On one hand, Bram Stokers Dracula features a villainous vampire who wishes to impose his demonic way of living on the people of England. Before setting foot in London, he researches Englands language, culture, and geography and while in London, he converts the locals into beings like himself. On the other hand, while entering Draculas castle Jonathan Harker describes it as leaving the west and entering the east (Stoker 2008). The figure of Dracula thus represents a paradox wherein he is both the oriental dealing with mystic arts unfamiliar to the scientific and rational west, as well as the inversion of the very trope of imperialism by being the conqueror who transforms the indigenous populace into creatures like himself in what could be considered a parallel of the civilizing burden of the white man. Stokers Dracula finds echoes in Robert Druces genre of mutiny gothic because it concerns thematically to the Indian rebellion of 1857 in depicting
the orient as a bloodthirsty, mysteriously powerful enemy who must be defeated in a selfrighteous war (Druce 1993). This war between the East and the West is also a war between the occult and the scientific. Here Dracula represents the secret spiritual wisdom of the East which is a mystery to the rational scientific developments of the west represented by the men hunting the vampire. Moreover, Dracula is the embodiment of the state of halfdeath, especially in relation to Indian spiritualism of detachment of the astral soul from the body. Therefore, it finds resonance with the vetal of Indian mythology. In the seventies and eighties, Stoker discussed these legends and myths with Burton. Here it is interesting to note that Richard Burtons retelling of the tales of Vikram and Vetal turns this figure into a vampire. Such a misappropriation allows for an easy understanding of the mysterious character for the western readers familiar with the vampire.