatever, nor on how it’s passed on. Nor do I care about Dracula’s abilities to climb walls or fly through the air. Nor about his supposed aversion to garlic or crucifixes.
  3. However, the vampire is supposed to only maintain his Existence³ by drinking blood – preferably human, but animal blood – particularly of rats – will do at a pinch. I presume there’s some refection of ancient ideas that ‘the Life⁴ – or Soul⁵ – is in the blood’, which was not to be eaten.
  4. Dracula is described as ‘undead’. That is – he has died at some point – in fact at many points in later retellings in order to keep the sequels running – but is neither claimed to be alive nor dead. We might reflect on how such an idea squares with our normal ideas of what Life⁶ and Death⁷ are.
  5. The fictional claims that really interest me relate to Dracula’s Metamorphoses⁸. The first question is what he ‘really’ looks like. In the book, and film thereof, Dracula in has castle looks as you might expect someone over 400 years old to look. But when he appears in public, he looks young and handsome. Then – in the dénouement – when he is mortally wounded in the guise of his ancient self – he reverts to his youthful self in response to Mina’s kiss, after which he is ‘released’ by beheading. A question is – is he metamorphosing, or supposed to be influencing the vision of his beholders? As the latter would be needlessly complicated in busy London streets, I assume the former, especially as he is supposed to transform himself otherwise. Enough to say there’s nothing metaphysically problematical about such identity-preserving Metamorphosis⁹, as it’s presumably ‘just’ a rearrangement of Matter¹⁰, with some need for an energy source to effect the same. One needn’t worry about the details.
  6. The more interesting metamorphoses involve Dracula’s supposed Metamorphosis¹¹ into a large dog-like animal on leaving the ship at Whitby, and into a mist, into bats, and rats.
  7. Transformation into a dog (and back) would be a trans-species Metamorphosis¹². I’ve not much special to add here. If Dracula still falls under the Natural Kind¹³ concept Human Being¹⁴, and the natural kind is an essential property of the Individual¹⁵, then he would cease to exist as the dog, but – if Intermittent Existence¹⁶ is allowed – might subsequently ‘exist again’. The same might apply to the other transformations.
  8. It is supposed that Dracula transforms himself into many bats (or rats). Bats and rats are much of a muchness. The interesting common feature is the one-to-many ratio. If Dracula cannot survive – logically speaking – Metamorphosis¹⁷ into a dog, he certainly can’t survive transformation into a single rat or bat, let alone many of them. Each rat – we may suppose – is an independent sentient being. Can they collectively constitute another being? Would this ‘distributed’ being be an Individual¹⁸? Are we to suppose Dracula to be conscious in this state? It is true that Organisms¹⁹ are constituted by a multitude of cells, but these cells aren’t independent beings. More could be said – maybe along the lines of Societies²⁰.
  9. Transformation into a mist is very odd. Presumably this is disassembly into microscopic constituent parts. Can an Organism²¹ – as distinct from a bicycle – survive such an adventure? "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave" thinks not. Would he cease to exist in the interim or exist as a Scattered Object²²?
  10. It’s not in the book, but – at least in Hammer Horror – human blood dropped onto his ashes allows Dracula to regenerate. This would seem to be an example of Resurrection²³. At least there’s some physical Continuity²⁴ mediated by the ashes.

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  Further Remarks:
  1. In October 2022, while tossing and turning with Covid in the dead of night, it occurred to me that the fictional Dracula might be a useful case study for various issues in the general area of Personal Identity. This Note is the end result.
  2. While Dracula₂₅ is today a Fictional²⁶ character, there is of course a historical antecedent in Vlad the Impaler₂₇. I have no professional interest in the historical facts, however.
  3. My considerations include not only the inventions of Bram Stoker but also the later additions of Hammer Horror₂₈, and others₂₉.
  4. As is apparent from the above, this Note relates to – and could be subordinated under – numerous others, including:-
     • Thought Experiments³⁰
     • Metamorphosis³¹
     • Life³²
     • Death³³
     • Resurrection³⁴
  5. Unsurprisingly, I had nothing philosophical on this topic when I first considered it. Even a trawl of JSTOR revealed nothing to add to the empty lists below. There was lots on the history, politics, sociology and sexuality of Dracula, but nothing I could see that discussed the Metaphysics. There is a Cambridge Companion to Dracula which I have access to via Cambridge Core₃₅ but this has little of interest to me.

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave", 2015, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link, Read
• For a page of Links³⁶ to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read³⁷, include the following:-
  • General:
    1. "Olson (Eric) - Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave", 2015, Annotations, External Link, Internal PDF Link
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Stoker (Bram) - Dracula", 1897 / 1993, Book, Read = 2%

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• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder³⁸.

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In-Page Footnotes:

Footnote 25:

• See:-
  → Wikipedia: Dracula, and
  → Wikipedia: Count Dracula

Footnote 27:

• See Wikipedia: Vlad the Impaler.

Footnote 28:

• See:-
  → Wikipedia: Hammer Film Productions - Dracula, and
  → Wikipedia: Hammer Film Productions - Dracula 2.

Footnote 29:

• See:-
  → Wikipedia: Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992 film), and also, as an indication of what senior vampires are supposed to be able to do …
  → Wikipedia: Interview with the Vampire (film).

Footnote 35:

• See The Cambridge Companion to Dracula.
• The editor is Roger Luckhurst, from Birkbeck – though not from the Philosophy Department. See Wikipedia: Roger Luckhurst.

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Previous Version of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
10/10/2022 22:32:10	6839	Dracula

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	None available	Thought Experiments

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Continuity	Death	Existence	Fiction
Human Beings	Individual	Intermittent Objects	Life	Matter
Metamorphosis	Natural Kinds	Note Links Explanation	Organisms	Plug Note Apologia
Resurrection	Scattered Objects	Society	Souls	Thought Experiments
Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3

Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5

Thesis - Personal Identity, 2

Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Gale (Richard)	On Some Pernicious Thought-Experiments	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2	Yes
Wilson (Jack)	Beyond Horses and Oak Trees: A New Theory of Individuation for Living Entities	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Martin (L. Michael) & Augustine (Keith)	The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	15%
Olson (Eric)	Life After Death and the Devastation of the Grave	Paper - Cited	Martin & Augustine - The Myth of an Afterlife, Part 2, Chapter 19, 2015: 409-423	Yes
Stoker (Bram)	Dracula	Book - Cited	Stoker (Bram) - Dracula	2%
Wilson (Jack)	Beyond Horses and Oak Trees: A New Theory of Individuation for Living Entities	Paper - Referencing	Wilson, Jack - Biological Individuality: The identity and Persistence of Living Entities; 1999, Chap. 1, pp. 1-21	Yes
Wilson (Jack)	Biological Individuality - The identity and Persistence of Living Entities	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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